This idea is contributed by Mohammad Jobaed Adnan
For the perennial party animal or the average variety-seeking youth, a cocktail drink is a cool accesory to have ( or drink, to be precise). Be it a simple mixture of Coke, Fanta and Sprite or a more adventurous sorts with exotic mix of soda with other mouth watering flavors…..Cocktail drink in can or pet bottle might be next big “in” thing.
So why not market cocktail version of the soft drinks! Starting from lemonade flavored to cola falovored, this cool mix of sodas can definitely position our stagnant soft drink makers as a innovative brand once again. And its even more essential considering the fact that Carbonated beverage are on the declining side globally. Adding such a buzzworthy product will bring the buzz in the brand.
5 comments
Saeed Bin Rouf
August 14, 2007 at 7:56 am
If there were such a cocktail-thing, people would still mix … (coke + fanta + sprite + cocktail = COCKTAIL) to get a new cocktail … you know … people never change !
Abdul Mumit
August 16, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Allow me to point out a logical fallacy in the original argument.
The author admits that cocktail itself is a personalized version of a commodity. As personal tastes are distinct, it is logically not possible (contradictory) to create a commodity that is unique and universal, at the same time.
Mohammad Jobaed Adnan
August 17, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Thank you for your comments. But I do have couple of arguments:
In argument of Mr. Saeed Bin Rouf, when there will be a ready-to-grab “cocktail” version of beverage then why should people mix another round of same things?
If X+Y+Z = Cocktail then why should they go for this Cocktail = X+Y+Z+Cocktail(Cocktail = X+Y+Z)? Cocktail itself contains all the X, Y and Z together.
In argument of Mr. Abdul Mumit, many men many minds – this is a naked truth. Although we have different minds and different choices, yet it is also another truth that we go after something that is new and unique. So the people, who will go after that “new thing” they will create a new unique commodity.
Arafat
August 19, 2007 at 10:34 am
Flavor variations are introduced every year and include as diverse products as Coke Blak (coffee with Coke) or Pepsi Blue (some kind of vile blue concoction). They INVARIABLY fail. I won’t go into the fifty million reasons for it, but it’s much easier and smarter to establish a new category unless you’ve got an absolutely mindblowing product. Which this isn’t.
Mohammad Jobaed Adnan
August 21, 2007 at 6:47 pm
We can’t predict which one would fail. But the failures can be the pillars of success. Otherwise Pepsi wouldn’t go for its Ice Cucumber soda.
Here I am gonna quote from BusinessWeek (AUGUST 6, 2007),
“Only a lucky few ever got to try Pepsi’s Ice Cucumber soda. The pale green drink began appearing on shelves at Japanese convenience stores in early June. Within days, clips of people swigging the stuff were showing up on YouTube, and bloggers were debating whether the taste was more melon than cucumber. A couple of weeks later, all 4.8million bottles of Ice Cucumber had sold out. But instead of ratcheting up production, Pepsi brand managers in Japan did the unthinkable: They discontinued the drink. “We didn’t want it on the market past the summer,” says Keiko Ishihara, who oversees PepsiCo Inc. sales for Suntory, the Tokyo beverage maker that markets the soda giant’s products in Japan. “The value of Ice Cucumber is that it’s gone already.”
It might seem strange to kill off a product at the peak of its popularity. But for Pepsi, Ice Cucumber was largely a marketing stunt: a way to generate buzz for the brand in what is arguably the world’s most cutthroat beverage market. It’s a $30 billion-a-year business in Japan, spanning everything from run-of-the-mill brown colas to drinks derived from green tea, coffee, and even kimchee, the spicy cabbage mix that is a staple of Korean cuisine. Of the estimated 1,500 drinks that come to market each year, only a handful survive long enough to win a loyal following.”