Category: Products & Brands

It entered the business in 1995 by setting up joint ventures with two partners-turned-franchisees Hardcastle Restaurants and Connaught Plaza Restaurants.

McDonald’s India is growing fast and plans to expand its outlets from 275 in 2012 to 500 by 2015.

They adopted a policy of glocalization –- bring in its expertise in supply chains and restaurant operations from abroad and combine it with local requirements and culture.

The products and pricing for India were specially designed. They did not allow items with beef and pork. India is the first country to do so. Except fries, beverages, sandwich and the Filet-O-Fish, there is little in common between an Indian and a US outlet.

They practise here  ‘branded affordability’.  Some items on the menu cost Rs 20. They focus on safe food and one-minute service. They focus on cost reduction.

McDonald’s spent six years and Rs 450 crores to set up a supply chain in India well before opening its first outlet.

Most clothing and accessory brands of today have a history of 100-200 years. These are centered around creative craftsmen founders from Europe. Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, Armani, Cartier, Versace are luxury icons of this type. Similarly, Swiss watch and jewellery brands, Italian coachbuilders turned car designers have been around for a couple of hundred years and were also founded by visionary craftsmen par excellence. These brands have been continuously reinvented through storytelling and modern design.

Thus we have inherited the heritage model of luxury which is reshaped by geographic, technological and ecological forces. Fashion labels are quick to change to keep pace with the times, but other products and automobiles are evolving quite slowly.

A buyer group is emerging in the developing countries which demands original stories which it can culturally relate to and not just be content with the brand heritage. Thus luxury industry is experiencing a shift from exclusive to inclusive design. A new idiom of  ‘affordable luxury’  has emerged. Instead of elitist brands, consumers need socially and ecologically responsible brands. Yes, there is resistance to change. Some do not want to change. However, the rigid will become irrelevant.

Coca Cola has began what one might call a phased re-launch in the US, where its sales are declining. There is a cultural shift, which does not occur overnight, but builds slowly. American diet is drastically different from it was ten years ago. It is more pronounced in the $ 75 billion soda ( carbonated) drink industry. It has experienced rising consumption for decades. In the 1970s, it exceeded the consumption of tap water. In 1998, Americans were consuming 50 gallons of cola every year. The decline started in 2005. Americans now consume 450 cans of soda a year, roughly the same amount as they did in 1986. Last year, in 2013, the consumption fell by 2 per cent. Diet coke was hit hard as aspertame, the sweetener was perceived as a health risk.

Pemberton who introduced Coca Cola in 1886 has removed alcohol from his medicinal French Wine Coca tonic, in response to the local temperance movement. Thus the very start of Coca Cola was a response to a health trend. It is exactly facing the same situation now.

Coca Cola makes 500 different beverages. Almost 25 per cent of world’s carbonated drinks’ consumption is accounted for by Coke. Pepsi is far behind, at 11 per cent.

Coca Cola is so secretive about its formula. Even the employees mixing the ingredients of the syrup concentrate do not know the names of the individual ingredients.

However, as it has come under assault, the company has realised that it cannot remain silent. In its own way the company is trying to open up.

In the US, Coke has introduced 20-ounce plastic bottle, three times bigger than its original 6-ounce glass bottle. It is not fair to sell drinks in such aggressive sizes.

A fifth of all US adults are obese by 1999. The number today is 35 per cent. Obesity amongst children has tripled.

The scientific community attribute the problems to fast food and sodas.

To bypass the decline in the US sales, the company concentrated on emerging markets such as India and Africa for a while. It has worked so far. The global revenue has gone up.

Coke has entered into non-cola non-carbonated drinks market by forming Venturing and Emerging Brands ( VEB ) division. It purchased some small start ups.

Coca Cola has to re-position itself so that people do not feel guilty when they drink it. They should ideally see coke as a treat.The latest ads describe it as a can of happiness.

Coca Cola is trying other sweeteners like stevia instead of aspertame. However, stevia does not taste great in colas.

The company is masterful at selling emotion along with its drinks.

Products to Serve the Society

A documentary ‘Fire in the Blood‘ has been made by Dylan Mohan Gray which portrays Africa’s fight for HIV medicines, the controversial role of governments and pharma groups. What has happened in Africa has been described as the  ‘crime of the century‘. It is one of the greatest crimes in human history! Even then not even one person has been called to account. Though pharma companies act in their own interests, it is the role of the governments that is deplorable. The monopolization exists, and the tax payers are ripped off. The system benefits the pharma companies at a horrendous cost to society. Pharma companies do influence the government policies.

India has become the pharmacy of the world, since the changing of the Patent Act in 1970 . It supplies high quality, lower cost products to every corner of the planet. It not only makes available affordable drugs to its  1.3 billion people, but to so many billions elsewhere in the world. India has not granted blanket monopolies to big pharma’s incredibly expensive drugs.

The West works ruthlessly against the flow of inexpensive medicines from India and other countries. The main tool in their arsenal is coercive trade agreements.

It is a method by which the consumers participate in the decision making process. They use it to seek new ideas through contests and campaigns. There is an i10 Story Contest for writing a commercial for this car brand. The winner shares the screen space with the brand ambassador Shah Rukh Khan. There was a public design contest sponsored by the Ministry of Finance to create a symbol for rupee. Hero asked people to interpret Hum Mein Hai Hero anthem and created several TV commercials from this content. Perfetti arranged package design contest for Happydent chewing gum. Pepsi arranged ‘suggest a flavour‘ contest for its wafer brand. The term is coined by Jeff Howe in a 2006 article in Wired magazine.