Developing a Competitive Advantage in an Oligopolistic Market

Keith Melaragno was a long time manager at Pepsi Beverages Company and spent time in various high-level roles throughout the company including the VP of Marketing, VP of Foodservice, and VP of Retail in the midwest. First, Keith talks about his career journey through the food and beverage industry, how the broad exposure he got by rotating through various divisions of Pepsi benefited him later in his career, and the benefits that can come from working at a large corporation like Pepsi. Next, we dive into the various strategies that Pepsi uses to create a competitive advantage beyond price to combat their biggest competitor and the most well-recognized brand in the world: Coca-Cola. We also talk about some of the bizarre and extreme initiatives that Pepsi has used in the past to try to gain market share in the food and beverage industry and some exciting trends that will affect this industry in the near future. Finally, we end our conversation by looking at how Pepsi’s marketing and expansion strategies have changed over time, and some of the genius acquisitions that Pepsi has made to aid them in becoming one of the world’s most prominent food and beverage conglomerates.