Crossing the aisle with soft drinks in the supermarket, you may notice that the word “light” appears much less often than before.
Lately, some light soft drinks have disappeared from the shelves. Or at least, that word has disappeared from their packaging. The trend of the time wants the soft drink companies to turn to “sugar free” or “zero sugar”.
The reason; The words “light” or “diet” (“diet”) are not at all fashionable among the younger generations of consumers and especially the Millennials and Gen Z-ers.
“Young people just don’t like the word ‘diet,'” says Greg Lyons, head of marketing at PepsiCo Beverages North America. Pepsi changed the name of Pepsi Max to Pepsi Zero Sugar in 2016.
Of course, this does not mean that the public does not like low-calorie soft drinks. The market for these soft drinks has grown since the 1960s, when it was introduced. In 2020, in the US, sales of light soft drinks reached 11.2 billion dollars. It’s a much smaller market for regular soft drinks, with a turnover of $ 28.2 billion, but it is growing faster. Sales of soft drinks in the US have increased by 19.5% since 2018, while regular soft drinks show an increase in sales by 8.4% over the same period.
The birth of diet soft drinks
Diet Rite, a calorie-free beverage from the soft drink company Royal Crown Cola, was first released in 1958 as an option for diabetics and other consumers who needed to limit their sugar intake. Initially, it was on the shelf with drugs and not soft drinks, but soon other companies targeted the growing number of Americans on a diet.
Following the success of Diet Rite, Coca Cola released the Tab in 1963 and Pepsi the Diet Pepsi a year later. In 1982, Diet Coke was released.
At first, Coca Cola initially thought of calling its product “sugar free”, but feared that this would be an indirect attack on the main ingredient of its soft drink.
It took several decades for Coca Cola to return to the idea of ​​sugar-free. This time it targeted the audience that seemed to avoid its light products, namely men and younger consumers. So in 2005, Coca Cola released Coke Zero in the US, believing that men did not want to be associated with the word “light”.
Today, as diets take on a negative connotation, soft drink companies are trying to break away from the “light” and “diet”. With the term “zero sugar” they hope to address a generation of consumers who are more interested in health and a balanced diet. But now, they face increased competition from carbonated water.
moneyreview
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