Pepsi/Coke - A good lesson

The second round of attack on cola companies in India with the issue of pesticides seems to be over. Both the cola giants have come up with advertisements which try to show that the process in which Coke/ Pepsi are made is quite hi-tech and there is least chance of pesticide or for that matter any harmful contents. These advertisements are quite unique in the sense that for the first time soft drinks are trying to convince the general public that their product (of Rs 5 to 40) are not harmful to their health. Pepsi started it by showing Mr. CEO in the advertisement and coke followed it with Amir Khan (now a day he seems to be taking very much interest in our socio-economic issues). These ads in no means are meant to show their product as good rather it is an attempt to show that their product is not bad. We can say this as a defensive advertisement rather than an aggressive campaign and its happening for the first time in India. All the companies should take a good lesson from it - If it's tough to make a brand image then it's tougher to maintain the image in public - esp. in countries like India where a single article/report makes a lot of impact on the society. May be our society has not matured enough to wait and see " what the things are? " - Before giving any verdict. It's always felt that in India it's very easy to create a brand image or at least its easy for a new brand name to be on lips of general public but no one has ever given a though to it - its very tough to maintain the image. There are few things that all the companies must follow in order to sustain their values in the market. First and foremost is to maintain the quality of the product. There is no alternate to it. For products like electronics goods, home appliances and other such things where the technology changes very fast, it's tougher. Not only they have to maintain their product value but every day they have to look for newer ads on to their product. There can't be a better example than Apple. Before lunching a new version of the iPOD in market they do a test of their next product. But it shouldn't be a tough job for consumable products like coke, biscuits, soaps and other things which we use in our daily life. These companies just need to produce the same standard all the time. I am not saying that these sort manufactures don't need to do that much of R&D or come to market with newer product. They should but with time, they are never required to be in a hurry. The perfect example is LUX which still has a great market share and good image value among general public. Its products have not changed much with time; its advertisement theme has always been the same. But with time it has changed the look, it has changed the models and has been successful in remaining public mind till Now.