第12课市场竞争外刊经贸知识选读-每课重要知识点-串讲-课文翻译.doc

第12课 市场竞争
Soft Drink Wars: the Next Battle
软饮料战：下一次战争
一、（Excerpts）（摘录）
The reformulation of Coke has given the feuding cola giants a chance to go at each other again.
可口可乐的重新配方为长期不和的可乐巨头提供了一个新开战的机会。
But Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are spoiling for yet another fight, and this time they’re picking on the little guys: non-cola makers like Seven-Up and Dr Pepper.
By Monci Jo Williams
但是可口可乐和百事可乐一心想进行另一场战斗，这一次它们选中了小企业：“七喜”和“佩拍博士”。
In the U.S.soft drink industry, where 1% of the market is worth $ 300 million in retail sales, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo don’t wage mere market share battles.They fight holy wars.These days the fighting is on two fronts.One is on the vast plains of the cola business, where the reformulation of Coke has Pepsi on the defensive.The other is in the back alleys of the smaller, non-cola market.Until now these have been dominated by other companies.As growth of high-calorie colas slows, however, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are invading new territory.
在美国的软饮料行业，1％的市场份额就意味着3亿美元的零售额，可口可乐公司和百事可乐公司进行的不仅仅是争夺市场份额的斗争，他们进行的是“圣战”。目前他们的斗争有两条战线。一条是可乐生意的广阔战场，在这儿可口可乐的重新配方使百事处于守势。另一条战线是在较小的非可乐市场的后巷里。迄今为止，这些市场仍被其他公司所支配。由于高热量可乐的增长缓慢，可口可乐公司和百事可乐公司计划入侵新的领域。
Coca-Cola is moving in with two new products: Cherry Coke, a canned version of the old soda fountain favorite, and Minute Maid Orange Soda, which contains orange juice.Pepsi’s new product is Slice, a lemon-lime soft drink that also contains fruit juice.If these products live up to their early performance in test markets—a big if—they could produce $ 3 billion a year in retail sales.The skirmishes between the cola giants will precipitate a battle for supermarket shelf space and for the loyalty of battlers.The big guys will press bottlers to drop competing brands to make way for their new products.
可口可乐凭着两种新产品投入了战斗：一种叫做“樱桃可乐”是原来的冷饮柜的宠儿的罐装版，另一种叫做“小少女桔子汽水”，含有桔子汁。百事的新产品是“斯来思”，它也是一种包含果汁的柠檬——酸橙软饮料。如果这些产品能够达到早期在试销市场的表现—这是个值得疑问的“如果”—他们在零售方面每年就能产出30亿美元来。可乐巨人之间的小冲突就会升级为一场为争夺超市货架空间和瓶装商忠心的战役。这两个巨商将迫使瓶装商们放弃与之竞争的品牌，以便为他们的新产品让道。
It’s too early to tell how the reincarnated Coke is selling, since many bottlers are still working off old inventories.But the company isn’t leaving much to chance.Coca-Cola will back new coke with more than $ 70 million of advertising this year, vs.the $ 50 million or so PepsiCo will spend on its flagship brand.Over the long term, however, many industry analysts believe the Coke reformulation will do little to dramatically change either Coke’s or Pepsi’s market share.Says Joseph Doyle Harris Upham brokerage firm in New York: “Twelve months from now, we’ll look back and see new Coke as a nonevent.” In all its variations, Coke holds about 29% of the U.S.market, Pepsi 23%.
现在判断新可口可乐产品的销售情况还为时过早，因为许多经销商还在销售存货，但是公司不会听任其命运。今年可口可乐公司会用7千多万美元的广告费来支持新可乐，而百事可乐公司也将花大约5千万美元为自己的旗舰商标作广告。然而，从长远来看，许多行业分析家认为，可口可乐的重新配方几乎不会给可口可乐或百事可乐的市场份额带来巨大的变化。纽约的Harris Upham经济业联号的Joseph Doyle说，“从现在起12个月后，我们再回头看，会发现可口可乐其实很令人扫兴。”把所有产品都算在内，可口可乐占美国市场的29％，而百事占23%。
The company’s new formula was designed partly to keep Coke’s sales growing overseas.Compared with Americans, who guzzle more soda than water, the rest of the world is still in the sipping stage.Coca-Cola’s goal is to kick up its slowing growth rate outside the U.S.from about 3% a year to 10%.Company executives think a less filling, more “guzzleable” new Coke will help.
