From “Diet” to “Zero Sugar” this will how beverage companies will rebrand their drinks in order to fit the perspective of the health-conscious young generations.
The main factor of this upcoming change is because these Zoomers and Millennials are less attracted to drink soda just like the reason of older people because they see it as very unhealthy and they are particularly inclined to abstain from ‘diet’ drinks because of their aversion to diet culture.
According to Greg Lyons, chief marketing officer at PepsiCo Beverages North America, during the Beverage Digest Future Smarts conference in December, “Younger people just don’t like the word ‘diet, “No Gen Z wants to be on a diet these days.”
Well years Pepsi has been marketing their zero-sugar beverage for years now and when Donald Trump was elected to be the first reality TV star president back in 2016, Pepsi rebranded their Pepsi Max offering as Pepsi Zero Sugar.
In addition to Pepsi Zero Sugar, PepsiCo sells zero sugar varieties of Schweppes ginger ale, Sierra Mist, and Mountain Dew.
And as recently as January of this year, PepsiCo introduced a zero-sugar version of Mountain Dew Frost Bite.
But distaste for the word diet doesn’t signal an aversion to no-calorie beverages. The diet soda segment, which includes diet and zero-calorie branded drinks, has ballooned since it first hit the mainstream in the 1960s.
In 2020, the US retail diet carbonated soft drink market hit $11.2 billion, according to Mintel, a market research company.
The segment is still far smaller than the market for regular carbonated soft drinks, which was $28.2 billion in 2020, but it’s growing much more quickly. Diet soda sales are up about 19.5% from 2018, compared to just 8.4% for regular soda in the same period, making it an attractive segment for soda makers seeking growth.
The truth is those who were against the diet culture are not as anti-diet as we think they are just bound to make their own decision about whether or not they want to cut out soda from their diets, and people, in general, do not like the idea of being told how much sugar is “acceptable” by anyone other than themselves.
It’s expected to see these new labels on the store shelves soon to avoid backlash against the soda companies themselves.
For years now diet culture has been struggling and there’s no chances for any change and rebranding from “Diet” to “Zero Sugar” is the only option these companies has in order to afloat with the environment and this generation.
Sources: AWM, Daily Mail, Convenience, CNN, Go News Book
