2020年经济学人 可乐大战(1)（在线收听）

Business

商业版块

Cola wars

可乐大战

Fire-starter

纵火者

Donald Kendall added marketing sparkle to the soft-drinks industry

唐纳德·肯德尔为软饮料行业增加了营销亮点

“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.

“百事与可口的广告大战，我实在看不下去了！”比利·乔尔在他1989年的排行榜榜首歌曲《不是我们点的火》中喊道。他已经受够了美国汽水巨头之间激烈的营销战。作为劣势方，百事公司以创纪录的500万美元签约了当时最大牌的音乐明星迈克尔·杰克逊来推广自己的品牌，这让它规模更大的竞争对手可口可乐大为震惊。

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.

可乐大战已经成为一种文化现象。这要归功于百事可乐传奇的前任老板唐纳德·肯德尔，他于9月19日去世，享年99岁。他是一名天才销售员，从灌装线工人迅速晋升为公司的销售精英，年仅35岁就成为了销售主管。七年后，他被任命为首席执行官。1974年，他为苏联注入了一剂冒泡的资本主义，这使百事可乐成为第一个在铁幕后合法销售的西方产品。他在1986年卸任老板时，百事公司的销售额已经猛增了近40倍，达到76亿美元。他的遗产还在继续影响整个行业。

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.

肯德尔集战略眼光、有原则的领导力和营销才能于一身。接管公司两年后，他收购了一家领先的零食供应商菲多利，这使百事公司从多元化发展中赢得竞争优势并一直延续至今。百事公司去年收入670亿美元，使销售额在370亿美元的可口可乐公司相形见绌。在“黑人的命也是命”运动发起的几十年前，他就任命非裔美国人担任要职，使百事可乐成为第一家采取此类做法的美国大型公司——以此来对抗种族主义者，包括组织抵制活动的3k党。