Title of the Term Paper:

“A STUDY ON CONSUMER PREFERENCE OF PEPSI AND

COCA COLA”

Submitted by:

Name of the student: Md. Zaid Ansari

Department: B.M.S (2nd YEAR)

Registration No.: A01-1142-2049-17

Roll No.: 2-28-17-0032

Supervised by:-

Prof. Dibyendu Sen

Year of submission:-

2019
A study on consumer preference of Coca-Cola and Pepsi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the kind
support and help of many individuals and organizations. I would like to extend my sincere
thanks to all of them.

I am highly indebted to Prof. Dibyendu Sen, our project guide for his guidance and constant
supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding the project & also for
his support in completing the project. He has been a great support and guide to me during the
entire dissertation. He has helped me throughout, from choosing the project till I completed
the Project Report. This project has given me more confidence about the subject and various
concepts of ‘Consumer Preferences ’.
I would also like to express my gratitude towards our Dean Prof. S. Banarjee and our vice
principal Father Peter Arockium for their kind co-operation and encouragement which help
me in completion of this project.

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A study on consumer preference of Coca-Cola and Pepsi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SL. NO. TOPIC PAGE NO.

1.
INTRODUCTION 4-5

 Concept of the study 4

 Objectives of the study 4

 Literature Review 4-5

 Research Methodology 5
2. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 6-17

 Questions and their respective responses with

interpretations 6-17

 Findings of the study 17

3.
CONCLUSION 18

 Conclusion of the study 18

 Recommendations 18

 Limitations of the study 18

4.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 19
5.
ANNEXURE 20-21

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A study on consumer preference of Coca-Cola and Pepsi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Consumer behavior is the study of human responses to products or services and the marketing
of products/services. The study focuses on how individuals make their decision to spend their
time, money etc on consumption related items or consumer related aspects. Buyer behavior is
rooted in psychology with dashes of sociology thrown in just to make things more interesting.
Since every person in the world is different, it is impossible to have simple rules or guidelines
that explain how buying decisions are made. However there are some factors which affect the
consumer behavior but this is not to say that each of the factors has a distinct and
determinable influence on consumer behavior, often, these factors mitigate or contribute in
complex ways to how consumers eventually behave. Through analyzing their behavior one
can know about consumer’s preferences.

OBJECTIVES:

 To study the consumers preferences for Coca-Cola & Pepsi.

 To know the reason to buy coca cola and Pepsi.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

Donnelly (1995) said intensity of colour and the flavors are the key drivers behind consumer
acceptance of soft drinks, but packaging and labeling are not as important for winning over
consumers according to the findings published in journal Food Quality and Preference.

Beverly J. Tepper (1998) concluded that the relative contribution of taste and health
consideration on consumer liking and purchase intent of cola drinks. Results revealed that
purchase intent of cola drinks was strongly related to degree of liking and to several key
sensory attributes like saltiness, drink flavors and greasiness.

Kotler (2003), said, a brand conveys to identify the name or fame that representing a specific
set of unique features, benefits & services to the buyers, Brand building is a major part from
the marketing side in order to undertake the attraction of customer loyalty.

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A study on consumer preference of Coca-Cola and Pepsi

Eva-Lena (2006) stated that International Advertising and International sponsorship

respectively influence the local target group in different ways, but also affect International
brand, they have an impact on brand image and brand equity. More over depending on a
person’s age consumers view brands differently and thus have an effect on International
brand alone, but also in combination with International Advertising and International
sponsorship together these factors influence the way in which a brand is perceived and
consequently influence consumers’ preferences.

Kent Huffman (2007) stated that communication with customers and receiving feedback
from them is a crucial part of consumer behavior which is of great interest to marketers.
Advertising effectiveness pertains to how well a company’s advertising accomplishes the
intended.

Dick & Basu (1994) stated that customer loyalty has been defined as the “strength of the
relationship between the individuals relative attitude & repeat patronage towards the
products” customer loyalty is often related with a brand.

Sujan Mita 1990 concluded that, to investigate the degree of brand awareness of various soft
drink products in relation to background and education of the consumption pattern of various
soft drink products consumed by respondents in the light of their areas, income and
education. The highly educated urban respondents were aware about the brands of the soft
drinks than the less educated rural respondents.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The report contains a detailed view of the tasks, which have been undertaken to analyze the
market of Coca Cola & Pepsi. Various sets of questionnaire have been prepared to know the
Preferences of consumers. This report clearly mentions objective of the study and the
research methodology utilized. The data collection method used is structured non disguised
questionnaire in which the types of questions used are open ended, multiple choice and close
ended. Source data collection is mainly dependent on primary data collected from around
150 respondents.

