There is no way you would have missed it. PepsiCo?s new ?Aamsutra? commercial for its mango drink Slice. It makes an appearance, without fail, on almost every mass entertainment channel on television. The film opens with the leggy Katrina Kaif sashaying into her room, seducing, guess what? A bottle of Slice! Thick droplets of pulpy mango nectar cascade on her luscious lips to the drunken notes of ?Rasiya??

Flip to another channel and you might catch Coca-Cola?s ?Maaza Lao Aam Ki Pyaas Bujhao? that?s decidedly less in-your-face. Rather churlish, as a petulant father begs for mangoes from a fruitless tree, from the fruit vendor, until his imaginative son flips open a bottle of Maaza for him.

The difference in the approach of the two cola companies is not surprising, given that Coca-Cola?s strategy has always been to cut its appeal across to the whole family. Proper to the core, unlike the more pesky PepsiCo.

And therein hangs the tale. Of the two cola companies once again at each other?s necks but with a markedly different segment in mind. This time the fight is over a slice of the non-carbonated, packaged mango drink market that has been growing at 25% (in volume) over the past few years.

The Rs 1,500-crore juice market (includes juices, nectars and fruit drinks) in India, according to industry estimates, logs sales of 600 million cases every year. Of this, almost 90% is consumed out of home. Only 10% of this 600 million cases (that is, 60 million cases) are sold in bottles and tetrapacks. The rest, 90% of the juices, are sold loose.

Looking at the market from another perspective, Indians consume nearly 120 billion litres of beverages every year, out of which only 4% are ready-to-drink packaged beverages. This is true for both sparkling and still beverages, including fruit juices. Undoubtedly, this represents a huge opportunity for the ready-to-drink (branded) segment.

The potential for growth is so vast that recently, Coca-Cola launched Minute Maid Pulpy Orange, an orange-based pulpy drink to extend its portfolio in the fruit juice drink segment. The same year, it introduced Maaza in a 250-ml PET bottle priced at Rs 15, and a 200-ml tetrapack of Pocket Maaza priced at Rs 12, implying a saving of another Rs 3 per carry bottle.

Slice, meanwhile, is available in 250-ml (Rs 10) and 200-ml (Rs 8) returnable glass bottles, besides 200-ml tetrapack (Rs 12) and 500-ml (Rs 22) and 1.2 litre (Rs 48) PET bottles. In 2008, rising to the mango bait, Slice decided to increase its stake in the game. It came out with a new 3D mango logo and brought Bollywood actor Katrina Kaif on board, thereby upping its ante in positioning Slice as a serious contender to category leader Maaza.

The battlelines were drawn last year when Maaza launched a campaign that positioned the drink as the ?Bina Gutli Wala Aam? (seedless mango), to make Maaza synonymous with mangoes, a la ?Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola?. Thereafter, although Leo Burnett?s ?Maaza Lao Aam Ki Pyaas Bujhao? was thought of as a powerful metaphor for the irrepressible mango craving in most Indians, the general consensus is that in execution at least, JWT?s Kaif commercial is more sensual, if not more memorable.

Conceding to this erotic posturing, Homi Battiwalla, business head, juice and juice Drinks, PepsiCo India, says, ?Slice has seen powerful consumer momentum post the relaunch of 2008. The new formulation and the clutter-breaking positioning around Aamsutra has driven strong disruption in the juice and juice drink category.?

Meanwhile, a lot is happening in the rival camp as well. The spokesperson for Coca-Cola India claims the company managed to deliver its 10th straight quarter of growth in India with unit case volume increasing almost 28% in the last quarter of 2008. Slice and Maaza have to also contend with Dabur?s Real Mango juice and Parle Agro?s Frooti, though they operate in a different category. PepsiCo also has Tropicana and Tropicana Twister (in the health portfolio) in the pure juice category.

The stakes are high for both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. In terms of consumer preferences, 85% of the 60 million packaged juice cases (that is, 50 million) are mango-based juices, nectars and drinks with Coca-Cola?s Maaza claiming a market share of 40% (of the 50 million cases) and Parle Agro?s Frooti and PepsiCo?s Slice, trailing not too far behind. The domestic processing capacity of mango is 12,000 tonnes per day during the fruit season, according to market estimates.

The Indian yearning for the continental fruit however is so strong that PepsiCo had to roll back its other fruit variants launched under the Slice umbrella in 2002. These extensions cost the brand in terms of both market and consumer mind share. While competitors Maaza and Frooti concentrated on the mango flavour, Slice frittered its energy into reworking the Slice portfolio.

Observers contend that the promotional investment behind the brand was never consistent with the proposed goal. Slice didn?t stick to a consistent positioning either. While Frooti and Maaza touted themselves as drinks based on ?real? mangoes, Slice sold itself as a purveyor of joy??Simple Joy ka Raas???something that didn?t really give it a strong positioning platform.

By 2006, when PepsiCo realised the need to build the equity of Slice more aggressively, Maaza had created a strong position in the market along with leader Frooti. Slice was relaunched in 2008 in a new avatar. At last, Slice anchored itself as a mango drink. The brand launched a very smart campaign?Aamsutra.

Commenting on the new competitive positioning of the two cola companies, Samit Sinha, managing partner of Alchemist Brand Consulting, says, ?To me, Slice appears to be gunning for a relatively older?late teens and above?audience, while Maaza seems to be targeting children.

In addition, Maaza is trying to position itself as the real mango drink, a perfectly acceptable and convenient alternative to eating fresh mangoes, thus adding an element of innocent, good fun and humour. Slice, on the other hand, is attempting to eroticise the fruit and turn it into a sexy brand.?

?In short, as always, Maaza is going the safe route?low risk-low gain, while Slice has decided to take a higher risk and a more radical approach, the relevance of which, I?m not entirely sure of,? adds Sinha.

The jury is still out on this one.

Fruits of labour

Maaza was launched in 1976 in India. The Union Beverages Factory, based in the United Arab Emirates, began selling Maaza as a franchisee in the Middle East and Africa in 1976. By 1995, it had acquired rights to the Maaza brand in these countries through Maaza International Co LLC Dubai. In India, Maaza was acquired by Coca-Cola India in 1993 from Parle-Bisleri along with other brands such as Limca, Citra, Thums Up and Gold Spot. Parle-Bisleri still owns the Maaza brand in select markets (such as the US) through Maaza Beverages Inc. Maaza has a distinct pulpy taste as compared to Frooti and tastes slightly sweeter than Slice.

Slice was introduced in India in 1994. Over the years, the brand has launched several distinct ad campaigns. Building on its positioning of ?Pyaar Ho Jayega?, last year, it signed on Bollywood?s leading siren Katrina Kaif as its first brand ambassador. Incidentally, she will also be the face for Slice Mangola, the mango drink of Mumbai. Last year, Slice associated itself with Bollywood movies and tied up with Yashraj films? Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. In 2008, Slice relaunched with a new logo and a catchy tagline ?Absolutely Mangoluscious.?