Why Coca-Cola Spiced Failed - The Other Leadership Problems And Challenges It Reveals

It should have Succeeded.

Coca-Cola Spiced.

The beverage that blended the traditional Coke Flavor with Raspberry Notes.

Designed to Attract Gen-Z Drinkers who are looking for "Punchier Flavors" and following the Swicy Trend.

The Raspberry Flavor chosen because, in Freestyle Drink Machines, the flavor was Selected more than 5 Million Times in 2022.

Coca-Cola was So Certain it would Succeed that they announced that this product would be a part of their Permanent Lineup.

Yet, only Six Months after being Released, Spiced is getting Pulled.

What happened?

Well, what if I were to tell you that Coca-Cola Spiced was Doomed from the Beginning?

Let's look into it.

Coca-Cola has noticed it has had a much more difficult time attracting the younger generation.

They Noted that when creating this product "Specifically" for Gen-Z.

Why is the Coca-Cola company so Focused on gaining Gen-Z?

It has to do with Category Irrelevance.

I wrote an Article a few months back When Dr. Pepper "Overtook" Pepsi, and why this posed a Threat to Coca-Cola.

Now, what Everyone seemed to be Missing wasn't that Dr. Pepper was "Suddenly" becoming a More Popular Soft Drink than Pepsi.

What it was showing was that Dr. Pepper Masterfully Defined itself "Differently" from both Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

While Coca-Cola and Pepsi were "Battling" over the "Cola Drink" Category (Though Pepsi Never Threatened Coca-Cola Seriously), Dr. Pepper went a different route.

Dr. Pepper put itself as the Category King of both "Pepper Drinks" and, more importantly, the "Soda Treat" Category.

See, in general, the "Cola Drink" Category is becoming Irrelevant as Health Trends Increase.

People are choosing Not to drink "Cola Drinks" regularly, unlike previous generations.

People see "Cola Drinks" as Unhealthy, and "Coca-Cola" as the Category King of the Unhealthy Market.

Dr. Pepper has Avoided this by "Purposefully" being a "Soda Treat".

With Treats, you already "Know" you are choosing something not Healthy, You're "Treating Yourself".

Now, if Coca-Cola Spiced had marketed itself as a "Soda Treat" it might not have Failed, but it also would have been Directly Competing with Dr. Pepper.

As Category King/Queen Economics have shown, whoever is the King/Queen of a Category tends to own 75% of the Market.

Interestingly, it could be argued that Coca-Cola Cherry Vanilla was designed to Compete with Dr. Pepper Drinks, and this drink has "Also" recently been announced as being Discontinued.

So, instead of Competing with that Category King/Queen, they launched Coca-Cola Spiced as a part of its Main Lineup in a Hope to Reinvigorate the "Cola Drink" Category.

But the Market is Not Budging.

Gen-Z in particular sees "Exactly" how Sick the World is getting, and they want a Better Life (as do Many Generations).

So, Coca-Cola was Doomed to Fail.

From the Beginning, they Never had a Chance to Attract Gen-Z to a Category that is becoming Irrelevant.

This means that Coca-Cola Spiced could only Succeed "If" it Took Market Share from Pepsi "or" Coca-Cola's Already Strong Lineup.

Really, it has No Place here, which helps Explain Why it Failed.

With this, there is another Interesting Problem with the Thinking behind "Why" this Flavor was Chosen for Coca-Cola Spiced.

Raspberry was chosen 5 Million Times in Freestyle Machines, which is an Impressive Feat.

But it is a False Indicator of Success.

Why?

Freestyle Machines Do Not Account for Consistency.

See, what is Novel about Freestyle Machines is they allow for Experimentation.

People who are "Actively Experimenting" are in a "Very" different Market from those who Regularly Grocery Shop.

When people go to the Grocery Store, they are looking for something that is "Consistent".

But the person who is Actively Experimenting could be creating all sorts of Abominations!

They may have chosen "Raspberry Coke", but they could have mixed that with "Cherry Sprite", Lemonade, and Pibb Extra.

All in the same drink.

Freestyle Machines are a Terrible Way to Choose Consistent Flavors.

Even though the Metric of 5 Million Times is Extremely Impressive, it's a Metric that Doesn't Help with the "Cola Drink" Category Problems.

As we can see, all of these Reasons Reveal that Coca-Cola Spiced was Doomed from the Beginning.

However, there is More to this Story.

There is a Larger Leadership Problem that Coca-Cola has to Figure Out.

If the "Cola Drink" Category is becoming Irrelevant, how will Coca-Cola Succeed?

