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Kinley Lays It On

If Kinley has overtaken Bisleri, it's the marketing coup of the decade.

By Shailesh Dobhal

Kinley: Cruising ahead

In marketing terms, it's perhaps India's coup of the decade. The reigning generic-to-the-category bottled drinking water brand Bisleri, marketed by Parle, has been dethroned by Coca-Cola India's (CCI) two-year old brand in the country, Kinley.

If reports are to be believed, that is. The report in question is the ORG-MARG retail audit for July 2002, by which Kinley has taken a slim lead over Bisleri, with the former commanding a market share of 35.1 per cent, compared to the latter's 34.4 per cent. In June 2002, the two brands were neck-to-neck, with Bisleri at 34.8 per cent and Kinley at 34.2 per cent.

Parle may dispute the figures, but CCI is pleased as punch. What would be music to CCI's ears, apart from its own water brand's performance, is the fact that its archrival in the carbonated soft-drink (CSD) market, Pepsi Foods, may be giving up the chase in the water market. Pepsi's bottled water brand, Aquafina, has lost retail marketshare for the first time since January this year. With 12.4 per cent share of the market, it remains the No 3 contender, though... despite being at 20 per cent premium over Kinley and Bisleri (priced at Rs 10 for a 1-litre bottle). The other recently-launched premium player, Nestle India's Pure Life, has been a non-starter of sorts.

Why is this market of significance? Well, it's large and growing rapidly. And it's also the ultimate arena for savvy marketers (even more so than the market for sweetened fizzies) to show us what they've got, by way of charm. In fact, some analysts even see it as a proxy for the cola wars - defined first by ex-Coke chief Roberto Goizueta as a 'share of thirst' game.

Such has been the success of Kinley, launched 25 months ago with just 30-odd company-owned bottling operations (COBOs), that almost all of CCI's 18-odd Franchisee-owned-bottling operations (FOBOs) are either already bottling Kinley or have expressed their interest in this volume-driven, albeit low-margin market.

As with soft-drinks, hygiene factors are at parity amongst all branded players. But since this is even more about thirst, plain and simple, the bottler networks and distribution spread assume an even greater role in the market's dynamics. With accessibility as the touchstone, Kinley scored by launching a nifty 500-ml carrypack in early 2001. This was followed by 2 and 5-litre bulk packs, accompanied by a string of strategic tie-ups in the large cities to supply water.

Of course, Bisleri hasn't been dozing either. It has been an early mover with pack variants, and its 200-ml cups were doing rather well (matched now by Kinley's cups, priced at Rs 3 apiece). Here too, distribution and chilling capacity make most of the difference. A thirsty consumer needs reliable water within arm's reach, to use Coke's distribution ideal.

And thirst is the need being satisfied, as basic is that. In this lies the great paradox. The very fact that the need is so basic, and the product so undifferentiated, makes it such an exciting marketing challenge. If everything, including distribution eventually, is headed towards parity - what would set one brand apart from another?

Ah. Now that's why Kinley's ascendance is such a marvel (and why CCI's marketing genius is wowing market analysts). Kinley water may not be differentiated, at least not by way of consumer perception. But the brand? It most certainly is.

Look at the packaging, the label... and it'll be a rare person who won't be instinctively drawn to wrap his fingers around its midriff (or won't notice the magnifying water droplet on the logo). It'll also be a rare TV watcher who hasn't got the brand's message stored somewhere at the back of his head. The 'boond boond mein vishwas' campaign ('drop drop contains belief'), the lilting tune of the colourless, odourless and formless bond that the brand's advertising seeks to reinforce. It's an emotionally charged pitch, made originally by ad agency McCann-Erickson, that Ogilvy & Mather is counting on -- to show that there's water, and then there's water well sold.

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