TakeAway: When one brand becomes dominant enough in the marketplace, its name can become a synonym for the entire category. In many places of the U.S. Coke simply means any cola soft drink.
However, in India, Pepsi is the default name for a cola soft drink.
This is problematic for Coke as it seeks growth opportunities outside of the mature U.S. market. To gain some mindshare, Coke is trying to associate its name with cold as it seeks to promote a broad category of beverages in India, not just cola.
* * * * *
Excerpted from Bloomberg Businessweek, “Coca-Cola can’t speak its name in India as Pepsi enters Hindi,” by Mehul Srivastava, September 8, 2010
Coca-Cola Co. offered to buy Rajesh Yadav a refrigerator for his New Delhi store if he would sell only the company’s drinks.
He kept his part of the bargain and lines of Coke and Diet Coke cans glisten behind the glass screens of the fridge. … Yet Yadav doesn’t mention his partner when he describes his shop.
“I sell Pepsi and cigarettes,” said Yadav …
Yadav isn’t reneging on his deal with Atlanta-based Coca- Cola. Pepsi became a common synonym for cola in India’s most widely spoken language after having the market to itself for three years until 1993. PepsiCo Inc.’s linguistic advantage translates into higher sales. Its cola brand’s market share is 73 percent greater than Coke’s, according to Euromonitor …
In much of the Hindi-speaking belt of northern India, home to three of the five most populous states, children begging at street corners will point to bottled juices inside cars and plead for “Pepsi.” …
In addition to competition from Pepsi, Coca-Cola … has to contend with consumer preferences for other drinks. About 90 percent of India’s beverage market is composed of tea, milk and coffee-based drinks, with bottled soft drinks holding less than 5 percent … The company relies on drinks other than Coke to be the country’s top beverage seller. …
While Coca-Cola uses the cola brand to drive market share in other countries, the company’s top three products in India by sales volume are Kinley bottled water, Thums Up cola, and Sprite, according to Euromonitor. …“Pepsi is bigger than Coke as a brand, but Coke as a company has very smartly introduced other brands that have done very well,” said Bijoor, [a] consultant. …
That’s Coca-Cola’s strategy, said Atul Singh, the company’s president for India and South West Asia.
“We want every part of our portfolio to grow, so that any consumer, on any occasion, anywhere in India, makes a choice to drink a Coca-Cola product” …
Coca-Cola has run an advertising campaign called “Thanda Matlab Coke,” which translates to “Cold Means Coke.” North Indians speaking in Hindi regularly use “thanda,” the word for cold, as a noun when offering someone a drink.
“It was definitely a good idea,” said Bhushi, [an] anthropologist. “If Pepsi means cola, then emphasizing that a ‘thanda’ means Coke is perhaps the best way to gain control of the vocabulary.” …
Edit by DMG
* * * * *
Full Article
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-09-08/coca-cola-can-t-speak-its-name-in-india-as-pepsi-enters-hindi.html
* * * * *
Leave a Reply