Party Abhi Baaki Hai - RIO Ishstyle

One of the most memorable takeaways from Pune would be a drink called RIO. Born in 2007 out of an entrepreneur  venture ‘Silver Ice Beverages’, RIO is all set to hit the cola and juice market of India. Hitting a health conscious and cola hungry market wasn’t that easy. RIO comes in three different fruity flavours with a dash of fizz, and the company has gone an extra mile by adding a healthy dose of Honey and Vitamin C. IMPRESSIVE! What makes RIO stand out in the crowded space of drinks is not only does it offer unique flavours and healthy carbonated drink, but it also comes in exceptionally good package. And mind it, when I say unique flavours, they are some that you haven’t have heard off – Karma (Blue berry and Peach), Nirvana (Green Mango) and Moksha (Wild Berries i.e. strawberry and Raspberry).

As a relatively new entrant in the beverage market, RIO has so far adopted marketing and promotional strategies that are convenient, safe and inexpensive. RIO uses the following for the purpose of sale as well as promotion:

• General Stores (convenient stores): Plan for stores; Profit ratio + RIO branding material + schemes for higher sales + schemes for exclusivity. Now that’s a lot of POS promotion.
• Night Clubs & Lounges: RIO goes hand in hand with night clubs. Being the perfect mix for alcoholic drinks and a good stand alone non alcoholic beverage. They have developed Rio based cocktails recipes as well.
• Restaurants: RIO has tie ups with restaurants around Pune which offer RIO to its customers.
• Event Management Companies: RIO has shared stage with the finest events in and around Pune city.

It is not an easy road ahead competing with brands like Coca Cola and PepsiCo in the soft drink market, with RedBull in the mixers segment and with fruit based drinks like Appy, Fruity, Slice etc. Traditionally the soft drink market has concentrated on mass media advertising, Out Of Home (OOH) media, point of sale merchandise and on ground activities. Online media is an evolving marketing space and one can experience significant advantages in enhancing customer connect. As RIO’s target audience is the young India, the internet can indeed be an important medium.

Search marketing: to my utter dismay, at present a Google search for the word ‘RIO’ does not bring up results relevant to the beverage nor does it shows a link to the brands existing website.

Website management: the existing website gives basic information about the product and an overview of the company. RIO can definitely do better than just that. Offers, purchasing online, contest, design for bottles or anything to keep the viewer engaged.

Web marketing: Nothing, absolutely nothing on social networks, micro blogs or blogs.. Absolute lack of communication! Can RIO be used in online gaming like Dinner dash?

However all in not that bad! The news is that RIO is coming up with two more flavours, tie up with Hi5 (online social networking website which intends to re-brand themselves in India by conducting camps in PVR malls across India. Hmm.. Eagerly waiting to see RIO in every town.