PepsiCo (PEP) China goes Coke-red

Tom Barlow — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Coca-Cola (KO), PepsiCo (PEP), Marketing and Advertising, China, Scandals

A controversy in the land where intellectual property goes to die has embroiled two of America's strongest brands. Supposedly in honor of the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics (for which it is not a sponsor), Pepsico (NYSE:PEP) China has unveiled a new red can.

Publicly, Coca-Cola, (NYSE:KO) the official sponsor of the Olympics, has ignored the imposition. However, I suspect there is some teeth-gnashing going on in the mother ship in Atlanta. MoneyMorning's Keith Fitz-Gerald makes the point that red and Coke are virtually synonymous. I further agree with his speculation that, if the new Pepsi garb is successful, the corporation will have little reason to drop it after the Olympics.

This is another example of the free-for-all currently taking place in China as non-sponsors of the Olympics try to horn in on the action.

Recently, The Scotts Miracle Grow Co. (NYSE:SMG) successfully bullied small-time fertilizer-from-worm-droppings vendor TerraCycle to change packaging design that is less similar than this example. if Coke lets this slide, who knows what we could see next? Brown FedEx (NYSE:FDX) trucks? UPS(NYSE:UPS) is also an Olympic sponsor.

PepsiCo (PEP) China goes Coke-red originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Irony: Chinese confront pirating of Olympic Sponsorships

Tom Barlow — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 17:30:00 EST

Filed under: Coca-Cola (KO), PepsiCo (PEP), China, Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), Yum Brands (YUM), NIKE, Inc'B' (NKE)

Official sponsors of the Beijing 2008 Olympics include Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), China Mobile (NYSE:CHL), Yili, Mengniu and Adidas. To the dismay of event organizers, however, a recent survey of Chinese citizens suggests that, due to some clever ambush marketing, they associate other brands with the games.

A good example of these ambush campaigns is the "I love Beijing" message being pushed by YUM Brands' (NYSE:YUM) KFC which leverages the pride born of the huge investment in the city to prepare it for the world audience. Also, the China Mengniu Dairy Company has created a skills competition game show, "Around the Cities," that viewers seem to associate with the Olympic competition.

In fact, of the top 12 companies named by the public as Olympic-affiliated, only five actually were. The most mentioned non-sponsors, in order: Pepsi (NYSE:PEP), China Unicom (NYSE:CHU), Budweiser (NYSE:BUD), Nike (NYSE:NKE), and Mengniu.

I can't help but feel a bit of schadenfreude for a country that treated intellectual property so casually for so long. I'll watch with great interest to see how, and if, the government will react to this brand dilution. Perhaps it will provide them a template for dealing with those who pilfer American brands.

Irony: Chinese confront pirating of Olympic Sponsorships originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 23 Apr 2007 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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