Over the years, the Nigerian consumer goods market has seen the infiltration of various brands of carbonated drinks with different spectrum of flavours.

The Nigerian market currently has numerous soft drink brands readily available in different parts of the country. The cola flavour in Nigeria is dominated by Coca Cola, Pepsi and the recently emerging, Bigi Cola.

Of course, these brands are all vying to capture and maintain market supremacy in the face of fierce competition, however, which Cola brand leads?

Coca-Cola was introduced into the Nigerian market in 1953 through the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC), making it the oldest cola brand in Nigeria, while Pepsi entered the market in the 1990s through the Seven-up Bottling Company.

Up until 2016, when Bigi Cola with its variety of flavours was introduced into the Nigerian market, Pepsi and Coca-cola dominated the market share. Bigi Cola is a product of Rite Foods Limited.

Today, the competition amongst the brands has provided consumers with the opportunity to choose alternative brands, especially when prices and quality are considered.

Meanwhile, to find out which brand of cola is the market leader, we compared Pepsi, Coke and Bigi Cola due to their closely shared similarities.

Similarities between Coke, Pepsi and Bigi Cola

One of the reasons why we chose to compare Coke with Pepsi and Bigi Cola is because of the striking resemblance between the three brands, which is very noticeable in the content.
Apart from the packaging, the taste of the three soft drinks is quite alike, which is obviously due to the fact that they have the same Cola flavour.
In addition, Bigi and Coke have tailored their branding to fit into the disposable income of most consumers, considering that inflation has resulted in increased prices of their products. Hence, the manufacturers of both brands have taken the initiative to produce smaller quantities in smaller and more affordable packaging.

Differences between Coke, Pepsi and Bigi Cola

The major difference between the three brands is in the packaging. While Coke and Pepsi are being sold in both plastic and glass bottles, Bigi Cola is specifically sold in plastic bottles.
However, Coca-Cola currently distributes its products in different volumes.
Also, the Bigi brand, unlike Coke and Pepsi has taken advantage of the market diversity to produce a spectrum of flavours like Apple, Peach, Pineapple, Chapman, and Mango flavours.

Comparing Statistics

A Twitter poll conducted by Nairametrics supports the assertion that Coke maintains market supremacy even though Pepsi remains significantly relevant. In the poll conducted on our website, 70% of respondents said that Coke is their best brand of carbonated drinks, while 25% opted for Pepsi as their preferred choice of carbonated drink. Bigi amassed barely 5%. A couple of respondents also commented that the quality of Bigi Cola is quite inferior compared to Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

In conclusion, it is clear from all indications that Coke ranks better and dominates the majority market share, to emerge as a market leader, compared to its two competitors.

While Pepsi and Bigi Cola as a brand cannot be underestimated, they need to take a page out of Coca-cola’s book to consider production in different volumes as well as production to cater for consumers who are calorie and sugar sensitive as with the emergence of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar.

The post Battle of the substitutes: Coke Vs Pepsi Vs Bigi appeared first on Nairametrics.