What is the deal with soft drink companies thinking they have to add a fruity flavor to already established somewhat popular carbonated beverages? I have tried Blue Pepsi.I have tried Dr.Pepper Red Fusion. I have tried Mountain Dew Code Red. They all taste like variations on different ‘house-label’ store-brand fruit flavored sodas I have been drinking for years,only the storebrands are cheaper with more varied,interesting flavors to boot!
IDBB
They are doing it because you aren’t buying their flagship product as much as you used to. What is wrong with you? You want berry flavors? Ok! You want vanilla flavor! Ok! You want healthy soda? Hmmm…
I don’t BUY the flagship products anymore because they are too expensive.Why should I go out of my way to purchase Vanilla Coke for X/ 2L bottle when the housbrand is half the price of Vanilla Coke for the same size bottle?
IDBB
I don’t drink soda anymore. Not more than once a month.
Basically variations of the same theme. They take their most popular products, give 'em a novelty such as a fruit flavor, or a neon green color, etc, and voila!
These companies are always one upping each other (as oppossed to 7-upping yuk yuk), so when one company introduces a product, theres usually a slew of others closely behind.
Neither do I,UR.But when I do buy soda,I don’t buy the brand name because it’s too expensive.I’m cheap and not particularly picky. I also like the wierd flavors they come up with for housebrands like Mango and Tangerine.
IDBB
They’re trying to catch the eye of brand new consumers who haven’t picked their favorite trendy drink yet. If they can catch the eye of a 12 yo and hook them on some odd ball flavor they’ve then just created a new market and taken their competition out of the picture all at the same time… Brand Marketing 101.
I read an interesting article several years ago about a similar phenomenon. It was about the variations of flavors in cookies. Apparently, the costs to introduce a new brand are exorbitant. And the failure rate is huge. So they introduce the new flavor as an offshoot of an established brand, saving time and money to create brand identity.
I read somewhere else where the latest trend in product marketing is that these products aren’t intended to be long term products. Remember ice beer? Dry beer? They create these products, hope a buzz is created, and when the fad is over, stop production. I suspect this is the same situation with sodas. Once the craze for flavored cola’s fades, we won’t see Vanilla Coke or the other variations anymore, just like the fad for clear sodas was big a few years back.
I have noticed that my black friends tend to buy a lot of flavoured pop. They like the Crush or the flavoured diet rite pop. I wonder if the big pop companies noticed this and are trying to hit that market.
I have tried Vanilla Coke. It is good. The Pepsi Blue is overpowering with berry flavour.
One thing interesting is that in the minority areas a lot of McDonalds have a drink where you get a little of each pop, root beer, coke, sprite, orange etc and mix it together. It is popular.
Hugh,
I agree with most of your post, but I think Vanilla Coke in particular might have staying power. People have been drinking vanilla cokes for decades, at least in my region of the country. It has always been a pretty standard request at a Dairy Queen or a Sonic. So there was already at least some market for it, and at the high school I teach at it has become very popular with the kids. I do agree that brand new flavors like Pepsi Blue and Red Fusion probably won’t last long.
What I’m really waiting for is Vanilla Dr. Pepper. Mmmmm.
Monkey see, monkey do. If one company thinks a new flavor will sell more, so does its competitor. They’ve certainly got your attention; otherwise, this question wouldn’t have crossed your mind.
I prefer Pepsi Blue because it looks and tastes like Windex, so I drink it a lot slower than regular Pepsi. That’s its only positive feature.
The only good thing I"ve seen to come out of the flavored drink revolution is Diet Pepsi Twist. Diet Coke with Lemon tastes like Coke that somebody dumped Lemon Pledge™ into. I love Diet Pepsi Twist. I’ve been adding a twist of lemon to my Diet Pepsi for years, as have others I know. It’s a good thing that Pepsi finally realized there was a market for this.
Oh…kind of on the same bent…what do y’all think about the new Cookies AND… products? We got a free sample of Cookies AND M&M’s at the State Fair and I thought they were good but not great.
IDBB
Ahhhh snacks and soda. Just about my favorite things in the world, as you can guess by my user name.
I keep looking for those Cookies And… things at my grocery store, but they don’t have them yet. I saw them for sale at a truckstop in Kansas for chrissakes. The 7-11 near my had Cookies and Milky Way (Or was it Snickers?) and it was just okay. I expected something else, I suppose. I will try the others, though.
As for Tangent’s comment about Vanilla Coke: You’re right. I like Vanilla Coke and hope it stays around, but I wonder if, after the newness wears off, whether there are enough people that will buy it to make it worth producing. I imagine it would have to be more than a niche product for a multinational corporation to keep producing it.
** Tangent**, being a huge Dr Pepper fan, I think you’re right on with that. I’m afraid to try this “fusion” version, though. What is it fused with?
Vanilla coke is quite yummy. I wish fast food places like McD’s near here carried it. Yum, yum, yum
As far as I can tell, it’s just like those “Red” sodas. Vaguely strawberry in taste. I was pretty disappointed.
Well, I liked the Mello-Yello Melon.
I’d probably drink a lot more soda if these funky flavors came in diet. Especially Pepsi Blue. Diet vanilla coke is pretty good, not as harsh as regular diet coke. I don’t like the diet lemon/colas. Fruity stuff is yummy. Unfortunately, I gotta watch the carbs in drinks, or I can’t eat any supper.
erislover,
I tried Red Fusion and I didn’t like it. It didn’t have much flavor at all, and what there was just wasn’t very good. Not worth even trying, IMHO.
To the extent there was ever a General Question here, does one remain?