Wednesday, August 23, 2006

New Product Alert!

(New product alerts were a common theme between myself and JMons. We hope to continue them here.)

As I sit here at lunch, I have my first few sips of "Diet Pepsi Jazz Strawberries and Cream." Not gag-inducing, but not memorable either. What gets me about it is that it isn't a strawberry and cream flavored soda--that might have a chance. Its strawberry and cream flavored Diet Pepsi. Strawberries and cola simply do not go together. Try it at your own risk.

And don't get me started on the ridiculously long name and the new "Jazz" sub-brand.

Yesterday I tried "Diet Pepsi Jazz Black Cherry and Vanilla." I don't know what the turnaround time is on a soda from concept to store shelves, but I find it very peculiar that both Coke and Pepsi both have black cherry vanilla flavors currently on shelves, appearing within mere months (weeks?) of one another. And in this race, they were both beat to the punch by black cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper.

Maybe I don't understand the economics of soda flavors, but Coke and Pepsi always seem to play the game of mutual assured destruction when they introduce a new flavor. One comes first, and the other quickly follows. The only times I don't remember this happening are the introductions of Pepsi Clear and Pepsi Blue.

Couldn't either company allow the other to have at least one unique cola?

1 Comments:

At 1:11 PM, Blogger JonM said...

Very interesting. I've always been fascinated by the beverage industry in that it seems like the one industry that is almost entirely based on marketing.

Who do you think that the "Jazz" component of the name is pitched to? Does "Jazz" no longer refer primarily to the musical form? I would think not because jazz fans surely cannot be the market for this product. Adding jazz in this way almost seems like it is characteristic of the marketing of products in foreign countries. It sounds vaguely American and hence, "cool."

 

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