In our previous article, we learned in detail about the marketing strategy of a fascinating brand, Coolberg. In this blog, we are going to elaborate on the marketing strategy of Varun Beverages – India’s Largest Franchisee of Carbonated Soft Drinks and Non-Carbonated Beverages.
The objective is to learn and gain insights into Varun Beverages and how it became India’s Largest Carbonated Soft Drinks and Non-Carbonated Beverages brand. Furthermore, how it became a Global, Growth Oriented, and Profitable Organization.
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We will learn the entire marketing strategy of Varun Beverages by the end of this blog. Let’s start by learning about the company’s history, target audience, and online presence.
About Varun Beverages –
Source – The Company Logo Database
Varun Beverages Ltd, a subsidiary of RJ Corp which was named after founder Ravi Jaipuria’s son, a diversified business conglomerate with interests in beverages, quick-service restaurants, dairy, and healthcare, is the world’s second-largest franchisee of carbonated soft drinks (‘CSDs’) and non-carbonated beverages (‘NCBs’) sold under PepsiCo trademarks.
The company manufactures and distributes a diverse range of CSDs, as well as a diverse range of NCBs, including packaged drinking water. Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Seven-Up, Mirinda Orange, Mirinda Lemon, Mountain Dew, Seven-Up, Nimbooz Masala Soda, Evervess Soda Sting, and Gatorade are among the PepsiCo CSD brands produced and sold by the company. Tropicana (100% Essentials & Delight), Tropicana Slice, Tropicana Frutz, Seven-Up Nimbooz, and Quaker Oat Milk are among the PepsiCo NCB brands produced and sold by the company, as is packaged drinking water under the brand Aquafina.
In addition, the company has been granted the franchise for PepsiCo’s Ole brand products in Sri Lanka. The company has been associated with PepsiCo since the 1990s and has consolidated its business relationship with PepsiCo over the last two and a half decades by increasing the number of PepsiCo licensed territories and sub-territories covered by the company, producing and distributing a wider range of PepsiCo beverages, introducing various SKUs into the company’s portfolio, and expanding the company’s distribution network.
As of 2019, Varun Beverages is a PepsiCo bottler in 27 Indian states and 7 Union Territories. Products from the company are also sold in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Quick Stats –
| CEO | Kapil Agarwal |
|---|---|
| CMO | Arun Garg |
| Area Served | Worldwide |
| Industry | Beverage |
| Market Revenue | $1.2 billion FY 2022 |
| Vision | To become the most Successful & Profitable Beverage Company in the world having Market Leadership in the territories we operate. |
| Tagline | – |
Marketing Strategy of Varun Beverages –
Let’s take a look at the marketing strategy of Varun Beverages’! And how Varun Beverages implements the marketing campaign, among other things.
Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
Consumers in the Beverage (non-alcoholic) industry have different needs, wants, and demands, as well as additional resources, locations, access to technology, cultural differences, purchasing attitudes, and end use of the products and services. Market segmentation is the process by which Varun Beverages divides the overall market into smaller segments and groups with similar characteristics, purchasing behaviour, socioeconomic background, and so on. This is done to reach out to the target audience more efficiently and effectively.
Varun Beverages targets a specific market after identifying various consumer segments within the marketplace. The target market is chosen based on ten critical factors, including segment structural attractiveness, Financial resources to focus on a specific market segment, The target market’s financial return potential, Regulatory and other barriers to entry, Product Life Cycle stage, organizational mission, vision, and consumer segment fit The target segment’s competition, Organizational technical capabilities in the Beverages (Nonalcoholic) industry to cater to a specific consumer segment, comparative strengths and weaknesses of the organization in successfully marketing to the target market, and The presence of appropriate collaborators to successfully market to the target market.
In today’s competitive marketplace, brand positioning and value proposition positioning is critical to market success. Varun Beverages positions its products in such a way that it creates a distinct image and provides a specific identity/reference point for the product and services in the minds of the customers. The following factors influence Varun Beverages’ positioning decisions: Competition’s ability to imitate and replicate, Varun Beverages’ strategic fit, Threats of direct competition and competitors’ responses, Marketing Resources with competitors, Customers’ relevance of positioning, Varun Beverages’ corporate image, Margin in the Beverages (Non-alcoholic) industry, Marketing resources with the firm, and Current product portfolio.
