WHY RC COLA FAILED IN PAKISTAN? HOW TO RE-LAUNCH IT?

GROUP MEMBERS:

SUFYAN ALI SYED FARAZ HUSSAIN SHAH SYED FARAZ TAUHED TALHA AHSAN

SP08-BB-0116 SP08-BB-0120 SP08-BB-0121 SP08-BB-0131

History of RC Cola

1905: Mr. Claud Hatcher, Founder, Established the Union Bottling Works in Columbus, Georgia in the basement of the wholesale grocery business of his family. 1910: The first line of fruit flavored beverages was named Royal Crown and the first cola drink was called Chero-Cola. 1912: Started to manufacture a line of syrups and flavor concentrates and established a franchised system by licensing sales territories to its bottlers under trademarks of the now Chero-Cola Co.

History of RC Cola

1925: Over 300 bottlers were part of the bottling network producing Chero-Cola. 263 of these bottlers also produced the fruit flavored products under the new brand Nehi. 1928: The Company changes its name to The Nehi Corporation. 1933: Mr. Claud Hatcher died on December 31st. 1934: Chero-Cola is reformulated and the new product is named Royal Crown Cola.

History of RC Cola

1940: The Nehi Corporation is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. 1940: The Company first uses results of blind taste tests in the advertising campaign Best by Taste Test. 1946:The Company began to enhance its advertising by using entertainment celebrities like Bing Crosby, Joan Crawford, and Hedy Lamarr.

History of RC Cola

1958: Company changes name for the third time to Royal Crown Cola Company. 2000: Royal Crown Cola Co. is acquired by Cadbury Schweppes. 2001: Royal Crown Cola International is acquired by Cott Corporation. 2005:Royal Crown Cola Co. commemorated its 100th Anniversary.

RC Cola Product Line:

RC Cola has launched eight flavors till date which are:

1) RC Cola (Regular) 2) Diet RC Cola 3) Cherry RC Cola 4) RC Edge Cola 5) Rite Cola 6) RCQ 7) Royal Crown Draft Cola 8) Kick

Pakistans Softdrink Industry:

Pakistan has a huge market of softdrinks beverages. The major competitive and ruling brands of the country are PepsiCo. and CocaCola Company. 65% per cent are Pepsi products. 20 to 22 %are Coca-Cola products and there are so many colas.

SWOT Analysis of Pakistans Soft Drink Industry:

Strengths: The soft drinks market in Pakistan enjoyed dynamic growth over the review period in both volume and current value terms.

Carbonates dominate the market in both the on-trade and offtrade with the lion's share of sales.

Carbonates have become part of the culture in Pakistan.

Multinational companies have maintained their standards over the years to provide consumers with high-quality carbonated drinks. Off-trade sales of carbonates are higher than those of the ontrade but both achieved strong growth over the review period.

SWOT Analysis of Pakistans Soft Drink Industry:

Weaknesses: Liquid concentrates and powder concentrates are both seasonal categories in the market and their sales peak in the summer in Pakistan.

Both Rooh Afza and Jam-e-Shirin are traditional sandalwood drinks in Pakistan which are highly regarded by consumers. These drinks can be found in every home in Pakistan, especially in rural areas, throughout the summer and are the mainstay of liquid concentrates.

SWOT Analysis of Pakistans Soft Drink Industry:

Opportunities:

The government of Pakistan has reduced excise taxes to encourage soft drinks manufacturers and importers.

The government also reduced other applicable taxes to promise more profits not only for soft drinks manufacturers already in the market but also to attract potential soft drinks manufacturers to invest in Pakistan. The government also decided to tax the beverage industry on capacity of production rather than on actual production and those brave move encouraged soft drinks manufacturers to maximize production and reduce prices.

SWOT Analysis of Pakistans Soft Drink Industry:

Threats: Increasing health and hygiene awareness among Pakistanis has greatly increased sales of fruit juice products.

Both the government and the media have started health awareness campaigns to make Pakistanis realize that consumption of fruit juice is as essential as eating food. Fruit juices are doing very well in both urban and rural areas. On the other hand, health and hygiene awareness has also led to increased sales of bottled water in Pakistan. Previously bottled water was targeted only at major cities where consumers are more health-conscious and aware of the difference between bottled water and tap water. Nowadays, health-conscious rural inhabitants also drink bottled water due to health concerns.

RC Cola in Pakistan:

RC cola was a very famous drink in Pakistan. It was widely known all over the Pakistan since the time of its arrival in the sub- continent which was the 70s having the same popularity like CocaCola and Pepsi today.

SWOT Analysis of RC Cola for Pakistan:

Strength: RC Cola is the cola which is more than a 100 years old. In Pakistan the image of the brand is already been made 30 years back. Just want a good marketing strategy to recall the brand.

Weaknesses: Low advertising budget. International Law suits.

SWOT Analysis of RC Cola for Pakistan:

Opportunities: To produce more concentrative and conglomerate products drinks. The heat factor in the sub- continent. To build a brand equity.

Threats: Very strong established competitors like Pepsi and Coke. This very fact that Royal Crown cola was faded away in the early 90s.

