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Marketing Strategy For Relaunching Minute Maid
Marketing Strategy For Relaunching Minute Maid
Submitted to –
Prof. Jayant Bose
BY -
The Coca-Cola Company launched its orange juice drink and brand Minute
Maid in India, as part of its strategy to extend its leadership in the juice drink
segment on 20th January 2007.
Hindustan coke wanted to tap the juice markets which were already
dominated by Real juice, Tropicana and various other local players. It was a
major decision that was taken by coke India to step into the market for
health drinks and hence entering the health products after the allegation
against them. Everyone knows about the pesticide case that took place and
gave set back to all the cola makers in the country.
Coca-Cola India said Minute Maid Pulpy Orange, which has been advertised
with the slogan "refreshingly orange, surprisingly pulpy", was made
available in two PET bottle sizes: On-the-go 400ml and 1liter.
Coca-Cola said its focus initially would target young adults in key cities and
then move into the rest of India. As part of the same strategy, Minute Maid
Pulpy Orange is being launched in a phased manner, starting first with the
southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Coca-Cola
said over the two months following the launch in Hyderabad, it expects the
drink will be retailed across 25,000 outlets in the three Southern states.
Coca-Cola in India currently enjoys market leadership in the juice drink
segment with the Maaza brand. With the launch of Minute Maid Pulpy
Orange, Coca-Cola expects to further extend its leadership in this fast
growing segment
The introduction of the brand Minute Maid was In line with consumer
preferences which are increasingly getting skewed towards health and
wellness products, both soft drink companies have been pushing their non-
carbonated portfolios aggressively. In contrast to carbonated beverages
which have been growing at 10-12%, healthier beverages such as fruit-based
drinks and sports drinks have been registering a healthy 30-40% growth.
Our Mission
Our mission declares our purpose as a company. It serves as the standard
against which we weigh our actions and decisions. It is the foundation of our
Manifesto.
• To refresh the world in body, mind and spirit.
• To inspire moments of optimism through our brands and our actions.
• To create value and make a difference everywhere we engage.
Our Vision
Our vision guides every aspect of our business by describing what we need to
accomplish in order to continue achieving sustainable growth.
• People: Being a great place to work where people are inspired to be the best
they can be.
• Portfolio: Bringing to the world a portfolio of quality beverage brands that
anticipate and satisfy people's desires and needs.
• Partners: Nurturing a winning network of customers and suppliers, together
we create mutual, enduring value.
• Planet: Being a responsible citizen that makes a difference by helping build
and support sustainable communities.
• Profit: Maximizing long-term return to shareowners while being mindful of
our overall responsibilities.
Our Values
Our values serve as a compass for our actions and describe how we behave
in the world.
• Leadership: The courage to shape a better future
• Collaboration: Leverage collective genius
• Integrity: Be real
• Accountability: If it is to be, it's up to me
• Passion: Committed in heart and mind
• Diversity: As inclusive as our brands
• Quality: What we do, we do well
Another important Thing was this statement that I came across. “I thought
that Coke was the only universally understood word after OK”. Fascinating
indeed.
The problem
The product that we are talking about is Minute Maid. “PULPY” as masses
generally call it was an immediate success, since it was the first of its kind to
enter the Indian market. Sure, the market had products like Real Juice and
Tropicana. But these were just simple players. Fruity with its fancy add
campaigns and sales had the market by its throat.
Minute Maid captured the hearts and taste buds of everyone. The sales of
the product were off the charts and people only wanted more and more.
Juice was really healthy and people realized that because of the ad campaign
and the advertising that was in the market.
People started focusing on the product and forgot about the competition.
Now this in itself was a major problem that Hindustan Coke faced. The sales
of its products were going except for minute maid that is. Drinks like Limca,
Fanta, Coke etc… were facing the problem. It turned out that sales of the
products were going down for Coke as well as Pepsi and only minute maid
sales were hitting the roof. So slowly and gradually, Hindustan Coke slowed
the production and the supply was sawed off. It was because of minute maid
that sales declined and the company had to bare losses even though that the
juice was quite profitable.
The Plan
Coke India now plans to introduce minute maid again but only in a bigger
way. It plans to come back into the market though the product has not been
totally faced out whatsoever. New tastes are going to be introduced for the
masses. Everything is going to be the same but only in a bigger way.
New flavors would include Apple Cranberry, and Minute Maid Lemonade.
These products are already available in the foreign markets but not yet in India due
to the above mentioned problems. Launching the product again with its new
variants is definitely going to help the sales go off the roof. Now “pulpy” when it
gets back into the market; it would have to do a lot of gaining over the lost time. So
the target segment and everything for the product is going to be the same for this
one as well.
The Starting
To enter any market Coke has a standard Procedure. It consists of 5 steps, which are
known as product development process.
Portfolio
Coca-Cola in India is exploring a wide variety of beverage opportunities like
energy drinks, sports drinks, flavored water and juices.
The company is planning to further expand its portfolio in the country in due
course of time, most of which would be developed in India. The launch of
bolder tasting Fanta in South India is a prime example of the same strategy.
The second example being the phased launch of Minute Maid Pulpy Orange,
a refreshing juice drink with natural orange pulp. The orange juice drink has
already been launched in South India (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka) followed by its launch in select markets in North (Punjab, Haryana
and Himachal Pradesh). The company is now planning to "nationally" launch
the juice drink, best explained by its tagline- "Refreshingly Orange,
Surprisingly Pulpy".
