The Genius of Coke's Controversial New Milk
Disruption is the strenuously overworked marketing buzzword du jour that typically appears in a digital context. It’s gotten quite a workout in the recent past to describe the impact of location-based upstarts like Uber or Airbnb on the conventional transportation and lodging sectors, for example.
But it’s also a very apt characterization of Coca-Cola’s lower tech but equally startling incursion into fluid milk with its Fairlife brand, an initiative that has the potential to upend not only how business is done in the dairy case, but also in other highly commoditized supermarket categories like meat and produce.
Coca-Cola’s product-portfolio diversification makes sense given that carbonated-soft-drink consumption as reported by Nielsen Scantrack and others has been in steady decline for the last decade or so as consumers shun added sugars. The drop in diet soft drinks has been equally precipitous, reflecting growing unease with artificial sweeteners.
Arguably the only other major beverage category to experience such a dramatic reversal of fortunes has been fluid milk; once touted as nature’s most perfect food, milk has lost substantial volume over the past decades. USDA reports that milk consumption has sunk from 32 gallons per capita in 1970 to less than 20 gallons per capita in 2012, despite high profile efforts of the dairy industry to stem the flow.
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But it’s also a very apt characterization of Coca-Cola’s lower tech but equally startling incursion into fluid milk with its Fairlife brand, an initiative that has the potential to upend not only how business is done in the dairy case, but also in other highly commoditized supermarket categories like meat and produce.
Coca-Cola’s product-portfolio diversification makes sense given that carbonated-soft-drink consumption as reported by Nielsen Scantrack and others has been in steady decline for the last decade or so as consumers shun added sugars. The drop in diet soft drinks has been equally precipitous, reflecting growing unease with artificial sweeteners.
Arguably the only other major beverage category to experience such a dramatic reversal of fortunes has been fluid milk; once touted as nature’s most perfect food, milk has lost substantial volume over the past decades. USDA reports that milk consumption has sunk from 32 gallons per capita in 1970 to less than 20 gallons per capita in 2012, despite high profile efforts of the dairy industry to stem the flow.
To read the entire article, click here.