Coke not to push lukewarm Georgia to the masses
Slow consumer offtake has forced soft drink major Coca-Cola India to alter its strategy for Georgia, its tea and coffee brand.
By Ratna Bhushan, |
GURGAON: Slow consumer offtake has forced soft drink major Coca-Cola India to alter its strategy for Georgia, its tea and coffee brand.
As the Georgia brand enters its fifth year in India, it will no longer be pushed as a mass offering as was originally intended. With the mass-on-the-go strategy failing to meet sales targets, Coke has decided to push the product primarily as Georgia Gold, its top-end coffee label, to be pitted against products offered by coffee retailing chains like Barista, Café Coffee Day and Costa Coffee.
Sources said consumer preferences for freshly brewed tea and coffee instead of the machine vended offerings, inadequate marketing efforts, and tight margins on mass tea and coffee vending led to the brand’s mass strategy bombing. Coca-Cola India does not plan to add to the 5,000 existing vending machines for the mass offering.
Besides, there will be no additional thrust on Georgia hot tea, which is currently vended in two flavours. When contacted, a Coca-Cola spokesperson said, “Our plan is to extend Georgia’s reach by aggressively rolling out the Georgia Gold range. Georgia cold coffee and ice tea are among the offerings that have been made available to consumers.”
The market for out-of-home tea and coffee consumption is estimated at close to 1 billion unit cases. Coca-Cola has elaborate plans to roll out a series of non-carbonated beverages over the next two years, including ice-cream colas, milk-based drinks, fruit juices and drinks in localised flavours such as aam panna.
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Coke had launched Georgia as a ready-to-drink tea and coffee brand priced at Rs 4 and Rs 5 back in 2002. Initial plans included investing in digital equipment and state-of-the-art vending machines. Georgia Gold too was launched around the same time, priced on average at Rs 15-20, and was retailed through McDonald’s outlets. Tea and coffee vending remains a challenge in India. Another high-profile tie-up between Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) and Pepsi also met a similar fate. The marketing alliance between the two majors for hot and cold tea and coffee in India is currently under review on account of tepid response from consumers.
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