The great lemon rush

Three major "home-made" lemon drinks have hit the market in recent past. Pepsi's Nimbooz, Coke's Minute Maid Nimbu Pani and Parle Agro's LMN are sweating it out for Numero Uno. A host of reports and marketing blogs tell me that lemon drinks clock the highest growth rate in the non-cola segment. Some analyst reports peg annual Nimbu Pani sales at a whopping 45 million cases (of 5.6 litres each)!!

The battle for nimbu pani is on and the manufacturers with their creative advertising, aggressive marketing and competitive pricing are leaving no stone unturned... Its easy to see why. Nimbu is available in plenty in India, Nimbu Pani is probably one of the easiest to make, has a naturally long life and ofcourse a huge profit margin.

Whats interesting is that, we Indians have been having nimbu pani for a few centuries now. We always knew its natural health benefits and pocket friendly attitude. And yet I am not sure why this segment never took off till now. Pepsi's Troicana has a 100 different flavours (well not exactly... but you get the point right??) on its menu and even boasts of a few which are strictly for the adventures types only (white grape kiwi, pomegranate blueberry!!!). Coke has Maaza and Minute Maid Pulpy Orange to its share. Frooti, Appy, Appy Fizz decorate Parle Agro's showcase and Dabur always had Real Fruit Juice to its credit. Yet it is unfortunate that none of these guys took the poor lemon seriously. No wonder people are always scared of "bad lemons"..

But the little yellow rascal is back with a vengence and is not going to look back again. The uncrowned king of India has now finally taken a lead which is clearly ahead of what many of his kins can hope to achieve in the next decade.

Question to ponder - An opportunity as big and as profitable as this, always existed right in front of our eyes. Yet, it took a Nimbooz to shake the market from its slumber and wake up to this opportunity. Can we spot the next Lemon at least?