WHY RC COLA FAILED IN

PAKISTAN?
HOW TO RE-LAUNCH IT?

GROUP MEMBERS:

History of RC Cola
1905:

Mr. Claud Hatcher, Founder, Established the

Union Bottling Works in Columbus, Georgia in the
basement of the wholesale grocery business of his
family.

1910:

The first line of fruit flavored beverages was

named Royal Crown and the first cola drink was
called Chero-Cola.

1912:

Started to manufacture a line of syrups and

flavor concentrates and established a franchised
system by licensing sales territories to its bottlers
under trademarks of the now Chero-Cola Co.

History of RC Cola
1925:

Over 300 bottlers were part of the

bottling network producing Chero-Cola. 263 of
these bottlers also produced the fruit flavored
products under the new brand Nehi.

1928:

The Company changes its name to The

Nehi Corporation.

1933:
1934:

Mr. Claud Hatcher died on December 31 st.

Chero-Cola is reformulated and the new

product is named Royal Crown Cola.

History of RC Cola
1940:

The Nehi Corporation is listed on the

New York Stock Exchange.

1940:

The Company first uses results of

blind taste tests in the advertising campaign
Best by Taste Test.

1946:The

Company began to enhance its

advertising by using entertainment
celebrities like Bing Crosby, Joan Crawford,
and Hedy Lamarr.

History of RC Cola
1958:

Company changes name for the

third time to Royal Crown Cola Company.

2000:Royal

Crown Cola Co. is acquired by

Cadbury Schweppes.

2001:

Royal Crown Cola International is

acquired by Cott Corporation.

2005:Royal

Crown Cola Co.

commemorated its 100th Anniversary.

RC Cola Product Line:

RC Cola has launched eight flavors till date
which are:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)

RC Cola (Regular)
Diet RC Cola
Cherry RC Cola
RC Edge Cola
Rite Cola
RCQ
Royal Crown Draft Cola
Kick

Pakistans Softdrink Industry:

Pakistan

has a huge market of

softdrinks beverages.

The

major competitive and ruling

brands of the country are
PepsiCo. and CocaCola Company.

65%

per cent are Pepsi products.

20 to 22 %are Coca-Cola products
and there are so many colas.

SWOT Analysis of Pakistans Soft Drink Industry:

Strengths:
The soft drinks market in Pakistan enjoyed dynamic growth
over the review period in both volume and current value
terms.
Carbonates

dominate the market in both the on-trade and offtrade with the lion's share of sales.

Carbonates

have become part of the culture in Pakistan.

Multinational

companies have maintained their standards over

the years to provide consumers with high-quality carbonated
drinks.

Off-trade

sales of carbonates are higher than those of the ontrade but both achieved strong growth over the review period.

SWOT Analysis of Pakistans Soft

Drink Industry:
Weaknesses:
Liquid concentrates and powder concentrates
are both seasonal categories in the market and
their sales peak in the summer in Pakistan.
Both

Rooh Afza and Jam-e-Shirin are traditional

sandalwood drinks in Pakistan which are highly
regarded by consumers.

These

drinks can be found in every home in

Pakistan, especially in rural areas, throughout
the summer and are the mainstay of liquid
concentrates.

SWOT Analysis of Pakistans Soft

Drink Industry:
Opportunities:
The

government of Pakistan has reduced excise taxes to

encourage soft drinks manufacturers and importers.

The

government also reduced other applicable taxes to

promise more profits not only for soft drinks
manufacturers already in the market but also to attract
potential soft drinks manufacturers to invest in Pakistan.

The

government also decided to tax the beverage

industry on capacity of production rather than on actual
production and those brave move encouraged soft
drinks manufacturers to maximize production and
reduce prices.

SWOT Analysis of Pakistans Soft

Drink Industry:
Threats:
Increasing health and hygiene awareness among Pakistanis has
greatly increased sales of fruit juice products.
Both

the government and the media have started health

awareness campaigns to make Pakistanis realize that
consumption of fruit juice is as essential as eating food.

Fruit

juices are doing very well in both urban and rural areas.

On

the other hand, health and hygiene awareness has also led to
increased sales of bottled water in Pakistan. Previously bottled
water was targeted only at major cities where consumers are
more health-conscious and aware of the difference between
bottled water and tap water.

Nowadays,

health-conscious rural inhabitants also drink bottled

water due to health concerns.

RC Cola in Pakistan:

RC

cola was a very famous drink in Pakistan.

It was widely known all over the Pakistan

since the time of its arrival in the subcontinent which was the 70s having the
same popularity like CocaCola and Pepsi
today.

SWOT Analysis of RC Cola for

Pakistan:
Strength:
RC Cola is the cola which is more than a 100 years
old.
In Pakistan the image of the brand is already been
made 30 years back.
Just want a good marketing strategy to recall the
brand.

Weaknesses:
Low advertising budget.
International Law suits.

SWOT Analysis of RC Cola for

Pakistan:
Opportunities:
To produce more concentrative and conglomerate
products drinks.
The heat factor in the sub- continent.
To build a brand equity.

Threats:
Very strong established competitors like Pepsi and
Coke.
This very fact that Royal Crown cola was faded
away in the early 90s.

Reasons why RC Cola loosed its

market in Pakistan?
Pepsi

Cola and Coca Cola stormed into the market.

Advertising

was minimal in Pakistan as compared

to its competition.