Marketing Campaigns
As mentioned above, Varun Beverages is a franchisee under PepsiCo, which manufactures Pepsi and other products in India.
Pepsi and its brand ambassador, Bollywood actor Salman Khan, have made the age-old namaste and salaam cool to encourage people to change their behaviour as social distancing becomes the new norm.
The campaign demonstrates that greeting each other with salaam/namaste is an excellent way to maintain social distance during the Corona Pandemic while connecting with others responsibly.
Three observations can be drawn from the ‘Swag se solo’ campaign. It acknowledges salaam and namaste as an inherent part of the nation’s culture, the importance of social distance in the new world, and the need to express oneself in a fun and engaging way.
In their 2020 campaign, Pepsi and Salman Khan encourage young people to challenge societal judgment with swag. The film encourages youth to be their true selves and encourages others to respect choices without bias or judgment.
Pepsi has always been irreverent when it comes to topics that are important to the younger generation. This new summer TVC, which will be released in 2020, takes on the core tensions of young India in an effortlessly cool manner, giving the brand a deeper communication platform that celebrates youth self-belief and confidence. The advertisement encourages young people to avoid unnecessary judgments and to approach situations with a natural swagger.
Pepsi released an anthem Ad “Check My Fizz” in 2022, starring singer Badshah and actor Jacqueline Fernandez, with the goal of engaging young people across the country. The brand has also unveiled new packaging for the limited edition Check My Fizz cans, which are inspired by the futuristic designs and pop art seen in the Anthem Ad. The commercial depicts Badshah and Fernandez competing in a dance-off to see who is cooler. Badshah raps the lyrics as she dances to the upbeat tunes of the anthem.
Pepsi’s goal has always been to echo the beliefs of young people across India through creative storytelling and impactful campaigns. Special interactive limited-edition cans were released to commemorate the success of the latest music and dance anthem ‘Check My Fizz.’
Social Media Marketing
Varun Beverages is on social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook. It has more followers on Linkedin than it does on Facebook.
- Facebook – 4K followers
- LinkedIn – 103k followers
The posts are mostly commercial and informative, with a few posts about their new product launch thrown in for good measure.
SEO Strategies
Source – UberSuggest
According to SEO rankings, the number of keywords – below 500 is bad, above 1000 is good, and 10,000+ is amazing. As we can see, varunpepsi.com has 2477 organic keywords, which fall into the good category. That means Varun Beverages’ digital marketing is gaining a lot of insights.
Also, the monthly traffic is around 13K+, which is considered slightly above average. As a result, Varun Beverages needs to improve its SEO strategies while also working hard enough to keep the brand soaring in Google organic SERP results.
Influencer Marketing
Pepsi is a popular Varun Beverages brand that has collaborated with many Bollywood celebrities including Salman Khan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Badshah, Tiger Shroff, and many more. This partnership provides them with a large number of loyal customers as well as increased brand awareness. Varun Beverages has collaborated with Bollywood celebrities to post content on their various channels. Its other brands such as 7up, Tropicana, Mountain Dew, etc. have also collaborated with Bollywood celebrities including Katrina Kaif, Hrithik Roshan, and many more.
E-Commerce Strategies
Varun Beverages has a website where they sell their products with special offers when it comes to E-commerce strategies. Aside from that, it has collaborated with other food delivery apps such as Zomato and Swiggy through restaurants, as well as Bigbasket, Flipkart, Blinkit, Amazon, Zepto, and others.
Mobile Apps
Mobile Apps for Varun Beverages are not available anywhere including Google Play and the ios App Store.
Content Marketing Strategies
They are primarily active on social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn when it comes to content. We can find promotional ads and social campaigns about Pepsi and how to approach them on their YouTube channel, titled ‘Pepsi India.’ Varun Beverages also has YouTube channels and websites for its other brands such as 7up, Tropicana, Mountain Dew, and others. They lack, however, blogs and article marketing. We couldn’t find a blog or articles on their website. It would be preferable if they concentrated more on this strategy to attract more organic visitors to their website.
This concludes the elaborative marketing strategy of Varun Beverages. Let us conclude our learning from the marketing strategy of Varun Beverages below.
What’s Unique in the Marketing Strategy of Varun Beverages?
To summarise, Varun Beverages is not heavily involved in marketing strategies such as SEO, eCommerce, Influencer, SMM, and so on, but the brands that fall under Varun Beverages are fully integrated into implementing these strategies.
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