Pepsi To Launch Mirinda Lime
Pepsi India is extending its brand of orange drink Mirinda in a new lime flavour this season. Sources say that Mirinda Lime will be available in 300 ml bottles, priced at Rs 8, at retail outlets by the end of this month.
Pepsis new drink will take on rival Coca-Cola Indias thirst brand, Limca, in the cloudy lime segment. This section represents 10.4 per cent of the 206-million-case Indian soft drink market (including soda).
Limca, which was acquired by Coke from Parle Exports in 1993, has been the leader in the cloudy lime segment and accounts for nearly a tenth of the soft drink market by volume.
Mirinda Lime will be Pepsis third brand to challenge Limcas dominance, along with Teem and Dukes lemonade (acquired in 1994). Teem, which has a share of over one per cent in the soft drink market, will continue to sell in strongholds like Andhra Pradesh. Dukes will cater primarily to Mumbai.
Pepsi has been aggressively fortifying its bases since Coca-Cola India began activating its portfolio early this year.
Limca went on air after a long hiatus in January. Pepsi followed soon after by relaunching 7-Up as a doubly refreshing drink in the clear lime segment.
Consequently, Coke has begun promoting its answer Citra as the super-cooler. But, Citra will continue to sell regionally as Coke is waiting for 7-Up to prise open this segment which currently stands at about 2.5 per cent of the total market.
Besides fortifying Pepsis portfolio, Mirinda Lime is also being viewed as the companys consolidation attempt. Instead of promoting five individual brands - Pepsi, Mirinda, 7-Up, Teem and Slice - Pepsi can now focus nationally on the first three - the core brands.
As with most of Pepsis drinks worldwide, taste is said to be the differentiating plank for Mirinda Lime, vis-a-vis both Limca and Teem. In fact, Mirinda orange underwent a taste enhancement around 1995, some time after Fanta entered India.
While international tastes of Pepsi and 7-Up cannot be changed, Mirinda is country-specific. When Coke began replacing Gold Spot with Fanta in 1994, Mirinda started feeling the heat. So Pepsi worked eight months on the taste and then relaunched it in 1996.
If Pepsi was present at 100 outlets, it was made sure that Mirinda was available at 90. Since then Mirindas three bald men have gained high recall in Indian homes.
After Mirindas extension in lime, the brand should grow in time to come up with a range of fruit-flavoured drinks. Alongside, Slice should sprout as a line of fruit-based drinks. Right now though, its mango time for Slice.