according to a lot of online internet articles, coke zero is a huge success everywhere (australia, uk, etc) ... and, yet, after its initial launch... i've barely seen any promotion at all in the US (no commercials, no ads, no billboards).

so what's the deal?

is coke afraid of its own success? that coke zero will cannibalize diet and classic's sales?

i just don't understand.

IMO
Coke Zero has done well despite itself and it's poor marketing. The Chicago market supports Coke Zero on "grass roots" level. Those core drinkers support it but it does not appear Coca Cola seeks to build it into a thriving brand. Why...I'm not sure other than poor brand management.

[ 06-23-2006, 12:55 PM: Message edited by: Mr Zabe ]

here, coke zero is as popular as water! it was put on all coke machines along with vault a couple of months ago, and it sells well in stores, i mean, i got a 24 pack of it yesterday, and it was the last one, and all the 12 packs were gone... that has happened to me a few times before too, despite cokes lack of advertising after the initial bump...

How many different ways can you make Diet Coke? Coke Zero / Diet Coke / Diet Coke with Splenda, Kind of confusing. Coke might be afraid of losing their core Diet Coke consumer and their brand rank as the number 1 diet soft drink if they convert DC drinkers to Zero drinkers. Brand Rank plays a part in contract negotitaions for next year.

Despite the advertising problems, it sells well here. We're required to have it on all our displays, as well as in all vending machines (just like Vault).

i haven't seen much in the way of coke adverts recently. no real campaign since a couple months after the launch of vault. i'm sure they'll have something sizzling. meanwhile, a lot of their marketing money is probably invested in the world cup.

but seriously, let's not ask silly questions like, "is coke abandoning this successful product?" when i've heard nothing but good things. i've seen no date problems (still see that from time to time with vault, bcvc) etc... that would make me think that it is going away.

both zero and vault are now in 24pk cans flats/suitcases in michigan.

Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Light/Diet Coke will be always the ones with more advertising than other products or their versions... but IMO the lack of advertising doesn't mean that the product is abandoned... there's lapses where Coca-Cola gives high promotion to a product and there's another lapses where Coke gives a break to the advertising of a certain product...

And talking about promotion... it's really weird that Coca-Cola Light and Diet Coke are highly promoted during the FIFA World Cup games in Germany, in all the games of this week I just saw Coca-Cola Light and Diet Coke billboards in the soccer fields... it's the first time I see Coca-Cola Light/Diet Coke billboards in the 28 years of Coca-Cola sponsorship with FIFA Soccer World Cup...

[ 06-26-2006, 10:27 AM: Message edited by: Ramón Cokeaholic ]

as far as i can tell coke zero sells very well for coke where i live

Yeah not advertising is not abandoining- when did you see the last Barqs or Mello Yello ad?

I do agree though that this brand has been a winner despite the lame intro campaign and customer confusion with DC w/ Splenda. Like I've said before- Coke is not gonna push this one unless DC starts losing share to Diet Pepsi (right now the opposite is happening)

well, it's frustrating because coke zero is so much better than diet coke, AND... half of the time the 12 packs of zero are sold out at ALL THREE supermarkets in my neighborhood. if i don't get to the store early in the week (when the coke truck comes), i may not be able to find any!!!

and it makes me mad!