Reasons why RC Cola loosed its market in Pakistan?

Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola stormed into the market. Advertising was minimal in Pakistan as compared to its competition.

RC Cola was being sued by different organizations internationally so it lowered its investment in the subcontinent. RC finally stopped production somewhere in the early 90s.

How to re-launch RC Cola in Pakistan:

RE-POSITIONING: RC Cola has to reposition itself here in Pakistan.

RC Cola hasnt worked well to position as a unique brand in the minds of the customers. RC Cola will be using Adventure/Thrill in their positioning statement, BTL activities and Advertisements. The word Adventure will be associated with this brand as there is no cola brand in Pakistan which claim to be adventurous. Other brands which shown themselves adventurous are Mountain Dew and Sprite 3G but they are not cola drinks. This factor will be the point of differentiation for RC Cola.

How to re-launch RC Cola in Pakistan:

TARGET MARKET:

The target market for RC Cola will be the youth of Pakistan. 80% of the consumers of cola drinks in Pakistan is youth of the age inbetween 13 to 35.

It is easy to influence the youth of sub-continent as compared to western youth according to a research.
The social class will be upper-lower to lower upper class.

How to re-launch RC Cola in Pakistan:

MARKETING STRATEGY: A new marketing mix will be applied on the brand: 1) Product: Some modifications will be done with the shape of the bottle specially the regular bottle because it seems to be thin and having lower volume compared to other cola-drink bottles.

Just two categories will be launched, RC Cola (regular) and Diet RC Cola to make the produced more focused.

How to re-launch RC Cola in Pakistan:

2) Price: Following factors RC Cola should keep in mind while determining the pricing strategy.

Price should be set according to the product demand of public. Price should be that which gives the company maximum revenue. Price should not be too low or too high than the price competitor is charging from their customers otherwise nobody will buy your product. Price must be keeping the view of their target market

How to re-launch RC Cola in Pakistan:

Incentive to Retailers will be given in the shape of: Deep Freezers Free Transportation Services. Free Return Tickets etc.

Incentive to Dealers will also be given like, The best dealer of the year is awarded with a brand new Suzuki Pickup. The second best is awarded with Motor Cycle. The third best is awarded with Return Ticket to Middle East.
RC Cola will give special offers to consumers on special occasions like Ramadan and Eid days instead of decreasing the price of the products.

How to re-launch RC Cola in Pakistan:

3) Place: Initially for first three months, the product will be available only in the capital of each province i.e. Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta.

Distribution will be divided in zonal basis, which will be 5 in number. We will directly approach retailer by providing credit facility and bonus in form of incentives. We will also provide trade allowances to our distributors and retailer to further intensify usage of push strategy.

Other than these some special points will also be looked after by direct sales vehicles such hotels restaurants, public parks, big and reputed super stores etc.

How to re-launch RC Cola in Pakistan:

4) Promotion: Integrated Marketing Campaign will be used in every kind of promotional activity. (i) BTL: A successful BTL advertisement program can be their most effective means of increasing consumer awareness, trial, and actual product purchases in Pakistan.

BTL Activities can be done in different shopping malls and crowded places. Different youth related competitions can be organized in BTL activities in which winners can be rewarded with RC Cola merchandizes.

How to re-launch RC Cola in Pakistan:

(ii) ATL: Newspaper: Top newspapers of the country like Dawn and Jung will be used to advertise the print ads

Youth magazines will also be used to capture the interests of the desired target market.

How to re-launch RC Cola in Pakistan:

TVC:

TV commercials will be used to advertiser the brand.

The frequency of ads will be greater specially on youth channels like Play TV, Aag, Mtv, G kaboom, Oxygene, etc. The theme of the first re-launching ad will be including like all the shots from the previous ads of the brand so that people can recall the brand and then show adventurous and thrilling scenes. Whole advertising campaign will be done on the theme of adventure. Slipstreaming will be used in advertisements.

How to re-launch RC Cola in Pakistan:

Radio:

Surveys will be conducted in which young individuals will be asked questions regarding their favorite radio channels. Radio spots will be used to advertise on those selected radio channels.

How to re-launch RC Cola in Pakistan:

Billboards: Billboards will be used to advertise on roads and buildings nearf highly dense areas.

Gorilla marketing will be used to directly strike the emotions of the target audience.

How to re-launch RC Cola in Pakistan:

Internet Marketing: Online advertisement will also be used, ads will be published through all the famous social networking websites like Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, etc.

Official website of RC Cola Pakistan will be made where any kind of information regarding the drink will be available from the history of the drink to the ingredients used.

Conclusion:

RC Cola failed in Pakistan because of its poor attention given towards the ad campaign. Even in Pakistan people used to drink RC Cola and they really liked it, but its all about many many years ago in 1970's n 80's may be because there was no other cola at that time. When other colas came they advertised and they did it so well that people were attracted towards them. Its also about how u present it, the looks of the product. RC Cola's bottle is not appealing and the regular one specially looks so thin, it seems as if it has less drink inside. It is possible for them to rise again through the proper attention towards the advertising and targeting the potential customers. The outlook of the product should be appealing and beautiful, it should be trendy.