The Challenge

Despite being one of the top-performing regions historically, the client’s beverage brand began experiencing a significant slowdown in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana starting early 2024. Once characterized by double-digit growth, the region slipped to single-digit expansion—raising questions about structural market shifts, changing consumer behaviors, and emerging category competition (notably from dairy-based beverages). The challenge was not just to understand what changed, but why—and whether the decline was transient or indicative of deeper transformations.

Our Approach

We deployed a 360° multi-stakeholder exploration to map hidden drivers of this slowdown:

• The Wise – Expert interviews unpacking macroeconomic and policy shifts (capex contraction, monsoon effects, etc.)

• The Wonderful – Depth interviews across 3 user cohorts:

  • Sparkling drinkers with reduced usage (retention)

  • Lapsed sparkling users (reclamation)

  • Dairy-first consumers (competition mapping)

• The Wild – Ethnographic inputs from café/snack shop owners decoding real-world palette and pairing shifts

• The Wired – Social scraping and influencer analysis to surface emerging beverage chatter and undercurrents

Additionally, menu audits, small-shop retail scans, and a rapid QComm module were used to contextualize meal pairings and category substitutions.

The Impact

Rather than presenting a linear cause, the study revealed a confluence of cultural, economic, and behavioral inflection points—each shaping the region differently. The findings are now guiding:

• Refined regional messaging and occasion-based targeting

• Re-prioritized innovation levers (including affordability and palette alignment)

• Strategic interventions across urban and rural sub-zones, tailored by length and depth of category disengagement

The client is currently using the research as a north star to rewire growth in this critical market.