印度百事在包装上加印品质保证标识

Pepsi puts a seal of faith on brands

RATNA BHUSHAN

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 2007 12:05:27 AM]

摘要：四年前的农残事件仍历历在目。印度百事公司准备在其产品包装上加印品质保证标识‘One Quality Worldwide’。包括碳酸饮料，non-carbs, flavours, Tropicana juices, sports drink Gatorade and Aquafina water，为了使印度的消费者确信在印度销售的产品质量与美国以及世界各地销售的产品都是一样的。

It happened four years ago, but the impact is such that it seems like yesterday. The famous pesticides-in-cola brouhaha of 2003 that alienated consumers and led PepsiCo global boss Indra Nooyi to question the handling of the issue in India has made Pepsi India take an extreme step. The company has decided to stamp a quality assurance seal which reads: ‘One Quality Worldwide’ across all its product labels, a first for a soft drink giant anywhere in the world.

The quality seal will appear on labels of its carbonated beverages, non-carbs, flavours, Tropicana juices, sports drink Gatorade and Aquafina water. PepsiCo is also in discussions with its snack foods arm Frito-Lay India to put the same seal on its snack foods labels. The quality seal seeks to assure Indian consumers that the quality of PepsiCo’s products sold in the country is the same as those sold in the US and other parts of the world.

India is the only country where PepsiCo is being compelled to put the quality assurance upfront, trying to drive home that it does not differentiate on the quality of its products across markets.

Speaking to ET, PepsiCo India’s executive director (marketing) Punita Lal said: “Since the controversy hit only India, no other country needs such a quality assurance. The pesticide issue left the consumer questioning our quality.”

The new labels across all servings — returnable glass bottles, PET bottles and cans — will roll out in six weeks’ time. This is possibly the first tangible step the company is taking after the pesticide controversy, though it did run a few ad campaigns. One of them even showed the then chairman Rajeev Bakshi talking about the products being “safe”.

Colas (Pepsi in this case), which used to account for 60% of PepsiCo India’s volumes before the pesticide issue, now contribute about 40% to the company’s total volumes. Marketing spends on colas, too, are down from 80% of its annual budgets a couple of years ago, to 60% at present.

In a recent interview to the US-based BusinessWeek, PepsiCo Inc’s CEO Indra Nooyi had stated that PepsiCo India’s marketing strategy made matters worse for the company when it was battling the pesticide controversy. Ms Nooyi blamed herself for not handling the pesticides controversy properly, for letting things out of hand, and said she should have been in India to propagate the safety of the company’s soft drinks.