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Red Bull is one of the iconic challenger brands. A brand that's managed to maintain its street cred over time with smart communication and a finely focused understanding of what its brand stands for.

However, Red Bull has been a "one trick pony"- extracting more and more from a single SKU and resisting the temptation to line extend itself to death. Something that certainly would have happened if the company had been taken over by one of the soda giants.

Red Bull's latest move must have those same soda giants sweating because the new line extension, is a cola with a twist; a completely natural version.



This is a product formulation that's achieved some success in countries like Germany and even Pepsi has experimented with a new natural variant called RAW, but Red Bull could be onto a winner here.

The brand has significant awareness, a massive distribution system and the challenger credentials to help it take on the giants. On top of all this, the brand has the zeitgeist impact of the shift to all things natural and a backlash against un-natural sodas, in its favor.

Via Coolhunting

Posted by Ed Cotton Pepsi just launched an interesting new initiative in the UK with a very selective introduction of Pepsi Raw- a natural version of the cola. It's a step in the right direction; a new on-trend formulation instead of yet another flavor or diet variant, but the ambition appears weak.

It's only being sold in selective nightclubs and not nationwide. It's also only in the UK.




Which leaves me to speculate the following question

Is Coca-Cola going to seize on the opportunity and launch a new natural formula Coke anytime soon?

Will Pepsi go global with Raw?

It looks like we might be entering the next phase of the cola wars.


Posted by Ed Cotton When a financial analyst announces that he recognizes the impact of one of your recent product launches, but is concerned that it's not enough, your brand has a lot of work to do.

"While the current success of the brand (Coke Zero) in volume terms is beyond dispute, we do not believe it is enough to resolve the core issues Coca-Cola faces: to halt the slide in the carbonated soft drink category and improve Coca-Cola's category share."

Robert van Brugge-Bernstein

CSDs are in massive decline worldwide because people are seeking healthy alternatives.

Coca-Cola has been skirting around the edges without cracking the real problem; they are reducing calories and they are even adding vitamins. They are trying to make the product healthier, but they need to find a way to make a CSD with nothing artificial in it and a reduce the sugar content.

We've already reported on 7-UP's attempt to make this happen.

It makes sense to expand the portfolio into juices and waters, but people would drink CSDs if they were natural and available everywhere- people are already making them.

Some are very succesful.

How hard can it be for someone with the resources of Coca-Cola?