Crystal Pepsi Is Returning to Store Shelves
June 29 2016 - 3:40PM
Dow Jones News
PepsiCo Inc. is trying to tap 1990s nostalgia to give its
sagging soda sales a temporary jolt.
The snack-and-beverage giant said Wednesday that it is bringing
back Crystal Pepsi, the colorless cola that was launched in 1992
with great fanfare before sales quickly fizzled.
This time, it will be sold for a limited time in Canadian stores
starting July 11 before arriving on U.S. shelves Aug. 8.
It is the latest bid by the No. 2 soda player behind Coca-Cola
Co. to win back consumers. PepsiCo's U.S. soda sales fell 2% in the
52 weeks ended June 18, worse than the 0.6% decline industrywide,
according to Wells Fargo, citing Nielsen store-scanner data.
The move comes after the company said Monday that it would
reintroduce aspartame-sweetened Diet Pepsi after replacing it last
August with a sucralose-sweetened version. Diet Pepsi's sales
plunge deepened in recent months, with loyalists balking at the new
recipe and new drinkers failing to surface.
Per-capita soda consumption in the U.S. is at a three-decade low
as more consumers switch to bottled water and other beverages,
including energy drinks and teas.
PepsiCo's recent retro push doesn't stop in the 1990s. Earlier
this year the company launched 1893 Original Cola, a nod to the
year Pepsi-Cola inventor Caleb Bradham began selling cola. In 2014
PepsiCo launched Caleb's Kola, made with cane sugar instead of
high-fructose corn syrup.
Clear products became a fad in the early 1990s with brands such
as Clearly Canadian soft drinks, Mennen Lady Speed Stick Crystal
deodorant and Miller Clear, a transparent beer, having their moment
in the sun. "Saturday Night Live" poked fun at the trend with a
parody commercial for fictitious Crystal Gravy.
By 1994, the trend was largely over and many of the products
disappeared from store shelves amid shrinking sales.
PepsiCo hoped Crystal Pepsi would quickly become a $1 billion
brand. The new brand was featured in a 1993 Super Bowl commercial,
carrying the tagline, "You've never seen a taste like this" to Van
Halen's hit song "Right Now."
But Crystal Pepsi's share of the U.S. soda market peaked at 0.5%
in 1993, far below the company's initial 2% goal, and sales had
evaporated by 1995, according to data service Beverage Digest. Some
drinkers complained that it didn't taste enough like regular
Pepsi.
PepsiCo again made Crystal Pepsi available in an online
sweepstakes for two days in December.
On Wednesday the company cited "overwhelming fan demand" for
bringing back the clear cola but didn't provide details about how
it measured that demand.
It added in a news release that it would market the clear cola
with the online game "The Crystal Pepsi Trail," a take on "The
Oregon Trail," a computer game popular in the 1990s.
Write to Mike Esterl at mike.esterl@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 29, 2016 15:25 ET (19:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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