Tools Used: Tools used for study are: Graphs and Pie Charts

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A study on consumer preference of Coca-Cola and Pepsi

CHAPTER 2: ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

1. Do you like Cola drink?

Choice No. of responses Percentage

Yes 142 95%

No 8 5%

INTERPRETATION:

Out of the 150 respondents, majority of them gave a positive answer with 142 responses (95),
whereas 8 respondents (5%) said they don’t like cola drinks.

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A study on consumer preference of Coca-Cola and Pepsi

2. Age group:

Age group No. of respondents Percentage

>20 10 6.50%

20-25 107 72.00%

26-30 24 15.80%

31-45 4 2.50%

<46 5 3.20%

INTERPRETATION:

Of the 150 respondents who answered the survey, 10 people (6.5%)are below the age of 20,
107 people (72%) are of the age group 20-25, 24 people (15.8%) are between the age of 26-
30 years, 4 people (2.5%) are of the age group 31-45 and 5 people (3.2%) are in the age
group greater than 45.

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A study on consumer preference of Coca-Cola and Pepsi

3. Gender:

Gender No. of respondents Percentage

Male 92 61%

Female 58 39%

INTERPRETATION:

The gender of the respondents is divided as: 92 (61.3%) are males and 58(38.7%) are
females.

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A study on consumer preference of Coca-Cola and Pepsi

4. Which of these drinks do you prefer?

Soft Drink No. of respondents Percentage

Coca-Cola 85 57.00%

Pepsi 35 23.00%

Neither 11 7.00%

Depends on availability 19 13.00%

INTERPRETATION:-

Out of 150 respondents, 85 people (57%) prefer Coca-Cola over Pepsi while 35 people (23%)
prefer Pepsi over Coca-Cola. Also, 11 people (7%) like neither of the drinks and 19 people
(13%) did not have a fixed choice and/or just drank whichever soft drink is available.

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A study on consumer preference of Coca-Cola and Pepsi

5. How often do you consume soft drink?

Choice No. of respondents Percentage

Once a month 14 9.00%

Only at certain occasion 38 25.00%

Every other week 38 25.00%

2-6 times a week 46 30.00%

Every day 10 7.00%

Never 5 3%

INTERPRETATION:

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Out of 150 respondents, 10 people (7%) drink their preferred beverage everyday, 46 people
(30%) drink 2-6 times a week , 38 people (25%) drink their preferred beverage every other
week, 14 people (9%) drink Coca-Cola or Pepsi once a week, while 98 people (25%) only
drink of the two soft drinks at certain special occasions. Also, 5 people (3%) never drink
these soft drinks.

6. What influences your choice of soft drinks?

Factors No. of respondents Percentage

Taste 112 43%

Availability 65 25%

Customer loyalty 12 5%

Brand image 29 11%

Price 14 5%

Advertisement 16 6%

Don’t like these beverages 11 5%

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INTERPRETATION:

When asked what influences their choice in soft drinks, 150 respondents picked multiple
factors. Out of 7 factors, taste is the lead with 43% (112 responses) as an influence in the
consumer’s choice of soft drinks. Of the factors , availability is at 25% influence (65
responses), brand image accounts for 11% (29 responses) of the influence, and the other
factors follow closely with a similar impact on the consumers, with advertisement at 6% (16
responses), price at 5%(14responses)
and customer loyalty at 5% (12 responses). Also 4% (11 responses) stated they don’t drink
the beverages.

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7. How much influence does the advertisement have on your choice of cola
product?

Effect of advertisement Responses Percentage

1 (Very Little) 10 7%

2 (Little) 30 20%

3 (Neutral) 28 19%

4 (A lot) 45 30%

5 (Very Much) 37 25%

INTERPRETATION:

According to the responses received 37 respondents (25%) says that advertisement have a
greater effect on them for the consumption of cola drinks, 45 respondents (30%) says
advertisement play an important role to attract them to consume the cola drinks. 28
respondents have a neutral view on the matter, 30 (20%) respondents think that advertisement

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has a little effect on them followed by the 10 respondents (7%) who thinks it plays a
negligible role in the consumption of cola drinks.

8. Will you change the brand on the basis of price reduction?

Choice No of responses Percentage

Yes 97 65%

No 53 25%

INTERPRETATION:

Out of the 150 respondents, 97 (65%) responded positively whereas 53 (25%) respondents
said no to change in brand with price reduction.

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9. Which has the most innovative offers that influences you to buy cola
drinks?

