Global business and entrepreneurship opportunities

Marketing

The overall strategy the company will follow in order to achieve dominance in the marketplace over such competitors such as Coke and Pepsi is one of constant vigilance, aggressive marketing, and opening new markets in an consistent and regular pattern.

Since the company has already achieved a dominance in its home market, other markets will be opened, including a global distribution system via strategic alliances along the same line as Pepsico.

Following the same strategy as PepsiCo, who is on a constant search for new products, new consumers and in 2004 was named as one of the world's top innovating companies, seems to be a lot more viable option than following the Coca Cola company who seems to believe that its core soda and soft drink product will sustain it through the next decade. This belief may not be the case.

Non-carbonated drink sales have been gaining ground the last few years, taking sales away from the waning cola drinks. Pepsi recognized this fact early on during the trend, but Coke seems to still be holding to its stance that its core products will sustain the company.

Innovation, in this comparison, seems to be the discerning difference between Coke and Pepsi. It will also be the discerning difference between our company and its competitors.

There are a number of risks the company takes by assuming this type of stance in the marketplace. Since the company is not as large as the competitors, a method for achieving strong and viable strategic alliances will need to be developed and implemented in a timely manner. This can be done with the help of a communication plan that will spell out exactly what steps the company will take in each targeted market.

Another step in achieving our goals and objectives is to research each market to determine the players and how a strategic alliance with those entities can be created. The company is not necessarily looking for strategic partners that have a vast array of products, rather the company would rather open new markets with strategic partners that have strong distribution programs already in place. The first new market to be opened would probably be Canada or Mexico (considering the fact that the United States is the company's home market). This decision is made easier by observing the beating that WalMart took in Europe and in Asia a short while ago when attempting to enter those markets.

An article in "The Times" on July 29, 2006 stated the following; "Wal Mart, the world's largest retailer, abruptly pulled out of Germany yesterday....In a humbling admission of defeat, Wal Mart said it would sell its 85 German stores to the rival supermarket chain Metro and book a pre-tax loss of about $1 billion on the failed venture." (Times 2006)

Since Wal Mart is one of the world's largest companies, and still took a beating, it might behoove the company to concentrate more on creating new products, while building strong markets that are conducive to drinking our product than trying to what seems to be good markets that already have strong competitors there. The company could follow Pepsico's lead in this regard.