Coca-Cola is to unify its portfolio of products – including Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero and Coca-Cola Life – under a new “one brand” strategy to promote the entire range.
The strategy sees the introduction of new pack designs, which aim to emphasise the distinct characteristics of each Coca-Cola product. The branding on every can and bottle, whether sweetened by sugar or by low-calorie sweeteners, whether caffeinated or non-caffeinated, cherry or vanilla flavoured, will be in the same style, with different colours clearly distinguishing each variant.
The new packaging, which will appear on shelves between now and May, will also see the introduction of the UK Government’s front-of-pack labelling scheme, which combines nutrient amounts and percentage Reference Intakes with colour-coding to show how much fat, saturated fat, salt, sugar and calories are in a product.
Advertising will now feature the full range of variants, and the lower/no sugar varieties will now be presented in the final frames of all TV commercials.
The new strategy also sees 2015 media investment in the lower and no sugar and calorie varieties doubled. The company will also use its sponsorship of the forthcoming Rugby World Cup to promote all four variants and to ‘hero’ Coca-Cola with zero calories.
Jon Woods, General Manager of Coca-Cola Great Britain & Ireland, believes the no and lower sugar variants will benefit from the closer association with Coca-Cola and that featuring all variants in advertising will make the choice offered to consumers clearer.
Woods concluded: “By focusing on building one brand and extending the appeal of the original Coca-Cola across our lower and no sugar variants we believe we can drive sustainable growth for our business in Great Britain in the years ahead”.
