Originally Posted by
itsaboutthejourney
How so?
I associate Pepsi as more conservative, appealing to a crowd that might like country music, more likely to not have a passport, more likely to drive an American brand car. Visuals and typography more restrained than Coke... all attributes I associate with Marriott.
From my perspective, the people portrayed in Coke's advertising are more global and reflects more diversity, while Pepsi skews more caucasian. (The bubble that I live in has most friends who'd drink soda preferring an imported Mexican Coke)
My guess is that a Michelin star restaurant is far more likely to serve Coke (in a bottle) than Pepsi for the few customers asking for soda pop.
Curious to hear your take UA-NYC...
As someone who has done a lot of work in the category:
Coke - the initial entrant in the category, a behemoth, a bit more conservative / Southern in roots, celebrates the holidays, the bigger cola brand
Pepsi - the upstart, choice of a new generation (skewing younger), associated with music & sports, the #2 cola brand (a la Avis - We Try Harder!)
If you want to extrapolate further - Pepsi has focused in the past decade on portfolio diversity (focusing on non-soda products, trying to "health up"). Coke is now too but is playing catch-up in that regard. One could argue Starwood has a greater diversity of "products", whereas Marriott has a core strength in a standard offering (e.g., cola)