Cola wars have just started

Actress Katrina Kaif launches PepsiCo's new 'Mango Slice' in New Delhi on Thursday

Whats new about Mango slice? Nothing but a strategy to remind people that its summer, let the drinks party begin!!

I found the above picture of Katrina Kaif in the outlook business website. Since I have been reading about the history of the coca cola company, I got a little intrigued to realize that the summers are on, and the cola wars have just begun.

Lets look at the product portfolio of the coca cola company and pepsico holdings in India.

Pepsico	Coca Cola India
Pepsi	Coke / Thums-up
7 up / Mountain Dew	Sprite
Mirinda Orange	Fanta
Mirinda Lemon	Limca
Slice	Maaza
Tropicana
Gatorade
Aqua fina	Kinley
Duke’s soda / Lehar Evervess
Lays
Kurkure
Cheetos
	Minute Maid

From the above table, the one-to-one competition of the major brands is evident. In spite of this, coca cola chose to stay away from the not-so popular brands, and has not ventured outside the beverage segment.

It may be seen that Pepsico India might be subjected to greater attention, since its CEO is an Indian.

Every year, the two giants come up with ways to persuade the masses to but their drinks. There is immense pressure on the bottlers and the retailers, who have to stock products of both the houses.

Pepsi got a headstart in India by virtue of its early entry. It may be noted that Coke was asked to leave on 1977 due to political pressure.

The recent league matches (or the gully muhalla matches, as I would like to call) has also seen their share of the cola wars. As per a report in the Hindu business line, coca cola would be keeping Pepsi off screen during the IPL matches.

Currently, Pepsico is ahead of Coke in India because of its diversity of products, as per this report in the Economic times

As per the advertising house Lintas, PepsiCo India saw a decline of Rs 27 crore in 2007 and had total TV and print spends of Rs 131 crore.

The flavors of this season are exemplified in the business standard article. As per them, Coca-Cola India and PepsiCo are likely to spend anywhere Rs 50-70 crore on each brand this season.

India remains a big market for both the giants, because more than half of its population is below 25.

I remember reading somewhere that the cost of making a bottle of cola is not more than 50p. adding the packaging, marketing and supply chain costs, it goes up over 20 times in the retail market. But the prices have not fallen. Recently, there has been more popularity of the 500 ml carry bottles (which claim they are giving 20% extra, or 600 ml) and the new shape cans since the youngistan believes in things that are often unheard of.

Ramdev Babaji’s tirade against the colas as a toilet cleaner has its own takers. But his target segment is the adult above 40. he does not find many takers in the age group where cola dreams are made up of.

I am not in favor of such aerated drinks, because of their free calorific value. But these brands represent the great American dream, and capitalism is coming to India in a big way.

Sport or Entertainment?

Sport: (noun) an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others.

Sport is revered for its skill, competitiveness and sportsmanship. The phrase “be a sport” urges the listener to take the situation in a positive sense.

This sport is often seen as a mode of entertainment. WWE, telecast on the sports channels (and off late, on aaj tak as well, thanks to Khali hai bali phrase) has the word “entertainment” in its name. That’s because people want to be entertained, even in the name of sport.

We Indians are crazy about cricket. I have seen the cola giants cashing on the cricket matches, irrespective of who wins. An India Pakistan match can even vacate the traffic from the oft crowded roads. It is this kind of popularity that takes cricket from a sport to a new genre of entertainment.

We had a first class cricket, where players of both sides played two innings each in 5 days, demonstrating their dexterity in the game. Things changed when it was decided that 5 days is too long a period, people want results fast. And a 1 day was born. It became hugely popular, 50 over a side matches got over in a day. It was a full day entertainment.

In 2007, we came to know of 20-20 cricket. The runs came faster and the game got over in two hours. Who cares about the skill or the style? Runs are to be made by all means possible. And people loved it. It was all the more thrilling because India had something to cheer about (the first 20-20 world up champions)

I hope the overs won’t get any lesser. Till now, we have been enjoying matches between countries, states and districts. The quest for more entertainment brought a plethora of leagues into the cricket parlance. We had the IPL who invested billions to “buy” players, irrespective of where they come from. There is no pride for the country, but for the team. Cricket is slowly moving towards a football club kind of a framework.

The franchisees have paid the players and they need to pay the stadium for each match, besides the marketing expenses. Their revenues come from advertising only. But the big question is, will it sustain? Will people flock to grounds? Only time will tell.

After IPL, there is the ICL with another set of teams. So many teams will only add to the confusion of the Indian masses looking for entertainment. I find such cricket as galli muhalla cricket. The recent Edelweiss 20-20 matches didn’t seem to find many takers (I found the stadiums empty).

SRK called it an investment, and emphasized the fact that he did not sponsor a hockey league because it is not profitable enough (though he was open to convert more sports into entertainment).

We do not know if SRK or Dada charm will have an effect, but at least the players are laughing their way to the bank


http://www.financialexpress.com/news/IPL-franchisees-set-to-turn-cricket-into-entertainment/275723/