The infamous cola wars are over. Instead of locking horns with each other, Coca-Cola and Pepsi are seeking a new identity and redefining the positioning of their different beverage brands
Their advertisements are legendary. Their rivalry is part of folklore. Cold beverage brands, led by Coca-Cola and Pepsi, have over the years created some of the most iconic ad campaigns which are not only enduring pieces of brand language but also are windows to popular culture and changing trends. And every summer, they come out with ad campaigns which give a clear sense of what they are, who their consumers are and their role in consumers’ lives.
In fact, over the past few years, cold beverage brands in India have left no stone unturned to be relevant to consumers not only during summers but round the year. As opposed to the communication in categories such as automobiles and consumer durables where advertisers at times end up boring the viewers with product features, beverage brands have explored a variety of brand positionings which drive advertising and design strategy, and in turn fuel innovation and consumer engagement. For the Rs 194 billion cold beverages category which includes colas, non-colas, orange or mango-based drinks, clear lime drinks, etc., the powerful idea of ‘thirst’ is certainly the starting point for a new set of attention-grabbing ads that hits the television screen every summer.
?It is difficult to show something new knowing how our TG (target group) is exposed to a multi-cultural environment imposing a million stimuli in a day,? says Surjo Dutt, executive creative director, JWT which handles Pepsi’s creative duties, pointing out how advertising in beverages is all about entertaining the target audience which is becoming all the more challenging.
The Indian cold beverages market has always been challenging. India’s per capita consumption of cold beverages is one of the lowest globally at 20 bottles of 200 ml. According to the latest data from global information and measurement company Nielsen, while sparkling drinks command 76% share of the soft drinks market, still sub-category including juices and nectars, energy drinks, etc. account for 24% approximately. Juices/ nectars, although a small contributor shows promise with a significant growth rate of 37%. The contribution of the rural market is decreasing year on year and the consumption of soft drinks is led by the urban consumer. Also, modern trade has not been able to woo the consumer into buying more of the product.
Says Roosevelt D?Souza, executive director, Nielsen India, ?In terms of the choice of drinks and the shift in consumer preference, the beverage consumer has not evolved over the past three years. Carbonated beverages still remain the number one choice for consumers whose contribution to total value has not moved much.?
Brands in this space have walked the emotional route in their quest to drive up consumption, banking on film stars and cricketers targeting youth with ‘romance’ and ‘adventure’ as the two main themes. Cola-Cola, for one, can be credited for its all-inclusive communication strategy targeting almost every age group after its second coming in India in 1992. On the other hand, rival Pepsi has always taken pride in being the voice of young India. While Pepsi associated itself with the likes of Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor and virtually, the entire cricket team, rival Coca-Cola exploited Aamir Khan’s comic timing in its commercials over the years.
While the cola wars in India may not have been as fierce and direct as in markets abroad both Pepsi and Coca-Cola have taken jibes at each other through their advertising. Take a trip down the cola memory lane and you may find one such example in the Cricket World Cup of 2003 which saw new commercials from Sprite and Mountain Dew go on air. Both the ads lampooned the brands of the rival company. While Mountain Dew made fun of Sprite by calling it ?Frite?, Sprite ad mocked Mountain Dew?s positioning by twisting its tagline (?Do the dew?) with one of the actors announcing ?I don?t wanna do? in the end.
But that?s history and both the companies claim they are now doing their own thing in advertising rather than wasting time in taking potshots at each other. In an earlier interview with Brandwagon, Atul Singh, Coca-Cola India president & CEO (South West Asia) had said how the company is not interested in responding to the competition through advertising anymore.
In a way, Pepsi’s advertising got a fresh lease of life with its ‘Change the game’ campaign (launched during the ICC Cricket World Cup early last year) ideated by independent ad agency TapRoot India. In 2008, Pepsi had introduced the concept of Youngistaan taking forward its youth-centric brand identity but by 2010, this successful campaign with Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor had worn itself out and it was time for the brand to take a fresh approach in its communication. Early this year, the brand took another leap by associating itself with football with an ad featuring Kapoor nagging a boy to leave football for cricket.?Pepsi has been lucky enough to get the first-mover advantage by associating itself with an emerging sport like football this year. So one needs to be quick with such moves,? says JWT’s Dutt.
Pepsi has followed up its new-found love for football with Pepsi T20 Football, an initiative by the beverage company which, as it claims, combines the excitement and fun of T20 style of playing cricket with the speed, thrill and spirit of football. Held in a unique metallic cage, the initiative is being organised in major Indian cities. A total of eight teams, including one winning team from each city and one wild card entry will compete to emerge as ?Game Changers?. They will then get the opportunity to be coached by an international football star before facing the Indian cricketers for a game of Pepsi T20 Football at the Grand Finale. Pepsi’s latest campaign features a set of globally renowned cricketers and soccer players.
Says Homi Battiwalla, category director, colas, hydration and mango, PepsiCo, ?Football is already one of the biggest platform for Pepsi to connect with its TG across Europe. So we thought why not do something similar in India considering how soccer enjoys regional frenzy in many parts of the country including Goa, Kolkata and Kerela. We are not compromising on our association with cricket as people will see us exploiting onground opportunities and pouring partnerships throughout the Indian Premier League (IPL). This will also help us in pushing the out-of-home consumption.?
Mountain Dew, again from the PepsiCo stable, is cashing on the power of yet another emerging sport in India, boxing. The brand has moved on from ?Darr ke aage jeet hai? to ?Darr ko maro Dew? asserting in two commercials featuring boxing champions Vijender Singh and Sushil Kumar launched early this year how overcoming one?s worst fears is a matter of mind. The brand has consistently associated itself with adventure sports. Dew Extreme Tours, an adventure sports initiative by Mountain Dew kick-started activations in April with skateboarders, BMX and FMX professionals from across the world competing and sharing their trade secrets in interactive consumer workshops and on ground interactions with consumers across the country.
