Desi Cola Vs Global drink

BLOG 31/2025 DATED 26TH NOVEMBER 2025

We have witnessed a time when there was a great advertising war between Pepsi Co and Coca Cola with adds like ‘Ye Dil Mange More’, ‘Nothing Official about it’ etc. The two international soft drink brands are still the dominant market players in Indian Markets.

However, in the recent past a few Indian brands have started giving a good competition to these giants, one is Campa Cola and the other is Lahori Zeera brands. These two Indian brands are now eating from the share of the soft drink giants Pepsi and Coca Cola. The combined share of Campa and Lahori is now at around 15% in the Indian markets which is almost double from the previous year. Still the strategy adopted by the two are a bit different from each other.

Campa Cola:

Campa Cola a local soft drink brand is launched by Reliance Consumer Products Limited. Reliance is a giant in itself and is able to take on any other international player. In 1980s Campa, owned by Pure Drinks Group, was the market leader in India who lost its business once Pepsi and Coca Cola entered market in 1990s. In 2022 Campa Cola was acquired by Reliance Retail Ventures Limited and in 2023 Reliance Consumer Products re launched the Campa Cola brand. Campa priced its product just at Rs. 10/- a bottle which was lower than both Pepsi and Coca Cola pricing. Reliance a big name in itself successfully marketed its product in 2 years and now poised to enter Sri Lanka as well giving threat to the 2 international giants.

Lahori Zeera:

Lahori Zeera is a product of Archian Food Private Limited, founded by 3 individuals Nikhil Dora, Saurabh Munjal and Saurabh Bhutna in 2017. By 2025 its revenue and market share  have zoomed up. A market dominated by international giants and also having reliance as competitor, Lahori is holding grounds and consistently increasing its market share. Unlike Campa, Lahori converted a need to a demand by introducing Indian tastes into soft drinks viz Zeera, Lemon, Panna etc. Product is priced as low as Rs. 10/- making it possible for everyone to consume. Company also did not spend huge amounts on marketing and advertising unlike Pepsi, Coca or Campa. The product was pushed in the market through a strong distribution network. The Company plans to go national during the next year, report Business Standards.

The success of Campa Cola and Lahori Zeera has shown how a local brand can dominate despite presence of international players. Specially Lahori Zeera that came through a start -up and introduced a fresh demand of desi tastes in the same existing soft drink market, displays an example of market understanding of local tastes. What Lahori Zeera did differently-

• Created a niche for themselves
• Adopted Push marketing strategy
• Understood local taste and preference
• Compete through pricing

Food for thought:

If Lahori Zeera Can do why can’t other start-ups, why fear international players?