Word: coking
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Despite the bravado, Branson is as traditional as high tea when it comes to the most critical asset of the company: the brand. He absolutely believes in the power of brands, much the way that Procter & Gamble or Coke does. This belief is at the core of the empire, and the reason the Virgin name has been extended to businesses as different as vodka and insurance. Says he: "Consumers understand that all the values that apply to one product--good service, style, quality, value and fair dealing--apply to the others." That's why dozens of companies have...
When Branson sticks his toe in the U.S. cola market, he will find two competitors ready to smash it. Virgin Cola will sally forth in the U.S. first in the Philadelphia area. The U.S. needs another cola like it needs another celebrity talk show, but Virgin plans to undercut Coke and Pepsi on the shelf price yet offer more profit to retailers...
Virgin is not expecting a kind welcome in the City of Brotherly Love. In Britain, where the company launched its cola 20 months ago, a May industry report gives Virgin just 4% of the market after a bruising battle with Pepsi, Coke and its British partner, Cadbury Schweppes. Although Virgin is a good marketer, distribution is critical--an area in which Branson met his master. For instance, Virgin was not able to get shelf space in half the British supermarkets--no small problem when four grocery chains control more than 60% of the market. The reason: Coke and Pepsi locked...
Branson is realistic about his cola challenge. "I suspect it will be in my children's lifetime--maybe even my grandchildren's --before Coke becomes second player to Virgin in America." Virgin at least won't be underdistributed in its first U.S. market: in Pennsylvania 500 Supervalue Beverage stores will peddle...
...long ago, Coca-cola chairman Roberto Goizueta showed up to salute a group of American immigrants as they took the oath of citizenship at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. Coke's boss eloquently recalled his own family's flight from Cuba and eventual naturalization as proud Americans. Said the courtly ceo: "When my family and I came to this country, we had to leave everything behind...our photographs hung on the walls, our wedding gifts sat on the shelves...