RC

Cola was being sued by different organizations

internationally so it lowered its investment in the
sub-continent.

RC

finally stopped production somewhere in the

early 90s.

How to re-launch RC Cola in

Pakistan:
RE-POSITIONING:
RC Cola has to reposition itself here in Pakistan.
RC

Cola hasnt worked well to position as a unique brand in

the minds of the customers.

RC

Cola will be using Adventure/Thrill in their positioning

statement, BTL activities and Advertisements.

The

word Adventure will be associated with this brand as

there is no cola brand in Pakistan which claim to be
adventurous.

Other

brands which shown themselves adventurous are

Mountain Dew and Sprite 3G but they are not cola drinks.

This

factor will be the point of differentiation for RC Cola.

How to re-launch RC Cola in

Pakistan:
TARGET MARKET:

The

target market for RC Cola will be the youth of

Pakistan.

80%

of the consumers of cola drinks in Pakistan is

youth of the age inbetween 13 to 35.

It

is easy to influence the youth of sub-continent as

compared to western youth according to a research.

The

social class will be upper-lower to lower upper

class.

How to re-launch RC Cola in

Pakistan:
MARKETING STRATEGY:
A new marketing mix will be applied on the brand:
1) Product:
Some modifications will be done
with the shape of the bottle specially
the regular bottle because it seems to
be thin and having lower volume
compared to other cola-drink bottles.
Just

two categories will be launched, RC Cola (regular)

and Diet RC Cola to make the produced more focused.

How to re-launch RC Cola in

Pakistan:
2) Price:
Following factors RC Cola should keep in mind while
determining the pricing strategy.
Price

should be set according to the product demand of

public.

Price

should be that which gives the company maximum

revenue.

Price

should not be too low or too high than the price

competitor is charging from their customers otherwise
nobody will buy your product.

Price

must be keeping the view of their target market

How to re-launch RC Cola in

Pakistan:
Incentive to Retailers will be given in the shape of:
Deep Freezers
Free Transportation Services.
Free Return Tickets etc.
Incentive

to Dealers will also be given like, The best dealer

of the year is awarded with a brand new Suzuki Pickup.
The second best is awarded with Motor Cycle. The third
best is awarded with Return Ticket to Middle East.

RC

Cola will give special offers to consumers on special

occasions like Ramadan and Eid days instead of
decreasing the price of the products.

How to re-launch RC Cola in

Pakistan:
3) Place:
Initially for first three months, the product will be available
only in the capital of each province i.e. Karachi, Lahore,
Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta.
Distribution

will be divided in zonal basis, which will be 5 in

number. We will directly approach retailer by providing credit
facility and bonus in form of incentives.

We

will also provide trade allowances to our distributors and

retailer to further intensify usage of push strategy.

Other

than these some special points will also be looked after

by direct sales vehicles such hotels restaurants, public parks,
big and reputed super stores etc.

How to re-launch RC Cola in

Pakistan:
4) Promotion:
Integrated Marketing Campaign will be used in every kind of
promotional activity.
(i) BTL:
A successful BTL advertisement program can be their most
effective means of increasing consumer awareness, trial, and
actual product purchases in Pakistan.
BTL

Activities can be done in different shopping malls and

crowded places.

Different

youth related competitions can be organized in BTL

activities in which winners can be rewarded with RC Cola
merchandizes.

How to re-launch RC Cola in

Pakistan:
(ii) ATL:
Newspaper:
Top newspapers of the country like Dawn and
Jung will be used to advertise the print ads
Youth

magazines will also be used to capture

the interests of the desired target market.

How to re-launch RC Cola in

Pakistan:
TVC:
TV

commercials will be used to advertiser the brand.

The

frequency of ads will be greater specially on youth

channels like Play TV, Aag, Mtv, G kaboom, Oxygene, etc.

The

theme of the first re-launching ad will be including

like all the shots from the previous ads of the brand so
that people can recall the brand and then show
adventurous and thrilling scenes. Whole advertising
campaign will be done on the theme of adventure.

Slipstreaming

will be used in advertisements.

How to re-launch RC Cola in

Pakistan:
Radio:
Surveys

will be conducted in which young

individuals will be asked questions regarding
their favorite radio channels.

Radio

spots will be used to advertise on

those selected radio channels.

How to re-launch RC Cola in

Pakistan:
Billboards:
Billboards will be used to advertise on
roads and buildings nearf highly dense
areas.
Gorilla

marketing will be used to

directly strike the emotions of the
target audience.

How to re-launch RC Cola in

Pakistan:
Internet Marketing:
Online advertisement will also be used, ads
will be published through all the famous
social networking websites like Facebook,
Orkut, Twitter, etc.
Official

website of RC Cola Pakistan will be

made where any kind of information
regarding the drink will be available from the
history of the drink to the ingredients used.

Conclusion:
RC

Cola failed in Pakistan because of its poor attention given

towards the ad campaign.

Even

in Pakistan people used to drink RC Cola and they really liked

it, but its all about many many years ago in 1970's n 80's may be
because there was no other cola at that time.

When

other colas came they advertised and they did it so well

that people were attracted towards them. Its also about how u
present it, the looks of the product.

RC

Cola's bottle is not appealing and the regular one specially

looks so thin, it seems as if it has less drink inside.

It

is possible for them to rise again through the proper attention

towards the advertising and targeting the potential customers.

The

outlook of the product should be appealing and beautiful, it

should be trendy.