Coke's success in India's vast, rural market is a lesson on how to grow an untapped market. It is also an indication that if a MNC does its homework well and gets its distribution mix right, then it need not restrict itself to India's urban middle class. The bottom end of the pyramid, is a huge opportunity as well.

Breaking into this market required innovative thinking and a new strategy. To reach out to rural India, Coke started out by drawing up a hit list of high potential villages from various districts. It had to contend with reaching out to 627,000 villages spread over 3,287,263 square kms, and getting distributors to travel 200 kms to reach five shops with drop sizes of less than a case.

Low penetration of conventional media forced it to concentrate on alternative options like 47,000 haats (weekly markets) & 25,000 melas (fairs) held annually in various parts of the country. It had to deal with fluctuating purchasing patterns due to daily wage earnings, and spikes in sales during festivals, the wedding season and during post harvest. Yet, Coke now claims that 80 per cent of its new drinkers come from rural India, where per capita consumption has nearly doubled between 2002 and mid 2003.