Cola Preferences simple frequency distribution shows that Pepsi is leading Coke by 35 to 12 when considering the overall sample population.

Frequency Distribution

Rank

Cola Preference

Pepsi

Coke cross tabulation shows that part of the reason is that Coke is performing very badly is its performance in the male consumer segment; 80% of males purchase Pepsi and only 20% of males purchase coke. Coke performs slightly better for female consumers, but purchases still significantly lag Pepsi; 65% of females purchase Pepsi compared to 35% of females who purchase Coke.

Cross Tabulation

Gender

Coke

Pepsi

Male

Female

This data sample is very small, but might indicate that Coke has a significant issue with market share compared to its rival Pepsi, particularly for male consumers. Coke needs to conduct a broader data sample to see if this data still holds true. If so, these findings have a number of important implications for Coke's marketing strategy.

The fact that Pepsi is outselling Coke nearly 3 to 1 most likely means that Coke needs a more aggressive marketing strategy to promote its product. The company will need to begin by reviewing the effectiveness of its current marketing strategies and programs as well as the appropriateness of its marketing budget and make necessary adjustments to become more successful.

Further, the differences in male and female consumption of Coke as well as Pepsi indicate the need for target marketing. Target marketing involves breaking a market into segments such as gender and then concentrating your marketing efforts on these segments (Ward). According to Ward, target marketing not only provides a focus to market activities, it makes the promotion, pricing and distribution of products and/or services easier and more cost-effective. In this instance, Coke would not only ramp up its marketing activities, but would also develop different promotion, pricing and distribution strategies for male and female segments.

Bibliography

Ward, S. Target marketing. http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/marketing/g/targetmarketing.htm