The Biggest Business Rivalries of All Time

Bangalore: This fact cannot be denied that all of us love to have a good fight. It’s always amusing to watch two forces collide. When this collide takes place in the market, consumers get the most out of it, as the two companies lower their price or enhance the quality of products they offer. A full-on rivalry comes into picture when two companies start fighting over same rupee with similar products and same strategies. Below mentioned are few such rivalries which are no less than a good entertainment.

Coke v/s Pepsi
“Coca Cola v/s Pepsi”! It’s been decades since these Cold drink giants are fighting over Indian cold drink market share. First it was cold drink, and then the fight extended for other sections like energy drinks, healthy snacks, namkeens etc.  Indira Nooyi has made great efforts to make ‘Pepsi’ a brand for young generation in India. Be it sponsoring Cricket World Cups to signing up young Brand Ambassadors and making youth specific slogans, they have done a lot to make ‘Pepsi’ a true brand. Coke on the other hand is still confused how to promote a single brand. They actually fail to unite brands like ‘Thumbs Up’ and ‘Coca Cola’ and these brands actually compete with each other. Coke needs to do a lot more to make people brand its other successful products like ‘Pulpy Orange’. Until that happen, Coke will struggle in India.

General Motors v/s Ford
General Motors vs. Ford. The two companies have been battling it out for profits, market share, and hometown bragging rights almost from the time GM was founded in Flint, Michigan in 1908, five years after Ford got started in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn. Of little significance by themselves, battles like this one can sign inflection points in long-term trends. Over the last century, the two companies have rarely changed position. Ford held the lead until the late 1920s when the Model T ran out of gas, and then fell permanently behind the market-dominating GM machine created by Alfred P. Sloan. In the ensuing decades, Ford enjoyed brief periods of leadership in the late 1980s and again in the 1990s, but GM stayed in front until it began to skid into its 2009 bankruptcy. At the moment, Ford holds a small edge in annual profits $6.6 billion in 2010 to $6.2 billion for GM and a larger one in market cap $55 billion to GM's $50 billion.