Indian consumers’ preference for everything ‘sweet’ is making it a tough challenge for branded natural juice marketers like Dabur Foods and Pepsi to hardsell their ‘unsweetened’ natural juice brands, as per the findings of a recent research study.

A research study conducted by Blackstone Market Facts among drinkers of non- sweetened juices and non-drinkers of packaged fruit juices between the age group 21-50 years revealed that the Indian palate still prefers a sweeter juice even if it prefers juice without sugar. ‘‘It is interesting to observe that even among juice drinkers about a third wanted their juice to be sweeter,’’ reveals Mr Anand Singh of Blackstone Market Facts India.

According to the study Dabur’s Real Activ bridged the gap considerably with just 21 per cent wanting the juice to be sweeter against 46 per cent in case of PepsiCo’s Tropicana. This was further confirmed by the related parameters of the juice being perceived as more bitter and sour than desired. Real Activ was introduced as a variant of its mother brand Real targeted at the calorie-watching consumer only a few months back. In contrast to the Real range of sweetened juices, Real Activ comes minus additives such as sugar, colour or preservatives. Real Activ is now available in two variants orange and apple while the mother brand Real has slowly expanded its range to include orange, pineapple, mango, mixed fruit, tomato, grape and guava.

Pepsi’s Tropicana, on the other hand, based on the feedback from its customer base, launched a mix of grapes and orange —Nature Sweet variant— early last year specifically for consumers with a sweet tooth. To cater to that segment further, it also added more variants late last year which, interestingly, include additives such as salt and sugar and flavours. It’s newly launched Natural Tomato juice and ‘Mixed Fruit’ flavours clearly list salt and sugar and added flavours among the ingredients against its 100 per cent pure natural flavours such as orange, pineapple, apple, and grapes flavours which are being imported.

The study conducted during the months of October and November 2001 with the objective of assessing the impact of launch of Real Activ, revealed that in terms of likeability 50 per cent of the respondents like Real Activ Orange with 36 per cent of the respondents showing preference for Tropicana. Real Activ also topped with 50 per cent preferring it compared to 39 per cent for the other brands. This gap was even wider among non-drinkers of packaged juice with scores of 50 per cent for Real Activ and 22 per cent for Tropicana.

The study also revealed that likeability was primarily driven by taste of the juice. So Real Activ was found to be better tasting among both drinkers (54 per cent for Real Activ and 26 per cent for Tropicana) and non-drinkers (39 per cent and 17 per cent for Tropicana)
Dabur was the first company in India to introduce fruit juices in the packaged form without any artificial additive. Real, launched in 1997, has more than 50 per cent share in the Rs 100-crore natural fruit juice market and contributed over 75 per cent to Dabur Foods’, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Dabur India, sales turnover last fiscal.