Pepsi vs Coke - Why Trying to Fill the Hole Left by Big Brand Isn’t Smart
I am originally from NYC and lived there for most of my life. After relocating to Upstate New York, there were lots and lots of big differences to get used to. One of the biggest is I have to drive to get basically everything vs. walking out my front door and having my pick of places to grab a morning coffee!
And in Upstate New York, they serve Pepsi and not Coke in restaurants. I’m not a big Coke/Pepsi drinker but my husband is, so I definitely noticed this. Every time he asked for a Coke - which he still does after 10+ years living Upstate - the response is the same. “We don’t have Coke. We have Pepsi. Is that OK?
You are hard pressed to get Coke here - despite the fact that most people order cola by asking for Coke. PepsiCo has their HQ in Upstate NY, so we are apparently all Pepsi drinkers now. Except, we aren’t - because Coke is the market leader and Pepsi is never going to catch them.
And while we’re on the subject…my drink of choice is usually black coffee or water. I’m a bit boring on the beverage front, but I CAN help you create and market a brand that is destined to become the Coke of your niche.
First though, let’s talk about what not to do.
I have encountered several brands who want to fill the niche that a much bigger brand already occupied. This is usually motivated by a change happening to the dominant brand that people think will upset their core consumer. When Burt's Bees was acquired by Clorox, I met several brand founders who had the idea to fill the void they felt that this was going to create.
As a startup with limited resources, you are not going to be the next Burt's Bees, just like Pepsi will never catch Coke.
Pepsi is a big brand though - why wouldn’t you want to be Pepsi?
Ask yourself this instead: how much does Pepsi spend on marketing just to be #2? I don’t know for sure but I can promise you that it is more than Coke does, and far more than you or I have in the bank right now!
Instead of trying to be Coke and ending up as Pepsi (or more likely, an unseen copycat brand that consumers don’t trust),it is best to find a niche to fill that isn’t occupied by a huge market leader. I am fortunate to have worked with a brand that is a great example of this - OOLI Beauty.
I met Jessica Pritchett, the founder of OOLI on Instagram before the brand even launched. The funny thing was, that we were destined to find each other - she was searching for the person who did PR for Kreyol Essence,saw a photo of me in the brand founder’s IG story, and set out to find me. We found each other, and I’m so lucky to have gotten to work with a brand that is the Coke of its category!
Jessica had been wearing locs at the time for 17 years, but hadn’t found any products that worked for her. One thing she told me is that hair care brands throw a lot of creamy, heavy products at people with locs, that this is the exact opposite of what they really need.
Jess created a product line that solved her own problem, which is something that countless people do, but she took it one step further. She saw that there were virtually no products that were created with people with locs and their needs in mind. She saw a big, gaping hole in the marketplace. OOLI was never going to be Pepsi, because in this case Coke didn’t even exist.
If you think about it, not a ton of people wear locs - but if OOLI gets even 10% of the people who do to buy their products, it will be very, very lucrative. And it is well on its way!
I did PR for OOLI and to say that it was a blockbuster smash hit is an understatement, garnering placements in Allure, GQ, Popsugar and a zillion more places. The products sold like hotcakes, and they are great products, so customers placed repeat orders.
Even bigger proof of OOLI’s success is this - I recently asked Jess what the #1 seller on her site was. Much to my surprise, the top seller is a bundle that includes the entire line. That means that even brand new customers are willing to take a chance on OOLI with a $90 spend.
Another example of a brand that has done this successfully is Compagnie de Provence. This iconic French brand has been my client since 2005, so I have seen all of the ways the founders have taken a simple concept - a block of Marseille soap - and continued to riff on it in modern ways year after year. Every single French person grew up with Marseille soap, so the two founders figured that people would connect with their cool, fashionable takes on this traditional item.
Compagnie de Provence has been copied so many times it is almost laughable, but the copycats never last long! It has built a loyal following worldwide. It’s just too late for anyone to catch up with a similar concept.
