Quench that summer thirst....... The soft drink, fruit juice & mineral water market in India

Carbonated drinks, Juices, Mineral Water and Energy drinks market in the country is estimated at Rs. 6000 crores, 5000 crores and 1500 crores and 450 Crores respectively.In spite of the global brands like Pepsi & Coke have ploughed the Indian market for a decade plus, their mainline products i.e. carbonated drinks are barely showing a 6-7% year on year growth. On the other hand the other products in this segment are growing at over 30% annually. Energy drinks incidentally are a recent entry and the leading brand is Red Bull......

Interestingly, in India the global majors have had to retract on their global strategies and create specific India centric plans. Hot summers have necessitated thirst quenchers since ages. There are common options like Jaljeera, Butter Milk, Nimbu Paani and Coconut water which all of us have been drinking since we were children. Perhaps this is the reason why non-carbonated drinks have shown a higher growth and large global majors are busy repositioning themselves as health drink majors rather than being called exclusive black fizz bottlers

The emotional and rational appeal: The Cola (or the carbonated drink) category has very honestly a weak rational appeal and has to be sold almost entirely on a emotional platform. Frankly water, some color and some secret formula can have only limited rational appeal. The only two rational points are the bottle size (volume) and price. Therefore all cola majors are in an eternal quest to find the most ideal balance between these two rational points. And hence the many sizes and price points!