Brand No. of responses Percentage

Coca-Cola 86 57%

Pepsi 64 43%

INTERPRETATION:

Of the 150 respondents, 86 respondents (57%) thinks coca-cola has the most innovative
offers and 64 respondents (43%) thinks Pepsi has the most innovative offers that influence
them to buy cola drinks.

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10. What is the most recent marketing strategy have you came across
related to Coca-Cola and Pepsi? (Choose from the given options)

Marketing strategy No of respondents Percentage

Television Advertisement 95 46.00%

Newspaper Advertisement 10 4.00%

Sales promotion 49 24.00%

Outdoor Advertisement 54 26.00%

INTERPRETATION:

The respondents were given 5 options to choose from, they can select more than one option.
The responses received showed that TV commercials play an important role in influencing
the consumers with 46% respondents (95 votes) agreeing that they have seen advertisement

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related to soft drinks. Newspaper advertisement received 10 votes (4%) followed by sales
promotion and outdoor advertisement with 49(24%) and 54(26%) respondents respectively.

FINDINGS:

In this research 61% consumer are male and 31% consumer are females. There are different
age groups , 7% are below 20 years old , 72% consumers are between 20-25 , 17% consumers
are between 26-35 and rest are above 35.
From the questionnaire the following results are found:
 Most of the people like to consume cola drinks.
 Coca-Cola is the most preferred product into the soft drink which is available in the
market.
 The main factor is taste for choosing the soft drink.
 Most of the respondents were price sensitive. They were ready to switch to another
product with the change in price.
 An advertisement plays an important factor to choose soft drinks.
 Television came out to be most effective in attracting customers for aid campaign
as respondent of all age groups watch TV.
 Innovative and exciting offers also influence respondents to buy Coca-Cola or
Pepsi.

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CHAPTER 3: CONCLUSION

From the study it can be concluded that there are several factors that affect the consumer
preference to buy Coca-Cola and Pepsi, taste being the most important factor. The study
shows that the consumer prefers Coca-Cola over Pepsi due to difference in taste. It was also
seen that they buy these drinks due to availability and their pricing. The study also shows that
majority of the respondents were ready to switch to other in case of price reduction. At last
we can say that our objective of the study has been met.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

In accordance with the findings of the research I would like to give some suggestions :

 New schemes should be given to the retailers to promote its product.

 Quality product at a cheaper price should be manufactured.
 Rural area should also be given proper consideration.
 Companies should install vending machines in the prime locations of metro cities.

LIMITATIONS:

 Some respondents answered partial questions.

 Small sample size.
 Limitation of time.
 Respondents may not give clear picture of the overall thinking of the population of
India.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Marketing Management- Philip Kotler

 Coke vs. Pepsi overview- Scribid.com/rahul-shinde
 Business Research methods- SN Murthy and U Bhojanna.
 Research Methodology- C.R. Kothari
 Websites-
 https://www.slideshare.net/salilsharma/competative-study-between-coke-vs-pepsi
 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aPoiPQkNUDoT13TQgeNGYdD5-
pugxylAWtBm9dWciXY/edit
 Google forms were used to prepare the questionnaire.
 Whatsapp and Facebook were used to share the questionnaire.

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ANNEXURE

QUESTIONNAIRE:

1. Do you like Cola drink?

a. Yes

b. No

2. Select your age group? (In years)

a. Less than 20
b. 20-25
c. 26-30
d. 31-45
e. Greater than 45

3. Select your Gender:

a. Male

b. Female

4. Which of these drinks do you prefer? (Select any one)

a. Coca-Cola
b. Pepsi
c. Neither
d. Depends on availability

5. How often do you consume soft drink? (Select any one)

a. Once a month
b. Only at certain occasion
c. Every other week
d. 2-6 times a week
e. Everyday

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6. What influences your choice of soft drinks? (Multiple options can be selected)

a. Taste
b. Availability
c. Customer loyalty
d. Brand image
e. Price
f. Advertisement
g. Don’t like these beverages

7. How much influence does the advertisement have on your choice of cola product?
(Select any one)

a. 1 (Very Little)
b. 2 (Little)
c. 3 (Neutral)
d. 4 (A lot)
e. 5 (Very Much)

8. Will you change the brand on the basis of price reduction?

a. yes

b. no

9. Which has the most innovative offers that influences you to buy cola drinks?

a. Coca-Cola

b. Pepsi

10. What is the most recent marketing strategy have you came across related to Coca-
Cola and Pepsi? (Multiple options can be selected)

a. Television Advertisement
b. Newspaper Advertisement
c. Sales promotion
d. Outdoor Advertisement

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