Why Coke beat Pepsi for the last 100+ years | Hacker News Reader

Why Coke beat Pepsi for the last 100+ years

inquisitr.com

18 pointsMystalic27 comments

Well, it's not ENTIRELY true their logo has stayed unchanged for a century

http://www.namedevelopment.com/blog/archives/new-coke-1.gif

The graphic is complete and totally wrong. The coca-cola script logo has been refined and extended numerous times over the years and they also use the sans-serif "Coke" logo on many of their products.

Add in all the other brands, sub-brands and line extensions and you'll see that coke is just as much of a mess as pepsi is.

The graphic is cute, but the headline is just plain dumb-- there's no grounds to needlessly confuse cause and effect.

Isn't the whole reason behind New Coke that Pepsi was beating Coke?

Yes but only in blind taste tests.

Pepsi wins in blind taste tests because it's sweeter. It loses overall to Coke because when you drink an entire can it's too sweet.

In other words, Pepsi optimized for the benchmarks, Coke optimized for a real-world use case.

No, Pepsi were beginning to beat them in sales as well, partially due to the success of the "Pepsi challenge" taste test advertisements.

Maybe because "Coke" is easier to spell than "Pespi".

I'm convinced people don't even read what they write anymore. They just close their eyes, type some shit, and hit "Publish".

and then another one just push "submit" too...

Anyone got some commentary on the realistic reasons Coke have beaten Pepsi regularly?

Though actually here in the UK coke/pepsi seem to have different markets - Coke rules the shop shelves whilst Pepsi seems to be the pub/cafe soft drink choice (i.e. the ones in the pumps etc. it's all Pepsi here in the UK)

Distribution is a big part of it--Coke got some valuable partnerships early on (including McDonalds) and was among the first companies to use vending machines.

It tastes better.

It tastes better.

Have you done a blind taste test?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_tasting#Blind_tasting

Actually, yes.

Pepsi is noticeably sweeter and has less carbonation.

I know it sounds silly to complain about soda being too sweet, but that's my knock against Pepsi. My favorite cola of all time is the Coke knockoff they sell in Cuba, which tastes like it has about half the sugar of the real thing--presumably because it is so scarce there. Real cane sugar too.

Ha. According to a story I read somewhere, we have none other than Che Guevara to thank for that:

Che once threatened managers of the Coca-Cola plant in Cuba, because its drinks tasted lousy after the plant was nationalized and its operators fled with the secret formula for the Real Thing.

The story goes that he was challenged about drinking Coke while sitting on a stack of several cases. Wasn’t the company a "capitalist octopus"?

"Yes," he supposedly replied. "But in a hot climate, the people must have their Coca-Cola.

In the same way Hersheys tastes better than Cadburys?

Here in Quebec, Canada, Pepsi has the biggest market share :P

EDIT : 59.5% Pepsi for 25% Coke.

I red somewhere that in England doing things "the french way" mean doing them backwards or opposite of usual. Switching games or sports rules was known as playing french. This was allegedly due to British vs French empire rivalry

I've read that about the Dutch: "Dutch treat," "Dutch auction," etc.

I think using exotic or rival nationalities to "reverse" something is a common linguistic device -- in grade school, giving someone "cuts" meant letting them in the line before you, giving "Chinese cuts" meant letting them in behind you.

I'm British and have never heard that turn of phrase before. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, though.

I thought it was due to the cocaine in the original recipe.

Which they went back to after that whole new coke fiasco, right?

If I am not mistaken, they quit using 'cocaine' in the recipe sometime in the VERY early 1900s, though I believe they're still using coca leaves in the product.

I suspect that there are no people who have tasted the original, cocaine-infused Coca-Cola that are still alive today, so I doubt it contributes to its market superiority.

Stepan Company, a Coca-Cola contractor, has I believe the only U.S. license to import coca leaves and extract all of the cocaine from them. The cocaine is then sold to Mallinckrodt Incorporated, the only American company permitted to supply cocaine or cocaine-derived pharmaceuticals.

Coca-Cola never had cocaine added as an ingredient, only whatever remained in the leaves.

Pespi?

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