Ruchira Jaitly, executive vice president – marketing, beverages (flavours), PepsiCo India says, ?Mountain Dew has always believed that going beyond fear is the path to victory and with this latest campaign, we urge the consumers to shrink their fears and move ahead with a self- belief and a never-say-die attitude to win. We want to be known as a brand with high experiential value.?
The word ?adventure? seems to ring a bell for beverage brands, Thums Up being the most recent example. Letting go of its much appreciated ?Taste the thunder? tagline and brand ambassador Akshay Kumar,the brand, which was bought by Coca-Cola India from Parle in 1994, has recently repositioned itself with a new tag line ?Aaj kuch toofani karte hai?. Two newly launched films show South Indian action hero Mahesh Babu leading a pack of youngsters on some daredevilry stunts. Traditionally, drinking Thums Up has always been seen as a badge of masculinity. While in the eighties it was positioned as the drink of an angry young man seeking a social change, in the last decade the brand moved in the direction of being ?not so serious? but heavy duty at the same time.
According to Srinivas Murthy, director, marketing, Thums Up and flavors, Coca-Cola India, today?s youngster is gutsy and wants to challenge the status quo. ?Thums Up?s new positioning reflects this. Over the years, beverage consumers may have become discerning but there has been no revolution in terms of their preferences. Rapid urbanisation will spur the growth of packaged beverages as consumers will need more options to support their lifestyles. And so it becomes important to reinvent a brand?s positioning by making it relevant for today?s consumer,? he says.
Brand expert and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults, Harish Bijoor explains how it may not be a good idea for Thums Up to abandon a positioning as strong as ?Taste the thunder?. He says, ?It was the right time for them to get rid of Akshay Kumar based on how his fortunes have been on a downward spiral for quite some time now and the brand also faced the threat of aging with the star. Mahesh Babu may not find a following in many parts of the country but he enjoys high recall in Andhra Pradesh which is one of the biggest market for Thums Up. Still the brand could have gone for a better insight.?
Coca -Cola began its second innings in India with an ad with the jingle ‘Share my dream, share my Coca-Cola’. The film had people across age groups coming together to share a Coke. Since then the brand’s advertising has shifted gears with various slogans, such as Jo Chaho Ho Jaye and Life Ho Toh Aisi, followed by Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola; then came Thande ka Tadka, the sombre Piyo Sar Utha Ke, and Jashn Mana Le, which featured Hrithik Roshan as a mysterious stranger. 2009 saw the genesis of ‘Open happiness’, a global marketing campaign rolled our in several Coke markets across regions. As part of this, many commercials have been launched featuring cricketer Gautam Gambhir, actor Imran Khan, among others. In January, the brand ushered in the new year with the Indian version of its global campaign with a jingle ?Umeedon wali dhoop, sunshine wali aasha,? sung by children which talked about the positives that overshadowed the negatives. While some industry observers consider this as a responsible strategy by Coke given its avowed policy of not advertising to children below the age of 12, some see it as an excellent example of surrogate advertising.
Coca-Cola?s lime-flavoured soft drink Limca has also repositioned itself this summer after sticking to its ?Fresh ho jao? stance since 2005 and ‘Lime ‘n’ Lemoni’ before that. So far, barring an old commercial starring Salman Khan, Limca ads featured budgeted starlets like Riya Sen and Deepika Padukone (before she made her debut in films). Now, with Kareena Kapoor as its new brand ambassador, the brand is urging the youth to elongate their thirst in life with the new tag line ?Pyaas badhao?. As part of the new campaign, Limca has also done away with hummable jingles and water works used to communicate ?freshness? till now.
K V Sridhar (aka Pops), national creative director, Leo Burnett (the brand’s new creative agency), observes that in a category like beverages it is not the product but consumers who change over a period of time. ?Apart from minor cosmetic changes in its logo in the nineties, Limca has not changed much as a product with a special place in the hearts of Indian beverage consumers. A major chunk of youngsters today are striving to improve their lot in life and a role model is always in demand. That?s how we decided to portray Kareena as a chilled-out, inspiring achiever and not a snooty celeb,? he adds.
Mango-based drinks, too, are not far behind in the race to redefine what they stand for. For obvious reasons, most of the times they end up creating stories around the fruit but some players claim to have done something different. Slice, from PepsiCo, has been relying on the charms of Katrina Kaif for long now with the date commercial in 2009 followed by Aamsutra films with the tag line ?Aam ka raseelapan jo kahe aur na mile?. The latest ad shows Kaif in a palace close to the Orchha temples in Madhya Pradesh with the tagline ‘Ab Ras Barsega’.
Frooti, the largest selling drink in this segment, and perhaps the only Indian brand which has given the two global behemoths a run for their money in this category, has been experimenting with the idea of ?mischief? in its communication. Its latest campaign titled ?Say it Sid? explores romance between two college friends. The ad is no great follow-up to the immensely popular ‘Why grow up’ campaign in 2010 which captured reactions of people confronpting two giant replicas of mangoes hurtling towards them.
Explaining the rationale behind targeting the youth in this manner, Nadia Chauhan, joint managing director and CMO, Parle Agro, which owns the brand, says, ?The 400-600 ml PET bottles have seen the highest uptake with the rise of on-the-go beverage culture and the growing number of youngsters is responsible for this. Packaging innovations are important for us. We do not see innovation in core portfolios of sparkling or still beverages because these are established categories and sudden changes have been rejected by the consumers in the past. At the same time, consumers in rural and urban India are evolving and I see relevant innovations for the Indian consumer coming into the picture within next five years.?