Coca Cola Opens Happiness with Coke Studio

Coke outsells its arch-rival Pepsi in all countries except a few including Pakistan, where Pepsi reigns supreme.
For nearly 37 years, Coca Cola led the market share in Pakistan, only to be taken over by Pepsi in the 1990s when Pepsi became the official sponsor for the Pakistan cricket team.
Recently, however, Coca Cola came up with an innovative activation strategy in the form of coke studio to strike back at Pepsi. The new strategy was a direct hit at the youth of Pakistan, the demographic segment on which Pepsi had built its brand.
While Pepsi has cricket celebrities steering its path to glory, Coke Studio has bred on the soulful fusion of western and traditional music styles.
Product portfolio diversification has also been backing up the new direct marketing strategy of the coke studio adopted by the company. Coca Colas launch of Minute Maid, Sprite 3G and Kinley bottled water being worthy of mention here.
On a more youth-centric note, Coca Cola has also set up an endowment fund at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) to fund the education of two students from underprivileged areas for 4 years of bachelors program at the LUMS School of Science and Engineering.
With over 100 million people under the age of 25 in Pakistan, working with the youth not only captures a sizeable market share, but also establishes long lasting brand equity.
The efforts have gradually started bearing fruit as Pakistans per-capita consumption of eight-ounce Coca-Cola products tripled over the past decade, according to Cokes 2009 annual report.
At the same time, Pepsis share has shrunk significantly to 65 percent while Cokes stands at 30 percent. Pepsi reacted exuberantly to the falling market share, and introduced its new logo in the country in 2010.
The historic association with cricket had also started losing ground recently in the wake of erratic performances by the Pakistani team. To find its feet in the shift of circumstances, Pepsi has recently started a new Talent Hunt to reaffirm its association with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
This is an attempt at direct marketing to reach the youth personally rather than the traditional above-the-line (ATL) marketing through TVCs, print media, etc. that Pepsi had been using previously.
However, Pepsi still has the lions share of the market and a broader product portfolio including Lays, Kurkure, Aquafina, Mountain Dew and Tropicana Twister.
Their distribution network is also stronger than Cokes, and hence considerable room for growth exists for the latter. Coke managers are bound to have their plates full as far as developing sound marketing and expansion strategies for the future are concerned.