Limca Can Tag Cut To Counter Mirinda Lemon
When it comes to Limca, Coca-Cola is certainly not taking it easy. The Atlanta-based soft drinks major has fired its latest salvo in the battle for supremacy in the lime and lemony segment of the Indian soft drinks market by reducing the price of Limca cans to Rs 10 a piece. All other soft drink cans are priced at Rs 13 a piece.
According to a Coke spokesperson, the price cut was initially intended to last only a week during the on-going Coca-Cola Cup triangular cricket tournament involving India, Bangladesh and Kenya. However, the company has now decided to persist with the reduced price level throughout the summer.
The company has not yet decided whether the price will be restored to Rs 13 a can once the summer is out.
Coke's move to slash the price of the cloudy lemon drink from the erstwhile Parle stable comes close on the heels of the much-hyped launch of Mirinda Lemon, plugged by no less a personality than Amitabh Bachchan, by arch rival Pepsi.
Reacting to the price cut on Limca cans, a Pepsi spokesperson says cans form only a small percentage of the soft drinks market and, as of now, the price tag on cans of Pepsi's brands remains unchanged.
However, according to certain retailers, the price cut on Limca cans _ which offer 330 ml of the drink for Rs 10, against 300 ml offered for Rs 8 by bottled drinks _ has increased their demand. Cans were always seen as a more convenient form of packaging by the retailers as well as consumers. With the price deterrent gone, Limca cans are very much in vogue.
Limca currently enjoys 70 per cent share of the cloudy lemon drinks market and accounts for nearly 18 per cent of Coca-Cola's turnover in India. The reduction in the prices of its cans is in line with Coke's summer strategy to pitchfork the brand, along with the clear lime concoction _ Citra _ into the forefront of the soft drinks market.
The lime and lemony segment has emerged as the most coveted pie in the soft drinks market this summer, with Pepsi positioning two of its brands _ Mirinda Lemon and the relaunched 7-Up _ against Coke's Limca and Citra.
Meanwhile, speculation is rife that Coke is planning to launch Sprite _ its internationally popular clear lemon drink _ in the Indian market. Coke executives however deny any such move.
With Coke focusing on the lime and lemony segment _ which accounts for nearly 5 percent of the country's soft drinks market _ Limca and Citra have taken centre-stage, upstaging all-time favourite Thums Up.