Photo Credits: waferboard
Go to a restaurant and order a Coke. If the restaurant doesn’t carry Coke, the waiter will then ask you: “is Pepsi OK?” I’ve heard this hundreds of times through many years and haven’t once heard anybody make a big deal about it. Most likely, the answer is: “sure, that’s OK”.
The moral of the story: just because people know your brand doesn’t mean they’re going to buy it. Coke has one of the highest, if not the highest, brand awareness in the world, however that doesn’t stop diners from being perfectly OK with having Pepsi instead.
Having people know your brand is just the start. Getting people to become upset when they can’t have your brand is the hard part, and what you need to strive for. Think about your favorite teenager and what her reaction would be after finding out that you just bought her the wrong brand of sneakers.
Years ago Pepsi made an effort to create differentiation by attempting to connect to younger buyers. Coke was for old people, Pepsi was the choice of a new generation. I thought it was a great attempt at carving out a niche between two products that are pretty much the same thing.
I don’t get the feeling from Pepsi that they are still following this approach… maybe its because I’m old now.
I guess I should switch to Coke.
Maybe I’m the only brand loyal Coke customer out there, but if a restaurant only has Pepsi available, I order something else. It’s a matter of taste for me, Pepsi and Coke taste differently.
What a great article, and you did a good job of explaining this concept creatively. Kleenex and Band-Aid are two others that come to mind as brand names that have come to be used to refer to an entire product. It takes more than just spreading the word to get customers to prefer your product over other brands! Feel free to visit my site as well!
Yeah but what good is it when you become upset because you can’t have that beverage in a restaurant? I know someone who refuses to drink coke and will only drink pepsi…or nothing at all.