Coca-Cola to launch Minute Maid brand, relaunch Fanta
Coca-Cola India is focusing on new brands and flavours in the Indian market. The company is gearing up to launch its juice brand Minute Maid this quarter and will also relaunch orange soft drink brand Fanta in a stronger formulation.

The reformulated Fanta will soon be rolled out in the southern markets of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and will hit the Northern and Western markets later in the year. Coca-Cola earlier made changes in the formulation of Coca-Cola in 2003, when Fanta was made stronger leading to a boost in sales by about 5-10 per cent according to sources.

Fanta's packaging was changed two years back, when it was introduced in a spin bottle.

Fanta sells well down South especially Tamil Nadu which accounts for over 20 per cent of Fanta's overall sales in the country.

However, the company's earlier experiments with Fanta in watermelon and green apple flavours did not work though in the lime category, Coca-Cola's clear lime beverage, Sprite, is the company's second highest-selling brand after Thums Up.

The flagship Coca-Cola brand in fact trails at No 3 after Thums Up and Sprite.

Maruti launches diesel Swift
Maruti Udyog has launched a diesel variant of its premium compact car Swift priced at Rs 4,68,000 (introductory price), which is 17 per cent higher than the base model of its gasoline version. The higher-end version is expected to cost Rs496,511.

Maruti had entered the diesel segment with launch of the diesel variant of the Zen but stopped selling diesel variants of the Zen and Esteem models in 2005, after its agreement to import diesel engines from Peugeot SA ended.

The company began making the diesel engines this month through a joint venture with Suzuki. The engines are being manufactured using technology from Fiat SpA and Adam Opel GmbH at a new factory in Manesar in Haryana.

Linc Pen plans to rewrite brand image
Linc Pen and Plastics, which makes writing instruments, is planning to overhaul its image and brand repositioning. According to company officials the underlying theme of Linc's new brand campaign — `The beginning of change' — reinforces the company's image makeover and repositioning strategy.

They say brand metamorphosis is the need of the hour to gain a competitive edge in the present market scenario.

With an ad spend of Rs 6 crore, Linc has rolled out an ad campaign on TV channels Star TV, Zee TV and Sony among others which would soon be followed by print and outdoor campaigns. The new campaign will also be replicated in Tamil to increase brand visibility and saliency among its target audience in the State. The company also plans to initiate campaigns through on-ground contests and promotions as an endeavour to connect with consumers.

Currently, Linc has 9 per cent share of the Rs1,800-crore writing instruments market (20 per cent of which is catered to by the unorganised sector).

The company has premium pen brands like Uniball from Mitsubishi Pencil Co of Japan and Lamy of Germany in its product portfolio. Linc's footprint covers more than 30 countries with the US and the UK as its largest export market.

Deepika Padukone to endorse Levi
Model Deepika Padukone has been taken as the brand ambassador of Levi Strauss Signature brand and will be the face of all advertising and marketing campaigns of this brand, which is targeted at the youth, for two years.

DaimlerChrysler to introduce new vehicle range with safety focus
DaimlerChrysler is focusing on safety aspects of its vehicles and wants to ensure that "customers could have fun while driving its vehicles but would be fully protected from all sides in case of accident."

According to Daimler Chrysler its new vehicles range would be an integration of active and passive systems with improved anti-locking brake systems and systems to warn the driver if the vehicle is out of control.

The Presafe standard feature used by the company since 2002 prepares occupants for collision and reduces the consequences of the impact. In case of an accident, the systems would close the side windows and roof and ensure that the occupant sits in an upright position to minimise crash impact.

The final phase of the rescue operation, includes cutting-off the fuel pump, unlocking the doors and lowering the side windows so that the gases, which leak out of the airbags, have a way out.

The feature can also build a link with a mobile or call centre to give details of the position of the occupant and the severity of the crash so that aid could be brought in fast.

The radar system of the vehicles can automatically adjust the distance and accelerate or decelerate as the occasion demands.

