STRATEGIC BRAND ANALYSIS OF PAKOLA

Abstract

The World beverages consumption has risen by around three percent annually for the last six years. The main engines behind this growth have been, quite clearly, non-alcoholic drinks and bottled water. Rapid growth in the non-alcoholic drinks segments has been observed almost all around the globe and in all cultures. Carbonated soft drinks dominate the soft drinks industry, and within that a very small number of firms and brands control most of the market. Non-carbonated drinks, mostly fruit juices, have only about 20% of the market share, but have the larger number of factories with relatively small capacities. The larger part of the demand is met through domestic production of international brands, and some domestic brands (in the non carbonated drinks segment). The soft drink industry of Pakistan is one with a lot of scope and potential for growth. The reason is simple, the weather of Pakistan is hot and therefore during hot weathers everyone wishes to have something cool and refreshing. During the past few years there has been increasing trend towards consumption of carbonated soft drinks, there is a big scope of expansion of this industry in Pakistan. At present only a few multinational companies are producing soft drink. It is difficult for new investors to enter in this business due to the non-availability of good quality or taste concentrates for the carbonated soft drink. The major players in Pakistan soft drink industry includes Pepsi Co, Coca Cola Pakistan, which are the Multi Nationals operating in Pakistan. Some local brands include Pakola, Murree Brewery, Amrat Cola, Mecca Cola and Thunder Cola. The objective of the study is to determine the consumer behavior issues related with the industry and knowledge of the key attributes regarding the branding issues that drives the target customer, which will help the smaller players to understand what makes the multinationals successful and how to design their product offerings so as to compete with the established product of these multinationals. Pakola has been considered a versatile brand in the market. It is known for producing fruity flavored, non-alcoholic, carbonated drinks. Starting with its "Ice-Cream Soda" flavor, which captured the imagination and won the love of all ages and income groups, Pakola moved on to introduce new and taste tingling flavors like Lychee, Pineapple, Raspberry, Orange and strawberry. This report critically evaluates Pakola owned by Mehran Bottlers operations in Pakistan and tries to find out through a sequence of analysis tools why Pakola as a brand is still unable to create a niche for itself and capture a sizable amount of target audience, what steps are to be taken to fix the problem, what has been done and what needs to be done in order for Pakola to emerge as a strong brand in comparison to other National and Multinational Carbonated soft drinks in the local market.