Description
The battle of the bubbly beverages—the Cola Wars—has been raging in India for over a century. From iconic brands like Coca-Cola and Pepsi to local favorites, this war has shaped the Indian soft drink landscape. Let’s explore the twists, turns, and fizz behind this epic saga.
Untold Story
Indian Cold War is a war which has competition, politics, conflict and also conspiracy. Many companies came and went in this war. The government made and broke many rules. A conspiracy was even hatched to destroy the company. But in the end only a few brands managed to survive. So friends, today it does not matter whether you like Coca Cola, Thums Up or Pepsi. The only difference that makes a difference is what kind of papads these soft drinks have made to make a place in your house.
You might have heard many stories of rivalry before today, but this Indian Cola War is going to be more interesting than all of them. Then let’s begin. Now friends, many people think that soft drinks started in India when Coca Cola and Pepsi came. But the reality is that such drinks were introduced in India even before the invention of Coca Cola. Because while Coca Cola served its first drink in 1886, in India, in 1837, Henry Rogers, a chemist in Mumbai, started making and selling a club soda named Rogers. Soon this cold drink Indian.
Started liking it very much. After which Rogers became the pride of every hotel, restaurant and club of Mumbai. Rose remained the sole king of the soda market for almost 28 years. But in 1865, its first competitor entered the market, whose name was Pallonji Soda. This soda became popular in the market as soon as it was launched because people liked its raspberry flavor very much. Now when some Parsi businessmen saw the success of these two drinks, they thought why not make and sell their own carbonated drinks and then with this thought, they launched Sir Soda in 1884, which was a direct competitor to Pallonji Soda.
And it also became quite popular in the market. And yes, meanwhile, Duke Soda was also launched in 1889, which again proved to be a success. Now friends, by this time Coca Cola had also been launched which was being liked a lot among the Americans. After which Coca Cola came out of that and started establishing its foothold in other countries also. But friends, it was still going to take two-three seconds for them to enter the Indian market.
Meanwhile, many local soda brands had come to India. Apart from this, Gali Soda or Banata was widely available in almost every small to big city. After which the competition in the soda market increased much more than before. Now if we come directly to post-independence India, at that time Coca Cola saw a huge opportunity to enter the Indian market and without knowing that there was already a cold war going on in India between local brands. . It also opened its plant inside Delhi in 1950.
But friends, when so many players are entering the soft drinks market, how could Parle be left behind. After launching many popular products, Parle thought why not try its luck in soft drinks also. That is why Parle launched its own cola in the same year when Coca Cola entered India. Now Parle was a well-known brand in India which was loved by Indians. That is why it did not take long for Coca Cola to understand that it was going to get huge competition from Parle. But one thing that raised Coca Cola’s ire was the name and packaging of Parle’s soft drink.
Actually, Parle had named the soft drink Gluco Cola on the lines of its flagship product Parle G Glucose Biscuit, which looked very similar to Coca Cola. And yes, Parle also used almost the same beans as Coca Cola. In such a situation, Coca Cola started feeling that due to this name, confusion would be created among the people and its customers might shift towards Gluco Cola. That’s why he filed a case against Parle to change its name. Now due to the case, Parle changed the name of Gluco Cola, but this did not provide any solution to the problem of Coca Cola.
Because Parle had changed the name of its drink to Parle Cola which was still very similar to Coca Cola. Well, due to this dispute, the tussle between these two companies continued for almost two years and finally Parle accepted defeat and said goodbye to the soft drink market. But friends, this was not the end of Parle soft drink market, rather it was planning something through which it could remain in this market and not compete directly with Coca Cola. For this, in 1952 he launched his orange flavored soda which was named Gold Spot.
Although this orange colored beverage was very much liked among the children, but it could not make any special mark among the youngsters and that is why Coca Cola remained the first choice of most of the Indians for the next decade. Yes, to compete with Coca Cola, its biggest competitor Pepsi had also entered this market. But still this brand failed to reduce the craze of Coca Cola among the people and due to this the losses of Pepsi kept increasing and finally in 1962 it took exit from India.
