Companies such as Infosys, Genpact, EXL Services, Maruti Suzuki, Fiat, PepsiCo India, Dabur and ICICI Bank will soon start paying bonuses, with many of them dishing out compensation up to 150% of the variable pay.

Though many companies will parse their performance during the quarter to decide on the proportion of pay, the prevailing cheer in corporate boardrooms is a far cry from early last year when the slowdown made companies skittish about rewards.

For sectors such as BPO, automobiles and FMCG, the payouts will be a barometer to check their return to giddy days after the crushing blows of last year. For instance, beverage and food maker PepsiCo India, which posted its highest volume growth in a decade last year with the beverage business growing over 32%, is expected to pay about Rs 10 lakh as bonus to a top executive earning up to Rs 50 lakh annually.

However, backoffice support provider Genpact may clip its annual bonus to about 8% this year compared with the nearly 15% hike last year.

The initial optimism with which the IT and ITeS industry began the year is fast wearing thin as US protectionism has emerged as a key issue and overseas demand is yet to pick up. “This year has been more conservative in terms of the way we have grown and the bonuses are likely to be on a lower side,” said Genpact senior vice-chairman of HR Piyush Mehta.

Still, IT major Infosys Technologies may match the December bonuses of up to 100% of the variable pay as the company is expecting good results in the fourth quarter, said a person privy to the company’s plan.

Infosys human resources group head Nandita Gurjar said bonuses will be given in April, though she refused to divulge details. “The average bonus payout in the fourth quarter of last year was 50% and this year is certainly better.”

Genpact’s rival, EXL Services, is likely to hike bonuses by nearly 8% this year. An EXL manager, whose basic salary is about Rs 6 lakh, may be rewarded with Rs 2 lakh this year. EXL global head for human resources Amitabh Hajela said this year is certainly better in terms of overall performance.

The banking & financial services sector, where bonus payouts are a time-honoured culture, could be the best paymasters this year. ICICI Bank, which resisted doling out bonuses in the past two years due to the slowdown, is expected to return to its generous ways this year.

As will Indian financial services firms, especially for their investment banking and corporate divisions. “Most progressive banks will look at doling out bonuses even if they are not able to match their FII counterparts simply because the markets seem to be heating up again,” says Executive Access partner Charul Madan.

Companies can’t afford to lose talent, and retention any day costs lesser than replacing employees, said Mr Madan. Bonuses are expected to be near 30% on the corporate side, up to 200% in structured finance and up to 100% in the investment banking division of financial services companies, he added.

This means that an i-banker earning around Rs 1 crore could get Rs 50 lakh-Rs 1 crore as bonus.

Automobile companies such as Maruti Suzuki and Fiat, whose sales are humming again, are deciding on the extent of bonus payouts this year. “Based on the company’s annual performance and the individual’s performance, we pay bonuses in May every year,” said Maruti Suzuki HR head SY Siddiqui. A Maruti assistant manager whose variable pay is Rs 80,000 could get up to Rs 85,000 as total payout.

Mumbai-based drugmaker Lupin Pharmaceuticals recently paid up to 20% bonus to its top performers. A senior executive earning Rs 50 lakh a year got a bonus of about Rs 7.5 lakh.

Not so long ago, India was considered to be a regional outpost lab by the cola giants. Things have moved fast since then: A demand surge in this so-called outpost is helping Pepsico and Coca Cola at a time when sales have plunged in their traditional strong-hold, North America.

Consider the results announced a few days back. Pepsico said its overall volumes growth in 2009 was led by India, which witnessed an increase of 32 per cent, thus offsetting the decline in other markets such as China and North America. And Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent said India and China lifted its volume of unit sales by three percent in the whole year and as much as five percent in the fourth-quarter. Attributing the company’s upbeat yearly numbers to its performance in the fourth quarter, Kent said unit sales increased 20 per cent in India.

Both the cola giants say India will continue to shine for them for many summers ahead, given the potential. Even though India has led the growth in global volumes, the fact is that the country still trails even Pakistan in per capita consumption of packaged beverages. Also, sale of packaged beverages accounts for a mere 4 per cent of the total 120 billion litre of beverages sold in the country. So there is a huge headroom for further growth.

That’s the reason why Pepsico considers India to be among the three top markets, and as a result plans to unveil India-centric strategies to sustain the company’s growth. Pepsico is planning to pump in an additional Rs 950 crore as equity in its Indian operations – the biggest in the beverage business since its entry into the country in 1989. The investment will be utilised in market infrastructure, supply chain, manufacturing capacity, fruit processing, agriculture and research and development. The company is targeting Rs 40,000 crore-plus revenue by 2020.

