Passage 2
The sleeper among the products turns out to be Cherry Coke, which contains no fruit juice at all. Cherry Coke has captured shares of 4% to 8% in test market. The drink probably won’t do as well when it is rolled out nationally, since price promotions have been helping it along. But beverage analysts believe Cherry Coke could eventually displace Dr Pepper as the nation’s fifth-best-selling soft drink.
Even if consumers swill the new sodas by the liter in test market, however, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo still face a struggle in persuading bottlers across the nation to take the products. One of the biggest battles in the soda wars, in fact, may not be for drinkers but for bottlers. Bottlers have a symbiotic but occasionally fractious relationship with the syrup makers. Although Coca-Cola and PepsiCo own some of their own bottling companies, most bottlers are still independent.
39.What’s your understanding of “price promotions” here?