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Cola wars
可樂大戰
Fire-starter
縱火者
Donald Kendall added marketing sparkle to the soft-drinks industry
唐納德·肯德爾為軟飲料行業增加了營銷亮點
“Rock and roller cola wars, I can’t take it any more!” cried Billy Joel in his chart-topping song from 1989, “We didn’t start the fire”. He had had enough of the intense marketing battle between America’s fizzy-drinks behemoths. As the underdog, PepsiCo had stunned its bigger rival, Coca- Cola, by signing Michael Jackson, the era’s biggest musical star, to promote its brand in a record-setting $5m deal.
“百事與可口的廣告大戰，我實在看不下去了！”比利·喬爾在他1989年的排行榜榜首歌曲《不是我們點的火》中喊道。他已經受夠了美國汽水巨頭之間激烈的營銷戰。作為劣勢方，百事公司以創紀錄的500萬美元簽約了當時最大牌的音樂明星邁克爾·杰克遜來推廣自己的品牌，這讓它規模更大的競爭對手可口可樂大為震驚。
The cola wars became a cultural phenomenon. Credit for that goes to Donald Kendall, PepsiCo’s legendary former boss, who died on September 19th aged 99. A gifted salesman, he rose quickly through the ranks from his start on the bottling line to become the firm’s top sales and marketing executive at the tender age of 35. Seven years later he was named CEO. In 1974 he injected a dose of fizzy capitalism into the Soviet Union, which allowed Pepsi to become the first Western product to be legally sold behind the iron curtain. By the time he stepped down as boss in 1986, PepsiCo’s sales had shot up nearly 40-fold, to $7.6bn. His legacy continues to shape the industry.
可樂大戰已經成為一種文化現象。這要歸功于百事可樂傳奇的前任老板唐納德·肯德爾，他于9月19日去世，享年99歲。他是一名天才銷售員，從灌裝線工人迅速晉升為公司的銷售精英，年僅35歲就成為了銷售主管。七年后，他被任命為首席執行官。1974年，他為蘇聯注入了一劑冒泡的資本主義，這使百事可樂成為第一個在鐵幕后合法銷售的西方產品。他在1986年卸任老板時，百事公司的銷售額已經猛增了近40倍，達到76億美元。他的遺產還在繼續影響整個行業。
Mr Kendall offered a mix of strategic vision, principled leadership and marketing flair. Two years after taking charge he acquired Frito-Lay, a leading purveyor of snacks, giving PepsiCo an advantage from diversification that persists to this day. PepsiCo’s revenues last year of $67bn dwarfed Coca-Cola’s $37bn in sales. Decades before Black Lives Matter he named African-Americans to top jobs, making PepsiCo the first big American firm to do so—staring down racists including the Ku Klux Klan, which organised a boycott.
肯德爾集戰略眼光、有原則的領導力和營銷才能于一身。接管公司兩年后，他收購了一家領先的零食供應商菲多利，這使百事公司從多元化發展中贏得競爭優勢并一直延續至今。百事公司去年收入670億美元，使銷售額在370億美元的可口可樂公司相形見絀。在“黑人的命也是命”運動發起的幾十年前，他就任命非裔美國人擔任要職，使百事可樂成為第一家采取此類做法的美國大型公司——以此來對抗種族主義者，包括組織抵制活動的3k黨。
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