Organisational Buying Behaviour

Organization buying behaviour is on similar terms as that of consumer buying behaviour and it goes through those same five stages of buying process -

• Problem Recognition
• Information search
• Evaluation of alternatives
• Purchase Decision
• Post purchase behaviour

In this B2B buying process three more points can be added

• Evaluation of quotations, negotiations
• Supplier's choice
• Choice implementation

These three stages help organizations in B2B buying to look for most appropriate product suiting their requirements as well as their customer's requirements and also about which customer is aware of and has positive thinking.

Organizations buying for Kinley Bottled Water

• Kinley is widely used by many organizations like large scale restaurants covering almost all five stars, three stars hotels accompanied with restaurants.
• Kinley is also provided in in-flight meals, buses, trains etc
• Kinley is even offered in corporate office canteens or cafeteria, theatres.

These organizations buy Kinley Bottled water in bulk either from retailers or from franchisees in bulk. They rely on the company and trust them because Kinley has been known for its quality and the brand being liked by its customers blindly.

Consumer Behaviour

Consumer behavior is basically a study to find out how an individual, group or an organization select, buy, use any product or services and what are the factors which influence their decision. As the recent phenomenon says that nowadays consumer is a king and for any organization who wants to survive in the market should know their customer and their preferences. Consumer’s behavior in today’s scenario keeps on changing just because of the availability of the large no. of choices. For the industry like Domino’s it is very necessary to understand its consumer’s behavior than only they can attract them towards their product. There are various factors which influence consumer behavior in day to day life, which make them to decide whether to buy the particular product or not.

These factor Includes:

Market Stimuli :

Product – Bottled water

Service - NA

Price – Wide range from 5rs-75rs

Distribution - NA

Communications – NA

Other Stimuli :

Economic - Cheap and economic

Technological - NA

Political - NA

Cultural – NA

Consumer Psychology :

Motivation – Thirst  

Perception – Pure Water

Learning - NA

Memory – Last experience

Consumer characteristics:

Cultural - NA

social - NA

personal – NA

Buying Process

Problem Recognition –Thirst

Information Search – Retail / grocery / etc

Evaluation of alternatives – Bisleri / Aquafina / Fruit Juice / Aerated Drinks

Purchase Decision – Availability

Post Purchase Behavior – Follow up

Purchase Decision – Brand choice, product choice, dealer choice, purchase amount and purchase timing

Sales Management

The art of meeting and exceeding the sales goals of an organization through effective planning, controlling, budgeting and leadership refers

to sales management.  Sales Management helps the organization to achieve the sales targets efficiently.

Process of Sales Management

1. Sales Planning: 

• Marketers must plan things well in advance for the best results. Essential to have concrete plans.
• Know the product well. Sales professionals must know the USP's and benefits of the product for the consumers to believe them.
• Identify target market.
• Devise proper sales strategies to increase sales. 

2. Sales Reporting:

• Sales strategies are implemented in this stage.
• Sales representatives should be aware of their roles and responsibilities.
• Mapping individual performance is essential so that necessarily course of action can be taken. 

3. Sales Process: 

• Sales representative should work as a single unit for maximum productivity. 
• Management must make sure sales managers follow a proper channel to reach out to customers.

Kinley on the other hand doesn’t has to go all these steps. If asked to summarize then it goes like this

Manufacturing plant sells it to Distributors who then sell it to wholesale retailers and then it goes to outlets/retailers and finally it reaches the consumers.

Distribution Decisions

By tying up with existing facilities, CCI (Coca Cola India) managed to score on the distribution aspect by making its brand, Kinley available throughout the country which gave credence to its rising market share in India. The below diagram represents a typical chain of manufacture to distribution of Kinley, the brand for packaged drinking water of Coca Cola India. The company follows the same chain for all its product. Because of the presence of its strong brand like Coca Cola, Thums Up, Sprite, Limca, etc. it makes it easy for the company to market as well as distribute Kinley through the same channel.

CCI has a wide and well managed network of salesmen appointed for taking up the responsibility of distribution of products to diverse parts of the cities. The distribution channels are constructed in such a way that the demand of customers is fulfilled at the right place and the right time when it is needed by them.

Direct distribution: In direct distribution, the bottling unit or the bottler partner has direct control over the activities of sales, delivery, and merchandising and local account management at the store level.

