Soda companies take different approaches when it comes to eliminating flavors.
Coca-Cola has taken the Band-Aid approach. Multiple times over the past few years, the company has held a press conference to share that it’s discontinuing dozens of flavors.
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In some cases, it got rid of whole brands.
When that happens, consumers can buy whatever is left on shelves, and retailers may take deliveries for any remaining stock. It’s a pretty harsh approach, since it seems like every soda or beverage has somebody who considers it their favorite.
If there was a Tomato Coke or Dish Soap Pepsi, there would be enough people out there to launch a petition and a protest when the flavors get eliminated.
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Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, however, need a product to maintain a certain scale in order to keep manufacturing it. When it drops below those numbers and the company determines it’s not worth spending the money to bring sales back up, the product gets cut.
PepsiCo (PEP) takes a slightly different approach to this than its chief rival does. After the company has discontinued a soda or other type of beverage, it has a product locator on its website that shows the status of that beverage.
Image source: PepsiCo
PepsiCo has a process to kill beverages
If you go to the Pepsi website and look under product locator, you can see the status of various beverages. It might tell you that only limited production remains, or that the item is no longer being produced, but is still available.
Basically, the soft drink snack giant gives its customers a chance to track down their favorite in order to either hoard or say goodbye.
You would think people would not be that dramatic when it comes to soda, but they most certainly are.
When PepsiCo introduced Pepsi Nitro in 2022, it did not spare the hype.
“Pepsi is taking on its most ambitious feat yet, reimagining the cola experience with a massive innovation — Nitro Pepsi. Nitro Pepsi is the first-ever nitrogen-infused cola that's actually softer than a soft drink — it's creamy, smooth, and has a mesmerizing cascade of tiny bubbles topped off by a frothy foam head,” the company shared in a press release.
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The idea was clearly borrowed from Starbucks Nitro Cold Brew, but it was a novel take on a traditional cola. The company said it got the idea from the beer industry.
“Nitro Pepsi will have you reconsider what you know about cola. Smaller bubbles, also infused with nitrogen, create an unbelievably smooth, creamy texture made possible by a unique widget placed at the bottom of every can,” the company shared. “This is the first time this type of widget technology, often seen in beer and coffee products, is being applied to the cola category and creates the frothy, foamy, smooth texture unique to Nitro Pepsi.”
Pepsi Nitro was marketed as a next generation beverage
While the New Coke and Crystal Pepsi debacles reminded both PespsiCo and Coca-Cola (KO) to show some marketing restraint, that was barely evident when Nitro Pepsi launched.
The PepsiCo hype machine was in full effect. The company shared the following:
“It does not look and taste like a traditional cola or soda, and in fact, it's best consumed differently as well. While Nitro Pepsi is enjoyed from the can, there are a few steps you can take for optimal consumption. Nitro Pepsi is:”
- Best served cold, ideally without ice
- Best “hard poured” or fully inverted into a tall glass
- Best enjoyed sipped directly from the glass (rather than through a straw), allowing the unique foam head to leave a frothy, foamy mustache
It was a heavy sell, and it never really worked. Nitro Pepsi and Nitro Pepsi Vanilla never really became more than novelty offerings. Now, the company is quietly getting rid of both of them.
On the Pepsi Product Locator website, the company shows both Nitro flavors and the Nitro Variety Pack as “Limited time left.” Scrolling over that shows that while manufacturing has ended, there is some supply left.
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“Nitro Pepsi is a first-of-its-kind innovation that creates a smooth, creamy, delicious taste experience for fans everywhere. Much like how nitrogen has transformed the beer and coffee categories, we believe Nitro Pepsi is a huge leap forward for the cola category and will redefine cola for years to come,” said PepsiCo Marketing VP Todd Kaplan at the time of the launch.
“Years to come” ended up being around three years, as Nitro Pepsi came in with full-on fanfare, but is leaving with a sad note on a website.
