Pepsi Over Coke

In terms of market share in the Dipolog city area, I can definitely say with utmost certainty that Coca-cola has around 90% market share over their rival Pepsi. People in our area drink Coke so why in the world did we go and tie up with Pepsi? Here is our story...

A few months before our scheduled soft opening, we were already trying to set a deal with Coke to supply us with their products in our establishment. We contatacted them and expressed our interest and we talked with the person in-charge. We were glad that we have reached an understanding and they will get back to us with the paper work and the other details.

So with that large detail in our opening day operations settled we focused on other concerns like the finishings in the construction, other supplies, employee training among other things. Days gone by and we haven't heard from our contact person from Coke who was supposed to handle our account. We got a little worried and tried to contact him. Guess what? We couldn't get a hold of him and no one else from that office can be bothered to help us out. Now we were panicking.

One week left before the opening and we still haven't gotten in touch with that person. So we decided to call up their competitor instead. Pepsi. The same day we placed that call, someone from Pepsi arrived at our doorstep and was ready to finalize the deal. It was pretty standard procedure but we did have two requests to ask Pepsi, one is that we can sell our Ken Dough Magic Iced Tea and two, we wanted a new dispenser. The agent made a few calls and it was a done deal. We have a two year tie-up with Pepsi, a new dispenser, and we can serve our own blend of iced tea. We were definitely pleased with the outcome. A few days later they installed the new dispenser and we were good to go. And from that moment, Ken Dough Magic is serving PEPSI.

A few weeks after opening day, a sales manager of coca cola who was in charge of the region dropped by to eat at our place. He noticed that we were serving Pepsi and asked his assistant why didn't Coke get this account. My father overheard their conversation and told him that we were waiting for Coke but they didn't follow through. Pepsi helped us out of our situation and gave us what we asked for so we signed with them. The manager asked my father if he can still pull out of our arrangement with Pepsi and my father said that even if he could he wont do it. Because Pepsi was came through at the right time so in return we gave our word to Pepsi that we will offer their products in our store for two years.

And that is how we ended up with Pepsi instead of Coke.

Rumor: We heard news that our contact person from coke was asked not to do business with us by one of our competitors. We have no way in verifying that rumor though.