Pepsi: Fighting for Foreign Markets Introduction The soft-drinkbattleground has now turned toward new overseas markets. While once theUnited States, Australia, Japan, and Western Europe were the dominantsoft-drink markets, the growth has slowed down dramatically, but they arestill important markets for Coca-Cola and Pepsi. However, Eastern Europe,Mexico, China, Saudi Arabia, and India have become the new "hot spots." BothCoca-Cola and Pepsi are forming joint bottling ventures in these nations andin other areas where they see growth potential. As we have seen,international marketing can be very complex. Many issues have to be resolvedbefore a company can even consider entering uncharted foreign waters. Thisbecomes very evident as one begins to study the international cola wars. Thedomestic cola war between Coca-Cola and Pepsi is still raging. However, thetwo soft-drink giants also recognize that opportunities for growth in many ofthe mature markets have slowed. Both Coca-Cola, which sold 10 billion casesof soft-drinks in 1992, and Pepsi now find themselves asking, "Where willsales of the next 10 billion cases come from?" The answer lies in thedeveloping world, where income levels and appetites for Western products areat an all time high. Often, the company that gets into a foreign market firstusually dominates that country's market. Coke patriarch Robert Woodruffrealized this 50 years ago and unleashed a brilliant ploy to make Coke theearly bird in many of the major foreign markets. At the height of World WarII, Woodruff proclaimed that Awherever American boys were fighting, they'd beable to get a Coke.@ By the time Pepsi tried to make its first internationalpitch in the 50s, Coke had already established its brand name and a powerfuldistribution network. In the intervening 40 years, many new markets haveemerged. In order to profit from these markets, both Coke and Pepsi need tofind ways to cut through all of the red tape that initially...