可口可乐设计新配方的部分原因是为了保持可口可乐在海外销售的增长。和喝汽水比水还多的美国人相比，世界其他地区的人们简直仍处在“小口顺饮”阶段。可口可乐的目标是把美国之外减慢的增长率从一年3%提高到10％。该公司的经管人员认为，一种不太“灌人”、更易“狂饮”的新型可乐将会起到预期作用。
Domestically, sales of soft drinks have been bubbling along nicely.They grew 6% last year, vs.2% to 3% a few years ago.But the cola makers may experience more growing pains.At least with the high-calorie colas that account for half of all sales (diet colas hold about 12%).Baby-boomers are showing a strong preference for healthier, less fattening drinks as they age—everything from diet soda to bottled water to fruit juice.For example, according to Beverage World, an industry magazine, fruit juice and fruit drink sales have grown from $ 1.2 billion in 1976 to $ 8.4 billion last year.John Costello, senior vice president of marketing and sales for Pepsi-Cola USA, thinks the popularity of fruit juices can be captured in new soft drink products such as Slice.“We want to take the vitality of the juice market and put it into soft drinks,” says Costello.
在国内，软饮料的销售一直不错。去年它们增长了6％，而几年前只有2％到3％。但是可乐制造商也许会经历更多的成长的烦恼，至少在高热量可乐方面，它占总销售额的一半（营养可乐占12％）。生育高峰期出生的人随着年龄的增长，表现出对有利健康、不易发胖的饮料的强烈的喜爱——所有一切，从营养汽水到瓶装水到果汁。例如，根据行业杂志《饮料界》的报告，果汁和水果饮料的销售额已由1976年的12亿美元增长到去年的84亿美元。美国百事可乐营销部的副经理John Costello认为，果汁受欢迎的特点可以被运用到像“斯来思”这样的新型软饮料产品当中。Costello说，“我们想汲取果汁市场的活力，把它注入到软饮料中。”
Even without the new products from Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, the non-cola field is crowded.Indeed, with so many regional and national brands out there, it is sometimes hard to keep track of who owns what and who’s competing with whom.But essentially the non-cola market can be divided into four segments: lemon-lime sodas, which account for about 12% of soft drink sales and include Philip Morris, 7 Up and Coca-Cola’s Sprite; orange sodas (4% of sales), which include R.J.Reynolds’s Sunkist and Procter & Gamble’s Crush; mixers (2%), which include ginger ale, club soda, and tonic water and, finally, the Pepper category (7%), dominated by Dr Pepper, a non-cola drink based on a mixture of fruit flavors.
即使没有可口可乐公司和百事可乐公司的新产品，非可乐市场也是很拥挤的。的确，那儿有那么多的地方品牌和国家品牌，有时很难弄清哪种品牌属于哪家公司、谁在和谁竞争。但是，非可乐市场基本上可以分为四部分：占软饮料销售额12％的柠檬——酸橙汽水，其中包括“菲利普?莫里斯”、“七喜”和可口可乐公司的“雪碧”；桔子汽水（占总销售额的4%），包括R.J.雷诺兹的“浴光”和宝洁公司的“迷恋”；调和饮料(2％），包括姜汁淡啤酒、俱乐部汽水和滋补水；最后一类是佩拍类，其中主要产品是“佩拍博士”，这是一种把数种水果味道混合在一起的非可乐饮料。
Although Coca-Cola and PepsiCo’s new fruit juice sodas will compete with each other, they are more likely to steal market share from all those other drinks already on supermarket shelves.Slice, a lemon-lime soda that actually contains four juices—white grape, pear, lemon, and lime—poses a challenge both to 7 Up, the No.1 lemon-lime soda (4.4%) and sprite.Based on its performance in test markets, industry analysts say Slice could grab 3% to 4% of the U.S.market.