Indirect distribution: In indirect distribution, an organization which is not part of the Coca-Cola system has control on one or more of the distribution elements (Sales, delivery, merchandising and local account management)

Merchandising: Merchandising means communication with the consumer at the point of purchase to convey product benefit, value and Quality. Sales people and delivery personnel both have this responsibility. In certain locations special teams who go into business locations to specifically merchandise our products.

DISTRIBUTION ROUTES

The various routes formulated by CCI for distribution of products are as follows:

Key Accounts: The customers in this category collectively contribute a large chunk of the total sales of the Company. It basically consists of organizations that buy large quantities of a product in one single transaction. The Company provides goods to these customers on credit, payments being made by them after a certain period of time i.e. either a month or half a month.

Examples: Clubs, fine dine restaurants, hotels, Corporate houses etc.

Future Consumption: This route consists of outlets of Coca-Cola products, wherein a considerable amount of stock is kept in order to use for future consumption. The stock does not exhaust within a day or two, instead as and when required stocks are stacked up by them so as to avoid shortage or non-availability of the product.

Examples: Departmental stores, Super markets etc.

Immediate Consumption: The outlets in this route are those which require stocks on a daily basis. The stocks of products in these outlets are not stored for future use instead, are exhausted on the same day and might run a little into the next day i.e. the products are consumed at a fast pace.

Examples: Small sized bars and restaurants, educational institutions etc.

General: Under this route, all the outlets that come in a particular area or an area along with its neighboring areas are catered to. The consumption period is not taken into consideration in this particular route.

Promotion - ATL & BTL

Kinley follows majorly ATL activities since its advertisements or promotions are not region specific and caters to a vast audience. See the below chart to know its  ATL and BTL activities..

    

ATL	USES?	BTL	USES?
Hoardings	Yes	Direct Mailers	No
Print Ad	Yes	Sales Promotion	No
TV Commercials	Yes	Flyers	No
Radio Ad	Yes	Point of Sale	Yes
Cinema	No	Telemarketing	No

Promotion Decisions-The IMC Approach

Promotion can be defined as the advancement of a product idea, or point of view through publicity and/or advertising. It plays a very important role in boosting up a product image and creating demand for it in the market. Kinley’s initial television commercial was built on the trust & safety platform. It depicted doctor’s endorsement which forced CCI to pull out the commercial off air after the notification by The Health Ministry of India that made doctor’s endorsement illegal.

The new and slickly presented set of four television commercials was built on the platform of trust - Boond boond mein vishwas and was aired on national television. The communication strategy was a montage of a slice of Indian life and emotions depicted by the boy scouts, the football match and the family celebrating Holi. The ads took the communication to a different emotional level by depicting trust in the context of the largeness of water. The Commercial is in the form of a travelogue, where a young boy keeps the faith by going through a long journey to meet his grandmother. The film opens on the boy, who is en route to his ancestral home. The background score says, 'Mann Kaanch jaisa, Aar Paar Aisa, Aasman Sa Khula Saaf Dil Hai Tera'. Somewhere along the journey, he is looking for drinking water, and is skeptical about finding pure water. A shopkeeper, on sensing his dilemma, calls him and gives him the new bottle of Kinley. The boy, on seeing the trusted quality seal on the bottle, is happy that he has found his trusted Kinley. All along the journey – on the bus, at a roadside dhaba, he uses Kinley to quench his thirst. At his grandmother’s home, he is welcomed with lot of love and affection. His grandmother asks him to wash his hands (a symbol of purification) with Kinley. The commercial closes on the shot of the old lady and the grandson catching up with each other, with the super — 'Boond Boond Mein Vishwas'. As part of its new re-branding campaign, Coca-Cola has changed the packaging design on Kinley water bottle which would be available in 500 ml and 1 litre packages and 20 and 25 litre bulk jars in the price range of Rs 8 to Rs 75. The bottle now comes in a new 'easy to hold' shape; and the label has changed from the previous blue to a transparent one. Apart from television, outdoor and on-truck advertising is also being used as part of its communication strategy. Kinley has around 19.5 per cent market share followed by Aquafina (18 per cent), in t

he packaged drinking water segment.

Pricing Decisions

Pricing strategy refers to method companies use to price their products or services. Almost all companies, large or small, base the price of their products and services on production, labor and advertising expenses and then add on a certain percentage so they can make a profit. There are several different pricing strategies, such as penetration pricing, price skimming, discount pricing, product life cycle pricing and even competitive pricing.  Pricing should take into account the following factors:

1. Fixed and variable costs.
2. Competition
3. Company objectives
4. Proposed positioning strategies.
5. Target group and willingness to pay.

