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https://www.wsj.com/articles/coca-cola-launched-500-drinks-last-year-most-taste-nothing-like-coke-1535025601

BUSINESS

Coca-Cola Launched 500 Drinks Last Year.

Most Taste Nothing Like Coke.
In search of growth, the soda giant is pressing local units to develop new beverages like chunky mango
juice and a laxative Sprite

Under CEO James Quincey, Coca-Cola is working to diversify its beverage o ering for local markets. PHOTO: F.
MARTIN RAMIN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

By Eric Bellman in New Delhi and Jennifer Maloney in New York

Updated Aug. 23, 2018 1 31 p.m. ET

When Coca-Cola Co. directed its global subsidiaries to launch more local flavors last
year, the company’s Indian arm came up with a unique drink: chunky mango juice.
Indians commonly squeeze mangoes to soften them and then bite a hole in the tropical
fruit’s tough skin to suck out the pulp, Coke’s Indian drink developers knew. So they
concocted a beverage to mimic that experience, called Maaza Chunky.

The invention of an India-only product was something the beverage behemoth

wouldn’t have attempted three years ago, but it reflects a push by Coke Chief Executive
James Quincey to get the company to shed its culture of cautiousness, expand into new
categories and bring products to market faster.

As CEO and president of Coca-Cola, James Quincey has pushed the beverage company to shed its culture of
cautiousness. PHOTO: DAVID PAUL MORRIS BLOOMBERG NEWS

“There are products out there in the world that perhaps we wouldn’t have tried a few
years ago,” Mr. Quincey said in an interview.

Before Mr. Quincey was named CEO in May 2017, investors and analysts had criticized
the Atlanta-based company for focusing too long on sugary soft drinks, even as
consumers switched to healthier options and the company’s global beverage volumes
stalled.

Since then, Coke has pushed harder to diversify, launching more than 500 new
products and variants last year, a record for the company and an increase of roughly
25% over the previous year. Recent launches include a cucumber-flavored Sprite in
Russia, a line of whey shakes in Brazil, a sesame-and-walnut drink in China and a salty
lemon tonic water in France and Belgium. Coke says its expanding portfolio is helping
to drive its recent growth in volumes.
“We’re not betting the ranch on every idea until it’s proven to have some traction,” Mr.
Quincey said. “I think we see more innovation in the marketplace...but just as
importantly, a focus on removing the things that don’t work.”

#BEYONDSODA

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Coke is asking its international arms—which deliver more than half its revenue—to
experiment and speed up their research and development efforts. It used to take a year
or more to get a new product to store shelves in India; now it can take just four months,
executives say.

“We have this mandate now to go create products and businesses which are much more
in tune with the local needs,” said Shehnaz Gil, one of Coke’s executives in India. “It’s
part sommelier, part science.”

Creating Maaza Chunky was complicated. Because of the drink’s consistency, Coke had
to develop a new can and a way of filling it. It also had to test all kinds of mini mango
morsels on thousands of people.

Focusing too much on new, unproven brands has risks. Rival PepsiCo Inc. relearned
that lesson last year when it shifted too much shelf space and advertising money to
new brands like Izze Fusions, a fruit juice-soda blend. Sales and market share fell for
core brands, including Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew and Gatorade.

In Japan, Coke has for years brought new products to market more quickly and
frequently than it has elsewhere in the world. Its recent launches there include a
laxative Sprite and the company’s first alcoholic drink—a fizzy lemon concoction. By
contrast, other Coke business units around the world have depended more on brands
originally developed for Americans.

The new strategy calls for the company to “lift and shift” the best local
innovations and acquisitions and bring them to other countries, Coke says. It’s also
using markets around the world to test new flavors and less-sugary versions of existing
brands.

The company launched Coca-Cola Plus Coffee in Australia last fall. Based on the drink’s
reception there, the company made some tweaks before rolling out versions to markets
including Vietnam and Turkey.

Changes included “dialing up some of the coffee cues, whether it was the aroma on the
moment you open the bottle or as you’re drinking it...and also we’ve experimented with
what bottle shape to put it in,” Mr. Quincey said. “We’ve gone back to one of the old,
heritage Coke bottles.”

This year, the company is expanding the AdeZ vegan smoothie brand from Argentina to
Europe and the U.K., with new drinks blending fruit with oats, soy milk, almond milk
and coconut milk.

In addition to the chunky mango drink, Coca-Cola India has launched a spicy cumin-
flavored soda and a “gritty” guava drink. A new variation of its Thums Up cola with
extra caffeine was developed in India, then brought to Bangladesh, as was Rimzim, the
cumin soda.

Some inventions fall flat. The company’s last attempt at a coffee-flavored soda flopped
soon after launching in Europe and North America in 2006. The flavor put people off,
and Coca-Cola discontinued BlāK in the U.S. the following year. Coca-Cola Life, a lower-
calorie variant sweetened with sugar and stevia, was pulled from the U.K. last year.

As it introduces new products, Coke is yanking from store shelves older drinks that it
dubs “zombies.” The company has started issuing quarterly “zombie lists” to its top
markets, identifying products that haven’t grown for three years. In the Middle East
 Coca-Cola Life, lavored with sugar and stevia, fell lat with consumers. PHOTO: CARLA GOTTGENS BLOOMBERG
NEWS

and North Africa unit, it plans to eliminate 125 products by year’s end.

Corrections & Amplifications

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated in a caption when Coca-Cola Life
was launched. That line has since been removed.

Write to Eric Bellman at eric.bellman@wsj.com and Jennifer Maloney at

jennifer.maloney@wsj.com

Appeared in the August 24, 2018, print edition as 'The Many Flavors of Coca-Cola.'

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