虽然可口可乐公司和百事有限公司的新果汁汽水将互相竞争，但它们更有可能从所有那些已经摆上超市货架的其他饮料手中窃取市场份额。“斯来思”，一种柠檬——酸橙汽水，实际上包含了4种果汁—白葡萄汁、梨汁、柠檬汁和酸橙汁，它对头号柠檬——酸橙汽水“七喜”(4.4％）还有“雪碧”都形成了挑战。根据它在试销市场上的销售情况，行业分析家认为，“斯来思”可能会占领美国软饮料市场的3％到4％的份额。
Coca-Cola seems determined that Slice’s sales won’t come at the expense of Sprite.This year the company hiked Sprite’s advertising budget to $ 40 million, and boosted sales 25% in the first three months.Seven-Up, on the other hand, still seems to be searching for a defense.It is distributing more consumer coupons and giving bottlers bigger discounts, but has also unimaginatively returned to its 17-year-old “uncola” advertising theme.Says Jesse Meyers, publisher of Beverage Digest.“It’s raining out there, and Seven-Up hasn’t put up an umbrella.”
可口可乐公司似乎下定决心，不能用牺牲“雪碧”来换取“斯来思”的销售额。今年，该公司把“雪碧”的广告费猛增到4千万美元，在第一季度，使其销售额比去年同期增长了25纬。另一方面，“七喜”似乎仍在寻求防御。它分发更多的赠券，给经销商打更大的折扣，但它也无趣地又回到已沿用了17年的广告主题—“非可乐”。《饮料文摘》的出版商Jesse Meryer说，“外面正在下雨，‘七喜'却还没有撑起伞。”
Coca-Cola’s advance into orange soda is bad news for Sunkist, which holds a 1.5% share of the soft drink market, and Crush (around 1%) Coca-Cola began testing Minute Maid Orange Soda in Canada last summer.Some analysts think it will quickly challenge Sunkist as the top-selling orange drink.
可口可乐向桔子汽水进军对占软饮料市场1.5％的“浴光”和1％的“迷恋”来说都是坏消息。去年，可口可乐公司开始在加拿大试销“小少女”桔子汽水。一些分析家认为它很快就会作为最畅销的柑桔饮料挑战“浴光”。
The sleeper among the products might turn out to be Cherry Coke, which contains no fruit juice at all.Emanuel Goldman, a beverage analyst with Montgomery Securities in San Francisco, says Cherry Coke has captured shares of 4% to 8% in test markets.The drink probably won’t do as well when it is rolled out nationally, since consumer coupons and price promotions have been helping it along.But Goldman believes Cherry Coke could eventually displace Dr pepper as the nation’s fifth-best-selling soft drink.
诸产品中出人意料的成功者可能会是“樱桃可乐”，它根本不含果汁。旧金山Montgomery证券的饮料分析家Emanuel Goldman说，“樱桃可乐”在试销市场上占了4％到8％的份额。在全国铺开销售时，它的销售情况也许不会那么好，因为在试销时消费赠券和价格促销起了一定作用。但是Goldman相信“樱桃可乐”最终会取代“佩拍博士”，成为该国排名第五的畅销饮料。
Even if consumers swill the new sodas by the liter in test markets, however Coca-Cola and PepsiCo still face a struggle in persuading bottlers across the nation to take the products.One of the biggest battles in the soda wars, in fact, may not be for drinkers but for bottlers.Bottlers have a symbiotic but occasionally fractious relationship with the syrup makers.Although Coke and Pepsi own some of their own bottling companies, most bottlers are still independent.They do the bulk of their business selling colas, counting on Dr Pepper, Sunkist, and other non-colas to fill out their line.But because exclusive contracts with the syrup makers prevent bottlers from distributing competing brands, the cola giants must persuade them to drop established products to take on Slice or Minute Maid Orange Soda.
