The Cola Wars Continue

I was quite surprised to see this story in the news today.

Two men have pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy after being accused of attempting to steal new product samples and marketing plans from Coca-Cola Co. so they could sell them to PepsiCo Inc. A former Coca-Cola secretary is scheduled to stand trial beginning next month for her role in the plot.

I can't help but wonder, are you kidding me?

I'm sure the leaders at both companies have aspirations of world domination, at least insofar as their products go. And of course that means if one comes up with something new and different, the other must respond with a similar product. But what could Coke possibly be cooking up that Pepsi would need to commit industrial theft to know about?

I realize there's something to being the first one out of the gate with a new product or marketing campaign. But these two companies being as huge as they are, I don't think either is in danger of going belly up if the other beats them to the punch.

"I'm sorry," the general public will say. "I've already tried Cheese Coke, so I don't think I'm going to try Pepsi Parmesan." As John Stossel would say, give me a break.

Apparently, someone at Pepsi warned someone at Coke of the impending plot, and it was stopped before anything actually left the accused men's hands. Good for Pepsi, I guess, but I wonder why the men decided to steal the stuff in the first place. Did they have a deal with someone at Pepsi, or did they steal first and sell later? Either way, it's a dumb idea.

In my opinion, if Pepsi really wants to be #1 (a title which currently belongs to Coke), they should focus on the products they have rather than trying to develop new ones, for example, Diet Pepsi. I bet more people would buy it if it didn't taste like crap.

But then I guess there's a lot I don't understand about these things.