The Harvard Business School article dated February 20, 2007: iPOD vs. Cell Phone: A Mobile Music Revolution illustrates the recent contractual partnerships between cell phone carriers and PC-based companies such as Apple and Microsoft to embed digital mobile music on cell phone headsets. Apple's combination with Motorola and Cingular to come out with the ROKR has paved the way for soft drink giants like Pepsi to enter into similar contractual "combination" partnerships.
Aiming towards the fast food industry, Pepsi has been highly successful with establishing economies of scale and at the same time achieving sustainable competitive advantage through the sort of concept of "multibranded" conjoined megaplex restaurants that carry exclusively Pepsi products and soft drinks.
For example, a recent surge of development including 3-in-1 restaurants consisting of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Kentucky Fried Chicken are appearing around major metropolitan cities which provide a taste for the pizza lovers, chicken lovers, and Mexican food lovers.
These restaurant deals are emerging under the company brand name of YUM which "supposedly contracts with Pepsi. The standard has been set worldwide and not just in the United States that any customer visiting any of the above mentioned restaurants will solely only come across Pepsi products as their choice of/for beverage. However, note to be taken, these combination restaurants are under individual franchise "parent" names in their respective countries of origin.
This concept of Pepsi trying to gain economies of scale is already in effect in countries such as the United Kingdom, Mexico, Australia, South Korea, Germany, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) (Dubai) just to name a few. The strategy reflects Apple's endeavor with its iTunes concept to be solely and exclusively installed and used with the Motorola ROKR phone which, unfortunately, failed and did not get a chance to be used to its potential due to cost inefficiencies for Apple's customers.
The future prediction and direction for such markets seems to be on a bright outlook as more individual companies who are solo on their own try to contract with other "like-minded" counterparts possibly in the retail and hospitality industries. Only time shall reveal.
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I like the way you point out a parallel between the partnering that created the ROKR and that which Pepsi does with YUM brands. Did you know that Pepsi used to own the restaurant chains you mention and spun them off as YUM brands? That explains a lot. The number one thing that you should do is find a way to bring in different points of view. In this case you could introduce the question of whether it makes sense for a restaurant to agree to sell only Pepsi products. What are the pros and cons? That kind of discussion will get you a better grade.
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