Here Parle had also understood that it is very difficult to disturb Coca Cola’s market. That is why after Parle Cola, Parle company never launched any of its cola flavored drinks. In fact, after the popularity of Parle Gold Spot, Limca was launched in the market in 1971, which was a lemon flavored soft drink. Now because in summers there is a crowd of people drinking lemonade on every street corner of India. In such a situation, Limca captured the market very fast and women especially liked this soft drink a lot.
On the other hand, if we look at it, Coca Cola remained the king of the market in its own separate segment i.e. Cola flavor. Now friends, till now Coca Cola was earning a lot of profit and had established its foothold very strongly in India. But something was going to happen to him in the future which would uproot him and the empire he had built over years in India would be destroyed in a moment. In fact, around 1973, the country was going through a financial crisis, so the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi implemented the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act i.e. FERA in India, so that the money of our country could not go out in large quantities.
According to FERA, a rule was made for the foreign companies operating their business in India that they cannot hold more than 20 percent stake in the country. Now friends, Coca Cola was running its business with hundred percent foreign equity, hence the challenge of leaving sixty percent arose before it. Actually, to survive in the Indian market, Coca Cola had invested its money and full efforts for almost two decades. Only then could his legacy be established. In such a situation, throwing away all the hard work and going back from India was not an option for him. Therefore the company started negotiating with the government.
Now the game of persuading this government was going on. Then on June 25, 1975, Emergency was imposed in the country and the decision on this matter came to a halt for some time. Till this time, there were only two big players in the soft drink market, with Coca Cola at number one and Parle at second. But after pressure from the government, Coca Cola started reducing its market share to some extent, due to which Parle got an opportunity to increase its share. Meanwhile, in 1976, Parle launched its mango flavored soft drink, which was named Maja. As soon as it came into the market, Maja proved to be such a big hit that its legacy continues even today.
Well, let’s go back to 1976, at that time our country was going through a lot of political tension. When the Emergency was lifted and elections were held, the new government came to power and Morarji Desai was made the new Prime Minister of the country. Also, George Mathew Fernandes took over as Union Minister for Industries. After which Coca Cola’s problem increased even more instead of decreasing. Because the new government wanted to promote local brands, they told Coca Cola that if they wanted to stay in India, they should reduce their stake to fifty percent and give the remaining 60 percent to a local partner.
Not only this, the government also asked for the secret formula of making their soft drinks from Coca Cola. Now friends, if it was only a matter of percentage stake then perhaps Coca Cola would have agreed. But instead of sharing his secret formula, he thought it better to say goodbye to India. Here the government also knew that no matter what happens, Coca Cola will never give its secret formula and thus it will be forced to leave the country. In the end this happened and in 1977 Coca Cola closed its operations from India.
But after this, whether the government actually made any profit or not, only they know, but the people who liked the taste of Coca Cola definitely started facing problems. The effect of this was that Coca Cola started being smuggled from Bangladesh to India and here people started selling it at three times the price. Now when the government saw these problems, it thought why not fulfill this public demand for Coca-Cola ourselves. That is why he launched his own cola brand on the lines of Coca Cola, which was named Double Seven and it was also known as Government Cola or 77 at that time.
Double Seven was developed by the Central Food Technological Research Institute i.e. CFTRI of Mysore, which was created as an alternative to Coca Cola, but its taste was nowhere near that of Coca Cola. For this reason this soft drink could not get any special popularity. That means the government had failed in presenting an alternative to Coca Cola and its demand among the people remained the same. Apart from this, after Coca Cola’s departure from India, there was a company named Pure Drinks which was on the verge of closure because it used to manufacture Coca Cola bottles. Besides, she also handled the total marketing, sales and advertising work of the company.
