How Coca Cola Conquered Rural India .
A humiliating loss of 400 Million USD in the 2000 and a flat 2001 made Coca Cola India (CCI) rethink and reinvent its strategies in India. The flat sales in the urban areas made it clear for the CCI that they would have to shift focus to the untapped rural markets. Sanjeev Gupta, the deputy president of Coca Cola India realizing the potential of the rural market, restructured the strategies and targeted the common man of the village which resulted in a spectacular growth of 65 % in urban areas compared to the 33 % growth in rural areas.
What brought this turn around? What change in strategies did CCI implement to strike a success ratio of this magnitude? “The answer lies in three A’s says of rural marketing” Sanjeev Gupta :
1. Affordability
2. Acceptability
3. Availability
Affordability : The first ‘A’ focused on product pricing . The average income of a rural worker is 42 $ a month. Coca Cola launched a 200 ml bottle for just Rs.5 ( 10 cents ) , a affordable amount on the pockets of the rural audience.
Acceptability : The advertisement with the tag line - 'Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola ' was targeted at rural and semi-urban consumers. The series of Aamir Khan Ads on hill station acting like a nepali and those in a Punjabi ‘ Yaara da Tashan’ were a great success and an important aspect focusing on acceptability. Except TV ads, CCI also concentrated on 47,000 hatts (weekly markets) and 25,000 melas ( fairs ) held annually in various parts of the country.
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|“ Yara da tashan Ad featuring Amir Khan” |
Availability :
The third ‘A’ focused on strengthening its distribution network there. Rural...