Sachin Tendulkar is an icon of Indian cricket. Hailed by his generation of fans as the God of cricket, Sachin stormed the stage early in his teens and stayed in the spotlight as the warrior wielding the willow for a good two decades.
Throughout the heyday of his career, Sachin was known to be a Pepsi Brand Ambassador. The generation from the 90s might remember his famous Pepsi ad, “Yahi hai right choice, baby Aha!”
Those were some iconic ads. For the uninitiated let me share some them below. They are quite entertaining and for the older folks like myself, it holds a lot of nostalgic value.
Cricket and Sachin Tendulkar were like religion and God for Indians. And Pepsi took the country by storm with their ads featuring mega stars, youthful energy and catchy campaigns. One might say they were brilliant in a fiercely competitive Indian ad world which was just warming up to brands after the liberalisation of the economy.
But I recently read a book by Neville Isdell, the ex-CEO of Coca Cola and came across a trivia regarding this. Apparently Coca Cola in their early days of re-entry into India were toying with the idea of hiring Sachin as the brand ambassador. I believe that was the mid 1990s, a few years after Coca Cola’s reentry into India; also Sachin’s early days in his spectacular career.
But under the poor leadership of the Chief Marketing Officer, Sergio Zyman, they failed to see the potential and discarded the idea altogether. Zyman apparently felt that it would be a waste of money. Co-incidentally Zyman was also the “Father of the New Coke”, the monumental failure that smears the stellar image of Coca Cola reminding B school students through case studies of how the mighty can also become shortsighted. And in this case, for a second time. Soon Pepsi picked up Tendulkar and pretty much maintained the partnership till 2008. By then the best years of Sachin’s popularity was already gone.
So, that’s the story of how Coke gifted Sachin Tendulkar to Pepsi.
The book mentions this in the chapter, “Going Back to India”, in case anyone wants to read, it is a pretty decentish book with some insider stories narrated by the CEO.
I was quite surprised that even in major brands like Coca Cola, a lot of bad decisions are taken. But of course, the good ones keep the brand going. You take some punches and deliver some back. The important thing is to get back on your feet and keep fighting.
And last I heard, Coca Cola is still the global leader.