Analysts say the company dropped the price of Nescafe clearly as a strategy to target the occasional drinkers to switch over to the brand rather then as a reaction to soft raw material prices. In the chocolates category, Nestle has launched the wafer-based Munch to take on Cadbury's Perk. The company is all set to enter the domestic bottled water business and has launched the product under the brand name 'Pure Life'. Plans have been firmed up to launch Pure Life by the end of this year. The company was in the process of setting up two bottling plants for the venture, one at Taloja, near Mumbai, and the other in New Delhi, to service the markets in those regions.
Plans are initially to tap only the huge market for bottled water in large cities and towns.
The product would be launched simultaneously in the Mumbai and Delhi markets. For Nestle, India will be the next major stop after Pakistan, where it launched the Pure Life brand recently. The brand has garnered over 60 per cent of the Pakistani market in the few months since its launch. The bottled water market in India is crowded with a large number of players in both the organised and unorganised sectors, and price is an important deciding factor for a purchase decision by consumers. Earlier there were market rumours that Nestle is in talks with Ramesh Chauhan, who owns the 'Bisleri' brand of mineral water, for a possible business partnership.