Week 5 Discussion

Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words: 

Student: Kimberly Turner

Pepsi had a new concept with its Pepsi Kona, a soft drink meant to be consumed during breakfast, that taste like coffee. Pepsi introduced Pepsi-Kona to compete with Coca Cola’s Surge product that had become popular at the time ("Pepsi Kona", 2021). According to the case the technical development for the product went well, due to Pepsi’s core competencies in developing soft drinks and the knowledge it had gained from about coffee from its association with Starbucks (Crawford & Benedetto, 2014). The main risk that Pepsi faced when it launched Pepsi-Kona was the taste. In the test market, participants complained about the unappealing flavor and did not like the flavor combination of cola and coffee (Crawford & Benedetto, 2014). When Pepsi-Kona was launched Surge had already established its position in the market, making it risky as when consumers compared the two products, the taste of Surge being more favorable ("Pepsi Kona", 2021).  The marketing for the product was good and consumers were anticipating the products, but consumers noted that they never saw the “Kona Hummer,” which was large vehicle the company used to distribute Pepsi Kona samples in the Philadelphia test market area ("Pepsi Kona", 2021). Pepsi withdraw its product from the Philadelphia test market and was never distributed nationally.   

My daughter and I were recently in Walmart when we came across the New Coca Cola with coffee. As a frequent coffee drinker and having a Coke preference for colas, I just cannot understand the combination or if it can possibly be a pleasing taste. 

References:

Crawford, M.C., & Benedetto, A.D. C. (2014) New Products Management (11th ed.), Case: PepsiCo—Pepsi-Kona and Pepsi One (pp.490-491). McGraw-Hill Education.

Pepsi Kona. (2021). Retrieved 23 March 2021, from https://the-soda.fandom.com/wiki/Pepsi_Kona#:~:text=Pepsi%20Kona%20was%20a%20Pepsi,drink%20to%20taste%20like%20coffee.

Response 2: