Cola giants ready new products, ad blitz this summer

Its not summer yet, but intense competition has the Cola giants sweating already! New product launches and advertising campaigns are in the pipeline to beat the heat. CNBC-TV18’s Bushra Bhushan reports that both Pepsi and Coca Cola are trying to fizz their juice drinks portfolio.

Pepsi has twisted its juice strategy to take on rival Coca-Cola's Minute Maid. Pepsi's competing orange drink-Twister- had a national rollout earlier this month. Now, the company will add three more products under the Tropicana brand this summer. Besides expanding its citrus farming project beyond Punjab, Pepsi is also looking at setting up processing units for Tropicana. And it is not just juice; Pepsi will launch milk-based drinks soon.

“Milk-based drinks will be integral. But I cannot share when the launch will be,” said Sanjiv Chadha, CEO, PepsiCo India.

But Pepsi's competitor is not sweating it out. Coca Cola is all set to hit the screens with the new Minute Maid campaign early next month. It will also introduce an ‘aam panna’ variant of Mazza.

The company may set up more bottling plants for Minute Maid in west and north India. It will also launch new packaging formats at different price points this summer.

Both Pepsi and Coca-Cola are evaluating products from their global portfolio for the Indian market. With more variety to quench the thirst this summer, the growing health-conscious Indian clearly has a reason to cheer.