With respect kinley For 500ml pack, the company offered an introductory price of Rs. 4 which was against the price of Rs. 5 for 500ml Bisleri pack. With national rollout in consecutive months, pricing played a significant role for Kinley. For rural areas, Kinley introduced 200ml pouch at an attractive price of Re.1. Simultaneously, the company launched 200ml water cups priced at Rs. 3 per cup. Till 2003, the one litre bottle was available for Rs.10 the other being Bisleri for the same price. In 2009 when Pepsi co’s Aquafina and Parle’s Bisleri hiked prices from Rs. 8 to Rs. 10 for 500ml, Coke’s Kinley was still available for Rs. 5 in Delhi and for Rs. 8 in many other parts of the country.

Pricing strategy should be an integral part of the market- positioning decision, which in turn depends, to a great extent, on your overall business development strategy and marketing plans.

Geographical Pricing- Geographical pricing involves the company in deciding how to price its products to different. Customers in different locations and countries. For example in the case of Kinley, the price of kinley 500ml varies in different parts of the country as discussed earlier. 

Price allowances and discounts - The role of discount Offering discounts can be a useful tactic in response to aggressive competition by a competitor. However, discounting can be dangerous unless carefully controlled and conceived as part of your overall marketing strategy. Discounting is common in many industries – in some it is so endemic as to render normal price lists practically meaningless. This is not to say that there is anything particularly wrong with price discounting provided that you are getting something specific that you want in return. Promotional-pricing strategies are often a zero-sum game. If they work, competitors Copy them and they lose their effectiveness. If they do not work, they waste money that could have been put into other marketing tools, such as building up product quality and service or strengthening product image through advertising.

Companies often adjust their basic price to accommodate differences in customers, products, locations, and so on. Price discrimination occurs when a company sells a product or service at two or more prices that do not reflect a proportional difference in costs.

Location Pricing: - The same product is priced differently at different locations even though the cost of offering at each location is the same. A theater varies its seat prices according to audience preferences for different locations. Kinley at regular grocery store will be sold at its mrp but at locations such as theatres, events etc will be sold at higher price.

Branding and Brand Management

Branding is endowing products and services with the power of a brand. At the end, its all about creating differences between products. Marketers can apply branding virtually anywhere a consumer has a choice. It is possible to brand a physical good (such as kinley) or a service or even an idea.

For branding a commodity like water, marketers need to differentiate their offering by delivering unique attributes and values to the consumers. Kinley was able to provide the consumers the right product at the right place at the right time. With its successful campaigns of trust and purity, Kinley emerged as a trustworthy brand in the consumers’ minds. Keeping the first priority to capture market share and be the number one brand, Kinley offered competitive pricing. It was successful in building preference nationally. It was the quality, reach and recall value that made Kinley a successful brand.

In the year 2008 the company went through a major re-branding of its packaged drinking water, Kinley to push sales on the 'purity' plank. The re-branding exercise is aimed at increasing the company's share in the Rs 1,250-crore organised bottled water market in India."Our new campaign is intended to strengthen and re-affirm our bond with the customers. Kinley is a big brand for our company and we hope to keep on growing in the market," Coca-Cola India Marketing Director Avinash Pant said.He said the company wants to emerge as a major player in the packaged water segment but declined to divulge figures.

Coca-Cola India positioned Kinley as a brand based on ‘Purity’ and ‘Trust’ under the communication initiative ‘Boond Boond me Vishwas’. The brand, which already enjoyed the national distribution network of Coca-Cola India, Kinley positioned itself as a trustworthy and pure drinking water both in rural and urban areas. The company promised to give water as pure as it meant to be in their belief that “The right to pure, safe drinking water is fundamental”.

Services & Services Marketing

A service can be defined as any act or performance one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. There are certain models which explain service marketing in detail like the GAP`s model but none of them will be relevant to my product.

Kinley as a product is directly sold to the customers at any beverage or grocery store and as it is a pure tangible good there is no service or any of such sort involved during the sales of the product. The only thing which kinley offers is at the label on its bottle for its feedback or any complaints .

Product Mix

Also known as product assortment, it refers to the total number of product lines that a company offers/provides for its customers. Usually these types are segregated into 4 dimensions such as:

Width

The width defines the number of product lines that a company sells.

Length

Length here defines the total number of products in the product mix.

Depth

Depth refers to the number of variations for each product in terms of size,flavour etc.