Coca-Cola, too, has invested around Rs 6,000 crore so far and is planning fresh investments.

Coca- Cola believes that what drives growth in India for certain is the clear cut alignment with all their bottling partners, and so execution of production of a desired beverage is realized sooner. Also, with the company now entering the Rs 250 crore energy drinks market, experts believe that Coke is ready to experiment in the Indian market, a move that was not considered by the cola majors even a couple of years ago.

“Though there have been innovations, the flagship brand, which is the original Coca-Cola still sees the highest growth rate of around 22 per cent in India”, says a company spokesperson who also pointed out that the overall investment and distribution in cooling equipment coupled with its 350 ml express packs has also contributed to its success.

PepsiCo, on the other hand, has a lot to look back. With the launch of Aliva, the company has very clearly positioned itself on the health platform. PepsiCo’s ‘Smart Choice’ cafes, which will even have gyms, will be launched in five cities shortly.

“PepsiCo India’s strategy of focusing on innovative products and establishing deeper connect with consumers in a difficult year paid off. Each of our brands witnessed a robust growth and did very well across the industry”, said a company spokesperson.

Mountain Dew, according to PepsiCo, emerged as the fastest growing beverage brand in the industry for the third successive year, while its products like Nimbooz did reasonably well.

Both the cola kings have also not left any stone unturned in wooing their rural consumers – their biggest challenge. “Electricity and problems of logistics are definitely prevalent in the rural markets, so freezers cannot be properly installed and operated”, points out a senior analyst. Besides, the presence of strong regional players is another key challenge. PepsiCo, for example, is planning to introduce smaller packaged snack products like Lay’s, Uncle Chips, Kurkure and Aliva in the rural markets where pricing is key.

The main concern, however, is while these initiatives will give volumes growth a push, margins may be a huge headache. For example, the better volume growth last year didn’t translate into an outsized gain in earnings for both the companies, mainly because price points are lower and profitability per case is lower in India. But the cola giants are optimistic and say margins will improve as they expand and build their infrastructure in the country.

To curb emails and text messages disparaging some of its food brands, beverages and snack food maker PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd on Thursday issued a warning in several newspapers against the publication of such content.

The notice warns that the proliferation of such messages is a punishable offence “under the Information Technology Act and Indian Penal Code.” “We will wait and watch, and if we do not see the situation improving, we will take strict legal action against people doing this,” said V. R. Shankar, director-legal, PepsiCo.

Coca-Cola, the latest to add a dash of lemon to the cola war, is playing the pricing game to catch up with Pepsi’s Nimbooz and Parle’s LMN.

The cola war is passé; it’s time now for the battle over nimbu paani. A year after its arch rival Pepsi launched and made a huge success of Nimbooz, a lemon-based drink, Coca Cola has finally got into the act.

Coke’s Nimbu Fresh, launched last week under the Minute Maid brand, will be initially available in 35,000 outlets in Tamil Nadu and will be rolled out nationally later this year. The plan is to reach 90,000 outlets this year itself.

The lemon juice content in Minute Maid Nimbu Fresh brand is 5.7 per cent. For the moment, Coke will import the juice from Israel and the concentrate will be made at the company’s plant in Pune. It will then be sent to the company’s plants at Gangaikondan in Tamil Nadu and Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh.

Coca-Cola in India currently enjoys market leadership in the juice drink segment with brand Maaza and Minute Maid Pulpy Orange and the company hopes Nimbu Fresh will further extend its leadership in this fast growing segment.

Analysts, however, say Coke’s delay in entering the lime-based drink market is surprising (even Parle Agro has got a headstart with LMN — a name derived from the SMS version of the name Lemon) as lemon is the most popular flavour with a share of 49 per cent of the total juice-based drink market. Of the total packaged juice market of 90 million cases (one case is around 5.6 litres of beverage), juice-based drinks account for about 90 per cent.

However, Ricardo Fort, Coca-Cola India’s Vice-President (Marketing), says the company is not in a race with its competitors and is rather interested in launching the best product. But the cola major was obviously conscious of the fact that it’s a late entrant and had to do something to make up for lost time.

That explains its move to price Nimbu Fresh aggressively. While Nimbooz is available in 200 ml and 350 ml plastic bottles at Rs 10 and Rs 15 respectively, a 400 ml Nimbu Fresh will cost Rs 15. There will also be a one-litre bottle for Rs 40.

The positioning of the lemon-based drinks by all the three players is almost similar: They are looking at making a dent in the large unorganised segment with each claiming that their products taste closest to made-in-home lemonade: While Pepsi is marketing Nimbooz with the promise that it tastes as good as the original nimbu paani, Coke is playing on the theme —‘Bilkul Ghar Jaisa’ (just like home).

