PepsiCo Entry Into India

International Marketing Assignment 21GIBDPGDM040
Entry Strategy of PepsiCo. In India Mudrit Sood

12/12/2022
Pepsi’s Entry into India – A lesson in Globalization
“Convincing India that it needs Western junk has not been easy.”
-A New Internationalist Magazine Article, commenting on Pepsi's struggle to
enter India, in August 1988
THE PROMISES THAT HELPED PEPSIENTER

In May 1985, PepsiCo had joined hands with one of India's leading business
houses, the R. P. Goenka (RPG) group, to begin operations in the country. The
company, along with the RPG group company Agro Product Export Ltd., planned
to import the cola concentrate and sell soft drinks under the Pepsi label. To
make its proposal attractive to the Indian government, PepsiCo said that the
import of cola concentrate would essentially be in return for exporting juice
concentrate from operations to be established in the north Indian state of
Punjab.
In its proposal submitted to the Ministry of Industrial Development, company

sources said that the objectives of PepsiCo's entry into India revolved around
"promoting and developing the export of Indian agro-based products and
introducing and developing PepsiCo's products in the country." However, the
government rejected this proposal primarily on two grounds: one, the
government did not accept the clause regarding the import of the cola
concentrate and, two, the use of a foreign brand name (Pepsi) was not allowed
as per the regulatory framework. The association with the RPG group too ended
at this juncture.
Not willing to sit quietly on the issue, PepsiCo put forward another proposal to
the government a few months later. The company knew that the political and
social problems? that plagued Punjab were an extremely sensitive issue for India
in the 1980s. PepsiCo's decision to link its entry with the development and
welfare of the state was thus a conscious one, aimed at winning the government
over. The fact that Punjab boasted a healthy agricultural sector (with good crop
yields in the past) also played a role in PepsiCo's decision.
Reportedly, the new proposal gave a lot of emphasis to the effects of PepsiCo's
entry on agriculture and employment in Punjab. The company claimed that it
would play a central role in bringing about an agricultural revolution in the state
and would create many employment opportunities. To make its proposal even
more lucrative, PepsiCo claimed that these new employment opportunities
would tempt many of the terrorists to return to society. This added a lot of "plus
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points" to PepsiCo's proposal, since a large number of young people in the state
had become terrorists during the 1980s, causing socio-cultural and economic
problems of a serious nature for many families in the state. Reportedly, even as
the government contemplated PepsiCo's proposal, many Indian soft drinks
companies and social and political groups strongly voiced their opposition to it.
Protestors said that the company would siphon out money from the country in
the form of profits, promotional fees, and various other means. Protestors
argued that the same money could be used for the development of the country.
Some critics even cited the instance of PepsiCo's involvement in Chile's political
turmoil to support their opposition to the proposal. Most of the opponents said
that allowing a foreign company into a non-priority sector went against the
existing government's [of the Congress (I) party, led by the Prime Minister Rajiv
Gandhi] foreign trade policies.
Meanwhile, to "sweeten" the proposal, PepsiCo made many commitments to

the Indian government most of them highlighting the company's concern for the
development of the areas it planned to operate in. Some of the important
commitments were:
• The company would focus on food and agro-processing and only 25 %
of the investment would be directed towards the soft drinks business.
• The company would not only bring advanced food processing
technology to India, but also provide a boost to the image of products
made in India in foreign markets.
• Half of the production would be exported and the export-import ratio
'would be 5:1 for a period of 10 years (80% of the exports to be of food
products manufactured by the company and 20% of the exports to be of
food products from a select list manufactured by other companies)
• Creation of jobs for 50,000 people across the nation, of which 25,000
were to be in Punjab.
• Foreign brand names would not be used.
• An agricultural research center would be established.
The government was apparently quite impressed with the terms and conditions
PepsiCo had proposed. Thus, despite continuing protests, the Pepsi Foods Ltd.
(Pepsi) venture was finally cleared by the government in September 1988. Pepsi
was a joint venture between PepsiCo, Punjab Agro Industrial Corporation (PAIC,
a body established by the Punjab government) and Voltas India Ltd. (a company
owned by the business house of Tatas). While PepsiCo held 36.89% of the
venture's stake, PAIC and Voltas held 36.11 % and 24% stakes respectively. The
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company launched the soft drinks business with great fanfare and an elaborate
multi-media advertising campaign in 1989.
The success of PepsiCo's efforts to enter India generated a significant amount of
attention. While the Political groups opposing the company's entry continued to
criticize the government's decision, there were many who appreciated the way
in which Pe 'Co had clinched the deal. Some years later, commenting on how the
company effectively used Mega Marketing to enter the Indian market,
renowned marketing expert Philip Kotler said, "Pepsi bundled a set of benefits
that won the support of various interest groups in India.
Instead of relying on the normal four Ps for entering a market, Pepsi added two
additional Ps, namely, Politics and Public Opinion. He added that committing to
work towards developing the rural economy and bringing in new food
processing packaging and water-treatment technologies turned a lot of votes in
PepsiCo's favour.
Pepsi offered its contract farmers advanced equipment such as trans planters
(for planting tomato and chili saplings) and seeding machines (for groundnuts)
to help them carry out their tasks efficiently and speedily. The equipment, which
was offered free of cost to the farmers had been imported and modified to suit
Indian conditions:
Pepsi gradually expanded its contract farming network from Zahura to the
districts of Amritsar Patiala and Sangrur (in Punjab). Over the next few years, the
contract farming initiative (for potatoes) was extended to Uttar Pradesh (in the
city of Meerut), Madhya Pradesh (in the city of Indore), Karnataka, and
Maharashtra. In the late 1990s, the company finally met its commitment to set
up agro-research centers. Such centers were set up in Jallowal and Channo (in
Punjab) and Nelamangala (in Karnataka). These centers carried out field trials
for various crops, vegetables and fruits and maintained nurseries for tomato,
chili, potato, and basmati rice. Through a "Pepsi Agri Backward Integration
Program," Pepsi encouraged Punjab's farmers to cultivate potatoes with low
sugar content (potatoes with high sugar content are unsuitable for making
chips).

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International Marketing Assignment 21GIBDPGDM040

Entry Strategy of PepsiCo. In India Mudrit Sood

Pepsi’s Entry into India – A lesson in Globalization

THE PROMISES THAT HELPED PEPSIENTER

In its proposal submitted to the Ministry of Industrial Development, company

Meanwhile, to "sweeten" the proposal, PepsiCo made many commitments to

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