Coca-Cola has one day before its latest brand Coke Life rolls out the door, and it is investing a lot of time and money into ensuring that everyone knows about the newest member of the family.
A total of 10 million packs of Coke Life are set to hit shelves in the first month alone, with the brand launch accompanied by a multi-million dollar marketing campaign that has a strong focus on TV and out-of-home.
Coca-Cola South Pacific marketing director, Lisa Winn, told AdNews that a key indicator for the success of this new product and its roll out will be how the sales of the other Coke brands fair.
“Great Britain also launched this product and an early interesting impact on the launch of Coke Life has created a halo around the whole Coke trademark,” Winn said.
Five months after launching Coca-Cola Life in the UK, the total Coke trademark has grown 4.9% since last year at the same time and Winn explained: “One indicator for success is how Coke Life reinvigorates the trademark.”
Coke Life is only the fourth drink to be launched in the trademark’s 128 year history, and Winn said Coke Life was developed after consumer demand for a product that tastes like traditional Coca-Cola but is a healthier alternative.
“We've had a consistent theme for consumers for many years, particularly adult balance seekers. Adults 30 plus who love drinking Coke, love the taste, but they're also looking to manage their amount of sugar and kilojoules,” she said.
“This product has been a long time in the making, it's taken six years for the R&D team to get the great taste of coke with the inclusion of Stevia [plant], its taken some time to really get the great taste of Coke.
Coke Life has 35% less sugar and kilojoules than regular Coke, however unlike Coke Zero and Diet Coke, Coke Life has the same taste profile as Traditional Coke, and was incorporated into the secret recipes.
People can expect to see the launch TV ad on their screens on the 9 April and Winn said the brand took a different approach, in order to show consumers how similar Coke Life tastes to traditional Coke.
“Our TV is an interesting approach because taste is so important,” she said. “We're taking a documentary style approach. We've taken Coke Life to a remote community in New Zealand and Australia and given them an opportunity to be the first Australians and New Zealanders to taste Coke Life and film their reactions.”
“It's a big launch, and because of that adult consumer the media we've chosen suits that audience. It's big on TV, out-of-home, sampling and big on point of sale,” Winn added.
You'd be hard pressed to miss the campaign too with launch media set to deliver 95% awareness across the total population, and that doesn't factor in sampling or in-store presence according to the brand.
Winn explained to AdNews that the new product is about creating choice for it's consumers, and also fits into the brands commitment, announced in July 2013, to address the issue of obesity in Australia.
“The small cans, the 250ml cans, that's a big part of us offering choice. Choice in portion size, no sugar, now a mid kilojoule product. People come into the Coke trademark and they choose sugar, caffeine free, natural sweeteners, small cans, that's really what is important to us around offing choice and being relevant to what Australians want.
“Its about one trademark offering, different product choice, and this product is obviously the focus for us now and for 2015 and it's really bringing to life that choice for consumers,” Winn said.
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