Selling soft drinks to Jamaicans sounds as simple a business proposition as selling umbrellas to the weather-worn Irish. But for 30 years Coca-Cola, the world's most successful beverage company, has lagged Pepsi Cola in the Caribbean market place, writes Jamie Smyth

Jamaica is one of the few countries where Pepsi still outsells Coke. Pepsi has about 60 per cent of the Jamaican cola market compared to Coke's 40 per cent. Coca Cola's other brands, particularly Fanta, are also underperforming Pepsi drinks, such as cool cats, and other domestic beverages.

But Coke's fortunes could be looking up if Dubliner Mr Carl O'Brien (46), the new general manager of Coca-Cola Jamaica, successfully executes an expansion of the brand on the island.

"I would hope that by June 2004 we would have had a major impact on the market place and we will have succeeded in getting our message to the market," says Mr O'Brien, who was back in Ireland this week to visit his family.

Appointed by Coca-Cola Jamaica last October, Mr O'Brien has spent his first three months revitalising the firm, which operates a major bottling facility in Kingston and employs 230 staff.

Mr O'Brien says he will focus on building more links with Coca-Cola's US headquarters while building its local brands.

Mr O'Brien has already arranged for sales and marketing teams from Atlanta to visit Jamaica to help it in the lucrative area of fountain sales - selling soft drinks at fast food outlets.

"There is a universal language in this area," he says. "We have just had a major success in the fountain sector in Jamaica by converting a traditional Pepsi customer - a local fast food chain called Mothers - to Coca-Cola."

Since taking the post of general manager, Mr O'Brien has also focused on pushing the Coca- Cola brands far more aggressively in Jamaica.

The cola market in Jamaica is worth $30 million (€23.6 million) per year while the total carbonated drinks market is worth about $60 million. And it is the rest of the carbonated drinks market, which is dominated by a variety of fruit juices such as orange, pineapple and passion fruit, where Mr O'Brien believes there is the greatest potential.

"There was a drive by Coca- Cola in Jamaica in 1995 because it had very low market penetration. The firm built a new plant but focused mainly on its core brands Sprite and Coca-Cola, " he says. "I now want to achieve the goal of making the Fanta flavours dominant in the marketplace.

"Branding is extremely important. Very few people don't know the Coca-Cola brand but it needs to be branded in a local flavour."

Mr O'Brien gives the example of Coca-Cola's previous Christmas advertising campaigns in Jamaica which featured the same polar bears that are shown on Irish television. These are obviously not very relevant in Jamaica and so Coca-Cola's most recent campaign featured local Jamaican music and the distinctive local patois.

"I am heavily focused on branding issues and have already negotiated some big sponsorships to get the Coca-Cola brand out there into the market."

Concerts, sports events and all sorts of gatherings are currently being targeted by Mr O'Brien and his team as a way to build the brand.

The firm also plans being involved in sponsoring one of the biggest television events in Jamaica in 2004, a reality TV show based loosely on Popstars. The programme, being put together by the Irish firm, Shinawil Productions, is expected to be one of the biggest ever television shows in Jamaica.

"We are partners with mobile firm Digicel, which is the biggest brand in Jamaica," he says.

Coca-Cola's partnership with Digicel - the mobile firm founded by the Irish entrepreneurs Mr Denis O'Brien and Mr Leslie Buckley - is not surprising given Mr Carl O'Brien's background.

Mr O'Brien was formerly head of sales at Digicel in Jamaica and before that he worked with Mr Denis O'Brien's E-power electricity company in the Republic.

Despite sharing the same surname, Carl is not related to Denis. But he is quick to express his admiration for the entrepreneur whose winning bid for an Irish mobile licence is currently the subject of an investigation by the Moriarty tribunal.

"In my opinion, Denis O'Brien is one of the people who is most responsible for what happened with growth in the Irish economy... he put us [the Irish\] on an international stage," he says.

The experience of working at Digicel, which has quickly emerged as the biggest mobile firm in Jamaica after just a few years in business, will help him at Coca-Cola, says Mr Carl O'Brien.

The mobile industry and the beverage industry are similar as they are both based on building up brands, says Mr O'Brien, who was instrumental in setting up the Digicel's dealer network.

Another key lesson that Mr O'Brien has taken with him from his time at Digicel is the importance of serving customer needs.

The customer service that Digicel provided to its subscribers had never been seen in Jamaica before. And the shops were state-of-the-art, probably better than Irish stores, as was the call centre support, he says.

Mr O'Brien is betting that Coca-Cola's adoption of a similarly aggressive strategy to that pursued by Digicel will pay dividends in the Jamaican market.

In the short time since taking the helm, he says Coca-Cola has gained up to 5 per cent market share in the diet cola sector against Pepsi, and he is hopeful that his strong focus on the Coca- Cola Fanta flavours will succeed.

Judging by Mr O'Brien's healthy tan and relaxed demeanour on a cold, damp, January morning in Dublin, the Jamaican lifestyle is obviously suiting him. "I love it over there and I think the Jamaican accent is actually very like the Irish accent," he says.

"There are Jamaican towns, such as Sligoville and Irishtown, that reflect an influx of Irish indentured labour in Oliver Cromwell's time in Ireland."

Mr O'Brien's only complaint about Jamaica are the lengthy traffic jams, which incredibly, are even worse than jams in Dublin.

The fantastic variety of fruits and food available in Jamaica's tropical climate could benefit Coca-Cola's business as well as providing Mr O'Brien with an interesting and healthy local diet.

Coca-Cola operations in the US and Europe are coming under scrutiny due to increasing levels of obesity among children. This recently led to a major review of Coca-Cola's sponsorship of one of the BBC's main music shows.

"I don't believe we will be susceptible to these issues," says Mr O'Brien. "The Jamaican diet tends to be much more healthy than diets in the US or Europe."