Pepsi looks to add fizz to diet cola

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, Aug. 1: Beverage major PepsiCo is planning to launch a no-sugar diet cola.

The demand for these fizzy, low-calorie diet colas, which include Diet Pepsi, constitutes less than 5 per cent
of the Rs 8,000-crore aerated drinks market, though they have been available for more than a decade.

Sources said the new drink could be similar to the international brand Pepsi Max, which is sold in more than
40 countries and marketed as an alternative to regular Pepsi and Diet Pepsi.

A lime version of Pepsi Max was launched in the US in February under the name Pepsi Max Cease Fire.

“This could also be brought to India depending on the success of the domestic version of Pepsi Max,”
sources said.

Pepsi Max’s global rival Coke Zero — a sugar-free drink from Coca-Cola — is imported in India.

According to analysts, the new drink from Pepsi can stoke the demand for low-calorie aerated drinks.

The market for low-calorie drinks is expected to nearly double in the next five years.

The new drink will be available in both PET bottles and cans and priced competitively.

The drinking product portfolio of Pepsi includes Mirinda, Mountain Dew, 7UP, Tropicana and Slice. Pepsi is
promoted as a youth brand in the country.

India is a key market for cola companies, which have been clocking a quarterly growth of above in 20 per
cent.

While PepsiCo, the world’s largest snack maker, posted a 3.4 per cent drop in second-quarter profit, it
registered a double-digit growth in volumes in India.

Analysts said Pepsi had invested over $700 million in the country and wanted a faster return.

The launch of high-margin products such as low-calorie drinks can help them achieve their goal.

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have recently come together along with other beverage makers and bottlers to form
the Indian Beverage Association, which will be the industry’s single point of interaction with the government.

It will also help companies comply with food safety guidelines and other regulations.

 
 

epsico India on Monday announced the launch of its new sugar free cola: Pepsi Max. In a
differentiated black pack the new drink with no sugar content is looking at catering to a target
audience of 25-35-year-olds. While keeping Diet Pepsi in the market, the beverage giant will sell both
products simultaneously.

On why the company has launched another product in the diet category, Punita Lal, Executive
Director Marketing Pepsico India said: "The Diet pepsi taste was not as same as the regular cola, so
we've tried to bring in a product which tastes close to the cola. The idea is to expand and build a new
market base for consumption of sugar free colas," Lal added.

The product will be supported by OOH campaigns following the media launch, along with building
wraps, sampling through mobile bars at strategic locations, as well as life size pepsi max bottles in
various locations. A TVC will go on air shortly.

Though the product has been in the US market for many years but pepsico India feels that this is the
right time to launch the product in the Indian market.

The details of investments on R&D and marketing remained undisclosed.

The drink is available at Rs 15 for a 250-ml can and Rs 25 for a PET bottle.

Pepsico is also on the verge of signing a JV with Tata tea for health and wellness beverages which
will be finalized in the next few months.

suneera(dot)tandon(at)abp(dot)in

pepsi blue
Pepsi Blue
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pepsi Blue

Type Flavored Cola
 Manufacturer PepsiCo, Inc.

Country of origin  United States

Introduced mid-2002

Discontinued 2004 (Canadian markets)

Related products Crystal Pepsi, New Coke

Pepsi Blue was a berry-flavored soft drink produced by PepsiCo.

Contents
 [hide]

1 History
2 Promot
ion
3 Ingredi
ents
4 See
also
5 Refere
nces

[edit]History

Blue was launched in mid-2002 and discontinued in Canada and the United States in 2004,
although it remains available in some other countries. Its berry flavor was the result of taste-
testing over 100 flavors over a 9-month period.[1][2] Designed to compete with Coca-
Cola'sVanilla Coke,[3] it is sometimes compared to New Coke, a second failure along with the
much-maligned Crystal Pepsi.[4] The flavor of Pepsi Blue was described by Pepsi only as
"berry" and described by drinkers as like blueberries or raspberries, or similar to cotton
candy with a berry-like aftertaste and much more sugary and syrupy than regular cola. It was
tinted using Blue 1,[5] a highly controversial coloring agentbanned in numerous countries at
the time. The move to make a brightly-colored version of the flagship Pepsi brand was
spurred by 2001's introduction of Mountain Dew Code Red, which had
bumped PepsiCo's Mountain Dew division sales up 6%.[3]

[edit]Promotion
Although heavily promoted by PepsiCo (including advertisements by the pop singer Britney
Spears and the bands Sev and Papa Roach, as well as in the movies The Italian
Job and Garfield: The Movie), it is widely seen as a commercial flop as sales remained low.
Even with the failure of Pepsi Blue, PepsiCo still managed to post double-digit growth. Also,
multiple groups claim to be "bringing back" Pepsi Blue, but are so far unsuccessful.[1] Pepsi
has since denied any plans to bring back Pepsi Blue.

