Previous

Page - 2

"Wai-Wai", a brand of noodles promoted by the Chaudhary Group is a huge success and it has led to rise of around 14-15 new brands in the market competing with each other.

The beverage section is the most interesting one - one can find alcohol in almost every shop, then there is top soft-drink brands
Pepsi and Coke vying with each other for market-share, and then there are tetrapak juices like Rio, Dabur Real, and Frooti, which are also doing a good business. From this, one thing is evident that people in Nepal simply love to drink. Fruit drinks market is not yet mature enough as that of Cola.

Consumption of any product depends on the country's overall economic condition and also on the habit of the consumers. In the case of soft drinks, Nepali consumers are more used to Cola than to fruit drinks. The reasons are numerous, one is the price. Fruit drinks are one to four or five rupees costlier than Colas. Secondly, consumers seem to feel more comfortable with cola than fruit drinks, because rumors of foreign objects found are more frequent in packed fruit juices than in colas irrespective of the veracity of such rumors.

The fight for a prestigious berth in the market between the two Cola giants has been growing ever since Pepsi came to Nepal in 1986. Coke had a sort of monopoly in the market till then. And the war in the market between the two global giants is going on to benefit consumers. Both of these are busy in promotional campaigns of their own, one recent example being the offer of Fun Island by Coke.

At present, it seems that Pepsi is successful in keeping itself ahead of Coke in Nepal in terms of introducing its soft drink in different sizes of packaging and devising innovative marketing strategy.

However, to conclude it can be said that Nepal, though surrounded by numerous problems, has a distinct opportunity as a market for various products. It will certainly not be advisable to neglect this upcoming market.

Concluded.

* Contributed by: -
Vishal Sethi,
Secretary - Marketing Cell,
Institute of Management Technology, Nagpur.