Coke Loses Bears, Shares Dollar Stores, Adds Spotify

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The Chicago Bears won’t be serving Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) at football games this season.

The NFL team has severed its long-standing relationship with Coke in favor of RC Cola, Dr Pepper, 7 UP, A&W root beer and other beverages from the Dr Pepper Snapple Group (NYSE:DPS).

The decision was based largely on the Dr Pepper Snapple Group’s willingness to offer a larger array of products and invest in marketing and promotional efforts, the Chicago Sun Times reported.

The team is considering adding portable drink stands that would dispense Diet Rite cola, Canada Dry, Hawaiian Punch, Country Time lemonade, Squirt citrus drink and Yoo-Hoo Chocolate.

The loss of the Chicago Bears isn’t all Coke has to cry about.

After seeing its products ousted from Dunkin’ Donuts (NASDAQ:DNKN) in favor of arch-rival Coke earlier this month, Pepsi (NYSE:PEP) has partially returned the favor by ending Coke’s once-exclusive hold at discount chain Family Dollar (NYSE:FDO).

Pepsi announced that its Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Sierra Mist, Aquafina and Lipton tea lines will join Coca-Cola products on the shelves of 7,100 Family Dollar stores in 45 states across the country.

The deal with Family Dollar is a multiyear commitment, Pepsi said.

Family Dollar once exclusively stocked Coca-Cola products, the Atlanta Journal Constitution noted, but had carried some Pepsi products in recent years, including Gatorade and Frito-Lay and Quaker products.

Coca-Cola had no comment on the Pepsi agreement with Family Dollar.

Pepsi products will appear almost immediately in certain Family Dollar stores and will be available across the chain by the end of May.

In a bit of good news for Coca-Cola, the company announced that it has partnered with digital music service Spotify.

Under the agreement, Coke will integrate Spotify with its Facebook pages, cross-promoting the music service and Coke products. Coke will also promote Spotify in various paid media ads.

Spotify will be at the core of Coke’s “Year of Music” marketing campaign, which debuts in 2013, Ad Age noted. Coke hopes its connection to Spotify will resonate with the service’s more than 10 million, mostly younger listeners.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2012/04/coke-loses-bears-shares-dollar-stores-adds-spotify/.

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