Fine Marketing IMT Hyderabad Then & Now

8/13/2019 Fine Marketing IMT Hyderabad Then & Now

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Then & NowThen & Now

A Coke StoryA Coke Story

Siddharth JaiswalSiddharth Jaiswal

IMT Hyderabad

Batch 2011-13

PH No-9573573989

[email protected]

[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Then Now: A Coke Story

It was on May 8, 1886 that Dr. John

Pemberton mixed the magic portion of coca

cola syrup to carbonated water and sold it

for five cents a glass. Pemberton had noclue of what was to become of this fluid

that he had formulated. Today coco colas

logo is one of the most recognized

trademarks in the world. Spread across 200

countries it is the largest producer of non-

alcohol carbonized drinks and known for its

marketing tactics. Worldwide the category

of cola has been built on marketing alone,

no matter how much the two biggest

players (Pepsi Co & Coca Cola) in this spacetry to differentiate themselves on the basis

of their Formula, lets face it except the

amount of sugar content in each of them

there is very little to distinguish. Hence

these two companies choose their fatal

weapons of advertising which has a huge

role to play in consumers picking up one

over the other. Like most companies in

search of untapped markets, Coca Cola

Company, Atlanta had a hawks eye onIndia. The company first made its entry into

the Indian market in the year 1956 and

made a good fortune. The Indian economy

was increasingly regulated and many

industries were restricted to the public

sector, this movement reached its peak in

1977 and the Coca Cola Company had to

exit the Indian Markets.

The Rebirth: Coca Cola re-enteredIndia in 1993, giving its competitor Pepsi Co

a huge four year heads up into the Indianmarket which used this opportunity to

capture much of the Indian consumers

imagination. The Coca Cola Company knew

it had to bridge its absence of 16 years

from the Indian market aggressively and

quickly, with a two-pronged gambit; one

through acquisitions, by cementing itself

with the nations top soft-drink brands

(Thumbs-Up, Limca etc.) which give instant

access to established bottling infrastructurealong with good brand portfolio And the

second, by turning to the jingles and

bringing on celebrity endorsers.

During this period the companys marketing

department focused on jingles, celebrity

endorsements and tag lines to reach out to

consumers.


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Tag lines like Always the real thing, Pee

le coca cola,Thande ka Tadka, Jo chahe

ho jye. Coca Cola enjoy backed by

celebrities like Karishma Kapoor, Hrithik

Roshan, Amir Khan and Aishwarya Rai had

done the trick for the carbonated drink

manufacturer.

The Next Decade:Since 1993-2003,Coca Cola had invested the whooping

amount of US$ 1 billion in India, making it

one of biggest foreign investors in the

country. In 2003, Coca Cola was ranked the

# 1 brand in the world and estimated its

brand value at $70.45 billion. It believed in

a brand positioning strategy called as the

3As

Affordability Availability Acceptability

Reaching to the masses and increasing the

per capita consumption of cola in the

massive landscape of India was the

challenge for coke at this point of time. The

rural market of India represented a major

opportunity (96% of Indian population) for

market penetration and a battleground for

market dominance. Its mantra was Within

the arms reach of desire.Additionally, an

average coke cost around Rs10 and theaverage wage for a day was around Rs100,

coke was presumed as a luxury that only

few could afford. Hence, to cater to the

high potential markets the company

introduced the 200ml bottle, smaller to the

traditional 300ml version at Rs5 only,

bridging the gap between coke and the

traditional refreshments like tea, lemonade

etc. making coke truly accessible.

Coke had to sketch a unique ad campaign

to penetrate into the remotest places of

India, this is when the Thanda MatlabCoca

Colahappened and took the company one

notch up in terms of the connect with the

masses of India. This campaign featured

actor Amir Khan playing regional roles and

helped coke to strengthen its brand equity.

The campaign targeted the segment whose


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primary needs were out of home thirst

quenching.

Thanda meaning cold/cool is also genericfor cold beverages in India, giving the

campaign multiple meaning of cold

refreshments and thirst quencher relating

itself as cold Indian beverages like lassi or

lemonade. The Thanda campaign became

to be known as a gem of a tagline and the

most effective by any brand in the soft-

drink category. In the year 2002-2003, 91%

of the sales were made to lower, lower-

middle and upper middle class who largelycame from the rural regions of the country.

Hitch in the Journey: On 5 August2003, the center for science and

environment (CSE) issued a report stating

12 major brands of cold drinks sold in and

around Delhi contain a deadly cocktail of

pesticides residues.

The company acted immediately by

designing a new advertising strategy that

included safety guaranteed stickers,

newspaper ads, public tours of the Coca

Cola plants and the Pesticide controversy

campaign featuring Amir Khan to regain its

lost trust of the people from the cold drink.


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The company had to redesign strategies to

heel from the damage caused due to the

controversies of 2003-2006. The new brand

development strategy stressed on the so

called 3 Ps:

Price value Preference Pervasive penetration

Since 2009 Coca Cola Company has been

running the Open happiness campaign

worldwide, which was adapted by the

Indian Market as well. This was the first

time that the company adapted a global

campaign unlike the traditional tailor madelocal advertising. This campaign featured

Imran Khan who has been a part of the

Indian execution; however he was not able

to recreate the magic that his uncle Amir

had accomplished for the company in 2003.

Then came the Brrr. campaign in 2010,

again an adaptation of South Africas brand

campaign. "We are coming up with ourlatest campaign called 'Brrr'. Through this

campaign, we are giving the whole

experience of having an ice cold drink. The

campaign has manifested the spontaneous

experience of consumers when they have

it," Coca-Cola India Brand Director (Coca-

Cola and Trademark) Avinash Pant said.


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However the results of the campaign dont

look impressive, is it time to rethink the

companys positioning? It seems that Coca

Cola Company once known for its killer

marketing tactics has lost track in todays

spoilt for choice consumers.

The biggest question remains, can coke

bring back its advertising charm?

This will not be easy for the largest soft-

drink company as it has missed out on the

World Cup opportunity, providing its

competitor Pepsi a clear path to move far

ahead. Still hope remains for the company

as they could capitalize on the brands

recent association with the Olympics, which

could be the ticket for a comeback.

References:

Coca Cola India Tuck School ofBusiness, Dartmouth. Paper no:1-

0085, Nov-2004.

Argenti, Paul et.al Collaboratingwith Activists: How Starbucks work

with NGOs, California Management

Review, Vol 47, No 1, June 2004.

Dawar, Niraj and Nancy Dai. ColaWars in China: The future is here.

HBS Case, August 2003.

Dey, Saikat. Interview on IndianHistory and economic Liberalization.

January 2005.

Global Brand Scorecard 2003:Special Report. Interbrand, as seen

in Business week 08/04/2003.

Fine Marketing IMT Hyderabad Then & Now

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