Ever since Pepsi launched ‘The Pepsi Challenge’, whereby subjects are given a blind taste test of Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola to see which they prefer, approximately 62% of the people that take the test consistently say they prefer Pepsi.
However, Coca Cola continues to dominate the cola market, retaining about 45% of the market share compared to about 30% for Pepsi.
The two products are both widely available, and they generally sell for the exact same price. So why are people who think Pepsi tastes better drinking Coke? What is their reasoning??
You’re forgetting that a very small portion of cola drinkers are taking this test. The vast majority of people drink what they’re used to–they may have never even tasted the other brand.
WAG time: “Coke” has become a generic term, so people tend to ask for “a Coke” even if they couldn’t care less which brand they get. Consequently, they end up with Coca-Cola.
Exclusive supply agreements in restaurants etc may also boost the market share.
When eating out you normally don’t get to choose Coke or Pepsi and have to take whatever they got. Eat TacoBell and drink Pepsi, eat McDonalds drink Coke.
My guess is that Coke distributes more widely to vendors who serve cola maybe offering cheaper costs. Also, restaurants that serve bar drinks (Applebees, TGI Fridays, Ruby Tuesdays, etc.) mix drinks with Coke. If they have a tap for Coke they probably don’t need another for Pepsi.
20oz Coke bottles are shaped like a woman’s body. 20oz Pepsi bottles are shaped like a man’s body. Case closed.
Okay not really. I’m a loyal Coke drinker. I’ve never taken the Pepsi challenge, but I could easily believe that Pepsi tastes better. But it’s not about taste; it’s about company image. Compare their television commercials. Notice how many Coke commercials just show people having a good time, and how many Pepsi commercials are about how Coke is for losers. In my opinion, Pepsi needs to grow up.
For many people, the difference in taste isn’t significant enough to choose one over the other. Marketing and availability (which brand the store/restaurant/machine has) is more important.
I suspect the “Pepsi Challange” data is biased. Would you trust a survey done by Pepsi to determine which is better liked, Coke or Pepsi? There are any number of ways to bias the test, including presentation, preparation, and sample selection.
Also, taste is probably not the only reason people buy a particular brand of cola. Image, advertising, promotions, availability, past history, etc all fit into the choice.
The last unbiased data I saw showed that cola drinkers split roughly evenly in prefering Coke or Pepsi, but about 1/3 can’t tell or don’t care about the difference in taste. Add in Coke’s superior distribution among restaurants, fast food joints, gas stations, et al, and you can easily see why Coke sells more.
Personally, I can tell the difference and prefer Coke, but not so much that I’d rather go thirsty than drink a Pepsi.
Well, as I recall, most outlets that serve cola as a fountain drink, usually have contracts that keep them from carrying a competitor’s brand.
Further, Coke and Pepsi don’t always taste consistent. I eat at my local fast-food joint twice a week and the taste of the cola changes radically from visit to visit. Sometimes the carbonation is almost out, sometimes the syrup is low, and sometimes it tastes like motor oil. So, if I were to take a blind taste test, I really doubt I could recognize what that cola is actually supposed to taste like.
Just because Pepsi tastes better than Coke when compared head-to-head doesn’t mean that Coke tastes bad. Because who drinks pop that way anyway? When consumed along with food, which is how most people drink pop, I think Coke tastes better than Pepsi.
For the record, I buy whatever is priced at $2.50 for a 12-pack.
Interestingly enuf, there’s a recent study on just this topic. It turns out our preference isn’t based soley on the taste or worth of an item but also how we percieve it. Different regions of the brain are active depending on if we’re enjoying a generic brand or a brand to which we have an attachment for. Fascinating stuff…
Apparently, the Coca-Cola company trusted those surveys (or surveys of their own which gave the same result), since they subsequently improved the taste of their product based on such information. Until public outcry forced them to go back to their older, worse-tasting formula. There’s obviously more at work here than the difference in advertising between the two companies, since the same company marketed both Classic and New Coke.
And I’ve never seen a TV commercial for Pepsi which mentioned Coke at all, aside from the Pepsi Challange ones. But then, I’ve been without a TV for some years. Is this a recent thing?
I’m one of few people I know that physically cannot differentiate colas. That means I taste the same thing when I drink Pepsi as I do when I drink a Coke, or an R.C., or a Sam’s Choice Cheapo Cola. Six of one, half a dozen of another.
I can differentiate diet cola from regular cola, but as far as the regular run-of-the-mill…no can do.
So from my perspective, I just don’t care. Gimme what’s cheapest this week.
Here are a few off the top of my head:[ul][li]From maybe 15 years ago. The delivery company mixes up a shipment of Coke and Pepsi. The Pepsi accidentally gets sent to the retirement home. The people there throw a huge party as a result. The Coke accidentally gets sent to the fraternity house, the residents of which are shown quietly playing Bingo. (I know it had to be pretty long ago, because I had to get my mom to explain it to me.)[/li][li]From 3-5 years ago. Pepsi girl walks into a bar and orders a Pepsi. Bartender gives her a Coke instead, and she gets some sorta Joe Pesci voice: “You thought I couldn’t tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi?!”[/li][*]From this year. Two guys are trying to get a drink from a Pepsi Vanilla machine, but it’s not working. One guy says, “Hey, that one’s vanilla too,” pointing to a Vanilla Coke machine. “Trust me, man, it’s nowhere close.”[/ul]I can’t remember anything from the early 1990s, but I did find this on Wikipedia, and according to Pepsi.com, they had a slogan in 1995 that was, “Nothing else is a Pepsi”.
I’ve taken the “Pepsi challenge” (years ago, maybe 1984) and one thing I did notice is that the Pepsi was more carbonated than the Coke which was rather flat. With one small sip, the more carbonated (and slightly sharper tasting) Pepsi seemed to taste better. I prefer the milder taste of Coke (unless it’s all just brand association). And I much much prefer the taste of Diet Coke over Diet Pepsi which is markedly worse.
There are theories that the entire New Coke fiasco was a carefully coordinated method to 1) gain an assload of free publicity and 2) a sneaky way to subtly change the formula of classic Coke to incorporate the cheaper corn syrup in place of cane sugar. Hmmm, when I looked for an article on this, I instead found a Snopes article which attempts to disprove it.
This issue was brought up during the original “Coke Fiasco” in the mid 80s. The answer was while people perfer the sweeter taste of Pepsi, they only prefer it in small amounts. So if you take a taste test and drink only one gulp you like the sweeter one. If you are drinking twenty ounces you want something less sweet.
Also as stated the difference isn’t enough to make me care. I will take Coke if I have a choice but it is no big deal for me to drink Pepsi or RC or even generic. It isn’t that big a deal for most people.
It’s about availability & price. The company where I work has a contract to only offer Coca-Cola products on the premesis partly because they invest in CC stock.
Whatever is on sale is usually what sells first.
And most importantly it is probably largely due to brand loyalty. I have no idea why you would be loyal to either cola but many people are. You learn to like the taste of one brand over the other and pretty soon you want that brand only.
As a person who prefers Dr. Pepper, I would like to see where it factors in. I know that in the South (where I live) Dr. Pepper is much more prevalent than either Coca-Cola or Pepsi, but I would like to know how it stacks up nationwide.
