coke zero

In the soft drinks industry, change is the name of the game. Coca Cola has symbolised this time and time again, with a history of constant innovation and new products in their track record. Coca Cola Zero is just one such example of a great new product launch.

Coca Cola Zero, better known as Coke Zero, was launched by the Coca Cola Company in June 2005. The Atlanta based Company described it as their biggest launch in 22 years since the launch of diet Coke. This drink was strongly targeted at a male audience. This was because many members from the target audience did not take other health oriented drinks, such as Diet Coke, as they felt that it was too strongly associated with females. It was even dubbed as “Bloke Coke”.

Even though it was also positioned on the health platform, it was different from Diet Coke in that it used the original Coca-Cola formula. Diet Coke had an entirely new formula which became the basis for the controversial New Coke. Also, it used aspartame and acesulfame potassium as sweeteners, whereas Diet Coke uses only aspartame.

In the US, the original, “hip” advertising campaign for Coke Zero was quickly replaced by a new, more “informative” one (because consumers were confusing it with C2 and Diet Coke with Splenda). It was described as a “calorie free” drink, whereas in other place it was described as being “sugar free”.

In the UK and Ireland, Coca Cola used Girls Aloud singers Cheryl Cole and Sarah Harding respectively to promote the soft drink. A television advertisement was also created in which a Coke Zero drinker, called Dan by Coke’s marketing department, expresses surprise that a Coke without sugar is tasty. He goes on to imagine that it may be possible to have “girlfriends without five-year plans”, “bras without the fumbling”, “workmates without work” and other pleasant scenarios.

In Canada and Ireland, the “Anatomy Commercials” featured various detached organs (an eyeball, a tongue, a finger, a brain, etc) with comical accents and personalities, disputing the nature and existence of Coca-Cola Zero. For example, the finger feels the bottle and states that it “feels like Coke”, but the eyeball sees the label and declares him wrong. Each ad ends with the eyeball’s French accent voiceover: “Real Coke taste, zero calories.”

Coca-Cola took part in an advertising campaign tied to the 22nd James Bond movie, Quantum Of Solace. For a short time around the release of the movie, Coke Zero was advertised as “Coke Zero Zero Seven”.

In a significant change from tradition, Zero Coke’s livery was chosen as Black and Red, as opposed to the usual Red and White.

The success of the launch was underscored by the fact that in 2008, AC Nielsen proclaimed this as the biggest NPD launch of the last three years. Cathryn Sleight, Marketing Director for Coca-Cola Great Britain, said that the campaign aimed to cement the position of coke Zero as the third Cola in the portfolio, alongside ‘Coca-Cola’ and ‘diet Coke’.

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