Check out the 27 OCT 03 Wall Street Journal (you have to buy a hard copy or pay for an on-line subscription, they don't give it away), nice article on the soda market down Mexico and south way.

Latin America is a sugar dominated market (diet accounts for like 3% of sales) and dominated by singles sales in small stores. And dominated by The Real Thing (in Mexico its KO 70%, PEP 21% at last count).

Anyway into that market comes some local guys. They start a brand called Cola Real. Classic 1950s Pepsi marketing: larger bottle for a lower price, cutting costs on distribution and spending nothing on marketing. They have captured a market share equal to Pepsi in northern South America, and are now moving into Mexico under the brand name Doble Big Cola (don't you just love the purity of Mexican Spanish? ) . Results are early, but Coke is striking back with price cuts and more attention to distributors. Big loser appears to be, as it always is in a price war, Pepsi.

Interesting read.

Pepsi doesn't always lose in price wars. For example, in California, Coke tries to get away with rather high and extortionist pricing (they had some stores charging over $5 for a 12 pack!!!!)

Pepsi generally has 2 liters on sale somewhere for 79 cents or less in any given week. (It also doesn't hurt that they're marketing Dr Pepper to mixed results) Coke is seldom less than 1.25 a 2 liter.

They're also getting 4.99 to 5.99 for a 24 pack, which Coke doesn't match. On a typical week, you'll find Coke on 'sale' for 3.00-3/$10 where pepsi is generally under $3 a 12 pack at most locations.

PBG seemingly worries more about what the 7up/RC guy has (Turner) than what CCE is doing. (That's not an entirely bad thing!)

Same article is also ov www.beverageworld.com