Abstract

The Indian soft drink beverage market is dominated by Coca-Cola India and PepsiCo. The market had grown over the years to become the third largest consumer of beverages after the US and China. The fact that the per capita consumption of soft drinks in India remained among the lowest in the world added to the high growth potential of the market. Since the 1990s the market had witnessed many price, distribution, and advertising wars between the two cola giants as they fought hard to corner a bigger share of the market. The companies also had to face allegations in 2004 and 2006 that their soft drinks contained high pesticides levels. With the controversy behind it, both the companies were aggressively working toward increasing their market share in India.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Market analysis
• Advertising
• and Distribution

Keywords

Advertising wars, print, billboards, banner ads, point-of-purchase, per capita consumption, rural market, distribution, price wars, point-of-sale, pesticide controversy, Indian beverage market, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Parle Group, Center for Science and Environment, European Economic Commission, National Council of Applied Economic Research