Cola controversy in India

The fight of cola majors in India is starting to generate lot of heat. This, as we all know, started when one laboratory (in India) claimed to find traces of pesticides, which was above the permissible limit, in the colas. This ultimately led to banning of cola ‘sale and production’ in few Indian states. Cola majors, namely Coca Cola and Pepsi (having 98% of the market share), have launched huge ‘PR’ excerise to counter this adverse publicity. The sales have reportedly been plummeting. One Indian newspaper has reports of US industry association warning of slack in US investments in India. This hasn’t been of much help to the case of the cola majors.

This is not a new or isolated case of adverse publicity in food and beverages industry. There have been several instances of this across world, and also in India. So much so that there are lots of templates case study to handle these situations. I am sure, Coke and PepsiCo have highly qualified brains to frame strategies, but if I think from the point of an Indian consumer, there are customizations required in that template.

In a rising nation, economically and otherwise, sensitivity has to be given special consideration. There has been a full page advertisement in Indian newspapers claiming cola to be safe for Indian consumers and within prescribed limits (I have no first hand information about this). There also have been claims that many other things like milk, water, etc has far higher content of restricted chemicals in them. So far so good, but what will irk an Indian consumer most is ‘double standards’. The report says that cola majors have different standard for India (for those harmful chemicals) and different for developed countries (Europe & USA). This may or may not be true, but media reports definitely suggest this. This straight away hurts the ego of any Indian consumer. Standards may be low for many other things in India, but one can’t say,”Hey this is safe enough for you all, so don’t complain”. They might not complain where they don’t have choice, for rest, they won’t buy your cola.

The more the cola companies attack the laboratory findings, the more it will hurt its case. They should rather come with facts proving that their standards in India are same as anywhere else in world. This is the difference while trying to counter adverse publicity of this form in India. Well, they might already be doing this as I am not aware. I am only saying from the view that if was to not drink cola then it would be only for this reason.

Anyhow all of us are sure that cola is going to be there in India.