This year's cola confrontation - now that Thailand's hot season has kicked in - has a far greater prize at stake for the main players, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.
Even as they launch new cola products and unveil extensive supporting campaigns, both companies are only too familiar with the imminent dangers facing the cola category. Following trends elsewhere in the world, Thai consumers are increasingly slacking their thirst with water, juice and ready-to-drink teas. The carbonated soft drinks (CSD) market is tipped to put on a five to seven per cent gain this year, but that is a far cry from the double-digit growth the cola giants are accustomed to.
Which may explain the fast and furious launches of Vanilla Coke and Pepsi Twist and Blue as the cola giants have the added agenda of rejuvenating the 20 billion baht (US$470 million) CSD category.
Pepsi's launch of its first extensions to its flagship brand, Pepsi Twist last year and Pepsi Blue - a fusion of cola and berries - last month marks its first major launch in almost eight years. Sources say that there is at least one more Pepsi extension in the works.
Coca-Cola, meanwhile, launched Vanilla Coke, its first major brand extension since Coca-Cola Light four years ago.
Attempts to accelerate growth through extensions of the flagship brands make sense since the colas control as much as 70 per cent of the CSD market, itself the second-largest beverage segment after bottled water.
New products have always been part of the marketing mix, "but we haven't paid so much attention to it" until now, admits Pepsi's marketing director Aniruth Mahathorn. "We need to innovate to really grow."
Pepsi is already claiming victory with Pepsi Twist, which it says exceeded all expectations and accounted for a 10.9 per cent share of the cola market at the end of last year. "The introduction of Pepsi Twist proved that we could reinvigorate the cola category and stimulate that whole market," says Mahathorn. Pepsi claims a 62 per cent share and leadership of the cola category, which Coca-Cola disputes.
The only thing that Coca-Cola agrees with its rival is the need for "a continuous stream of innovations", covering product, packaging and marketing.
Doing just that, it has dubbed 2003 The Year of Coke. "You'll see a lot of innovations and excitement around brand Coke this year whether in product or marketing," says Chuenhatai Vuntanadit, Coca-Cola CSD marketing manager.
Besides launching Vanilla Coke, the company introduced a large-sized can "Coke Pi Big" and launched a nationwide concert tour featuring local star Thongchai McIntyre. Pepsi-Cola countered with a 50 million baht marketing campaign for its flagship brand, a new television commercial for recently-launched Pepsi Twist, and new celebrity endorser Matthew Deane.
The action has not been confined to the cola category, bubbling over to the flavoured carbonated drinks segment, where growth is expected to double this year to four per cent, through a combination of new products and increased activity from both giants.
Coca-Cola's Fanta, which leads the flavoured category with a 70 per cent market share, this month launched its seventh variety, Blueberry Splash, as the first blue-coloured soft drink in Thailand. It upstaged Pepsi's much anticipated launch of Pepsi Blue. Pepsi has dismissed the rival offering as "contained within the flavoured category which is a small category with limited appeal", and no competition to Pepsi Blue.
Still, market observers believe Fanta has scored a few points by beating its rival to store shelves.
Determined to steal Fanta's thunder, Pepsi launched a 30 million baht campaign on the same day to keep its Mirinda brand top-of-mind. This is just the start of a strategy to double its range of Mirinda flavours to eight this year and as a result increase its share of the flavoured drinks market by two percentage points to 27 per cent by year's end.
The last Mirinda flavour launched was Root Beer, which was this month matched by Coca-Cola's introduction of A&W Root Beer in cans.
While both players have given ample notice that the CSD offensive is far from over, the battle is clearly moving to the non-CSD category - arguably smaller, but enjoying more dynamic growth.
"There is huge potential for other segments of the beverage industry," says Coca-Cola's Chuenhatai, adding that the company is keen on "selectively broadening our family of beverage brands".
Coca-Cola launched Namthip water two years ago, Qoo fruit juice at the end of last year, and Nestea Lemon last month.
This is just the tip of the iceberg if the company's plans to be "a total beverage company" are to be realised.
On the other side, Pepsi's bottler Serm Suk says there are plans for at least three more non-carbonated drinks, including the summer relaunch of Gatorade, an isotonic sports drink that became part of Pepsi's portfolio after the parent company acquired Quaker Oats in mid-2001.
A Serm Suk spokesman said it would take over the brand from current franchisee Green Spot when its contract expires shortly, and that the relaunch would coincide with this. Quaker Oats also owns Tropicana, a successful fruit juice brand.
Pepsi's Mahathorn declined to go into details. "We are not in (non-CSD) yet," he said. "But our global company spent a fortune on it and it's just a matter of time. When there's an opportunity, we won't miss the boat."