Pepsi goes Fizzy in India

The global cola brand Pepsi has put in its thoughts to fine-tune its global strategies in the Indian market. In an attempt to make the macho appeal of Thumbs-up, PepsiCo India has tweaked the taste of its drink in Andhra Pradesh to match the fizzy taste of Thumbs-up.

This will help Pepsi to grab the market share of the people who opt for fizzier taste in AP. (But what about the people who have already addicted to the less fizzy Pepsi?) The brand is under pressure from its US headquarters to break the Thumbs-up’s market share.

But am not sure if the tweaked taste would be welcomed in other parts of India. As the people of AP prefer more hot and spicy food, it may work out for Pepsi in that region. (I believe that’s the reason why Thumbs-up has 80 plus % market share in AP)

At last Pepsi realized that its Global standards may not work in all the markets and brands have to regionalize their offerings to suit the local tastes just like Mc Donald’s Indianised offerings.

Google's Internet bus

Google India started creating awareness about Internet as its internet bus hits the road of Tamil Nadu, India. This project is intended to show case the benefits of the Internet to the people and they are targeting the people with limited internet exposure.

As the Google India blog states,

“The bus is designed to make a simple introduction to the Internet for a new user. With a focus on the four themes of education, information, communication, and entertainment, the Internet Bus will be loaded with useful and informative content in English and Tamil. We'll showcase how the Internet can make everyday life simple through services like search, email, social networking, maps and others”

Looks like another unique initiative from the Google team and sure they’ll have the early mover advantage and carve a mind share among the new internet users.