• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Ratna Bhushan

NEW DELHI, Sept. 20

DO you remember your first day in college? If not, Sprite is here to do the needful.

The `taste gyan' of Sprite - Coca-Cola India's clear lime beverage - seems set to flex its muscles. The soft drinks major - in association with music channel B4U, pharmaceutical major Dr Morepen, the Music World chain of music stores, and youth-centric Web site hungama.com - has begun an `activation programme' for Sprite with the objective of tapping college campuses. The `Sprite freshers hungama' as the programme is being called, will be taken through 10 top colleges each across nine SEC-A cities in `Sprite freshers vans'. "Sprite is on an upswing and we want to leverage the brand's strength through its core target audience," a Coca-Cola official said.

While it is colas that continue to command the lion's share of the 250-270 million cases carbonated soft drinks industry (CSD), of late the spotlight seems to be turning towards the lime segment.

Pepsi is reportedly toying with the idea of bringing its lemon-flavoured Mountain Dew beverage into the domestic market some time next year to take on Coca-Cola's Limca. Currently, Pepsi India's cloudy lemon drink, Mirinda Lemon, comes a poor second to Limca in terms of market share in the cloudy lemon segment, estimated to account for about 10 per cent of the total CSD market. However, according to analysts tracking the sector, the cloudy lemon segment is not growing as rapidly as the clear lime market - which comprises Sprite and Pepsi's 7-Up.

According to industry estimates, the clear lime segment accounts for about five per cent of the CSD market.

Meanwhile, Pepsi Aha, Pepsi India's five-month-old lemon cola drink, has already cannibalised into the market share of flagship brand Pepsi cola to the extent of 30-35 per cent. And Coca-Cola has recently extended Kinley soda to lime variant in certain markets in the South.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
Govt contests S&P line — `Downgrade poses no problem'

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line