COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES
SEARCH REDIFF

Coolest ones trade warmth for wars in winter

Neena Haridas in New Delhi

Cola giants Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have usually ended their Indian summers in the Nineties with media wars, flinging ad-mud at each other. But this year has been different. No bombastic claims, counter-claims, allegations, disputes, running down each other, no calling each other names. Have the colas forgetten to 'refresh' themselves, after the frenzy of the June-July cricket World Cup? Is a new ‘friendly’ chapter in the cola industry being scripted?

A Pepsi spokesperson in Delhi says, “We are not getting involved in media fights for market-shares. We had one in May. Now we are concentrating on the real business -- increasing market share.”

Coke too is mum on the absence of a market-share war. It says it is better to have a live-and-let-live attitude.

Which is not to say that the two companies are taking it easy. Far from it.

Pepsi is gung-ho about the winter, traditionally the lean season for soft drink marketers. To begin with, a new television campaign is slated to open on October 4. It will be an extension of the "Dil Maange More" theme.

This time, the target zone is the eastern region. The new campaign has a Durga Pooja flavour. Cricketers Debashish Mohanty and Sadagopan Ramesh will debut as (Pepsi) cola-endorsing celebrities.

“Winters are usually the lean season. So we have to create an excitement in the market. Hence we keep coming out with new promos and campaigns,” says the Pepsi official.

Do companies like Pepsi and Coca-Cola need to advertise any more in India? “Well, it is very important because our core target audience -- the teenyboppers -- like excitement and change. That is why we keep adding new celebrity endorsers. The new theme ''We’ll Change The Century'' is in keeping with this mindset. The teenyboppers feel they are very powerful and we wish to play to their tune.”

To play to the teenybopper tune, Pepsi has earmarked about Rs 2 billion for the next four years. “Actually we have earmarked about Rs 2 billion and our bottlers will put in another Rs 2 billion, making it a total of about Rs 4 billion.”

Most of this money will be spent on building cooling infrastructure, glass, trucks, fountain machines, refrigerators, etc. “It is not just enough to advertise. We should also put in place a strong infrastructure for getting the market-share that we aim for. Besides, we also like to keep ourselves on our toes with innovative marketing ideas,” says the Pepsi official.

One such marketing idea -- plastic cups at fountain machines and PET bottles -- have come under fire from the environ- mentalists. The companies withdrew the plastic cups and replaced them with paper cups. However, the intro- duction of new PET bottles in different sizes have had mixed reactions in the market. “PET bottles just form three per cent of the total market. And in India the rate of reusing and recycling is very high, so it doesn’t really become a pollution problem,” says the Pepsi official.

Coca-Cola is, however, mum about its plans for the winter. “It's winter as usual,” says a Coke official. “Winters really happen only in parts of India. The southern states are still warm and sultry. So when Delhi is cool, Madras is hot. The sales take a dip but it's not out completely.”

In May, the two cola giants had waged a media battle claiming the top slot on the sales chart. Coca-Cola claimed it has wrested a 56 per cent share (compared to Pepsi's 40 per cent) of the all-India soft drinks market. Last year, Coke claimed a 52 per cent market-share.

Pepsi claimed that it is surging to the top slot with a share of 47.3 per cent against Coca-Cola's 48 per cent. Ever since, the two companies have not released any figures of market-shares.

ALSO SEE

Fizzy cocktail of glamour and clamour
Pepsi Vs Coke: Cool ones' war turns hot
Fusion of the hottest and the coolest forms during 1998 Diwali
May 1998: Coke steps up war against Pepsi
Business