UN-PUT-DOWN-ABLE

The Other Guy Blinked, How Pepsi Won the Cola Wars - Roger Enrico
Timeline of Events

1890: Caleb Bradham, a pharmacist, invents Pepsi as a cure for dyspepsia (hence the name, Pepsi)

1895: On requests from people who have taken the drug, Bradham starts marketing vials of the product, claiming they are free of all side effects

1915: Pepsi gets carbonated but due to the design of the packaging, shelf life decreases

1922: Pepsi goes bankrupt due to fizzing out of the drink on shelves and returned consignments

1928: Pepsi recovers from bankruptcy due to improved packaging design

1931: Pepsi goes bankrupt for the second time partly due to the great depression.

1942: Pepsi recovers yet again to continue selling its black cool drink in North Carolina and nearby places.

Fast forward to 1983:

Roger Enrico is appointed the youngest president of Pepsi USA

Enrico signs a multi million dollar contract with Michael Jackson, the most expensive endorsement deal in history at the time


The Book

While reading this book, I actually felt like I was in Pepsi's corporate headquarters, in Purchase New York, listening in on their strategic planning and implementation. Roger Enrico wrote this book when he was just the president of Pepsi USA. He tells a great story of the underdog going to battle with the giant. Later Enrico became the CEO of PepsiCo, and responsible for the spin off that created the new company Tricon. Reading this book will emphasize one's understanding of the importance and value of having a good mentor. Also, after reading Enrico's accounts of the "cola wars" one may never want to watch television or go to see movies again, because all of the real life drama is created by the competition that corporate America thrives on. Enrico points out that Pepsi alone sells enough soft drinks in a year to float an entire armada, and then proposes the question ‘why?’ As he says, “Water is a lot cheaper and booze provides a better kick. It’s all about great marketing”.

A bit one sided, but that is what I expected when I borrowed the book from a friend who recommended it to me, being a marketing person himself. It is still a very interesting perspective on Pepsi's strategy throughout history and especially during the cola wars of the early 1080s. It really must have been an exciting time to work for the company. Lots of interesting business/branding issues are covered in the pages of the book.

Roger Enrico becomes the president of Pepsi USA with the sole purpose of beating coke. His single minded obsession makes him take the huge risk of signing current rage Michael Jackson to endorse Pepsi. His goal was to devise a marketing strategy strong enough to shift the loyalties of sworn coke drinkers to Pepsi. However his first few days at the position are nothing short of a nightmare as everything goes against him. He even considers resigning from the position and make way for John Sculley (who later famously fired Steve Jobs from his own company, Apple). However Victor Bonomo, the then president of Pepsi International steps in to act as a friend philosopher and guide to Enrico, convincing him to stick on his new position in the company. Enrico goes through a phase of self realization and like most effective managers, makes his own mistakes while making sure he learns from all quarters. However his ability to turn around lost battles eventually makes him come out on top. His self confessed and rather biased ability to turn catastrophe into opportunity forms the attention grabbing demeanor of the book, which is nothing short of a thriller in every sense of the word.

To battle the giant that Coke was, Roger uses advertising as the main weapon in his arsenal. He shocks the industry by signing in Michael Jackson for his ad campaign for an exorbitant sum of money. The Michael Jackson campaign is preceded with commercials showing other celebrities of the time endorsing Pepsi and gives sleepless nights to many in Coke’s management, including Roberto Goizuetta, the Brazilian hotshot, who was heading coke USA at the time.

Blindfolded tests in public spaces reveal that most people actually prefer the taste of Pepsi when drinking out of Styrofoam glasses but when the coke bottle comes into picture most of them reach out for it, simply because they have been drinking it all their lives and there is a kind of a machismo of old times, coupled with nostalgic moments spent with coke bottles in their hands.

However the aggressive advertising of Pepsi coupled with the blindfolded tests, starts to make Pepsi inch closer and closer to Coke.

In a desperate bid to retain its market share, the Coke management panics and makes the near colossal mistake of changing the formula of Coke, Merchandise 7X, with new coke, which blind tests reveal is sweeter and tastes more like Pepsi. The new formula fails miserably because the old ‘taste’ has been taken out of it and Coke almost hands over the throne to Pepsi. Within 3 months of the launch of New Coke, Goizuetta and company acknowledge their mistake and re-launch the old formula as “Classic Coke”.

Besides being a complete entertainer, one which gets exceedingly difficult to put down, the book teaches important management and marketing lessons. It gives the importance of working with the bottlers who are the main investors and the real value of the company besides of course the final consumer. It shows the importance of basing a business on its grassroots, or as C K Prahlad would put it, ‘at the bottom of the pyramid’.

It shows how pretentious companies to showcase their prowess and greatness would spend money on stupid things like extravagant offices of top management and tress flown in from Europe. It shows how the presidents of such companies would have to deal with the tantrums of celebrities at the time. The antics of Michael Jackson at the eleventh hour make for an especially interesting read.



A most enriching experience, this book, which I put down with a smile on my face and new thoughts in my mind. A must read for all management students, especially marketing majors.

Un-put-down-able

A Book Review

Here I am back with the cocktail as promised, even though not many people are reading what im putting down here so obviously nobody had been eagelry anticipating my next post but here goes.

I've been spending the vacation locked in my apartment by myself and I have to admit that its has been a strangely refreshing experience. Not one of those self realisation experiences but just generally being with yourself can get quite cool; besides I got to walk around naked after bathing and drying myself naturally. I also realised that none of this , you folks ever wanted to know.

But there's something else.. ah yes... I read a horde of books in the last week but one of them I had to had to read at one go.

And yesterday I get a phone call from my Marketing SR (Subject Representative, for the uninitiated), telling me that I'm required to submit a book review. Now I'm no psuedo intellectual PG Delhi Univ type who would rewrite the iliad if they could, but I managed to pen my thoughts about the book down.

Now, even though it was for the professor alone, the fact that I liked the book so much endeared me to share it with you folks.

SO here goes, the copy paste version of my assignment. LoL.

Post Christmas

Well, Its been sometime since I've been looking to open up my personal webspace on the internet to let random musings out on paper( or html), but I guess the inspiration came from my friend Tee's boyfriend ( it's safe to let him qualify as my friend now, i suppose) on our really cool weekend road trip to Pune.



S****bh is not really the kind of person who would qualify as a muse to anyone, but I guess he'll do for now.

Besides, he's been blogging for sometime now and I could use some pointers on how to get the visuals going.

Thts all for now I guess. Will be back with my cocktail later in the evening.

Cheers!