Acer unveils portable desktop
Acer India has launched its Small Form Factor (SFF) personal computer device, MaxMini for desktops. The company aims to change the computing experience of users in the home and small and medium enterprise segments.

The device comes in an ultra slim design and comprises a 3-litre box (signifying the smallest dimension in length, breadth and height) resembling an office file.

The device is highly portable and is packed with technology that saves space and energy redefining in the process the workstation environment to reduce the clutter and noise at the workstations. It has a low decibel output.

Equipped with Core 2 Duo E6300 for increased performance, the SFF PC with high speed and large memory cache has an integrated optical DVD writer, wireless LAN / USB and other features. It also had a one-touch data security management enabling users to encrypt files. L310 also had a Windows Media Centre edition.

The new SFF PC comes in the price range of Rs39,999 and Rs49,999 for the two targeted segments.

Titan to introduce new brand in prescription eyewear
Watch and jewellery specialist Titan Industries plans to launch its new business —`eyewear including prescription eyewear' on a pilot basis — by March 3 this year. The pilot tests would be carried out at few `World of Titan' stores.

Currently Titan markets the 'Fastrack' range of sunglasses and frames in the eyewear segment. According to Bhaskar Bhat managing director of Titan Industries, "Knowledge of the eyewear market helped us enter the prescription eyewear segment."

He added that a new brand would be launched to cater to the prescription eyewear business but declined to name it. He said the company would not partner with other companies in the optical business for this venture and said the company would manufacture the glasses, frames and lenses.

DTC launches Forevermark brand
Diamond Trading company, (DTC), part of the De Beers Group, has introduced the Forevermark brand of diamonds in India. The new range has a unique identification number inscribed on each piece.

The company says it is hosting the new range at premium pricing, and has chosen to stock the range in 100 retail outlets across cities. Only diamonds that are .30 carats and above would be sold under this brand and the average price of each would be Rs20,000.

India is the third country where the brand has been launched, after Japan and China.

India has shown a growth rate for the diamond market at about 20 per cent accounting for eight per cent of the global sales of $70 billion of the diamond company and is also the third largest market for the company after the US and Japan.

Nirula's changes outlet formats
The Delhi-based quick service restaurant chain, Nirula's, has decided to go in for a format change, as part of its expansion plans.

The retail chain has introduced three new formats - Nirula's Express, Food Court Unit and Ice-Cream Kiosks. The company intends to try and make the brand more accessible to its customers through the new formats and will also try to maximise reach into high traffic locations.

The company also plans to locate its Nirula's Express outlets — at 200sq ft sized---at airports, railway stations, malls and metro stations, while the larger 400sq ft sized Nirula's Food Court Units would be located in malls, movie multiplexes and large commercial complexes.

Now access Bollywood films at the click of a mouse
Hindi film aficionados need not go to film theatres or buy a VCD to see their favourite blockbusters. They can now watch the film of their choice sitting in the comfort of home by downloading films to the PC or television set through the net.

Production houses like Rajshri Productions, Global Distributors and Eros International have taken the first steps to change the way people see Hindi Film.

A few months ago, Rajshri Media launched a website, www.rajshri.com from which movies, music, favourite dialogues, scenes from the movie can be downloaded. The company has also put up its first movie - Vivah - premiered both on the net as well as the movie halls on the same day.

Another production house Eros International, which holds rights to 1,300 movie titles, offers video-on-demand through their website www.bondemand.tv. For the online Bollywood service the company has a strategic technology and marketing alliance with Intel Corporation.

Eros also has an alliance with Microsoft, under which consumers with a Microsoft media centre edition PC and a combination of Intel ViiV technology can connect wirelessly to any big screen including TV. It means that consumers will be able to access this content directly on their television via Intel ViiV enabled PC's.

Movie viewers need not go to a website if they have this system. They can access the service and get a full screen living room experience. The initiative with Intel viiv was launched at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas early this month.

The first movie to be released through this technology was Bollywood star Arjun Rampal's 'I see You'. The additional advantage for consumers living abroad is that broadband downloads of films also comes cheaper than going to a movie hall.