即使在试销市场上消费者成升地畅饮这些新型汽水，可口可乐和百事可乐仍面临一场斗争来劝说全国的经销商接受这些产品。事实上，汽水战争中最大的斗争也许不是争夺饮用者而是争夺经销商。经销商和浆汁制造商之间有一种共生的但有时又很难驾驭的关系。虽然可口可乐和百事可乐都有自己的经销公司，但是大多数的经销公司仍然是独立的。他们的主要业务是销售可乐，此外还靠“佩拍博士”、“浴光”及其他非可乐饮料来补充生意。但由于独家经销合同禁止经销商销售竞争品牌的产品，可乐巨头们必须说服经销商放弃已经确定了地位的产品，以接受“斯来思”和“小少女”柑桔汽水。
The bottlers may no to along.Much of the expense of introducing a new product—blitzing consumers with coupons and offering deep discounts to retailers to get the product on the shelves—is borne by the bottler.He is reluctant to walk away from his investment in an existing brand to pony up for something new.That may be especially so in the case of the fruit juice sodas.Because syrups made with juices are more expensive than other syrups, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo will be charging bottlers more for them.But to boost Slice’s sales, bottlers are discounting the drink.If they can’t get the price up and keep it up, PepsiCo’s new product will be less profitable to them than regular soft drinks that hold smaller market shares.
经销商也许不会同意。因为引进一种新产品的大部分费用——包括对消费者发起赠券攻势、给零售商大打折扣以使产品摆上货架——都是由经销商承担的。他不愿放弃对现有品牌的投资，而去为某种新品掏钱。这对果汁汽水尤其如此。由于用果汁制成的浆汁比其他浆汁要贵，可口可乐和百事可乐公司将会为此索要更高的价钱。但是为了促进“斯来思”的销售，经销商们正在给该饮料打折。如果他们不能使价格回升并维持其价，百事公司的新产品对他们来说，将没有占市场份额较小的常规软饮料利润大。
Contractual conflicts could hurt some new brands more than others.Minute Maid Orange Soda appears to face more trouble than Slice, since half of Coca-Cola’s bottlers are pledged to distribute Sunkist or Crush; only 22% of PepsiCo’s bottlers handle Slice’s head-to-head competitor, 7 Up.Cherry Coke may have the easiest time.It will compete with Dr Pepper, for which Coca-Cola bottlers do more than 40% of the distribution.But Dr Pepper has told Coke bottlers that it doesn’t see the new soda as a direct competitor, so they don’t have to worry about losing the Pepper franchise if they take on the new drink.Is Dr Pepper being generous? Hardly.The company apparently fears that if Coke bottlers are forced to choose between Cherry Coke and Dr Pepper, they will let the doctor take a walk.
合同冲突对于一些新品牌的伤害可能比另一些要大。“小少女”柑桔汽水好像要比“斯来思”面临更多的麻烦，因为可口可乐一半的经销商都承诺要销售“浴光”或“迷恋”；百事公司仅有22％的经销商销售“斯来思”的死对头“七喜”。“樱桃可乐”的日子也许过得最容易，它将和“佩拍博士”竞争，而后者40％的产品是由可口可乐公司的经销商销售的。但是“佩拍博士”已经告诉可口可乐的经销商，他不认为这种新的汽水会是一名直接竞争者，所以如果经销商们答应销售“樱桃可乐”，也不必担心会失去佩拍的经销权。“佩拍博士”大度吗？不。该公司显然担心，如果可乐的瓶装商们被迫在“樱桃可乐”和“佩拍博士”间作出选择，那么走人的将会是“博士”。
It’s hard to gauge a bottler’s loyalty.Coke’s biggest bottler is John T.Lupton, chairman of JTL Corp., a $ 700-million-a-year Chattanooga company.Lupton also bottles Sunkist, but ask him if he’s willing to drop it so he can take on Coca-Cola’s Minute Maid, and he’ll tell you, “I’ll be glad to.All Coca-Cola has to do is give me a product that’s competitive in price and quality, and I’ll take it hands down.” But not Charles Millard, chairman of the $ 600-million-a-year Coca-Cola Bottling Co.of New York, Coke’s second-largest customer.Even though Coke owns 31% of his company, Millard says he will stick with Sunkist.“They have made a big investment in this market and in our business,” he says.“ The smart bottlers will leave the dance with the girl they came with.”
