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Cafe Chino : Pepsi's Bad Idea
Gautam Ghosh
Why oh why?
Why did Pepsi India go ahead and launch a Pepsi Café Chino flavor? Have they forgotten the mess that Vanilla Coke was?
I mean the thing tastes like normal Pepsi when you gulp it down first, but then the pathetic taste of cinnamon-vanilla-insecticide (oops!) hits you and you curse yourself for spending twenty hard earned rupees on the damn thing.
The really bad ad
Of course, they must have spent crores and crores on it, getting Bollywood bimbettes Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra in one ad to launch it. But the ad gets ruined because they are shown slobbering and kissing one hunky John Abraham wannabe, who unfortunately was last shown in an ad for dental decay. So while Kareena and Priyanka leave lipstick marks all over him the only thing I can think about is: "Will the guy smile and show his yellow decayed teeth". Unfortunately for us, he doesn't !
The reasoning?
One gets the feeling that Pepsi has gone ahead to win back it's GenNext audience which has increasingly gravitated towards the Baristas and Café Coffee Days in the neighbourhood. Unfortunately, what Pepsi fails to realize is that they're not going to come back by launching a new flavor, but by creating third places.
And really, the only take-off they'll get for the flavor is by giving it away free with KFC or Pizza Hut meals !
Impact for Pepsi
For Pepsi, India has been a high impact market, the rare place where it has comprehensively beaten Coke , and like HLL vs. P&G, it's been a case of a global number two becoming number one in India. Both Pepsi and HLL have become talent exporters for their mother companies, but disasters like Pepsi Café Chino will surely pull Pepsi India's reputation a few notches down !
Cafe Chino : Pepsi's Bad Idea
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cow tse tung
URL
January 30, 2006
06:21 AM
Pepsi and Coca Cola routinely launch at least a new flavor every year [usually in summer, obviously], in many of their key markets, to gauge audience reactions, and hopefully, improve sales figures. Down Under, we have Pepsi Samba, which is much like Creaming Soda with a dash of cola. Awful taste, but people still want to try it for the novelty factor involved.
BangaloreGuy
URL
January 30, 2006
11:18 AM
Haven't tasted the cola (generally dont like drinking insect/pesticide). But the Ad is such a corny one. I cant quite understand what hit Pepsi, when Pepsi ads were generally amongst the most creative/good. Perhaps a change of media-managers/ad agency?
The worst part is the ending, after all that bad music, and worse hamming, Kareena and Priyanka screaming "Kinky!" when one feels like screaming "Corny!"
Dr.Sanjeev Narang
February 5, 2006
10:50 AM
Atta boy Gautam.
One hell of a drink
Better suited directly for the piss pot rather than through our body
What say ?
Sanjeev
Aaman
URL
February 5, 2006
10:51 AM
Or, perhaps better suited with pot?;)
Aaman
URL
February 5, 2006
10:54 AM
Incidentally, Coke recently launched Coke Black (Coffee Coke) and Black Cherry Vanilla Coke in the US - there must be some demographic trends indicating a preference for these 'black' drinks
anuj rudra
February 21, 2006
07:45 AM
its damm shit
Ambar
URL
February 21, 2006
10:27 AM
Or, perhaps better suited with pot?;)
Oh no Aaman, that honour goes squarely to Vodka! :)
Ryk
February 24, 2006
03:12 PM
Send it to me! I just visited Mumbai and tried it. I loved it. It's not available in the USA, so I'm out of luck for now! I'll have to try Coke Black if I can find it.
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