Thums up is now being marketed in the UAE.

Vikas Gupta, an XLRI alumnus, has spent about two decades in various marketing functions. Beginning his career as a management trainee with Brooke Bond, he was instrumental in the launch of Ariel in India while at P&G. Presently vice president – marketing for Coca Cola India, Gupta has just launched Sprite Zero, India’s first ever non-cola diet carbonated soft drink. In a conversation with Aditya Chatterjee and Sujata Dogra, Gupta fields various questions about the current fortunes of Coca-Cola India. Excerpts of the interview.

Edited Excerpts

Yes, indeed, these are the brands that we have in India. Besides these main brands, we have sub-brands. For example, Sprite is the parent brand, while Sprite Zero and Sprite Ice are its sub-brands. The same applies to Maaza, which has Maaza Pineapple, Maaza Orange as its sub-brands.

Brands don’t die just like that. Vanilla Coke continues to be sold in Gujarat, Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad. We had launched Vanilla Coke on a large scale. I suppose the expectations – we had set on it – were not quite realistic. It wasn't as widely accepted as we would have liked it to be. But there are a few regions where it’s doing quite well.

Whether a product becomes successful or not can never be predicted. The outcome depends on a lot of factors. We can never know what goes on in the mind of consumers. For example, very similar people with similar backgrounds can have completely different tastes. Even the best of marketers can never accurately predict the outcome of a particular product. Marketing is, thus, an imperfect science.

Not really. Let me explain. We launched Sprite Ice in May this year, and Sprite Zero was launched about two weeks back. Both these brands, as you know, are extensions of the mother-brand, Sprite. Sprite, on its own, is doing very well. In fact, Sprite is now the fastest growing CSD brand in the country with its sales volumes in the first six months of 2005 being almost equal to the full year sales of 2003.

Now to answer your second question, do you know CSD sales constitutes only 3% of commercial beverages in India? So, if we only restrict ourselves to a particular brand with the apprehension that its market may get affected, we'll never be able to tap the bigger market, which exists out there. With Sprite Ice and Sprite Zero being rolled out, our aim is to expand both our current brand portfolio and also provide a greater level of choice to consumers.

Sprite Zero is the first diet-version of a non-Cola brand that has been introduced in the country. The fact that it is the first zero calorie drink to be launched in the flavours segment makes it different from other Sprite-based drinks. Positioned as a youth drink, Sprite, the mother brand, has always stood for a “straight-forward, no-nonsense” attitude. Adopting the same positioning, Sprite Zero aims to appeal to the young adult, who identifies with brand Sprite, but is calorie-conscious.

Sprite Zero made its Indian debut about two weeks back in Delhi. The brand is being subsequently launched in Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. In due course of time, Sprite Zero would be gradually introduced in smaller towns and cities. The advertising campaign for Sprite Zero is being handled by O&M, and although there are no plans to make a TVC this year, the brand would be extensively advertised through the print media.

I am not surprised that many readers of various business magazines or even agencyfaqs did not find the ads interesting. The reason for this is that the ads were primarily targeted at housewives. We all know 90% of soft drinks are consumed at home, and it is normally the housewives who buy and stock up their refrigerators. The concept of Manno Bhabhi was directly aimed at housewives and the ad is quite a favourite among them.

In fact, Millward Brown, the global market research agency, even conducted a test to ascertain how popular and effective has the ad been with the consumers. An ad cannot be tested in isolation; it needs to be benchmarked against others. Millward Brown has a large database against which specific ads are tested. In this case, the Manno Bhabhi ads came up on the top box when pitched against all CSD adverts and also across ads cutting across industries.

Not at all. In fact, none of Millward Brown’s contact groups ever mentioned that. The ad has been widely accepted and Aamir playing the protagonist has not obscured or obstructed in communicating the message. If you look at the broader picture, you'll realise that most housewives aspire to be the centre of attention in their homes and want their family members to rely on them, as was shown in the ad. The message was delivered effectively, and none of the respondents in the contact group had any issues over Aamir Khan playing the protagonist.

