Coke vs. Pepsi: Who Knows Their Customer?

The country is made up of Democrats and Republicans, Independents and those that don’t care. Voters switch between parties, vote across party lines and sometime just don’t have an opinion.

But there is one thing the American public definitely knows: which is better – Coke or Pepsi.

I’m not here to debate taste – for of course Coke is best – no, I’m here to talk about which company understands their customer. More directly: which marketing department’s graphic designer understands their customer.

I was just at the store stocking up on my favorite beverage. They had a sale on the 24-packs and I had two: one diet Coke and one regular. The packages are heavy. I emptied my groceries onto the counter and lifted up the heavy carton of 24 cans of Coke. I lifted it by the pop-out handle which meant the case stood upright on the counter.

The clerk pulled out her handy dandy wand but couldn’t find the UPC label. Ah, it was on the bottom. We had to turn the case over on its side. To keep their inventory accurate I now had to pull out the diet Coke case, again hefting the weight and turning it on its side.

“The Pepsi cases are much easier to scan,” the clerk informed me. “You don’t have to pick it up out of the cart. They have the UPC labels on the side so I can just zap it with my handy wand.”

Interesting.

“Pepsi is much better. Coke just doesn’t care,” she told me.

I said, “Perhaps the person that designed the packaging didn’t think about how the product would be scanned. It isn’t like they don’t like cash register clerks, they just didn’t take the time to think it through.”

Hrrumf, she grunted. “Pepsi used to have their code on the bottom, but they changed their packaging.” She clearly wasn’t convinced that Coke was just as good as Pepsi.

I can see that the Coke packaging would easily slide over the register’s scanner to pick up the UPC information but that requires lifting the 10 pound package.

So who has put themselves in the shoes of the customer? Although I prefer the taste of Coke – I would have to say that Pepsi did a little more research.

Any Coke or Pepsi executives out there who can enlighten us as to the reasoning for the UPC label positioning?

It’s a little thing. But it is a little thing that impacts customers and cashiers across the country – the world - and requires them to lift the heavy cases out of the carts or bend them over side ways.

Sometimes it isn’t about the quality of the product. Sometimes it is something as simple as a label. Have you looked at your products/services from every angle and thought through how the customer will use it? Is there something you can change that would make the life of your customer just a little bit easier?