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https://www.wsj.com/articles/coca-cola-launched-500-drinks-last-year-most-taste-nothing-like-coke-1535025601

BUSINESS

Coca-Cola Launched 500 Drinks

Last Year. Most Taste Nothing Like
Coke.
In search of growth, the soda giant is pressing local units to develop new
beverages like chunky mango juice and a laxative Sprite

Under CEO James Quincey, Coca-Cola is working to diversify its beverage offering for local markets.
PHOTO: F. MARTIN RAMIN/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

By Eric Bellman Follow in New Delhi and Jennifer Maloney Follow in New York
Updated Aug. 23, 2018 1:31 pm ET
When Coca-Cola Co. directed its global subsidiaries to launch more local flavors last year, the
company’s Indian arm came up with a unique drink: chunky mango juice. Indians commonly
squeeze mangoes to soften them and then bite a hole in the tropical fruit’s tough skin to suck out
the pulp, Coke’s Indian drink developers knew. So they concocted a beverage to mimic that
experience, called Maaza Chunky.

The invention of an India-only product was something the beverage behemoth wouldn’t have
attempted three years ago, but it reflects a push by Coke Chief Executive James Quincey to get
the company to shed its culture of cautiousness, expand into new categories and bring products
to market faster.
As CEO and president of Coca-Cola, James Quincey has pushed the beverage company to shed its culture of
cautiousness.
PHOTO: DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG NEWS

“There are products out there in the world that perhaps we wouldn’t have tried a few years ago,”
Mr. Quincey said in an interview.

Before Mr. Quincey was named CEO in May 2017, investors and analysts had criticized the
Atlanta-based company for focusing too long on sugary soft drinks, even as consumers switched
to healthier options and the company’s global beverage volumes stalled.

Since then, Coke has pushed harder to diversify, launching more than 500 new products and
variants last year, a record for the company and an increase of roughly 25% over the previous
year. Recent launches include a cucumber-flavored Sprite in Russia, a line of whey shakes in
Brazil, a sesame-and-walnut drink in China and a salty lemon tonic water in France and
Belgium. Coke says its expanding portfolio is helping to drive its recent growth in volumes.

“We’re not betting the ranch on every idea until it’s proven to have some traction,” Mr. Quincey
said. “I think we see more innovation in the marketplace...but just as importantly, a focus on
removing the things that don’t work.”

Coke is asking its international arms—which deliver more than half its revenue—to experiment
and speed up their research and development efforts. It used to take a year or more to get a new
product to store shelves in India; now it can take just four months, executives say.

“We have this mandate now to go create products and businesses which are much more in tune
with the local needs,” said Shehnaz Gil, one of Coke’s executives in India. “It’s part sommelier,
part science.”
Creating Maaza Chunky was complicated. Because of the drink’s consistency, Coke had to
develop a new can and a way of filling it. It also had to test all kinds of mini mango morsels on
thousands of people.

Focusing too much on new, unproven brands has risks. Rival PepsiCo Inc. relearned that lesson
last year when it shifted too much shelf space and advertising money to new brands like Izze
Fusions, a fruit juice-soda blend. Sales and market share fell for core brands, including Pepsi-
Cola, Mountain Dew and Gatorade.

In Japan, Coke has for years brought new products to market more quickly and frequently than
it has elsewhere in the world. Its recent launches there include a laxative Sprite and the
company’s first alcoholic drink—a fizzy lemon concoction. By contrast, other Coke business
units around the world have depended more on brands originally developed for Americans.

The new strategy calls for the company to “lift and shift” the best local innovations and
acquisitions and bring them to other countries, Coke says. It’s also using markets around the
world to test new flavors and less-sugary versions of existing brands.

The company launched Coca-Cola Plus Coffee in Australia last fall. Based on the drink’s
reception there, the company made some tweaks before rolling out versions to markets
including Vietnam and Turkey.

Changes included “dialing up some of the coffee cues, whether it was the aroma on the moment
you open the bottle or as you’re drinking it...and also we’ve experimented with what bottle shape
to put it in,” Mr. Quincey said. “We’ve gone back to one of the old, heritage Coke bottles.”

This year, the company is expanding the AdeZ vegan smoothie brand from Argentina to Europe
and the U.K., with new drinks blending fruit with oats, soy milk, almond milk and coconut milk.
Coca-Cola Life, flavored with sugar and stevia, fell flat with consumers.
PHOTO: CARLA GOTTGENS/BLOOMBERG NEWS

In addition to the chunky mango drink, Coca-Cola India has launched a spicy cumin-flavored
soda and a “gritty” guava drink. A new variation of its Thums Up cola with extra caffeine was
developed in India, then brought to Bangladesh, as was Rimzim, the cumin soda.

Some inventions fall flat. The company’s last attempt at a coffee-flavored soda flopped soon
after launching in Europe and North America in 2006. The flavor put people off, and Coca-Cola
discontinued BlāK in the U.S. the following year. Coca-Cola Life, a lower-calorie variant
sweetened with sugar and stevia, was pulled from the U.K. last year.

As it introduces new products, Coke is yanking from store shelves older drinks that it dubs
“zombies.” The company has started issuing quarterly “zombie lists” to its top markets,
identifying products that haven’t grown for three years. In the Middle East and North Africa
unit, it plans to eliminate 125 products by year’s end.

Corrections & Amplifications

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated in a caption when Coca-Cola Life was
launched. That line has since been removed.

Write to Eric Bellman at eric.bellman@wsj.com and Jennifer Maloney at

jennifer.maloney@wsj.com

Appeared in the August 24, 2018, print edition as 'The Many Flavors of Coca-Cola'.