If we look closely, we see that Coca-Cola has been trying to figure this out and has been Failing at Every Turn.

Their Solutions to a "Healthier Soda" have been "Diet" and "Zero" Flavors.

The Problem with these is that they are Not "Actually" Much Healthier, and some people would Argue they are "Less" Healthy, than Traditional Cola Drinks.

People are Not "Kind" to Companies that Lie about their Products, which is Why I always say Leaders "Must" be Exemplars of their Beliefs.

"Diet" and "Zero" Flavors are Not Exemplary Products of Health.

This is why Olipop and Poppi have recently Surged in Popularity.

These are (at least in theory) designed to be "Truly" Healthy with their Gut Health Focus.

Even "If" Coke Pivots into this Category, they will only be telling the Market that Olipop and Poppi have the Right Idea.

Coke will Not be the Category King/Queen of the "Gut Health Soda" Market.

The Coca-Cola Company has also Purchased Other Products in Hopes to Escape their Category Irrelevance.

In Particular, they have purchased BodyArmor and Topo Chico.

The Problems Here?

Neither are Category Kings/Queens.

BodyArmor plays in Gatorade's Category, which is already "Very" Competitive with Powerade and even Prime.

But Gatorade Still Wins that Category due to Category King/Queen Economics.

Coca-Cola Company "Did" Announce a "Zero Sugar" version of BodyArmor which "Technically" is a New Category.

The Problem?

It's a Category "No One" is Looking For.

When it comes to this Market, there are Two Major Trains of Thought that I've seen in my secondary career as a Semi-Professional Athlete.

There are those who say that the Sugar doesn't matter because you'll Burn Through it Quickly "As" an Athlete.

These Individuals might say they would "Prefer" a Different Type of Sugar (aka a "Natural" Sugar).

However, Zero Sugar in their Minds is Detrimental because Natural/Healthy Sugars are Good for Athletics!

The Second Major Train of Thought is Those Looking for Peak Performance.

They want to Optimize their Electrolytes, which means they are going to make their own Concoctions.

They Do Not Trust a "Big Label" Brand like Gatorade (or Coca-Cola) to Design a "True" Sports Drink, so they will Never Shop for one Anyhow.

The "Only" Market they "Might" Attract is the "Weekend Warrior" who is "Somewhat" Health Conscious.

But the Problem that the Coca-Cola Company will still face is that it will "Still" be Competing with Gatorade.

They Must Overcome the "Weekend Warrior's" Tendency to go "Straight" to Gatorade.

The Problem here?

Habits.

It is a Large Part of the Reason Category King/Queens continue to Win, Despite Better Products Existing.

Look at iPhones.

Their Technology has been outdated for over a Decade, yet they still Win the Smartphone Category.

Why?

People are "Used" to Apple's Infrastructure and don't want to Change their Habits.

I've spoken with "Many" Unhappy Apple Users about their Faulty Technology, but they Refuse to Learn a Different Product.

The Only Way to Beat a Category King/Queen is to Design a New, Significantly Different, and Better, Category.

This is Why AI Tech has not beaten Smartphones (Yet).

They haven't Shown a Significantly Different or Better Product.

"But" Apple is Furiously trying to make sure AI works "With" Their Tech because they "Know" if a Valid AI Tech Category becomes available, they are Toast and will become Blackberry 2.0.

But Coca-Cola Company does "Not" have this Luxury.

Their Category has "Been" Dropping into Irrelevancy for Years.

So they have been Forced to React.

We can also see this with Topo Chico.

This is another Product they Purchased to Attempt to Get Into a Quickly Growing Market.

However, despite Topo Chico's Customer Loyalty, they are Not the Category King/Queen there Either.

They also tried to Expand Topo Chico into the Hard Seltzer Category, but it was Too Late when they did.

White Claw was already the Category King/Queen.

What All of this Reveals is that Coca-Cola has a Huge Problem.

They are in a Market that is Falling Further Into Irrelevancy Year after Year, and in "Every" Other Market they Jump Into they are Already Losing from the Start.

The Coca-Cola Company continually Fails to Innovate and Get Ahead of the Curve.

They have Rested on the Laurels of their Success with Coca-Cola, but it Will Not Last forever.

If The Coca-Cola Company is to Remain Dominant, it "Must" become the Category King/Queen of a Market that is Not becoming Irrelevant.

That is the Leadership Problem and Challenge that it Currently Faces.

If they Continue to Fail, they will Discover that they will become a Relic of the Past.