At our stores, it seems with C2 and Coke Zero (especially), that Diet Coke sales are significantly down..(this is in Canada too)
I am very interested in hearing from all the coke experts if they have been seeing this trend in the last couple of months.

I've never EVER had a problem with Diet coke ever getting short-dated...but it happened for the first time for us.

I really hope Coke Cherry Zero does really well in the US. That would give us Canucks some hope that Cherry Coke might make comeback here yet again...=P

Coke knew Coke Zero would cannibalize Diet Coke from the beginning.
The hope is there is a net gain in drinkers for all of coke's sugar free products.

if they want to save diet coke then they need to throw some ace-k into the mix. diet coke just tastes awful. it needs an update.

i think their ultimate intention is for coke zero to appeal to coke classic drinkers, and diet coke to appeal to pepsi drinkers (since diet coke is based on a sweeter formula).

IMO....Most companies with a successful (profit making) brands seek to increase market share/profits by extending/introducing new brands.
Not the other way around.

the reason there's even a market for coke zero is because diet coke tastes so bad (in my opinion).

of course, coke doesn't dare change the diet coke formula after the new coke fiasco, so they've introduced coke zero instead.

that's my take on it.

Diet Coke drinkers seem to be a very loyal crowd and don't want it messed with. I have no proof for this, but I doubt Coke Zero has pulled many people away from Diet Coke. I think Coke Zero has been mainly targeted at males who are used to drinking full calorie sodas but may have lessened their consumption because of concerns about all the sugar. Aside from Coke Zero tasting better than Diet, it is more of a "masculine" drink and that has helped its growth. You can still be "manly" and drink a Zero, while Diet is more of a "feminine" drink. Among those who are current Zero drinkers there may be more former Coke Classic drinkers than former Diet Coke drinkers. I don't have numbers or proof for all this, just my thoughts and observations, for what little that is worth!

Some good "arm chair" observations. I agree that core diet Coke drinkers most likely will not switch to Coke Zero.

I also agree with those observations. Diet soda drinkers have commented that Zero is "too sweet" for them, but people who had switched to Diet Coke for health reasons often were happy to see that Coke Zero was available, since it has that familiar Coke Classic taste.

I'll just echo the above. There seems to be some minor loss to Diet Coke; but that is mostly offset by new consumers switching to it. Still Zero is bring in alot of new drinkers some from Classic and some from Pepsi. Overall DC may suffer a tad but it is more than made up for by the success of Zero.