Two years after the fanfare launch of Coke Life, Coca-Cola has renamed, reformulated and repackaged the lower sugar product.
Coke Life, which was only the fourth new brand to be launched in Coke’s 128 year history, was accompanied by a massive launch campaign in Australia in March 2015.
Last month, however, its maker quietly released what it described as “the newest member of the Coke family” - Coca-Cola with Stevia.
“Coca-Cola with Stevia is an evolution of Coca-Cola Life and forms part of the company’s ongoing commitment to offer lower sugar options,” Coca-Cola South Pacific said.
Coke with Stevia is sweetened with a combination of stevia and sugar, and it has half the sugar of Coca-Cola Classic, compared to Coke Life which had 35 per cent less sugar.
“Coca-Cola has had a long history of responding to our consumers. It’s the key to us being around for 130 years,” Coca-Cola South Pacific marketing director Lisa Winn said.
“We innovate and change in line with consumer tastes and preferences. That is why we continue to create new products that meet evolving tastes and preferences, particularly as people increasingly look to balance their intake of sugar.”
The name was chosen to make the main product feature - stevia - clearer to consumers, Winn said, after research revealed Australians are familiar with stevia as a common sweetener in food and drinks.
“We wanted to make it easier for consumers to choose the right Coke for them. We want to make it easy to choose the Coke that best suits their taste, diet and lifestyle.
“Not only does Coke with Stevia have less sugar, it also has a great new taste. We think it is delicious and we know our consumers will too,” she said.
The launch of Coca-Cola with Stevia follows the unveiling of Coca-Cola’s new One Brand design in Australia in February, with all of Coca-Cola’s varieties, including Coke with Stevia, now unified under one packaging design for the first time in the company’s history.
“We believe one of the best ways we can support the growth of lower and no sugar varieties of Coca-Cola is for them all to sit under our iconic Coca-Cola red disc so they can all share the limelight,” Winn said.