Consistency

Consistency here defines how closely the product lines are related to one another in terms of use, production and distribution.

Product Market Mix Strategy

Small companies usually start out with a product mix limited in width, depth and length; and have a high level of consistency. However, over time, the company may want to differentiate products or acquire new ones to enter new markets. A company can also sell the existing products to new markets by coming up with new uses for their product.

Kinley was launched in 2000 with 500ml pack. At the time of its launch, three categories of mineral water were prominent in the market. These were pouches, retail PET and bulk (20 litres capacity). By 2002, the packs were available in 500ml, 1 litre, 1.5 litres, 2 litres, 5litres, 20 litres, and 25 litres.  Apart from this, 200ml pouches were made available in the rural areas. Also kinley launched “ kinley soda “ in 2002 thus entering the soda segment .

Product Life Cycle

The Product Life Cycle (PLC) is used to map the lifespan of a product. There are generally four stages in the life of a product. These four stages are the Introduction stage, the Growth stage, the Maturity stage and the Decline stage.

• Introduction. This stage mainly concerns the development of a new product, from the time is was initially conceptualized to the point it is introduced on the market. The great majority of ideas do not reach the promotion stage. The corporation having an innovative idea first will often have a period of monopoly until competitors start to copy and/or improve the product (unless a patent is involved as it is the case in industries such as pharmaceuticals). Generally, associated freight flows take place within developed countries and/or close to markets where to product is likely to be adopted.
• Growth. If the new product is successful (many are not), sales will start to grow and new competitors will enter the market (by replicating the product or developing new features on their own), slowly eroding the market share of the innovative firm. The product starts to be exported to other markets and substantial efforts are made to improve its distribution since competition mainly takes place more on the innovative capabilities of the product than on its price. This phase tends to be associated by high levels of profits and a fast diffusion of the product.
• Maturity. At this stage, the product has been standardized, is widely available on the market and its distribution is well established. Competition increasingly takes place over cost and a growing share of the production is moved to low cost locations, particularly for labor intensive parts. Associated freight flows are consequently modified to include a greater transnational dimension.
• Decline. As the product is becoming obsolete, production essentially takes place in low costs locations. Production and distribution economies are actively sought as profit margins decline. Eventually, the product will be retired, an event that marks the end of its life cycle.
  
  In case of Kinley we can say that it has reached a maturity stage. We have seen how Kinley entered the market with various attributes such as building trust factors, price wars, packing and sizes. All these  created the introduction to the mindset of the consumers plus it also affected its competitors . Re-Branding from ‘Boond boond me vishwas ‘ to ‘ Vishwas Karo’  campaign showed the maturity phase of the brand.
  
  

Customer Value Perception

Customer value can be generally defined as the attributes or usp`s of a product/service that generally encourage customers to choose one product over the other. These attributes can be product related or service related, tangible or intangible.

For ex. A person X can choose a kissan tomato sauce coz he liked the taste or less price or simply because he buys all other products such as jams, pickles etc which are made by Kissan itself. Of course its a known fact that a successful brand never relies on just one variable to generate most of its customer value.

Usually such techniques/methods are used to generate customer needs from customers to understand customer value

·         Research methods

·         Feedback forms

·         Suggestion box 

·         How can we improve ?

Now keeping all this in mind lets see how Kinley generated its customer value :

Kinley entered the bottled water market when Bisleri ruled with a share of 34% . So understanding the customer needs was a very crucial step.

The company took 4 major steps to do this:

Product: Kinley was launched in 2000 with 500ml pack. By 2002, the packs were available in different sizes each of which catered to different Customer needs such as:

Place: Banking on the existing strong distribution of Coca Cola India, Kinley was first made available in Southern metros and later rolled out nationwide. 200ml cups were initially introduced in Chennai and Gujarat keeping in mind that these places had marriage halls which served individual serving of food in rows and after their success they were launched in other states consecutively. The 200ml pouch for rural areas was first test marketed in selected places in Ahmadabad for test marketing.

Price: For 500ml pack the company offered an introductory price of Rs.4 as compared to that of Bisleri which had priced the same for Rs.5. In rural areas it launched 200ml pouch with a shocking price of Rs. 1. Simultaneously it launched 200ml cups at Rs.3. We see here how Kinley made use of the price factor to introduce and create customer value for itself.

