Doing the Dew in Delhi
Coke and Pepsi are, predictably enough, the leaders in the Indian carbonated beverage market. But it struck me as strange indeed that the unique taste of (Pepsi's) Mountain Dew has been a hit in India. I know many love it (by one reckoning it is the third most popular U.S. soft drink brand). I find the caffeine-laden, neon colored stuff undrinkable, but that's just me. And it seems such an American products, that I was surprised by the rapid success in the India market.
Pepsi promoted Mountain Dew with a very American style marketing tour of X-sports, including professional skate boarders and BMX riders. The tour went to cities like Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Nungambakkam, Vishakapatnam, Kolkata, Kanpur, Delhi and Chandigarh. A big television and radio campaign were part of the sell.
The result - an amazing 5% of the market in three months, That according to a report in the Indian publication, the Business Standard, May 23, 2003.
PepsiCo India's Mountain Dew has garnered a 4-5 per cent share in the carbonated soft drinks market in the first three months of its launch in India.
"This kind of growth is unprecedented in the industry," says Shashi Kalathil, executive director (marketing), Pepsi Foods. He added that the product witnessed sales of about 5 million cases since its launch.
The carbonated soft drinks market is estimated at about 100 million cases per annum. "The product gave a tremendous boost to sales of Pepsi," he added. Pepsi Blue is now being withdrawn from the market.
An independent study commissioned by MindShare (the media arm of WPP group) and conducted by IMRB established top-of-mind (the first spontaneously mentioned) ad recall for Pepsi at 47 per cent.
That's not an amazing amount by American standards, but the Indian market, the second largest in the world, is just starting to grow. Having taken such a big cut of it so quickly is amazing. It's also an indication of the power a multinational oligopoly can have when it brings out the big guns in an emerging market.
Another point, it's here, and often the case, that the spread of American products is accompanied with the spread of American "culture." No wonder McDonaldses and KFCs get trashed whenever anyone is angry with U.S. foreign policy! And that resentment may also be the reason why both Coke and Pepsi have been the target of a contamination scare in India that is currently hurting their sales. From a Reuters report:
The controversy started after environmental group Center for Science and Environment (CSE) released its findings -- available on Web site www.cseindia.org -- on testing India-made Coca Cola, Pepsi, Fanta, Sprite, 7-up, Mountain Dew and other soft drinks.
CSE said it found pesticides commonly used as insecticides in agriculture and concluded India's soft drink industry uses gobs of contaminated ground water. By contrast, CSE found no high pesticide levels in U.S.-made Coca-Cola and PepsiCo beverages.
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, which dominate India's $1.5-billion soft drinks market, say their brands meet international standards.