Partners
Coca-Cola to set up Retail University to train Indian retailers to compete in
the fast changing retail environment- With the changing face of the retail
trade in India, the objective of setting up the Coca-Cola Retail University
would be to expose the Indian retailers including their staff, sales team and
distributors of Coca-Cola to the global best practices. This would include
training them with the right techniques, tools and knowledge to operate in
the new retail environment.
Performance
Coca-Cola system in India has invested over US$ 1.2 billion.
As part of its commitment, Coca-Cola in India has already announced an
investment of US$ 250 million over the next 3 years. These investments
would enable the Coca-Cola system to create bottling capacities for new
product offerings, execute marketing strategies, devise innovation
distribution models to meet consumer demand and also ensure value
creation for all its business partners. This exercise will also result in the
creation of new jobs for the entire value chain.
In India, unit case volume increased 12 % in the second quarter of 2007,
cycling a decline of 12 % in the same quarter of the previous year. Continued
investments in building organizational capabilities and focus on improved
execution by the consolidated bottling operations resulted in four
consecutive quarters of solid growth backed by share gains in sparkling and
still beverages.
SWOT (Strengths and weaknesses,
opportunities and threats)
Strengths Weaknesses
Opportunities Threats
2.Reliant upon
2.Effective stride
particular
in new markets 2.Brand is 2.Potential health
carbonated
attractive to issues
drinks
global partners
3.Results of 3.Brand dilution
operations
4.Entrance into
difficult non-core
categories
4.Strong existing
distribution 5.Saturation of
channels carbonated soft
drink segment
Doing and intense SWOT analysis of the whole market situation is also necessary
again because of the time that minute maid has already spend out of the racks. This
is also important because of the new products that were launched after Minute
Maid. Pepsi got down in this segment with twister which I personally feel is in no
ways as good as pulpy orange, but that’s only subjective.
Minute maid on being re launched with
new flavors would capture the health drink
segment again, except for the energy
drink segment.
This was the scenario before minute maid was entering the market in India. But after the
launch, Minute maid was able to get a substantial share of the market. Threat to the competitors
is evident and with the introduction of more natural flavors in the market would definitely
threaten the existing players.
The target audience that was supposed to be addressed was people from 20 – 35 years which are
young adults but the response that Coke got was exceptional and astonishing in its own way.
House wives and children also preferred drinking this.
The strategy
The initial strategy was that the company’s Minute Maid is the second fruit drink, the first being
Maaza the mango drink. "The launch of Minute Maid is a two step initiative- towards fulfilling consumer
needs and meeting their preferences, and an effort to extend Hindustan Coca-Cola's market leadership in
the Indian juice drink market," remarks Kochhar, person incharge.
According to him the overall Indian juice market is estimated to be approximately Rs 1,200 crore. "In
volume terms, this is roughly equivalent to a 500 million case market that includes juices, nectars and
fruit drinks etc. The packaged juice industry is however, just about 50 million cases."
At a time when competition has products in 200 ml Tetra Pak, Hindustan Coca-Cola decided to be
different by launching the drink in 400 ml and one litre pet bottle priced Rs25 and Rs60 respectively.
"Based on consumer research, we identified the 400 ml pet bottle as an optimal value proposition both
from a serve and price point of view. The offering also reflects innovation in price point of Rs25 the
lowest entry point for an orange based juice drink in India," Kochhar claims.
Kochhar does not rule out the possibility of 200 ml Tetra Pak in the near future. The pricing of the same
will be interesting to note as at the market place the minimum price of such 200ml is Rs10.
While the entry price may be lower in this category when compared to 100 per cent fruit juice products
available in the Rs70-90 pricing band, the price of Minute Maid that has a 12 per cent fruit juice and pulp
content is quite steep.
Speaking about the product campaign strategy he says, "The 360-degree marketing communication plan
involves organizing road shows including extensive experiential sampling sessions in markets, offices,
malls, and colleges, all backed by a range of exciting contests. Complimenting the on ground initiatives,
TV commercials bringing out the "Refreshingly Orange, Surprisingly Pulpy" proposition of the Minute
Maid brand would also be aired on all leading channels in the south. The entire brand campaign has been
developed and executed by Leo Burnett."
This was the original press release for Minute Maid; the strategy decided at the initial stage was flawless,
so this time around the strategy will not be tempered with, except for a better network. Coke has got the
most amazing and the most competent network in India after HUL.
Conclusion
Since its launch, Minute Maid has made everyone felt its presence in the Indian
market, be it competitors or customers. We have even heard of shop keepers
running behind the coke trucks to get cartons of Minute Maid so that they could get
Rs 20 off. Due to certain problems Hindustan Coke had to pull back from the market.
The reasons have been mentioned earlier in this paper.
With the introduction of new flavors in this fabulous product, no one would be able
to compete with it.
The product is bound to be the market leader within one year. Coke has a little hand
off right now from the brand, but since its going to rethink about entering the
market in the segment with the same price. Nothing is going to be altered from the
original strategy and distribution channels. Leaving alone the fact that Coke had the
market by its throat when they introduced Minute Maid, now the competitive
products are going to find it difficult to compete and come up with a different price
band or a different strategy, because it would be hard under the current conditions
to beat this plan that Coke has for Minute Maid.