Promotion: This is one of the major factors of Kinley. Coca-Cola India positioned Kinley as a brand based on “ Purity” and “ Trust” under the communicative initiative “ Boond Boond me Vishwas” In other words it meant  Kinley brand personifies trust, which is a key attribute in the packaged drinking water segment. Then again in 2009 it rebranded and launched the new campaign “ Vishwas Karo” which was also aired i non-Hindi speaking areas. Result was that Kinley became number one packaged drinking brand in retail segment in the country in 2002.  

Competitors

The bottled water category is growing at a rapid pace. The branded`market is 40 % of the category and non- branded contributes to 60% of the market. The category is growing at a rate of 30%. Bisleri is the market leader in mineral water in India with a 60% market share within organized mineral water category. Three key players mainly dominate the Indian Bottled Water Market Parle Bisleri, Coca Cola India Inc Kinley and Pepsico India Holdings Pvt. Limited. This market is expected to grow at a 30% rate in the next 7 years. Parle Bisleri continues to hold 40 per cent of the market share. Kinley and Aquafina are fast catching up, with Kinley holding 20-25 per cent of the market and Aquafina approximately 10 per cent. The rest, including the smaller players, have 20-25 % of the market share.

Understanding Consumers and Consumption

In most cases a consumer goes through a set of stages before making a decision to buy a product or service. This can be jolted down to 6 steps which are:

The brand Kinley also recognized these steps of a consumer and acted accordingly to make sure its presence is maintained in the consumers mind. For a product like water, marketers need to differentiate their offering by delivering unique attributes and values to the consumers.

The demand for hygienic, trustworthy drinking water was clearly on the rise. The primary reason for this was increasing consciousness for safe and trustworthy drinking water. Plus Packaged water consumer was someone who had an “ On the go lifestyle” . So availability was alos a major factor. The bottle size was also a primary factor for buying . Different sizes catered to different needs of the consumers. Price obviously was also one of the factor for decision making.

Kinley catered to all these issues and hence proved to be a successful brand. Kinley was able to provide the consumers the right product at the right place at the right time.

With its successful campaigns of trust and purity, Kinley emerged as a trustworthy brand in the consumers’ minds.

Next factor was the Place. Consumers today have ‘On-the-go lifestyle’ thus distribution of the product is one of the most important factors for this category. The key to success is to make the product available at every distribution point right from high end malls to railway stations, bus stations, grocery stores and even local paan kiosks. Kinley with the help of its huge distribution network of its parent company Coca-cola easily managed to be available at all locations.

Availability at the right time was not so easy keeping in mind the increasing demand for packaged drinking water. Other competitors adopted the method of establishing manufacturing plants close to the market so that the product can be placed on every shelf in that locality. Kinley on the other hand created a new product called ‘Bonaqua’ in select channels-convenience and organized retail to strengthen its leadership in the category. Both were priced at Rs.15 itself.

Price as always was a major factor and so was the case in kinley too. They launched the 500ml pack for Rs.4 as compared to bisleri at Rs.5. Also in 2009 when Pepsico`s Aquafina and Parle`s Bisleri hiked prices from Rs.8 to Rs.10 for 500ml, Kinley was still available for Rs.5 at many parts of the country.

STP & Marketing Strategies

Segmentation

At the time of its launch, three categories of mineral water were prominent in the market. These were pouches, retail PET and bulk (20 litres capacity). Pouches were popular in both urban and rural because of their availability and pricing. PET bottles of 500ml to 1 litre capacity were being retailed from chemist to stationery. Bulk was a segment with huge margin and potential as they were much popular in households and corporate offices.

Targeting

As the consumers were becoming hygiene conscious and their purchasing power was also increasing, they were moving towards mineral water. Both domestic and international tourists were the potential customers of bottled water because of the scarcity of drinking water in most parts of the country.

Postioning

Coca-Cola India positioned Kinley as a brand based on ‘Purity’ and ‘Trust’ under the communication initiative ‘Boond Boond me Vishwas’. The brand, which already enjoyed the national distribution network of Coca-Cola India, Kinley positioned itself as a trustworthy and pure drinking water both in rural and urban areas. The company promised to give water as pure as it meant to be in their belief that “The right to pure, safe drinking water is fundamental”.

Marketing Strategies

In the early 2003, CCI's marketing strategy had three plans:        
• Acceptability by ensuring pervasive presence through right merchandising in retail outlets.
• Availability by ensuring presence within the consumer's reach.
• Affordability by ensuring relevant price points.