The carbonated soft drinks market is estimated to be around Rs 7,000 crore. Our market share at the moment stands at 61%. Though I would not be able to share with you the individual contribution of each of the brands, I can tell you this much that Sprite is the fastest growing carbonated soft drink brand in India.

Before I answer your question, please tell me something. Why do we, Indians, feel so inferior and end up thinking our product is not good enough or it is being neglected? Why can't we, for a change, feel proud and have confidence in our own products? Do you know Thums Up features among the top 10 global brands of Coca-Cola? Just because we don't see Thums Up in some regions, it doesn’t mean that the brand is not doing well.

In Delhi, I agree, it may be a little difficult to find Thums Up. That’s because there has never been enough demand for it and I am talking about this day and age. Even 20 years back, there was never much demand for Thums Up in Delhi. Campa Cola was the favoured brand out here. As I have said earlier, it is not in our hands to determine which brand is more accepted because at the end of the day, it's the consumer who decides what she wants.

However, this does not indicate that the brand Thums Up is being downplayed or undermined by Coca-Cola India in any way. Thums Up not only features among our top 10 global brands, it is also the national CSD leader. It is also now being marketed in the UAE.

That's just a myth and nothing more. Aspartame is one of the most extensively researched non-nutritive sweeteners. In fact, its effect has been studied for more than two decades, and there has been nothing to suggest that it induces cancer, or heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity. It has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

As a marketing principle, it is a non-sustainable idea to buy your sales. You got to create demand rather than cut prices to make people buy the product. If we provide a discount to our prices, it would not be a win-win deal in the long run. In any case, the price increase was on account of a hike in the prices of key raw materials such as sugar. The hardening of crude oil is also hurting us because we are in one business where we have to not only sell our products but also have to bring them back as empty bottles. Even the steel caps of our bottles are costlier these days.

I would not be able to give you the figures again, but let me just say that we plan to work on a 360-degree integrated marketing plan for all our brands. We will ensure this by not just providing our brands at more and more contact points, we would also make an emotional appeal to our prospective customers to bridge the difference the proverbial difference between the cup and the lip.

Take for example, Sprite’s Ghanti Bajegi campaign in June this year. There was a unique number printed at the back of every Sprite bottle and customers were invited to SMS the numbers back to us. We were giving out 12 Nokia handsets every day and this promotional activity continued for a month. We received a million responses from across India during this period.

Sprite’s global brand team, which incidentally was in India around that time, was so very impressed by the response that they decided to make this promotional exercise a template for European and Asian markets. Unlike the US, where people prefer to send e-mails or simply call up, SMSs are quite popular in Europe and Asia.

We have a great portfolio. We have India's largest cola brand Thums Up, supported by Coca Cola. Then, we have India's largest clear-lime brand Limca occupying 11-12% market share, and largest juice brand Mazaa. I have already told you about Sprite and how well it is doing. Kinley, the largest water brand, is also supported by us.

Our overall market share is 61% and we plan to expand our portfolio. After all, there's much that needs to be done. It’s now that the Indian consumer is being rapidly integrated with the rest of the world. There's a need for relevant innovation and surprising consumers with ingenious product lineups.

That’s incorrect. I have heard nothing, which suggests that. Whatever size that we launch has to be in tune with what consumers want. I may decide to launch a one-tonner bottle tomorrow. The question: Is there a market for a product like that?

Coca-Cola bottles are sold in different sizes across the world. In the US, for example, the 200-ounce bottle, which is roughly 500 ml, is quite popular. I am sure, apart from India, Coke is sold in 200 ml bottles in some other parts of the world as well.

Coca-Cola brands continue to be sold at railway platforms. As for the Rajasthan High Court order on statutory warnings, we have filed an appeal at the Supreme Court. The case is now sub-judice.