Coca-Cola’s 20 Billion Dollar Brands & Future Growth

Fanta

Fanta is Coca-Cola’s second oldest company owned brand. Fanta was created in 1940. Due to a trade embargo, Coca-Cola could not import its products to Nazi Germany. The head of Coca-Cola Germany at the time decided to create a new soda with only ingredients available in Germany. The result was Fanta.

After World War II, Coca-Cola shut down Fanta and began producing Coca-Cola again in its German facilities. The company re-launched Fanta in 1955 after PepsiCo launched several new products. Fanta is heavily marketed in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America.

The 75th anniversary of Fanta was celebrated in Germany this year. Coca-Cola once again had a marketing failure. The company issued a ‘less sweet’ version of Fanta that was similar to the original war-time formula of Fanta. Coca-Cola said it wanted to get back the ‘feeling of the Good Old Times’. The early 1940’s in Germany were not ‘good old times’, and many misinterpreted Coca-Cola’s message. Coca-Cola quickly replaced its advertisement.

Sprite

Sprite is one of the most popular soft drinks in the world. The lemon-lime soda was introduced by Coca-Cola in 1961. Sprite is now sold in over 200 countries.

Sprite was originally developed in Germany in 1959 as ‘clear lemon Fanta’. Coca-Cola decided to rebrand the soda and call it Sprite for the United States market. Coca-Cola introduced Sprite to compete with 7-Up. Sprite’s sales surpassed 7-Up’s decades ago.

Diet Coke

Diet Coke was introduced to the market in 1982. Since that time, the Diet Coke brand has become one of the most successful soda brands in the world. Today, Diet Coke is sold in over 185 countries.

Diet Coke is the 3rd most popular soda in the United States, behind only Pepsi and Coca-Cola. The market share in the United States for the top 5 most popular sodas is shown below:

• Coca-Cola: 17.6% market share
• Pepsi: 8.8% market share
• Diet Coke: 8.5% market share
• Mountain Dew: 6.9% market share
• Pepper: 6.8% market share

Diet Coke is nearly as popular as Pepsi is in the United States. Coca-Cola’s soda brands are significantly stronger than Pepsi’s based on market share.

Coca-Cola Zero

Coca-Cola Zero is Coca-Cola’s latest soda brand to reach $1 billion in annual sales. The Coca-Cola Zero brand was launched in 2005. By 2007, it reached billion dollar brand status.

Coca-Cola Zero’s success is a result of the massive brand equity in the Coca-Cola brand. The Coca-Cola Zero brand is targeted specifically at males. Diet Coke is more popular with women while men tend to avoid the soda due to the word ‘diet’. Coca-Cola Zero is Coca-Cola’s answer to a low calorie soda for men.