Pepsi and Coca-cola are the BIGGEST competitors

Coca-Cola estimated net worth is $265 bn.

Whereas PepsiCo estimated net worth is $239.38 bn.

But in the 90s Coca-Cola purposely created a soft drink to FAIL

Why?

So it can DESTROY Pepsi

and it worked....

1/ In the early 1990s, beverage manufacturers had the idea of clear drinks

The buzzwords like pure and clear were all around

Everyone was trying to lose weight and eat healthily.

2/ In 1992, Pepsi unveiled a transparent drink called Crystal

It was essentially a fruit-flavored variation of regular Pepsi

It helped them carve out a 2% slice of the $48 billion soft drink market

And if Pepsi could do that, it would mean less money for Coca-Cola

3/ Coke couldn’t simply sit back and watch everything

Zyman had to do something and found an answer

Sergio Zyman was the 90s marketing chief of Coca-Cola

He is the man behind the successful Diet Coke

4/ He discovered that clear drinks are associated with wellness and health

But Crystal Pepsi is everything but healthy.

The soft drink was loaded with fructose syrup and foul calories.

Zyman used this to his advantage.

5/ Coca-cola rolled out a clear drink called Tab the same year

The sole intention was to sabotage Crystal Pepsi.

The sugar levels were high and it had loads of caffeine

6/ Coca Cola's Tab clear was out along the Pepsi's Crystal

The presence of Tab Clear on shelves would confuse consumers into believing Crystal Pepsi was a diet drink— It wasn't

They blurred the lines and confused consumers

7/ People picked Tab and didn't like that it was full of calories

While they thought it was a diet drink

This made the image crisis that Crystal Pepsi would be the same

Hence it brought Crystal Pepsi's image down right along with the Tab

8/ With Pepsi set for a massive ad spend on the January 1993 Super Bowl

Coke rolled out Tab Clear in 10 cities, with national expansion coming mid-year

Their ad spending was minimal

Coca-Cola made just enough noise to bring Pepsi down with an identity crisis.

9/ “They were going to basically say it was a mainstream drink,” Zyman said.

"'This is like a cola, but it doesn’t have any color. It has all this great taste.

' And we said, 'No, Crystal Pepsi is actually a diet drink.

' Even though it wasn’t.

10/ Because Tab had the attributes of diet, which was its demise.

That was its problem.

It was perceived to be a medicinal drink.

Within three to five months, Tab Clear was dead. And so was Crystal Pepsi.”

11/ By the end of 1993, Zyman’s prediction had come true.

Crystal Pepsi had grabbed just 0.5 percent of the market, a quarter of Pepsi's prediction.

Both Tab Clear and Crystal Pepsi were phased out

12/ Coca-Cola pulled Tab Clear off the shelves only six months after the official launch.

PepsiCo was forced to do the same with Pepsi Crystal.

The customers had grown sick of clear drinks and fake wellness.

13/ Pepsi had spent millions in development and $40 million in marketing

It took the company 18 months to formulate its failure.

Coke spent just two months on Tab Clear.

Sources-

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/547246/why-coca-cola-designed-tab-clear-fail https://bettermarketing.pub/coca-cola-created-tab-clear-to-destroy-crystal-pepsi-b43602e4e263

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