i stumbled on a website called "zeromovement.com"... which is a "fansite" for... you guessed it... coke zero.

anyway... that's not really "the story" here.

what i learned is that coke zero has different packaging in australia. and i just wondered what you thought of it.

personally, i like the black packaging of the aussie version better... since it looks more like it's own brand, and less like diet coke.

to see the aussie version, go to: http://zeromovement.com/

[ 01-21-2006, 12:48 PM: Message edited by: popologist ]

it's a corporate site put together by coca-cola australia. still, great marketing, cool site and a nice look.

I think it looks pretty cool. IMO it does not seem all that different than the US version.

i always thought a black can would've looked better. since diet coke is in a white/silver can.

i get the feeling that, eventually, zero will be in a black can in the USA too.

it's possible that coke avoided using black because when pepsi one was reformulated recently, they switched from a silver can to a black one. so maybe coke didn't want to seem like it was being a copy cat.

Originally posted by Mr Zabe:
I think it looks pretty cool. IMO it does not seem all that different than the US version.

well, technically, they only switched the colors black and white. LOL.

Originally posted by popologist:
i stumbled on a website called "zeromovement.com"... which is a "fansite" for... you guessed it... coke zero.

Popo, thanks for the finding!

Like RWDLG said, it's not a fansite, it's the site of the new australian Coke zero! [img]smile.gif[/img] IMO both black (Aussie) and white (US & Canada) labels are great!

I hope that with this release, Coke zero would be released in all the world... specially in Mexico, of course , I'll cross my fingers!

well, according to wikipedia.com... coke zero is the same (or similar) formula as "coca-cola light" is in europe. so, things could get confusing.

from what i've read, coke zero is tapping about half of its sales from existing drinks (coke, diet coke, diet pepsi, etc.) and the other half are new drinkers.

in september, coke zero had about 1% of the US market... and was growing at an 18% clip (between sept and nov). so, if that pace continues, coke zero would be at 2% by the end of this year... which would put it comfortably in the US top ten sodas.

2004's top ten:

coca-cola classic (17.9%)
pepsi (11.5)
diet coke (9.7)
mt dew (6.3)
diet pepsi (6.1)
sprite (5.7)
dr pepper (5.6)
caffeine free diet coke (1.7)
sierra mist (1.4)
diet dr pepper (1.4)

overall:

coca-cola (43.1%)
pepsico (31.7%)

(these numbers come from beveragedigest.com)

i'd also add that since 1995, coke classic's market share has slid from 20.8 to 17.9 (-2.9 pts).

pepsi slid from 15 to 11.5 (-3.5 pts).

diet coke gained from 8.8 to 9.7 (+0.9 pts).

and diet pepsi gained from 5.8 to 6.1 (+0.3 pts).

with these trends in mind, many in the industry speculated that diet coke would overtake pepsi as the #2 soda in the USA within the next few years.

this is why coke introduced coca-cola zero. they figured they wanted to give people more options in the only segment of the soda market that's still growing... zero-calorie drinks.

it remains to be seen how coke zero's success will effect diet coke's advance on pepsi cola's #2 status.

The US has gone and is still going through a low carb diet fad. I use the word fad because looking back there has been many popular diets that have come and gone in say the past 30 years.

I tend to think to in good times both economically,world peace and ease of personal spending money; certain goods and services become rewards. Rewards that people may not always use or acquire rationally.

How many cars does the average family of four need? How many shoes does the lady of the house need? My point is that consumption increase for rewards as income/strong economic national economy appears to increase to the average person.

Getting back to soda pop. Besides the low carb fad in this country, the war has taken it's toll on the economy and the perception of the economy.
Diet soda pop increase is real. There could be real changes in how soda pop is consumed or there could be real changes in what people are deciding to drink,bottled water,juice,sports drinks,tap water,powdered drinks and so on.

My guess is that when this country gets past the war and the economy is perceived to be strong,not only low cal soda pop will gain market share, regular HFCS soda pop will come back strong. People will consume sweetened sugar/HFCS soda pop as an affordable reward.

[ 01-21-2006, 09:29 PM: Message edited by: Mr Zabe ]

well, i agree that "diet" drinks are here to stay... and will continue to grow... as they improve in taste. i can honestly say that i probably drink TWICE as much coke zero as i did diet coke... just because it tastes better to me.

as for sugary sodas... i think their "golden years" are gone. there's just too much competition now, plus... they've almost become a pariah in the media... like cigarettes. with that said, however, i think their decline will eventually bottom out, and, as MrZ said, they'll begin to recover a bit.

i think coke and pepsi's growth strategy though, is something like that of the cigarette companies... to fuel most of their growth overseas. that's where the real battle is. coke already gets 2/3 of its revenue overseas. that was not the case in the 1980s.