Aspartame is a low-calorie, high-intensity sweetener known by Monsanto’s brand name, NutraSweet. It was the key to the success of Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi in the 1980s. NutraSweet made billions of dollars, yielding very high profits. Such profits usually attract entry, but in this case entry was barred by a patent on the sweetener and because the process of creating the sweetener was expensive and difficult. Monsanto had a distinct capability—its monopoly. It had also created another strategic asset—the NutraSweet brand name as represented by its trademark ‘swirl.’ The problem was that Monsanto’s patent was about to expire. As a result, the Holland Sweetener Company began building an aspartame plant in Geleen, the Netherlands, to challenge Monsanto’s hold on the aspartame market. Holland Sweetener was a joint venture between the Japanese Tosoh Corporation and DSM (Dutch State Mines).
What will Monsanto do?
What will Holland Sweetener do?”