Coke's newest marketing innovation..er..disaster

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

Article is here..

The latest fashion accessory among youth may just be a can of Coca-Cola.

 

Like Red Bull

Camouflaged in a slim new can reminiscent of red-hot Red Bull, Coca-Cola  

Co.'s flagship has been making the rounds among the chic elite during an underground test at select Manhattan clubs and boutiques. The slender 8.4-oz. can, which borrows the cachet of energy drinks and looks hipper than its stubby 12-ounce cylindrical sibling, also was spotted at last month's celebrity-soaked American Music Awards.

 

Coca-Cola declined to discuss the product, other than to confirm it was tested in New York. But marketing observers said the idea is that young, jaded consumers are more likely to take to the 116-year-old product if they "discover" it in dark clubs, where it's offered only to trendsetters, than if it were promoted with a blowout ad campaign complete with TV, billboards and banners.

 

Cocktail mixer?

Coke tested the metallic red cans -- which included an "original formula" note on the package but had only subtle reference to the name of the brand -- at hot New York bars including Lit, Trust and Shine and at stores like Mac cosmetics and Diesel. It's not clear whether slim Coke is being consumed  mainly straight up or, like Red Bull, as a mixer du jour.

 

"This audience in particular -- a young audience -- is attracted to [innovation] like bees to honey. They get bored very quickly. They get inundated," said one person familiar with the company. "Coke is such a recognized icon that to show it in an unexpected way is almost breaking the rules, which is exciting to people."

 

Recent innovations

It's also part of Big Red's move to boost its bottom line using package innovations such as the so-called fridge pack -- a cardboard 12-pack box that nestles nicely into refrigerators. Coke has also experimented with labels consumers can tailor themselves and with bottles made from aluminum, which the company has in Japan.

 

"What the soft-drink companies have learned is that they have to create news and excitement to get growth. ... New brands are one way. New packages are another," said John Sicher, editor of Beverage Digest Editor.

important to carbonated soft drinks -- and already is more prevalent -- than are new products, said Lynn Dornblaser, editorial director of the global new products database at Mintel, which tracks new entries.

 

"There is less potential for variety when it comes to carbonated soft drinks," she said. "There's not a lot of room for different types of products, where if you're talking candy or meals or bakery products, there is so much potential you could have."

 

Priced more

Should the test move beyond clubs to retailers, Coke's slender can likely would sell for more than a regular can of soda but less than the top-dollar energy drinks.

 

"If you want your product to be identified with trendy people, you've got to sell it to them in a contemporary package," said Candace Corlett, partner at WSL Strategic Retail, which tracks retail trends. "It certainly makes transitioning to a higher price easier if the packaging is fun."

 

Indeed, paying more for less is no impediment for young consumers like Winnie Heilmichael, a 23-year-old computer science student in Boston, who said she'd pick up the zippy little can: "People like to try different [looking] things if they taste the same."

 

Raise your hand if you will pay $2 for a 8 ounce can of Coke...

 

*No one raises their hands*

 

Thats what I thought (and if you do, you sir/maddam, are stupid).

Coke still makes the 8 ounce glass bottles, and no one that I know buys them because they cost well over a dollar, and for the same price you can usually get a 20 ounce bottle of coke or possibly two 12 ounce cans of Coke.

 

"Gee..do I want to pay $2 for an 8 ounce can of Coke that looks really cool, or 50 cents for a 12 ounce can of coke in a not so cool looking can?"

 

This is doomed if it goes any further than the *trendy nightclub scene*...

[Guest El Satanico]

Well they aren't marketing to the people who are only interested in getting the most product for the smallest amount of money(like the 20 oz bottle for .99) so it doesn't really matter what they would think of the product.

 

If they ever did try to mass market it the price would drop.

 

However Red Bull is also expensive and it seems to do well on a semi mass marketed level.

[Guest J*ingus]

$2? Some weeks, you can get a couple of two-liters for that much.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I want to see an aluminum bottle. Or a plastic can. Seriously, either aluminum is a cheaper material or plastic is a cheaper material, why not save some money by using one or the other? Either way, they can go off shouting INNOVATION, when it's still getting poured into a glass over ice anyway.

[Guest Choken One]

Wow. Great. I'll buy it just to add to my collection of Soda Cans/Bottles...If you can put 20 oz in a sleak bottle like that...cool and that'll be worth $1.89 but not 8 oz.

[Guest razazteca]

I like the 1/2 liter bottles personally, nothing is cooler than a 16.9 ounce beverage.

[Guest Choken One]

Except for me of course.