All the three players say the main aim is to convert consumers, who are presently being served by the unorganised market, to branded product consumers.

Both Coke and PepsiCo have lime offerings already — Limca, Sprite, 7 Up etc. But company executives say these are carbonated beverages and would not compete with the nimbu paani offerings.

Although a nascent category, the packaged nimbu paani was largely an untapped market. Most consumers are either used to drinking nimbu paani at home or pick up non-branded products. Earlier, beverage companies stayed away from the category because they would have no USP. Though the earlier examples of trying to introduce packaged drinks like tender coconut etc have not succeeded, Pepsi and Parle have already hit the jackpot with Nimbooz and LMN with sales much above their own expectations. Technology had played a big role to play in this. For example, while nimbu paani made at home doesn’t have much shelf life, Pepsi has used a technology called ‘hot fill’ that increases the shelf life of Nimbooz to as much as four months.

And everyone is clear about the growth path. Industry experts estimate the nimbu paani market to be at least around a billion cases by volume in 2010. The non-carbonated beverage segment is growing at double the rate of carbonated one in the Rs 7,000-crore domestic beverages industry. The juice and juice drinks market is pegged yearly at Rs 1,500 crore or 500 million cases by volume.

Experts believe that the ready-to-drink packs, along with the price points, will support the growth of the segment. “Ninety per cent of consumption of packaged juice and juice drinks is out of home, giving companies a great opportunity to grow,” an industry expert said.

After the price war, snacks makers have made the ‘health’ platform their new battleground. While PepsiCo recently positioned cracker brand Aliva as a health food, Parle Products has gone a step ahead with Monaco Smart Chips, which the company claims, is not fried – a first in the chips segment.

“The idea was to give today’s health-conscious consumers a smart choice – healthy, but tasty,” says Shalin Desai, Senior Brand Manager, Parle Products. “Since no other chips are available in the health segment, Monaco Smart Chip’s brand equity is its differentiation”, Desai adds.

Brand experts are impressed. Harish Bijoor, brand-strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, says it’s a clever positioning. While every chips manufacturer is occupying the fun and taste range (Aliva isn’t a chips brand), Monaco is trying to occupy the high-ground of smart-eating.

With the extension of Monaco, one of its strongest and fastest-growing brands in biscuits, to chips, Parle is eyeing a 25 per cent market share (from around 7 per cent now) in the Rs 6,500 crore branded snacks market, which has been growing at 15-20 per cent annually.

Smart Chips is available in four flavours: tangy tomato, crazy chaat, simply salted, and macho masala in Rs 5 and Rs 10 price points.

The company forayed into the non-biscuit snacks with Musst Chips and Musst Stix one and a half years back and competes with market leader Frito-Lay’s (Pepsico subsidiary) Lay’s and ITC’s Bingo. Lay’s leads the pack with 48 per cent market share followed by ITC Bingo’ 13 per cent.

Bijoor says the smart positioning has been reinforced by an equally smart TV commercial showing its brand ambassador Aamir Khan, distributing XXL size T-shirts to people having chips. The underlying message is you become obese if you have unhealthy chips. The ad ends with Khan approaching a smart-looking teenager with the T-shirt, only to find that he is already munching Monaco Smart Chips. The ad ends with a punch line – “Better switch to Smart Chips”.

As a positioning, health isn’t anything new for a foods brand. Even confectionery makers such as Cadbury and Nestle have added chocolates to the growing list of food products promising nutrition that includes biscuits, energy drinks and fast food. Examples: Cadbury’s glucose Perk and Nestle’s Milky bar Choo.

Where Monaco has scored is the first mover advantage in the chips segment. But competitors like Frito-Lay’s are unperturbed. The company says that it has already taken the health route by ensuring that the chips are made from the best quality potatoes which contain zero MSG, are cooked in rice bran oil (40 per cent less saturated fat) and contain zero trans fats.

With ITC’s Bingo also expected to join in soon, the battle for the ‘health’ crown in the chips segment has just begun.

Watch this space.

Gopal Vittal, Exec Category Director, HUL: Surf’s daag acche hain and Dove’s half-face test.

Shireesh Joshi, Director Marketing, Bharti Airtel: Asking me to pick my favourite campaign is like asking Lata Mangeshkar to pick her favourite song. But I’ll mention, Barriers Break. It was a campaign that scored on different levels. It was not only very effective, but it also went beyond the tangible. It hit home, touched people emotionally and left its mark.

