The next frontier for colas

There seems to be a new trend in the singsong advertisements of Airtel and Hero Moto Corp. What's this new trend all about?

- Rohit Parigi, Kolkata

Rohit, you are a trend-spotter for sure. These are what I would call ‘anthem ads'.

Anthem ads are all about exploring the sense of sound and rhythm that is so basic in all of us humans. Anthem ads in many ways draw inspiration from the fact that anthems have the ability to weave diverse sets of consumer groupings with passion. These are ad formats that have the ability of getting consumers to rise above it all. Many have the ability to bring about a feeling of oneness, something that big brands aspire to achieve among their consumer clusters.

The big anthem of them all is the national anthem. Everything else is a sub-set of this. Very few can actually aspire to reach for that status. “Hamara Bajaj” was one of the early commercial anthems that had the nation abuzz. Others followed. Today, if one looks at both the Airtel and Hero efforts, both are all about knitting a contemporary feel. One is more generic than the other. The Airtel one is the larger of the two. It is all about friendship, which is a universal truth. The Hero effort with the ‘ Hum mein hai Hero ' is a bit dated, though. It is more 1990-ish than the more contemporary Airtel anthem.

I do believe the Airtel ad has the entire nation buzzing. Hope it converts to airtime use as well. This is a big campaignable idea. An idea that can extend to a series of advertising pieces and even advertising generations. Let's wait and watch as it unfolds.

Where is the cola war poised in India?

- Shazia Hussein, Bangalore

Shazia, the cola war in reality is no war at all. I do believe that only the cola battles have begun in India thus far. India is still a nascent cola market with low per capita consumption numbers. The real cola war will be fought out for shares in the rural markets of India. My logic is a simple one.

Cola is essentially a non-staple beverage. If you are to lay out brands from the beverages spectrum on the basis of ‘staple' and ‘non-staple', on the ‘staple' side you will have agri-product based beverages that offer nutrition and health. Most of these are the hot beverage options, except for fruit juices. Other staple beverages include tea, coffee and malted beverages.

These I do believe are the politically correct beverages that have the nutrition, health, taste and lifestyle story correct.

On the other end are the ‘non-staple' beverages. These are essentially the coloured, flavoured, carbonated and sugared drinks. Cola is one such. Cola brands, as well as other sweetened and carbonated brands, lose when it comes to the health, nutrition and balanced diet aspects. When a society wakes up to the health story, these drinks get marginalised.

India is essentially two markets for the cola drink. One is the early entry urban market. The other is the late-entry rural hinterland. I do believe the future for cola lies in the rural hinterland rather than in urban markets. Urban markets have been cola-welcoming for the past 25 years, but will not necessarily be the big consumption markets of the future. The health issue is already spreading its ‘tentacles' in urban markets. Schools are recommending that colas not be stocked. Fruit juice packs are filling school canteen shelves. Parents are banning the cola drink or curtailing its consumption among their kids.

As all this happens, I do believe there is a glass ceiling in urban markets that cola drinks are already facing in India. This glass ceiling has come about a bit early in India, but it surely is happening.

The rural market, on the other hand, is a nascent market for cola. Awareness levels and political correctness issues in the case of cola beverages are yet to crop up in rural markets. For the next 25 years then (if not less), the rural market offers the cola its real market share growth possibility.

Branded jewellery is hitting rural markets now. How is it panning out?

- Aroup A. Asthana, Ahmedabad

Aroup, branded jewellery is today a big hit in rural markets due to the cosmetic factor of design that is overtaking the otherwise design-fatigued rural market. The local jeweller, be it the corner goldsmith in the village or the one in the Tier II/III town he/she visits, design has plateaued to a lowest common denominator degree of fatigue. This fatigue has ensured a magnet-value for branded jewellery which offer a variety of designs that are considered modern, contemporary and “city design” at large.

In addition to all this, the reliability of gold that is offered by the branded jewellery maker is today being appreciated in the small towns and villages of India. The guarantee of gold is a factor that is driving consumers towards branded jewellery. Local goldsmiths are today considered people who have played around with gold quality quite a bit, much to their negative image.

The third factor is really the fact that branded jewellery makers are finding India large enough for their respective enterprises. They do find the cost of competing lower in rural markets than in urban. While in urban markets, there are many who compete with one another, largely with the same set of USPs, in rural markets, the market is wide and large and the competition is really the traditional family goldsmith.

(Harish Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. >askharishbijoor@gmail.com )