Fruits for growth: Coca-Cola reinforces India focus with three more Minute Maid fruit-based drinks
Made with ‘real Indian fruits’ and marketed as an expansion of the company’s health and wellness portfolio, the three new Minute Maid drinks are Minute Maid Nutriforce, Minute Maid Fruit Punch and Minute Maid Apple Sparkle.
“[We are transforming Minute Maid] into a master brand that fits into the health and wellness space,” said Srideep Kesavan, Director-Juices, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia.
“In line with this, Minute Maid Nutriforce brings the great taste of Indian fruits along with nutrition essential for our growing next generation and Minute Maid Fruit Punch brings fun-filled traditional recipes of mixed fruits for urban millennial youth.”
Minute Maid Nutriforce comes in Apple and Mixed Fruit flavours, and is fortified with iron, zinc, vitamin B2 and vitamin B12. According to Coca-Cola India, the total fruit juice content is 12.3% for Mixed Fruit, but this information was not revealed for Apple.
Minute Maid Fruit Punch comes in Indian Twister (apple, pineapple, mango, guava) and Santra Mosambi (orange and lemon) flavours. The total fruit juice content in Fruit Punch is 38.7% and 27.5% in Santra Mosambi.
Continuing its hyper-local approach strategy, Coca-Cola India is launching both products in the cities of Kochi and Vijayawada in the first phase, and this will be followed by other cities in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh at a later stage.
“Minute Maid Nutriforce will launch ads in regional languages [to] build deeper engagement with the consumers,” said the company.
Meanwhile, Kesavan told BusinessLine that Minute Maid Apple Sparkle was produced in line with the company’s ‘Beverages for Life’ strategy, as it spans across both the juices and sparkling categories.
Although primarily a sparkling beverage, Apple Sparkle will contain 25% of apple juice content.
“[Minute Maid Apple Sparkle] is a sub-brand under Minute Maid. [It] is made from apples that are primarily sourced from Kashmir - the crispness of the apple comes through with the addition of light carbonation in the product,” he added.
Nutriforce will retail at INR10 (US$0.14) for 150ml, Fruit Punch at INR25 (US$0.36) for 200ml, and Apple Sparkle at INR25 (US$0.36) for 200ml or INR40 (US$0.57) for 600ml.
India as a Coca-Cola focus area
Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey had previously named India as a potential top three market for the company globally
In terms of volume contribution to Coca-Cola, India currently ranks sixth globally and is expected to hit fifth by the end of 2019.
“[There] is a large population in India but it is about building the local businesses,” Quincey told Livemint.
“The business will not be just sparkling but also fruit drinks and fruit-based drinks. [We can probably up the] chances of being successful [if] we can tap into a lot of the local fruits and a lot of the fruits that people know.”
Other Minute Maid fruit-based launches
Coca-Cola India has launched several other fruit-based beverages over the last few months with a focus on hyper-localisation.
Earlier this year, it launched Minute Maid Colour, a sparkling drink made with locally-sourced black grape juice, and ‘specially designed for consumers in Tamil Nadu who have a liking for grape flavoured beverages’, according to the company.
Reinforcing the company’s focus on developing products for the local market according to the ‘palates of a particular region’, especially from a flavours point of view, Kesavan added previously that: “Consumers in Tamil Nadu have a special love for grape flavoured beverages.”
“The product was developed keeping in mind local affinity and preferences. We named it ‘Colour’ since the term has a strong emotional connect & nostalgia across generations.”
In September last year, Coca-Cola India also introduced Minute Maid Smoothie, which the company described as a combination of ‘Power of 3’ ingredients (Fruits, milk and nutrients).
