Soft Drinks

Food/Cooking - Beverages

By: sparkybates 01-Apr-2011

Introduction:

Beverage Digest, the beverage industry's leading information resource for breaking news, analysis, and data, recently released, in their March 17, 2011 edition, 2010 sales results for the carbonated soft drink industry.

In 2010, the sales of carbonated soft drink products declined 0.5% from the previous year (2009) to a total volume of about 9.36 billion cases. This list, then, summarizes the ranking of the most popular American soft drinks, by sales volume, as reported by Beverage Digest.

Coke

In 1985, The Coca-Cola Company introduced a reformulation of their flagship Coca-Cola soft drink. This was a major marketing failure and led to the subsequent reintroduction of Coke's original formula, re-branded as "Coca-Cola Classic." By 2009, with "New Coke" being little more than a bad memory, the company felt safe to return to its tried and true "Coke" branding (instead of "Coke Classic"). 2010's rankings, then, were the first in 25 years that "Coke" was back on top, claiming 17% of the market share over Pepsi's 9.5%. In 2010, almost 1.6 billion cases of Coke were sold.

Diet Coke

When Tab was released in 1963, the Coca-Cola Company refused to release a diet soda with the Coca-Cola name, fearing that its flagship brand might suffer. After the long-term success of rival Diet Pepsi, however, Coca-Cola decided to launch a competing sugar-free brand under the Coca-Cola name in 1982. Over the last decade, the Diet Coke brand added several new flavors to its lineup like lemon, vanilla, cherry and lime and released a variant fortified with vitamins and minerals in 2007 called Diet Coke Plus. Under pressure from Wal-Mart, a Diet Coke version sweetened with Splenda was also released for awhile. From 2009 to 2010, Diet Coke sales remained relatively flat at just under 927 million cases (sales volume dropped just 1% and 9.9% market share remained constant). Because Pepsi sales declined more, in 2010, Coca-Cola products have monopolized the top two spots.

Pepsi

In 1898, Caleb Bradham introduced "Brad's Drink" in New Bern, North Carolina. In 1903, it was renamed Pepsi Cola, possibly due to the digestive enzyme pepsin and kola nuts used in the recipe. In the 1970s, Pepsi reached its heyday, to date, when its "Pepsi Challenge" suggested that more consumers preferred the taste of Pepsi and eventually led to Coca-Cola's unpopular attempt to reformulate their product to taste more like Pepsi. Industry analysts, however, believe that recent declines are due less to changes in the industry or its consumer's taste buds, but rather bad marketing tactics. Last year, the brand made a bold move in what turned out to be the wrong direction by steering its advertising budget toward its altruistic Refresh Project. This strategy strayed wildly from Pepsi's unprecedented star-studded marketing campaigns. Refocusing the brand in 2011 on sexy celebrities rather than $20 million in charitable grants may return Pepsi to some of its former glory. Pepsi's 2010 sales of 891.5 million cases (9.5% market share) represented a drop of 4.8% in volume and 0.4% in market share from the previous year.

Mountain Dew

Mountain Dew is a citrus-flavored carbonated soft drink brand produced and owned by PepsiCo. The original Appalachian formula was invented in the 1940s by two Tennessee beverage bottlers, Barney and Ally Hartman. Mountain Dew has been successfully packaged and marketed recently as a high-voltage beverage for the extreme sports segment. Although Coca-Cola has attempted to horn in on Mountain Dew's sales with the short-lived Surge and, more recently, its hybrid energy soda Vault, consumers preferred to "Do the Dew." Mountain Dew, with its 2010 sales volume of 633.3 million cases (6.8% market share) improved 0.5% in volume and 0.1% in market share over the previous year.

Dr Pepper

Dr Pepper was created in the 1880s by Charles Alderton of Waco, Texas and first served around 1885. As such, it lays claim to the title of "America's oldest major soft drink." It was first nationally marketed in the United States in 1904 to 20 million people attending the 1904, World's Fair Exposition, in St. Louis. Its elusive taste and 23-flavor formula is the brand's major consumer draw. Its 2010 sales of 592 million cases (6.3% market share) represents an increase of 2.8% in volume and 0.2% in market share as compared to the previous year.

Final Thoughts

The societal trend toward healthier living has resulted in a little bit of a backlash against sugary soda and the simultaneous tremendous growth in bottled water sales. To date, however, bottled water has never outsold soft drinks, which are and have always been, the best-selling beverage type in America.

Give this list a high five!

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Marilynda 2/26/2013
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I am addicted to diet soda!! Love Diet Coke especially
patriciac 4/3/2011
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Dr Pepper's my favorite, followed by Pepsi (diet, of course), and Coke Zero beats Diet Coke all day long (at least to my taste buds).
Snakesmom 4/2/2011
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I am a huge Diet Coke fan! I am a addict actually. lol :) Great list!
snowfence 4/2/2011
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Great list of soft drinks. H5
litetender 4/2/2011
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Dr. Pepper is my favorite ... my husband likes Sundrop, which I think you can only get in the South.
goodselfme 4/1/2011
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Interesting top 5 soft drinks. I am a pepsi woman when I drink soda, however have one or two a year is all. That is why they are not number one.