In the late 1990s, CCI decided to customize its marketing strategy for different regions and target customers. In each region, the dominant brand enjoyed all privileges while the other brands were supported according to their market share in that region. When Coca-Cola entered a crowded bottled water market by acquiring the Kinley brand in mid-2000, it had the advantage of an existing network of franchised bottlers and distribution networks. Its low cost structure revealed its ability to match any price wars that the then market leader 'Bisleri' could orchestrate. As a result, the platform of competition shifted to packaging (smaller bottles and pouches) and distribution (presence on railway stations and within airlines) rather than pure price wars. Kinley, within two years of operations, is now the market leader with 35% share of bottled water market.

Sustainable / Holistic Marketing

Sustainable or Holistic marketing refers to the adoption of those marketing services that create better businesses, better relations and a better world without causing any harm to environment.

Coca-Cola India made a hat-trick by bagging the coveted Golden Peacock Award third year in a row for CSR. Of the four Golden Peacock Global Awards for Corporate Social Responsibility given at Lisbon in Portugal, Coca-Cola India once again bagged a special commendation for its contribution in India towards its efforts in community development. The award's citation recognized Coca-Cola's contribution as "Coca-Cola India has supported community programmes with a focus on education, health and water conservation. The Company has commissioned 400 rainwater harvesting systems, provided clean drinking water to more than 100 schools, supported school projects and driven reform in sustainable packaging, disaster relief and rehabilitation"

As a responsible corporate, Coca-Cola India has always placed high value on good citizenship. The company provides extensive support for community programs across the country, with a focus on education, health and water conservation. In the area of Water Conservation, Coca-Cola India has commissioned over 500 RWH structures with a recharge capacity of 500 crore liters in 20 states, touching over 1 million people. The Company also organized Health Camps in urban slum and rural areas in several parts of country, which benefited over 40000 women and children. In the field of education, over 500 merit cum scholarships have been awarded to over 135,000 students from 116 Army Schools spread across the country. These scholarships catered to the educational needs of child for a year which included Fees, Books, Stationary and Uniforms. These scholarships were given to wards of non commissioned (85%) Army personnel (Jawans). Additionally, Coca-Cola India also established Rain Water Harvesting systems in all of 39 villages of SOS Children's villages to provide for water security to over 6000 children. The Company regularly supports several education and health initiatives in addition to Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation programs as and when required. Coca-Cola India awarded the Bombay Stock Exchange Award for Social and Corporate Governance 2009. 

Introduction

Brand Introduction 

Water is the basic necessity of human beings and the increasing health awareness and scarcity has led to the development of mineral water industry in India. In 1999, the total annual bottled water consumption in the country was 1.5 billion litres and the market was growing at compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25%. Coca-Cola entered this market with its purified mineral water ‘Kinley’ in August 2000. Kinley was introduced at a time when the generic name for bottled water was ‘Bisleri’ which was the market leader with more than 60% share. By 2002, Kinley was having 20 water plants across the country and was in the process of setting up 15 plants in the next one year.

The situation of Kinley for the time when it entered the market can be analyzed using the 5C framework.

Company: Coca-Cola was having a strong product line and image in the market. The company enjoyed the bouquet with brands like Coca Cola, Thums up, Limca etc. The company had a strong distribution channel and facilities in various parts of the country.

Competition: The major competitor of Kinley was Parle. Parle was expanding its Bisleri operations since 1995 and the average growth rate was 40% for over 10 years.  Bisleri enjoyed the Brand Loyalty of the consumers by its safe and pure bottles. About 20% of the market share was enjoyed by the regional and local market niches.

Category: At the time of its launch, three categories of mineral water were prominent in the market. These were pouches, retail PET and bulk (20 litres capacity). Pouches were popular in both urban and rural because of their availability and pricing. PET bottles of 500ml to 1 litre capacity were being retailed from chemist to stationery. Bulk was a segment with huge margin and potential as they were much popular in households and corporate offices.

Context: As the consumers were becoming hygiene conscious and their purchasing power was also increasing, they were moving towards mineral water. Both domestic and international tourists were the potential customers of bottled water because of the scarcity of drinking water in most parts of the country.

Collaboration: Coca-Cola India was having a wide and well managed network of distributors along with supply of its existing products to restaurants, departmental stores, supermarkets.

Under these circumstances, Coca-Cola India launched Kinley on the trust and safety plank in August 2000. In the initial phase, it launched one litre pack in southern metros of the country and over the next few months it rolled out nationally. In early 2001, Kinley 500 ml was launched followed by Kinley 2 litres and Kinley 5 litres.