Coca-Cola Zero Sugar

Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, also known as Coca-Cola No Sugar, commonly known as Coke Zero, is a diet soda produced by the Coca-Cola Company.[2] The drink was introduced in 2005 as Coca-Cola Zero, designed to be a no-calorie equivalent of the company's flagship cola drink, Coca-Cola,[3] with artificial sweeteners in place to imitate the sugar taste.[4] It is distinct from the company's earlier Diet Coke product which was based on an entirely different formula.[3] In 2016–2017, the drink was reformulated and the name changed to Coca-Cola Zero Sugar (with language variations for some regions),[5] and the drink was reformulated again in 2021.[6]

History

Coca-Cola Zero was Coca-Cola's largest product launch in 22 years and was also important because of a dip in standard Coca-Cola sales and lackluster sales of their "mid-calorie" product Coca-Cola C2.[7] The new product was ideated at the Spanish branch, turning Marcos de Quinto into one of the key people of the company.[8] The global campaign was developed by creative agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky.[9] It was marketed as having a taste that is indistinguishable from standard Coca-Cola, as opposed to Diet Coke, which has a different flavor profile.[10][11]

Initially the drink was sold in the United States and Canada and branded in white packaging. However following its successful Australian launch in January 2006 where it used black packaging, the black was then also adopted for all other markets.[12] After its North American and Australian launches, it was released in Spain and then rolled out to further territories around the world.[13]

Beginning in June 2016, Coca-Cola Zero was relaunched in western Europe as Coca-Cola Zero Sugar with a new reformulation, namely in Belgium, France, Great Britain and the Netherlands.[14][15][16] The new formula was intended to taste more like standard Coca-Cola while emphasizing the lack of sugar content with the addition of "Sugar" in its full brand name. A year later, in 2017, the Coca-Cola Company announced that the new formula and name will be rolled out in the United States (and in other countries[17][18]), despite increasing sales of the existing drink there.[19][18][20] The announcement caused some vocal backlash from American consumers.[21][22] The Washington Post noted Coke Zero is very popular, and that fans compared the planned change to the launch of New Coke in 1985.[5] However, Beverage Digest executive editor Duane Stanford noted that it was very similar in flavor, and that the formula likely was tweaked only slightly as the ingredients list is the same. He noted that the rebranding was the main emphasis.[23] In Australia (where it was relaunched as "Coca-Cola No Sugar"), the new soda had trouble gaining initial acceptance but later became more popular.[24]

In July 2018, it was confirmed that the original formula would continue to be sold under the original Coke Zero branding in New Zealand alongside the Coke Zero Sugar product.[25] The original Coke Zero branding was finally phased out in 2022 alongside the local launch of the 2021 reformulation.[26]

In July 2021, the Coca-Cola Company announced that another reformulation of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar would be released throughout the U.S. in August and then throughout Canada in September.[6][27] The reformulation would be the same recipe that was already available in Europe and Latin America.[28][29] The company said the recipe would "optimize existing...flavors and existing ingredients" without requiring a change in the listed ingredients or nutritional information.[6] Along with the reformulation, the labeling was updated.[6] Around September 2024, the Coca-Cola Company further adjusted the formulation by adding Stevia.[30]

Branding and names

Originally the Coca-Cola Zero product packaging on cans and bottles consisted of the Coca-Cola logo in red script with white trim, with the word "zero" underneath, on a black background. The font for "zero" was the geometric typeface Avenir (or a customized version of it).

Later packagings, when the product took the name Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, swapped the colors, appearing in a red disc on a black background, as part of the company's "One Brand" wider rebranding to unify the Coca-Cola packagings closer together.[31] In overseas markets, the packaging instead matched the classic Coca-Cola red design with the addition of a black band around the top of the label with the text "zero sugar" (or non-English equivalent).[32] In 2021, after the reformulation, a new livery was introduced featuring the Coca-Cola logo in black against a red background,[33] although the color of the background changes for certain other flavors.

With the rebrands and relaunches of Coca-Cola Zero in 2016 and 2017, various names were marketed for the product depending on region. In the United States and many other countries, it was branded as Coca-Cola Zero Sugar. On the other hand, in Australia it was named "Coca-Cola No Sugar", at least until 2023 when it was renamed for this market to match the international English-language name.[34] This name continues to be used in South Africa and Hong Kong.[35]

In many markets the name is translated and branded accordingly. For example in some countries of Latin America it is named "Coca-Cola Sin Azúcar"[36] (which translates into "without sugar") whereas in Spain it is named "Coca-Cola Zero Azúcar", in Brazil as "Coca-Cola Sem Açúcar" and in France as "Coca-Cola Sans Sucres".[37] Similarly in Norway it was branded as "Coca-Cola Uten Sukker" (meaning "without sugar") from launch in 2018 until 2023, when it adopted the "Zero Sugar" name in English. These branding decisions have been made in mind with how customers perceive and understand that the product has no sugar.[38]

Ingredients

Marketing

Coke Zero was originally specifically marketed to men, who are shown to associate "diet" drinks with women, and therefore[44] was primarily marketed towards young adult males.[45][46] In the US, advertising for Coca-Cola Zero has been tailored to its targeted market by describing the drink as "calorie-free" rather than "diet", since young adult males are said to associate diet drinks with women.[46] This same approach was previously taken by Coca-Cola's rival which introduced Pepsi Max in 1993 as a diet soda but marketing to males. In 2007, the male-oriented advertising was dropped in favor of the tagline "Great taste, zero sugar."[47]

US marketing also emphasized its similarity in taste to sugared Coca-Cola; an advertising campaign for the beverage focused on Coca-Cola executives who were so angry over the drinks' similarities, they were considering suing their co-workers for "taste infringement".[46] Continuing the theme, a Coca-Cola Zero ad aired during Super Bowl XLIII parodied Coke's iconic "Hey Kid, Catch!" commercial, which is interrupted by two Coca-Cola "brand managers" accusing Troy Polamalu of "stealing" their commercial.[48][49]

In Australia, the product's launch was promoted by a fake front group; the campaign included outdoor graffiti and online spamming that mentioned a fake blog.[50][51] Once exposed, consumer advocates assailed the campaign as misleading and established the Zero Coke Movement[52] to comment on the ethics of Coke's activities.[53]

Coca-Cola Zero sponsors Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, the NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway in August, and also the Suzuka 8 Hours in Japan, a motorcycle endurance race.[54]

In 2013, Coca-Cola swapped the logo on Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, and Coke Zero bottles and cans in many European countries with 150 of the most popular local names for a summer-long "Share a Coke" campaign.[55] The same campaign was used in North America the following summer.

For Christmas 2013, Coke Zero launched an interactive website that allowed people to customize the designs of their Christmas sweater,[56] which have a significant role in United Kingdom Christmas traditions.[57] On the website, people could detail the cut, pattern, and icons for their sweater,[58] and join a popularity contest.[59] Users could choose designs from Christmas trees and Santa's head to reindeer, sleighs, and turkeys.[60] This initiative was tied to a social media campaign,[61] where the top 100 sweater designs with the most votes were manufactured and shipped to the contest winners.[62] According to the Coca-Cola Company, the website generated nearly 42,000 sweater designs in its first four days.[63]

Sales

As of 2024, Coke Zero is the seventh best selling soda in the United States and has had the largest rise in market share in the United States among sodas since its introduction in 2005.[64]

Variants

See also

• Pepsi Zero Sugar
• Sugar substitute

External links