Indiantelevision.com Team

(10 March 2007 3:00 pm)

BANGALORE: Coca-Cola India (CCII) launched their 62-year-old popular brand product – Minute Maid Pulpy Orange(MMPO) in Bangalore, the third and the final leg of their launches in South India, following earlier launches in Hyderabad and Chennai.

For now, that is at the start of the Indian summer season, the product is going to be available on the shelves in South India alone until the production and supply chain for the other parts of the country are geared up, which according to Coke VP-regional operations Milind Sathe will be happening soon, but probably not soon enough for a mid or late summer launch. By then, other products from the Minute Maid stable are also expected.

A teaser TVC and the main TVC titled "Where's the pulp?" created by Leo Burnett featuring brand ambassador VJ Nikhil Chinnappa with the tag line "Refreshingly Orange, Surprisingly Pulpy" has been on air on the southern channels in their respective regional languages.

The launches across all the three cities have been in super markets located in Malls and have been done by Nikhil. MMPO will be available at all retail outlets too. Madison handle all the media buying for Coke.

Coke claim that they have started a new category – fruit beverages, though the product is natural, but it's not a fruit juice. The fruit juice `market is estimated to be around Rs 5 billion in India, and though Sathe does not want to reveal the estimated revenues, he did not refute a figure of about 8-10 per cent (Rs 40 to 50 million) as a target for Coke.

Minute maid comes in two sizes, both pet packaging – 400 ml priced at Rs 25/- and 1 liter priced at Rs.60/-. The product will also be available in tetrapacks in some time, according to Sathe.