Sometimes they come back: what kind of cola will we drink?

In March, a new cola will appear on Russian shelves. Andrey Ionochkin, an expert and CEO of the BRANDKEY branding agency, told Moskovskaya Pravda about the big “road” of import substitution of the popular drink, projects reviving the “same” taste, and their competition to Moskovskaya Pravda.

Last spring, Coca-Cola left the Russian market, and then PepsiCo, which stopped the production and sale of their most popular drinks in our country. But, as they say, “a holy place is never empty.” According to NielsenIQ, the range of colas has only increased.

— Already by July, 10% more brands of drinks with cola flavor appeared in retail chains than a year earlier. Chernogolovka introduced Cola Chernogolovka, while its main competitor Ochakovo introduced Cool Cola lemonade. Cola Red Price, Fancy cola, Kalinov Cola and a number of other drinks appeared on the shelves, which began to draw the attention of the consumer away from the warehouse balances of Coca-Cola and Pepsi, which had risen sharply in price, – Andrey Ionochkin said.

As for the quality of new drinks, the domestic market proved to be worthy. Tochka Growth, a consumer research agency, tested Russian analogues of Coca-Cola, and one of them even outperformed the original soda.

– True, with the departure of giant companies, consumer preferences have changed, – the expert notes. – For example, without their advertising activity, Russians began to drink less soda without sugar. Over the year, sales of such products decreased by almost 10%.

The turning point was the return to the Russian market of the original Coca-Cola drink with an authentic taste under the Dobry brand, which is owned by Coca-Cola. The activity of the company was not without the response of the eternal competitor, PepsiCo. From March 2023, Generation P consumers will be able to shop for the original Pepsi flavored drink again.

— Pepsi, like a competitor, is returning under a different brand. At first, marketers wanted to release soda under the Russky Dar brand, known to the consumer by the kvass of the same name. But we see that the “Russian Gift” line has gone its own special, “Russian way”, it has expanded due to the drinks “Duchess”, “Tarragon”, “Lemon” and “Wild Taiga”. As a result, they decided to sell cola under a brand with a foreign name, in Latin – Evervess. This brand is also owned by PepsiCo,” Andrey Ionochkin explains. – Drinks with this name competed previously with Schweppes from Coca-Cola. Evervess has expanded its line and rebranded in recent years, apparently PepsiCo had reason to bet on this particular brand.

Since 2019, Pepsi’s slogan has been “everything for love.” To what extent the consumer will be ready for the sake of this “love” to perceive the usual drink under a new name, and the company to create conditions for the popularity of Evervess-cola, time will tell. The main sales of cola are always recorded in the summer, so we will wait for the “hot” time on the market and then we will draw conclusions.

Alena Bodrienko.

Photo from site economy.mos.ru