Are Coca-Cola’s mini-cans worth it?

JANUARY 14, 2015
news.com.au
EVERYONE wants to cut back on soft drinks, and they’re willing to pay more to do it.
With people drinking less sugary drinks because of health concerns, Coke and Pepsi are pushing smaller cans and bottles that contain fewer calories and, they say, induce less guilt. That all comes at a price: Those cute little cans can cost more than twice as much per litre.
Coke and Pepsi are now pushing smaller cans and bottles that give their products a sense of newness among the growing proliferation of beverage choices. The companies also say the tiny sizes cater to people’s desire for more modest servings.
“Coca-Cola is so delicious, but it’s like sun tanning or cigarettes — they’re these wonderful things that we now know are horrible for us,” said Lauren Utvich, a 31-year-old food stylist in New York, who bought the Coke mini-cans when she first spotted them.
Utvich doesn’t normally drink soft drinks, but she likes that the mini-cans turn Coke into a relatively guiltless treat. But that’s not the only reason she bought them. “Let’s be honest. I like them because they’re freaking adorable,” said Utvich, who didn’t pay attention to how much they cost.
In Australia, a 200mL can costs $2.19 at Coles, which equates to $10.95 a litre. A chilled 600mL bottle of Coke costs $3.85, or $6.42 per litre while the 1.25L bottle sells for $3.07, or $2.46 a litre. The 2L bottle is even better value at $4.39, or $2.20 a litre.
An eight-pack of the mini-cans will set you back $8.79, or $5.49 a litre while the 24-pack of 375mL cans comes down to $3.28 a litre.
In other words, you’re getting a lot less Coke for your buck.
During a presentation in November, Coke’s North American president Sandy Douglas said the health and wellness trend has set up “a tremendous opportunity for the Coca-Cola brand with our smaller packages”.
Coca-Cola said that while it may be selling fewer soft drinks, smaller packs were pushing up revenue.
Bonnie Herzog, a Wells Fargo beverage industry analyst, said the smaller options were part of how Coke was repositioning itself amid changing habits around soft drinks.
Locally, Coca-Cola rolled out an initiative designed last year to frame itself as more health conscious than in the past. It ran an expensive marketing campaign touting the actions it planned to take to address obesity: smaller portion sizes, providing more nutritional information and low-kilojoule options. But the company was slammed by health organisations, which said the public shouldn’t take dietary advice from Coca-Cola.
In the US, Coke, Pepsi and Dr Pepper pledged at the Clinton Global Initiative to slash calorie consumption from beverages in the US by 20 per cent over the next decade. It sounds dramatic, but calories from drinks were falling anyway as people moved away from soft drinks on their own in favour of options like bottled water.
One of the ways the companies promised to achieve their goal: Smaller sizes.