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Ratna Bhushan

NEW DELHI, Nov. 6.

SOFT drinks major Coca-Cola India (CCI) has signed on Bollywood actress Rani Mukherjee to endorse its orange carbonated soft drink (CSD) brand, Fanta, industry sources told Business Line.

Given that it is the southern states that are key flavour markets, the orange-flavoured Fanta has been aggressively pushed in these markets all along. South Indian actress Simran is among Fanta's celebrity endorsers, and she has featured in a couple of television commercials. In line with its strategy of localising and regionalising its brands, CCI has been pushing the Fanta brand through localised home drives and consumer and trade-level promotions.

Fanta's advertising account is with O&M.

Apart from its flagship brand Coca-Cola which has a string of Bollywood and sporting celebrity endorsers in its portfolio, CCI's cloudy lemon beverage Limca has a celebrity endorser in Bollywood actress Sonali Bendre. She was signed on earlier this year. The advertising for Sprite, CCI's clear lime carbonated beverage brand, meanwhile, continues its focus on `taste gyaan', and the occasional spoof on competition. The Sprite ad account is also being handled by O&M.

For Fanta, however, Rani Mukherjee is probably the first national-level celebrity who has been roped in to endorse the brand. Industry sources see this as a move in the direction of CCI pushing Fanta's advertising and promotional activity at a national level.

Incidentally, Rani Mukherjee had endorsed Pepsi some years ago, but her contract was only for about a year.

According to industry estimates, the total carbonated soft drink (CSD) market is currently estimated at roughly 250-270 million cases. The carbonated orange soft drinks segment accounts for roughly 15 per cent of the overall CSD market.

Compared with the sluggish performance last year, the current calendar year has been good for the soft drinks industry, owing to a prolonged summer, and a roll-out of 200-ml bottles priced between Rs 5-7 across most brands, among other reasons.

CCI has also begun its `commercial beverages' movement, and the first off the block is new variants of Kinley. The company is also expected to foray into traditional beverage categories such as nimbu pani in due course.

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