Now when Charanjit Singh, owner of Pure Drink, saw the craze of Coca Cola among the people, he thought of launching his own cold drink. But the way people had rejected Double Seven, Pure Drinks also started fearing that the same might happen to them. But as the company was already on the verge of closure, the risk had to be taken. That’s why in 1977, Pure Drinks launched Campa Cola, which changed the entire market.
People liked the taste of Campa Cola very much and it became popular in the entire Indian market as soon as it was launched. Here Parle, which always stayed away from Coca Cola’s market, when it saw that Coca Cola had left India. In such a situation, it saw a huge hope in the market and in 1977 itself, it also launched its new drink Thums Up, which was liked a lot like Campa. But friends, the reason behind the success of this product was not at all that it had decoded the recipe of Coca Cola and made a similar Cola from it. Rather, according to the taste of Thums Up Indian, local spices and. It was made by mixing ingredients. Now even the company had no idea how Thums Up would perform in the market.
But the amazing thing is that its Cola flavored Indian taste satisfied the people a lot and thus this product of Parle proved to be an instant hit. Now there were two players in the market who were competing with each other. The first was Thums Up and the second was Campa Cola. In such a situation, Campa Cola joined the price war by reducing the price of soft drinks to become the leader of this market. But Thums Up adopted a new strategy, where instead of reducing the price, it increased the size of the bottle. That is, Thums Up, which was earlier available for Rs 200, started being available at the same price for Rs 250 and was advertised as Maha Cola.
The effect of this small strategy was that within a few years Thums Up became the market leader and Campa Cola started losing its market share. During the Nineteen 20s, Thums Up had created its own monopoly, leaving behind brands like Campa Cola, Double Seven and Duke. However, during this period many other players also entered the market. Like Dixie Cola, Torino, Soho and Toronto etc. But none of these could make a dent in Thums Up’s market share. Meanwhile, Pepsi was also trying repeatedly to be re-established in India, but every time its appeal was being rejected by the government.
Finally, after five years of negotiations and 20 debates in Parliament, in 1988, Rajiv Gandhi’s government allowed Pepsi to enter India. Because the financial condition of the country was getting worse. People did not have jobs and the government was also getting buried in loans. In such a situation, if investment had come from outside, then it could have been invested in the development of the country. Besides, job creation would also improve people’s lives. Now with this thinking, Rajiv Gandhi opened the doors of India for Pepsi, but it became a big issue of conflict in the country.
Because George Mathew Fernandes who showed Coca Cola the way out. He also started threatening Pepsi that the next government will be formed by him and if Pepsi comes here then we will throw it out of the country. However, despite all these threats, Pepsi enters into joint venture in India with Punjab Agro Industrial Corporation and Voltas India Limited of Punjab Government because it knew that there is not a single foreign brand in the Indian market, hence it is a very good opportunity. exists for him. To give a desi look to the foreign Pepsi, its name was changed to Lahar Pepsi which was initially sold only in Jaipur, Kanpur, Bengaluru and Punjab.
But gradually it also reached big cities like Delhi, Bombay and Kolkata. Here in 1979, Congress lost the elections and Janata Dal’s VP Singh was made the Prime Minister. After which Pepsi started fearing that if George Fernandes again took over the post of Union Minister for Industries, his condition would also be like that of Coca Cola. But it was the good fortune of Pepsi that this time George Fernandes was made the Minister of Railways. Was assigned the post of. After this came the year 1991 when the Indian Government started globalization and liberalization and opened its domestic market to outside companies.
Taking advantage of this, Pepsi also ended its joint venture with Punjab Agro Industrial Corporation and Voltas India and started running the business with hundred percent equity. In this way, it got the opportunity to sell its soft drinks in every corner of India without any pressure or restrictions and soon it became a big competitor of Thums Up. When Pepsi signed Indian movie star Juhi Chawla for advertisements, Thums Up started increasing its spending on sponsorship even more.
