The Homa Files

Excerpted from Ad Age, “Coke, Pepsi Jump on Zero-Cal Sweetener Reb-A” By Natalie Zmuda, Dec 18, 2008

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A new zero-calorie sweetener could boost the beverage industry — if only it can figure out how to market products containing the ingredient.

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are rolling out products this month that will feature proprietary versions of Rebaudioside A, known as Reb-A.

Advertising messages are almost certain to take a variety of forms, and the products themselves could lead to confusion among consumers.

While consumers are accustomed to “diet” drinks containing a single calorie or none at all — and some of these new Reb-A products are likely to fill that bill — other products will have some calories …

In addition, there are two brand benefits to consider for marketing…some of the new beverages will likely be marketed as lower calorie, while others will be promoted as all natural. “The marketing and messaging is probably not going to be uniform…There’s not one single way of marketing these new beverages.”

Marketing efforts are likely to focus on education and sampling efforts to hook consumers…”In this case, because the ingredient is the differentiation of the product, it will be important to educate consumers about the value and the benefit of the sweetener…The key is to get people to get out and try these products and see for themselves that the products have a superior taste”…

It is unlikely Reb-A will find its way into flagship brands such as Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi…

A survey found that 22% of consumers are extremely interested in trying beverages using the sweetener…42% of those surveyed said they are not interested in trying beverages with Reb-A. Those consumers cited a myriad of issues ranging from safety and health concerns to taste to a preference for sugar…

Edit by SAC

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Beverage marketers would be wise to consider the same factors for Reb-A that technology innovations must overcome to ensure product adoption. 

These factors outlined by Everret Roger in Diffusion of Innovations are:

• Relative advantage over existing options,
• Compatibility with existing values, simplicity in being understood,
• Simplicity — easy to understand and to use
• Trialability on a low risk basis, and 
• Observability —  the degree to which the innovation is conspicuous to others. 

The biggest hurdle for beverage marketers may be in Reb-A’s simplicity.  While it’s relative advantage in being all-natural is clear, consumers must understand this benefit for it to have value. 

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This entry was posted on January 12, 2009 at 6:30 am and is filed under Mktg - Brands, Mktg - Product & Innovation, Mktg - Promotion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.