Kumar Ramanathan, CMO, Vodafone: My favourite is the Zoozoos for the simplicity of the concept, brilliant story-telling format and the resultant consumer connect.

Vineet Taneja, Director Marketing, Nokia: My favourite is the music campaign around 5800 and 5130 Xpress Music phones. They connect with the consumer through its vibrant energy and relevant use of content and innovative offerings like online music stores.

Punita Lal, ED Marketing, PepsiCo: Slice was my favourite ad this year — not only was it bang on strategy but it makes me want to watch it again and again.

Marketing spends:  Rs 200 crore

Size of the marketing team: 46

Media innovations: Giant lemon squeezers at malls prior to the launch of Nimbooz

Brand ambassadors: 23 including MS Dhoni & Katrina Kaif

Creative & Media agency: JWT, BBDO and Mindshare

What started off as a ‘Lehar’ (wave) has now become an ocean. From being just a beverage company 15 years ago, Pepsico is one of the dominant forces in the foods space as well. In terms of marketing there are few companies (Vodafone comes to mind) which have consistently produced such great advertising. Campaigns such as ‘Nothing Official About It’ and ‘Mera number kab aayega’ to ‘Yehi hai right choice baby’ and ‘Yeh dil maange more’ to name but a few, became part of teen-speak .

While rival Coca-Cola has struggled to connect with Indian consumers, Pepsi has done so with ease — a fact that is reflected by the success it has had in the marketplace. The launch of ‘nimbupani’ is perhaps a testimony of this innate understanding that the company has developed with the Indian consumer. In recent times the company has focused on driving its foods business with brands such as Lays, Kurkure and more recently, Quaker Oats.

Both Lays and Kurkure have been runaway successes and today , India is one of the fastest growing markets for the company. Of late though the high standards that one had come to expect of Pepsi advertising have been slipping. But given Indra Nooyi’s declaration that the future belongs to India one can be sure that the marketers in Pepsi are furiously plotting away to ensure that Pepsico remains the choice of a new generation.

The government body has laid out guidelines for a code of conduct for advertising for such brands. From soft drinks to chocolates to packaged snacks, all categories will have to be a lot more careful about the claims they make in their communication and the creative licence they use to market themselves.

The guidelines range from substantiating claims with authentic evidence, to refraining from portraying fatty foods as healthy and avoiding visuals such as large portions of food that may encourage excessive consumption.

Sunil Alagh, chairman of brand consulting firm SKA Advisors, believes the proposal is long overdue. He says that in the last couple of years, especially on health aspects of food, there has been a “huge amount of stretching”.

“I always feel in situations where somebody makes a false claim, it is very easy to get at that fraud or wrong claim. But the problem happens in what we call the grey area, and then you begin to stretch the concept of health,” Alagh says.

The companies, meanwhile, are treading with caution and are in discussions with industry bodies. While most were careful, not offering a comment, some firms such as PepsiCo India Holdings Ltd say responsibility is ingrained in their DNA.

Deepika Warrier, director (marketing) at PepsiCo’s snack unit Frito Lay, says: “We are very active members of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), which already imposes a lot of self regulation in terms of not making ridiculous claims. We are also very compliant with the regulatory environment of the country, and are very responsible when we are marketing to children, for example. I think we are very responsible marketeers so I don’t feel very uncomfortable about this.”

Though the idea is to self-regulate, once the code comes into play, a brand can be penalized for breaking the rules. Even the Food Safety and Standards Act of 2006, from which these guidelines have been derived, prescribes a penalty of up to Rs10 lakh for a misleading food advertising.

The current proposal seeks to prevent communication that suggests changes in intelligence and agility after consuming a product. There are already very stringent guidelines about these internationally and, in India, advertising agencies say their job may get tougher.

Nakul Chopra, CEO, Publicis South Asia, says this is going to make the task of advertising more difficult. “What remains to be seen is how these guidelines are going to be imbibed and used. It’s one thing to write them. You have to see how they live. If it is going to mean the only thing you have to say about the brands are highly qualified statements, it will have an impact on the interest those messages create.”

Ogilvy and Mather chairman and creative director, South Asia, Piyush Pandey, says it is important to draw a clear line. “If you are claiming a direct relationship between one thing and the other, then you have to prove it. If you are not, then I think human beings are not dumb to not know.”

The debate over these guidelines is in the early stages. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s subcommittee on foods will take the decision on the technical details. For instance, it will dictate the permissible levels of sodium, sugar or fat that will justify advertising a product as healthy. ASCI’s consumer complaints council will address the complaints, using the code, once it has been finalized. The first draft of the code was sent to both bodies on Friday. Both are expected to respond in 10 days.