In Manila, Philippines, Pepsi Blue was sold for a limited time in late 2002 to commemorate
the championship of the Ateneo Blue Eagles in the UAAP.

Pepsi Blue was promoted after New York Mets games during the summer of 2002, where
the color blue was one of the symbolic colors of the ball club. Other promotions included
handing out free bottles from a Pepsi Blue themed VW New Beetle at popular shopping
centers around the country. Jolt makes a similar beverage called Jolt Blue CX2; a blue
raspberry soda in a battery shaped metal can with a flavor often described as like that of
cotton candy.

It was introduced in India during the 2003 Cricket World Cup, where the Indian team had a
blue colored kit.

[edit]Ingredients

Carbonated water, High fructose corn syrup and/or Sugar, Citric acid, natural and artificial

flavors, Phosphoric acid, Potassium citrate, Potassium benzoate and Potassium sorbate (to
preserve freshness), Caffeine, Gum arabic, Ascorbic acid and Calcium disodium EDTA (to
protect flavor), blue 1, red 40. Contains 25 mg of caffeine.

[edit]See also

 List of Pepsi types

[edit]References

Brand idea failures: Pepsi

In pursuit of purity

Coca-Cola may have one of the most famous brand failures of all time, but its long-standing rival has
also had its fair share of marketing mishaps. For instance, in 1992 Pepsi spotted what it considered
to be a gap in the market. What the world was waiting for, the company decided, was a clear cola.
After all, there had already been a variety of diet colas, cherry colas, sugar-free colas, caffeine-free
colas, caffeine-enhanced colas, and all had achieved at least some form of success. So why not a
clear cola?
After months of tests and experiments the company arrived at its new, clear formula and decided to
call it Crystal Pepsi. They also produced a diet version – Diet Crystal Pepsi. Both products, Pepsi
believed, answered the ‘new consumer demand for purity.’ After all, this was a time when
consumers were starting to opt for a bottle of Evian or Perrier just as often as they were picking up a
bottle of Coke or Pepsi.

The only problem was that a product with the word ‘Pepsi’ in its name was expected to taste like,
well, Pepsi. But it didn’t. In fact, nobody seemed to know what it tasted of.

Anyway, after a little more than a year, Pepsi halted the production of Crystal Pepsi and started work
on a new clear formula. In 1994, the reworked product appeared on the shelves, branded simply
as Crystal, and available only in regular. However, the negative associations persisted
and Crystal mark two did even worse than its unpopular predecessor. Pepsi eventually admitted

defeat and scrapped the whole concept of clear cola. But never one to give in easily, Pepsi remained
aware of the ‘new consumer demand for purity.’ In 1994, the same year it launched Crystal, Pepsi
decided it wanted a piece of the growing bottled water market. It therefore launched its own bottled
water product, entitled Aquafina, which had considerably more success than Crystal in
the US market.

In addition to Crystal, there have been other, more general marketing problems for Pepsi over the
years. In particular, it has had trouble differentiating its brand identity from Coca-Cola. As it wasn’t
the first to market the cola category, Pepsi was never going to be the generic name. People rarely
say, ‘I’m going to have a Pepsi’. Even when they have a Pepsi bottle in their fridge they would be
more likely to say, ‘I’m going to have a Coke.’

However, although this situation couldn’t be avoided, Pepsi’s branding for many years failed to give
the product a stand-alone identity. Crucially, Pepsi breached what Al and Laura Ries refer to as ‘The
Law of the Color,’ one of their 22 Immutable Laws of Branding in the book of the same name. As
they state:

There is a powerful logic for selecting a color that is the opposite of your major competitors [. . .]
Cola is a reddish-brown liquid so the logical color for a cola brand is red. Which is one reason why
Coca-Cola has been using red for more than a hundred years.

Pepsi-Cola made a poor choice. It picked red and blue as the brand’s colours. Red to symbolise cola
and blue to differentiate the brand from Coca-Cola. For years Pepsi has struggled with a less-than-
ideal response to Coke’s colour strategy.

Recently, though, Pepsi has sacrificed red for mainly blue to create a stronger distinction between
the two leading brands. Now Coca-Cola equals red and Pepsi equals blue.

Lessons from Pepsi

 Don’t assume that gaps should always be filled. If you spot a hole in the market, it
doesn’t mean that you should fill it. Just because clear cola didn’t exist, it didn’t mean
it had to be invented. However, the previous success the company had with its Diet
Pepsi product (the first cola of its kind) had convinced Pepsi that there were more gaps
to fill.
 Don’t relaunch a failed product. Crystal failed once, but Pepsi still believed the
world was crying out for a clear cola. The second version fared even worse than the
first.
 Differentiate yourself from your main competitor. For years Pepsi’s visual identity
was diluted through its red and blue branding.

Posted by Cashberry at 11:36 AM