And friends, the rivalry between these two was still going on when in the year 1993, Coca Cola re-entered India and these three companies clashed with each other. However, later this rivalry remained only between Coca Cola and Pepsi because Coca Cola parlayed Gold Spot, Limca and Thums Up. All three were bought for $60 million. Now, when Coca Cola entered the Indian market, Thums Up had 30 percent market share in the cola segment. Besides, Gold Spot and Limca were also its very popular products. In such a situation, the question arises that what kind of compulsion did Parle face that it had to sell its soft drink brands.
Actually friends, Coca Cola had two options to establish a foothold in this market. Firstly, it gradually expanded its operations, that is, it continuously established its plants and distribution network and with time its consumer base started increasing. And the second option was to lure the bottles of other brands, that is, those who looked after the packaging of soft drinks as well as branding and distribution, to your side. Now the first option was very time consuming but Coca Cola had to establish its legacy as soon as possible.
That’s why he chose the second option. Now friends, even at that time. Thums Up had 30 percent market share but there were some major flaws in its business model like they had 62 bottles but Thums Up owned only four of them and the remaining 58 were operating independently. Meaning that these remaining 58 bottles were used only for manufacturing and distribution of Thums Up as per the company’s guidelines. In such a situation, Coca Cola won over by offering higher amount for Thums Up bottles. After which Thums Up was left with only a few bottles and due to this, Thums Up was neither able to produce nor distribute as many soft drinks as was in demand.
It was in this region that Thums Up started losing its market share. After this, Ramesh Chauhan, who was leading Thums Up, did not take long to understand that by fighting with big giants like Coca Cola, he was going to cause loss to the company. Because after one defeat, Parle had understood that he could never succeed by getting trapped in such a conflict. So Ramesh Chauhan sold his brand to Coca Cola with great sadness. Now guys, thumbs up.
Acquiring Coca-Cola proved to be a double bonanza for Coca-Cola because with the help of its bottles it reached almost every street and locality of India in a very short time and secondly, there was no competition left for Coca-Cola because He had bought the market leader. That is why it quickly established its strong presence all over India. But after this, the world’s most famous rivalry i.e. Coca Cola vs Pepsi war started being seen in India also. In 1996, the Cricket World Cup was being organized in the Indian subcontinent. When Coca Cola saw so much craze for cricket in India, it decided that it would become the main sponsor of the World Cup.
Here Pepsi was also trying to get sponsorship but this sponsorship went to Coca Cola’s account only. Coca Cola spent a lot for this campaign. Made a campaign song in the voice of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and also scored an ad film along with many posters and banners. Now friends, even though Pepsi may not have got this sponsorship, it also took full advantage of this opportunity and ran its ads vigorously in every match. The amazing thing is that Pepsi had kept the tagline of its campaign as Nothing Official About which was a taunt on the official sponsor Coca Cola.
This kind of fight continued between these two brands because on one hand Pepsi was taking advantage of the popularity of Sachin and Shahrukh by advertising with them, while on the other hand Coca Cola had made Aamir Khan its face. And friends, since the year 2000, no new brand had the courage to enter the Cola segment. Because he knew that he would not be able to bear the brunt of Pepsi or Coca Cola. That is why both of them have held a large share of the market in their hands for a long time.
However, after almost two decades, in the year 2016, Bisleri again thought of entering the drinks market and through its sub-brand Bisleri Pop, it launched four soft drink variants namely Lemonade, Spicy Pina, Colada and Do. But this product could not attract customers. That is why it was soon closed. After this, in the year 2020, Bisleri once again launched Lemon Atta and Spicy. Where Spicy was advertised like Masala Cola. However, there would hardly be some people among you who know about this drink.
In such a situation, you can understand what impact this would have had on the Cola segment. In this way, even today the cold war between Pepsi and Coca Cola continues in the Indian market. In which with the support of Mukesh Ambani, Campa Cola has also jumped, which was unknown for a long time. Now, it will be quite interesting to see in the coming times whether Pepsi and Coca Cola remain the winners of this Cola War or some other brand comes and brings down their reign. By the way, what is your opinion? Please do comment.
Anyway, see you again with the powerful explanation of the Success Story.
