EVP & Chief Operating Officer, Coca-Cola Company (The)
#DavosBrainstorm2024: Henrique Braun, EVP & President, International Development, Coca-Cola
#DavosBrainstorm #Davos2024 #davoswithbt #HenriqueBraun #CocaCola
Step into the world of beverage innovation and strategic vision with an exclusive interview featuring Henrique Braun, EVP & President of International Development at the Coca-Cola Company. In his insightful conversation with Siddharth Zarabi, Managing Editor, Business Today TV, Braun unveils Coca-Cola's strategic outlook for India, delving into the brand's commitment to localization and consumer-centricity. Discover the dynamic initiatives and tailored approaches that Coca-Cola is implementing to resonate with the diverse prefer...
About Henrique Braun
At the 2024 Davos Brainstorm event, Henrique Braun, then EVP & President of International Development at Coca-Cola, described India as a "great growth market" and the fifth-largest country for the company in volumetric terms. He stated that the market has been growing in sync with the country and attributed this to government investments in physical and digital infrastructure. Braun outlined a "dual speed growth strategy" in India and noted that Thums Up, an acquired brand, complements the portfolio and has been launched outside India as a "charged by Thums Up" SKU in Southeast Asia. Braun also discussed the company's use of artificial intelligence in marketing, citing a "Create Magic" campaign that used AI-sourced consumer creativity displayed in Times Square, and an India-specific campaign that used AI to analyze data from a "stop camera on the cricket" initiative. He referred to Coca-Cola's strategy as an "all-weather strategy" designed to connect with consumers across different economic conditions.
Transcript (20 segments)
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Interviewer0:11
For joining us. I'll come straight to the point. This is Coca-Cola, a very well-known brand in India, one of the oldest brands present there. Now, significant investments. What's the strategic outlook for the Indian economy from the Coca-Cola Company?
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Henrique Braun0:27
Thank you for having me. India is a great growth market for the Coca-Cola Company. It's actually in volumetric terms the fifth largest country in the whole Coca-Cola system. It's a market that has been growing the last few years really in sync with the country, so it's a story that goes in line with the investments that the government has been doing.
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Interviewer1:11
What are the prospects for the Indian market in terms of growth? As I understand, it's amongst the fastest, or is it the fastest growing market in market share terms for you?
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Henrique Braun1:22
It's one of the fastest growing markets. But it's important to put in context as well. India also falls into what we call a developing market for us globally, so a market that the industry still has a long run to grow. Compared to other developed markets, usually we look at that as being one-third of the developed markets is the developing market opportunity. So we see the industry as an opportunity to continue to expand, and within that industry, Coca-Cola is also enjoying and capturing.
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Interviewer2:12
Which segment is exciting the most within Indian consumption?
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Henrique Braun2:15
As I was explaining, being a market that continues to be developed, we have growth in pretty much every category that we have been developing in India. Sparkling drinks continue to grow. As a matter of fact, last year we had the second billion-dollar brand in India. Number one was Thums Up, and now we have Sprite. That shows the potential of the market to continue to grow other billion-dollar brands in revenue in that market. And when we look at other categories, you have brands like Limca, which is a typical brand from India, that continues to grow.
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Interviewer3:12
But in terms of future growth, definitely on every category? Thums Up has great emotional connect and resonance. If you were to look back, the decision to bring Thums Up to the forefront paid off really well for the company. Is there an outlook that you can share about Thums Up specifically? What are your expectations from that brand?
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Henrique Braun3:38
What I can tell about Thums Up is that it was an acquisition that was strategic at the moment that we made it. Today, it complements the portfolio in a very nice way. The way we look at positioning our brands in India and other markets is always looking at how we connect with the consumer.
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Interviewer4:10
There is also charged by Thums Up, an energy-type space that is important for you. We're starting to see it travel outside India. We launched in South East Asia the charged by Thums Up SKU outside India. So it's going to continue to grow in India and perhaps outside. Enrique, we've seen the emergence of local and sub-regional brands in the Indian subcontinent in the energy space. What are your thoughts about that? Can you share any details about how the company sees that opportunity?
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Henrique Braun4:49
The way we look at categories and motivational spaces for consumers, we decided to play in it. What is the occasion and what is the motivational space for that consumer to touch it? On the energy, you can tackle in different ways. You can tackle with a kick of energy coming from different products like Coke, like Thums Up, like charged by Thums Up. You can also have that done by different functional ingredients that you can elaborate through different brands. So it's a space that you can play with different brands, that's how we see it, and it's definitely an area that we have been tapping in India these days very well.
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Interviewer5:48
I have you for a very short time, but I have to ask you a couple of quick points. One is about rural India.
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Henrique Braun6:11
In rural India with AI? For us, it's an area that we're learning as we speak, not only with the industry but everyone here. We talked a lot about it, not only on the capabilities to deal with that but what are the opportunities to continue to tap into the AI opportunities in different angles: consumer, customers, and the enterprise level. What I can tell you: we were one of the first companies to actually use AI on the consumer marketing front. We use it through a campaign that we have which is 'Create Magic,' and in that campaign we actually had AI being used to create personalized brand expressions.
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Interviewer7:10
How would these express the love for the brand? We actually used that to expose in New York at Times Square and on billboards. It was a tremendous buzz success all over the world. So in India, what we have been doing as well is connecting AI and the 360 marketing digital campaign embedded into consumer passion points. We have a campaign that ran last year that you probably have seen, which is the stop camera on the cricket. We had a 360 digital campaign where you could not only engage with the game but the brand in a very unique way.
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Henrique Braun7:57
And we were one of the first ones, and more to come.
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Interviewer8:10
Will there be more to come for Coke Studio? Because even those who don't have Coke or Diet Coke or any of your products, I can guarantee that millions of Indians have loved it. What's the future of Coke Studio?
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Henrique Braun8:27
You're touching on something that everyone goes crazy about. We're going to go for the third phase of Coke Studio in India. The first two were a big success. All the markets in the world also benefited from that. This connects with what I was saying before: our marketing always looks at what are the passion points for the consumer and how can we connect them in a different way. Music is really traveling all over the world, and how we connected was pretty exciting. I was there in one of those events and couldn't stand still, had to dance as well. But the next wave: more to come. Our marketing team in India is a great team and has connected with the consumers very well, so we definitely will have another great run.
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Interviewer9:34
Will 2024 be the year?
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Henrique Braun9:37
It's part of the journey, right? We're in a quiet period as you know, but what we always say is we have a strategy that we like to call an 'all-weather strategy.' So for good times, difficult times, challenging times, we have a strategy that connects with our consumers.
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Interviewer10:06
I've just got picked up from Enrique that there's a third Coke Studio series coming, and we'll all be waiting with bated breath for that. Enrique, thank you very much for being such a good sport and taking out the time. You have a very busy schedule here, so our viewers would be very thankful for you sparing the time. Once again, all the very best. Thank you.
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Henrique Braun10:32
Pleasure to be here.