New and Improved, by Richard S. Tedlow, is a historical account of mass marketing within the United States of America. The book follows virtually the entire development of mass marketing from local products, with extremely low and direct marketing, all the way up to the current, mass, stage of marketing. Tedlow discusses changes, reasons for change, and the effects of the evolving state of marketing. He efficiently connects to the reader by giving specific examples and providing visuals that reinforce his argument.
One of the most interesting conditions of this book is the fact that Tedlow is not attempting to argue a specific point, he is just providing information about the history of marketing. He does provide reasons for the changes in marketing but does not do so with any intent on arguing for or against these reasonings. His main argument must be that mass marketing has changed significantly in the last two hundred years; however, this is a virtually unopposed argument. Since he does not include any other
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He not only discusses the ongoing challenge between the two soda-giants to provide customers with their product, but he also gives a complete history of the phases of soda marketing. He states that there are two main phases, that can be distinctly seen in comparing Coke and Pepsi. Phase I is when Coca-Cola entered the mainstream. At this point; "[b]arriers to competitive entry were low" which virtually allowed the company who advertised the best, and to the most people, to begin a potential giant company (22). Coca-Cola completely captivated this and went on to become a monopoly. Phase II which is characterized by "price oriented" is where Pepsi entered into the market (23). Pepsi began to grow around the great depression and virtually only because of lower prices. They did not out advertise Coca-Cola, they simply provided a similar product at a lower price