Becoming a Better Value Creator: How to Improve the Company's Bottom Line--and Your Own

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Improving Value Creation in Marketing, Sales and Distribution, and New Product Development

Companies in retail-oriented business often live or die on the basis of their marketing efforts. For example, in the past Coca-Cola used to regularly beat PepsiCo in the race for market share because of its tremendous brand equity. However, under CEO Roger A. Enrico, who took the helm in 1996, PepsiCo launched a reinvigorated marketing campaign that put enormous pressure on Coca-Cola to defend its 44–31 percent market share lead over Pepsi.¹ The campaign involved a doubling of Pepsi's marketing budget to $300 million per year.

While price and product quality are important to consumers of Coke and Pepsi, there is little doubt that demand is significantly ...