Coke and Pepsi in India Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Coke and Pepsi in India - Essay Example As the paper highlights Indian customers had a little choice of products or brands and sometimes they were forced to purchase products regardless of quality and reliability. In addition, Indian government mandated that the companies Pepsi and Coca Cola must be promoted in India under the names ‘Lehar Pepsi’ and ‘Coca-Cola India’. Boycotts of American goods and water contamination issues were some other aspects of Indian political spectrum, which influenced operations of both Pepsi and Coca-Cola in the country. The company management could have anticipated some of the Indian market issues particularly corruption within the Indian governmental settings. By forecasting this, the Coca-Cola could have avoided its hardships in the past. However, it was not possible for the company to anticipate the ongoing water contamination issues. In other words, each company could have handled the unexpected developments in Indian political arena better, if its management had been flexible enough to adapt to the developments emerged. From this paper it is clear that Pepsi entered the Indian market early in 1986. During that time, the Pepsi had not to compete with other multinational companies once it was the initial stage of Indian soft drink market. Therefore, the early entry assisted the company to attain a significant foothold in the market while it was still working with its product positioning operations. In addition, the Pepsi acquired 26% market share by 1993 as a result of its early market entry. At the same time, the early entry forced the company to change its name to Lehar Pepsi and additionally Pepsi had to struggle with other local issues. The Indian government restricted Pepsi’s soft drink sales to less than 25% of total sales. Likewise, the late entry of Coca-Cola in Indian market in 1993 aided it buying four bottling plants from the industry leader Parle.