Coca-Cola Case study

• Coca-Cola was the leading soft drink brand in

India until 1977

• After a 16-year absence, Coca-Cola returned to

India in 1993 cementing its presence with a deal
that gave Coca-Cola ownership of the nation's
top soft-drink brands and bottling network.

• Coke’s acquisition of local popular Indian brands

including Thums Up (the most trusted brand in
India21), Limca, Maaza, Citra and Gold Spot.
• A generation had grown up without Coke
and wasn't pining for its return.

• By reducing margins but

increasing turnover,
profit-seeking in India by
global players was
unleashed.
• Coke launched a 200ml returnable glass
bottle at a lower prices of Rs. 5 with
accompanying advertising campaigns.
• Within consumers Coke located two
distinct target markets: urban youth which
they called India A and rural Indians which
were called India B.
• Southern states required alternate
celebrity endorsements(Tamil vs.
Bollywood stars) and promotion of Coke
accompanying regionally relevant food
combos.
• Once again the campaign represented an
attempt to speak to the rural sector with
the main screenings being on local
television channels but later gained
surprising popularity with India A and
began to appear on cable and satellite
channels as well.
• The legacy of a prolonged and extensive
trading culture since Vedic-Aryan times
has had a pervasive effect on the lure for
buyers’ attention in the form of an
onslaught of signboards in India.
• By 2003, Coca-Cola India had won the
prestigious Woodruf Cup from among 22
divisions of the Company based on three
broad parameters of volume, profitability,
and quality.
 Glocal-Cola
• This is about how Coca Cola has been
marketed in India and how the Indian
cultural identity maintained itself during
this process – exemplifying global and
local duality.
• Thanda campaign created by Prasoon
Joshi of McCann Erickson
• Northern Indian vernacular useof ‘thanda’
(cold) as a generic term for a cold drink.
• Guests are commonly asked “garam?
thanda?” on arrival, implying that they
state their preference for tea or cold
drinks.
• The concept of creolisation
 creolisation
• Consumers often appropriate the
meanings of global brands to their own
ends, creatively adding new cultural
associations, dropping incompatible ones,
and transforming others to fit into local
cultural and lifestyle patterns.