Pepsi's Entry into India: A Lesson in Globalization

The letter was written by George Fernandes (Fernandes), the General Secretary of one of the country's leading political parties, Janata Dal. He wrote, "I learned that you are coming here. I am the one that threw Coca-Cola out, and we are soon going to come back into the government. If you come into the country, you have to remember that the same fate awaits you as Coca-Cola."² This development did not seem to be a matter that could be ignored. PepsiCo's arch-rival and the world's number one cola company, Coca-Cola, had indeed been forced to close operations and leave India in 1977 after the Janata Dal came to power.³ Even in the late 1980s, India had a closed economy and government intervention in the corporate sector was quite high.

India was a lucrative destination since its vast population offered a huge, untapped customer base. During the late 1980s, the per capita consumption of soft drinks in India was only three bottles per annum as against 63 and 38 for Egypt and Thailand respectively. Even its neighbor Pakistan boasted of a per capita soft drink consumption of 13 bottles. PepsiCo was also encouraged by the fact that increasing urbanization had already familiarized Indians with leading global brands. Given these circumstances, PepsiCo officials had been involved in hectic lobbying with the Indian government to obtain permission to begin operations in the country. However, the company could not deny that many political parties and factions were opposed to its entry into the country. It had therefore become imperative for PepsiCo to come up with a package attractive enough for the Indian government.