Tropicana Twister Vs. Minute Maid

Indian Market Size:
Juices and Fruit Drinks: Rs 5,000 crore
Carbonated drinks: Rs 6,000 crore (cola, lime and orange)
A huge chunk of the Juices and Fruits drinks is unorganized, with respect to volume almost 90%.

Pepsi's Strategy
The launch of Twister, already successful in Vietnam, will do more than add another brand to the shelves. It will mark Pepsi’s entry into a segment in India that has opened up with the entry of Minute Maid, which, full of orange pulp, is neither pure juice like Tropicana nor plain fruit drink like Coke’s own mango drink Maaza. Unfortunately, this new brand Twister can be ill-equipped in order to take on Minute Maid in order to maintain a competitive advantage due to its association with the brand Tropicana. Tropicana Twister might be perceived as an extension to the pure juice family of Tropicana. Twister is also similarly named to Dabur Real's Twist, which hosts a combination of fruits for its juices range.

Coca Cola's Strategy
Coca-Cola might be testing its Maaza Aam Panna in UP, but this is not in direct response to Twister in any way. It is more an innovative attempt to capture new markets. Coca-Cola has a successful new brand in Minute Maid, with the product complementing the good promotional campaign during its rollout. Coca-Cola should not just concentrate on Pepsi as a competitor, but it should look at Real Twist too, which is currently being pushed heavily by the Retailers/Traders due to some excellent activation strategies by Dabur.

Coca-Cola: “Little Drops of Joy”

Coca-Cola India unveiled its ‘5-Pillar’ growth strategy to further strengthen its bonds with India. The strategy focuses on People, Planet, Portfolio, Partners and Performance. The Company announced a range of initiatives under each of the 5 pillars and also unveiled its integrated communication initiative-“Little Drops of Joy” which aims to reinforce the Company’s ‘connect’ with stakeholders in India using a single platform. Each initiative that announced are drops of a larger vision aimed at mutual growth and development. Over the last few years, the company continuously engaged with a large number of stakeholders and has incorporated their learnings in refining its strategy for India. The integrated communication platform of “Little Drops of Joy” is a tribute to their valuable inputs and truly depicts what the Company has always stood for.

‘Little drops of joy’ is also about mother-branding the offering from the house of Coke. In many ways, the campaign is a company campaign. I will not call it a corporate campaign, but it certainly is about all the brands that Coke has to offer in India. In some ways, it subliminally establishes a wee bit of distance from being painted into the corner of a cola image alone. There is more to Coca-Cola than Coke. Coca-Cola sure wants that.

In many ways, the little drops of joy could be a Kinley mineral water today and a vitamin-enriched offering in water tomorrow. It is certainly about all the other drinks in its portfolio of the carbonated kind, orange, lime and everything else included. It is about its latest offering, Minute Maid, just as it is about any other beverage it will offer in the future. Coffee is but one. There could be others.

Unfortunately it I feel the Coke mistake continues by bringing in all its brands under one platform, instead of offering distinct differentiation. It could be very good for Coke and Sprite, but might be detrimental to Kinley or the newly launched Minute Maid. Ultimately, a Coke need not position itself as a soft-drink for everyone, it just needs to be consumed by everyone.

Limited Editions: Unlimited..

Limited editions of various products and brands are available in the market constantly at every period throughout the year. Companies mainly claim that these limited editions are a genuine tool to foster and launch new innovative products. But there is a flip side which argues that though this initiative might lead to a surge in short term sales, it finally results in dilution of the brand equity.

International Examples

• Coke Orange 2.5 m pounds (Jun 2007)

• Nestle' Kit Kat Blood Orange/Milkshale etc.

• Nokia X-Factor ranges (TV Show)

• Diet Coke with Lime

Reinvigorating brand interest Industry experts say Coca-Cola's limited edition flavoured variants are an attempt to reinvigorate interest in its flagship Coke brands. Coke Orange will be available for three months and follows the launch of similar limited editions, such as Diet Coke with Lime.

Nokia, Swatch and Nestlé, among others, have launched limited editions in recent years but the response from consumers has been mixed and some observers claim the products only serve to dilute the prestige of the main brands.

Indian examples

• HUL - Lux Chocolate Seduction, Lux Aromatic Glow, Lux Festive Glow, Lux Haute Pink

• PepsiCo India - Pepsi Blue, Pepsi Café Chino, Pepsi Gold, Mirinda Batman Blast Berry Fusion and Mirinda Sorbet

• Maruti Udyog Ltd

• Fastrack MTV Masala Collection of watches

• ITC's Classic cigarettes - Rock, Jazz

Advantages

The Limited editions sometimes tied with important events like examples listed below actually might lead to a positive association for the product and might lead to more than a short term sales surge.

• Fiat Palio - Sachin Tendulkar signed - World Cup

• Coca Cola - Aamir Khan - Range de Basanti - new 300ml variant

• LG Electronics - World Cup TVs - Yuvi Mobile Phones (Yuvraj Singh)

“We use limited editions to create a distinct space for the LG brand in consumer minds. The purpose is to attract customers at the shop level and to build brand awareness,” says Sandeep Tiwari, head – marketing.

Limited editions not only rejuvenate brands, they also serve the strategic purpose of testing the market for new long-term launches. In fact, Pepsi’s Pota is of the opinion that with the rise of modern trade — which enables better sampling and better targeting — special editions could move in as a permanent line or variant if they are successful.

In the luxury segment, limited editions acquire meaning in the form of collectibles. Louis Vuitton’s Mirroir range of limited edition ladies handbags, priced between Rs 26,000 and Rs 66,000, is an example.

Limited editions are not going to die anytime soon and its popularity among various companies across the world will make sure for its "long life span". Marketers would always justify the Limited editions as a justification for the improvement in the brand equity if any.