一个经销商是否忠诚很难断定。可口可乐的最大经销商是JTI公司的董事长John T.Luptono该公司位于Chattanooga,年产值为7亿美元。Lupton同时也包装“浴光”，但如果问他是否愿意放弃该品牌，以便接手可口可乐的“小少女”，他会告诉你，“我将很高兴那样做。只要可口可乐可以给我一种在价格和质量上都很有竞争力的产品，这样我比较容易接受它。”但是位于纽约年产值6亿美元的可口可乐的第二大经销公司的董事长Charles Millard却不那么认为，即使可口可乐拥有它31％的股份，Millard表示还是会坚持销售“浴光”。“他们对市场和我们的生意的投资很大，”他说，“精明的经销商们会和他们选择的产品一直在一起。”
HOLDOUTS LIKE MILLARD are likely to become targets of all-out sales campaigns.The hard sell won’t come until later this year, since Coca-Cola is still in test markets with Minute Maid Orange Soda and Cherry Coke, and Pepsi is concentrating on distributing Slice through bottlers who have no conflict.But when the push does start, says a soft drink company executive, “Things are going to get very, very interesting.”
像Millard这样的坚持者可能会成为大规模销售战役争夺的对象。由于可口可乐的“小少女”和“樱桃可乐”仍处于试销阶段，百事公司也正集中精力通过没有冲突的经销商来销售“斯来思”，艰苦的销售战要到今年晚些时候才会出现。但是，当进攻真正开始时，一位软饮料公司的经管人员说，“事情会变得非常非常地有趣。”
To convince bottlers that the new products can match or exceed the sales of existing brands without heavy discounting or couponing, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo will have to cut back on special promotion, then ply the bottlers with the resulting sales data.But their most useful tactic will be to offer the bottlers generous cooperative advertising deals on the new sodas, and extra money to promote the old ones.Bottlers may come in for a little arm-twisting as well.“It’s often very subtle,” says an industry executive who prefers not to be named.“The Coca-Cola representative will say, ‘That decision is not going to sit very well in Atlanta’ or something like that.”
为了使经销商们相信，新产品不用大打折扣和发放赠券就可以比得上或者超过现有品牌的销售额，可口可乐和百事可乐将不得不减少特殊促销手段，然后不断向经销商提供因此而产生的销售数据。但是他们最有效的战术是就新产品向经销商们提供慷慨的广告合作，而就老产品给予额外的促销费用。经销商们也许还会遭受些压力，“压力通常非常微妙，”一个不愿公开姓名的企业经管人员说，“可口可乐公司的代表会说‘那个决定在亚特兰大将不会被通过'或一些类似的话。”
If companies can’t get their products distributed nationwide, marketing them will be more expensive.Buying local advertising is simply more costly than purchasing network spots.Brian Dyson, president of Coca-Cola USA, says that it generally doesn’t pay to advertise nationally until a new product is in about 80% of the country.Costello of PepsiCo—whose Slice has been rolled out to 70% of the country—says Pepsi is willing to settle for the smaller profits that will result from partial distribution.Analysts believe that’s because PepsiCo doesn’t think it can persuade bottlers to dump 7 Up.Coca-Cola seems more confident about unseating Sunkist and Crush.If Coke proceeds beyond test markets with Minute Maid, Dyson’s goal will be to distribute the drink across the country.
如果公司不能在全国范围内销售自己的产品，销售它们的费用就会更高。购买地方广告比购买广播网的插播广告更为昂贵。美国可口可乐公司总裁Brian Dyson说，如果一种新产品不能在全国80%的地区里销售，那么在全国范围内做广告将得不偿失。百事可乐的“斯来思”已经销往全国70％的地区，该公司的Costello说，百事公司愿意接受局部地区销售带来的较低的利润。分析家们认为这是因为百事公司觉得它不能说服经销商们抛弃“七喜”。而可口可乐似乎对挤垮“浴光”和“迷恋”更有信心。如果可口可乐的“小少女”能走出试销市场，Dyson的目标是将它销往全国。
The battle to unseat smaller brands, dominate niches, and shove competing products out of distribution will be costly and exhausting, and could go on for years.But the large companies will surely squeeze into every market they can,