What are corporate wars?

Corporate wars are a result of a combination of strategies to

beat the competition. For instance, Pepsico and Coca Cola
have been in corporate wars for over 50 years now. They
have similar products and same customers. Such corporate
wars are more prevalent in case of oligopoly (a few
producers having the majority of market share).

• It is not hard to imagine a corporation using a similar

capability to promote negativity about a competitor
rather than a positive spin on their own brand.

Pepsi :-

Pepsi ads often focused on celebrities, choosing Pepsi over

Coke, supporting Pepsi's positioning as "The Choice of a New
Generation." In 1975, Pepsi began showing people doing
blind taste tests called Pepsi Challenge in which they
preferred one product over the other, and then they began
hiring more and more popular spokespersons to promote
their products. In their hope to win the Cola Wars a Concorde
was painted blue with PEPSI written across it in white
lettering.
In the late 1990s, Pepsi launched its most successful long-
term strategy of the Cola Wars, Pepsi Stuff. Consumers were
invited to "Drink Pepsi, Get Stuff" and collect Pepsi Points on
billions of packages and cups. They could redeem the points
for free Pepsi lifestyle merchandise. After researching and
testing the program for over two years to ensure that it
resonated with consumers, Pepsi launched Pepsi Stuff, which
was an instant success. Tens of millions of consumers
participated. Pepsi outperformed Coke during the summer of
the Atlanta Olympics - held in Coke's hometown - where
Coke was a lead sponsor of the Games. Due to its success,
the program was expanded to include Mountain Dew, and
into Pepsi's international markets worldwide. The company
continued to run the program for many years, continually
innovating with new features each year.[1]
The Pepsi Stuff promotion became the subject of a lawsuit. In
one of the many commercials, Pepsi showed a young man in
the cockpit of a Harrier Jump Jet. Below ran the caption
"Harrier Jet: 7 million Pepsi Points." There was a mechanism
for buying additional Pepsi Points to complete a Pepsi Stuff
order. John Leonard, of Seattle, Washington, sent in a Pepsi
Stuff request with the maximum amount of points and a
check for over $700,000US to make up for the extra points
he needed. Pepsi did not accept the request and Leonard
filed suit. The judgment was that a reasonable person
viewing the commercial would realize that Pepsi was not, in
fact, offering a Harrier Jet. In response to the suit, Pepsi
added the words "Just Kidding" under the portion of the
commercial featuring the jet as well as changing the "price"
to 700 million Pepsi points (see Leonard v. Pepsico, Inc.).

Coca-Cola and Pepsi engaged in a "cyber-war" with the re-

introduction of Pepsi Stuff in 2005 & Coca-Cola retaliated
with Coke Rewards. This cola war has now concluded, with
Pepsi Stuff ending its services and Coke Rewards still
offering prizes on their website. Both were loyalty programs
that give away prizes and product to consumers after
collecting bottle caps and 12 or 24 pack box tops, then
submitting codes online for a certain number of points.
However, Pepsi's online partnership with Amazon allowed
consumers to buy various products with their "Pepsi Points",
such as mp3 downloads. Both Coca-Cola and Pepsi
previously had a partnership with the iTunes Store.

Rivalry with Coca-Cola :-

According to Consumer Reports, in the 1970s, the rivalry

continued to heat up the market. Pepsi conducted blind taste
tests in stores, in what was called the "Pepsi Challenge".
These tests suggested that more consumers preferred the
taste of Pepsi (which is believed to have more lemon oil, less
orange oil, and uses vanillin rather than vanilla) to Coke. The
sales of Pepsi started to climb, and Pepsi kicked off the
"Challenge" across the nation. This became known as the
"Cola Wars".
In 1985, The Coca-Cola Company, amid much publicity,
changed its formula. The theory has been advanced that
New Coke, as the reformulated drink came to be known, was
invented specifically in response to the Pepsi Challenge.
However, a consumer backlash led to Coca-Cola quickly
reintroducing the original formula as Coke "Classic".
According to Beverage Digest's 2008 report on carbonated
soft drinks, PepsiCo's U.S. market share is 30.8 percent,
while The Coca-Cola Company's is 42.7 percent.[17] Coca-
Cola outsells Pepsi in most parts of the U.S., notable
exceptions being central Appalachia, North Dakota, and
Utah. In the city of Buffalo, New York, Pepsi outsells Coca-
Cola by a two-to-one margin.[18]
Overall, Coca-Cola continues to outsell Pepsi in almost all
areas of the world. However, exceptions include India; Saudi
Arabia; Pakistan (Pepsi has been a dominant sponsor of the
Pakistan cricket team since the 1990s); the Dominican
Republic; Guatemala the Canadian provinces of Quebec,
Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward
Island; and Northern Ontario.[19]
Pepsi had long been the drink of Canadian Francophones and
it continues to hold its dominance by relying on local
Québécois celebrities (especially Claude Meunier, of La
Petite Vie fame) to sell its product.[20] PepsiCo use the
slogan "here, it's Pepsi" (Ici, c'est Pepsi) to answer to Coca-
cola publicity "Everywhere in the world, it's Coke" (Partout
dans le monde, c'est Coke).
By most accounts, Coca-Cola was India's leading soft drink
until 1977 when it left India after a new government ordered
The Coca-Cola Company to turn over its secret formula for
Coke and dilute its stake in its Indian unit as required by the
Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA). In 1988, PepsiCo
gained entry to India by creating a joint venture with the
Punjab government-owned Punjab Agro Industrial
Corporation (PAIC) and Voltas India Limited. This joint
venture marketed and sold Lehar Pepsi until 1991 when the
use of foreign brands was allowed; PepsiCo bought out its
partners and ended the joint venture in 1994. In 1993, The
Coca-Cola Company returned in pursuance of India's
Liberalization policy.[21] In 2005, The Coca-Cola Company
and PepsiCo together held 95% market share of soft-drink
sales in India. Coca-Cola India's market share was 52.5%.
[22]
In 1989, Billy Joel mentioned the rivalry between the two
companies in the song "We Didn't Start The Fire". The line
"Rock & Roll and Cola Wars" refers to Pepsi and Coke's
usage of various musicians in their advertising campaigns.
Coke used Paula Abdul, while Pepsi used Michael Jackson.
They then continued to try to get other musicians to
advertise their beverages.