With the summer season at its peak, beverage company Coca-Cola India is pushing sales in the country, especially in the rural market. Debabrata Mukherjee, Vice-President, Marketing and Commercial, who took over this role in October last year, speaks to BusinessLine about the company’s strategy and the changing consumption pattern in India. Edited excerpts:

How do you plan to increase your presence in rural regions?

Offering Coca-Cola through on-the-go trucks with fountain machines at ₹5 is a strategy for sampling and offering a refreshing drink in villages at a great price point. It’s a form of paid sampling, as we believe free sampling doesn’t always get you traction. We are trying to go as deep as we can by strengthening distribution. Also, several rural consumers log into Facebook through their feature phones, so we are also focusing on digital media. Even in urban regions, where we are not present, we have the “happiness on the go trucks”, sampling drinks in cities such as Mumbai and Delhi.

What’s behind your new campaign urging consumers to check the price on the neck of the bottle?

Consumers do not even know the price of our beverages or where it is written. We are just asking them to check the price and they might find it worth their time. In the past, we campaigned to check rampant up-charging. While there could be price compliance issues in some regions, this campaign is about playfully trying to recruit people to the category.

How different has your strategy been this summer?

The big change has been the evolution in communication, which has been more focused. Earlier, the “happiness” platform was of the higher order. We have now made it more palpable and mass and are focusing on getting more into the hinterland and getting more people to sample our products, upping our distribution. We have also worked around de-seasonalisation by ushering in the “happiness” campaign in the beginning of the year, beyond the summer season. We believe there is merit in talking to our consumers throughout the year. We have also widened our distribution footprint for a few packs, such as 400 ml or 750 ml, the snack pack and entry pack for homes, besides increasing distribution of 200 ml packs.

Have you seen any changes in the consumption pattern?

The emergence of rural consumers has been a key change. They have moved from the zone of ‘value for money’ to ‘money for value’, which means that if as a marketer I can provide value, they are willing to give me money. It does not have to be a watered down version of products. If rural consumers are buying fridges, the power situation is improving and they can stock up on Coca-Cola, then I will need to focus on bigger packs for in-house consumption.

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