SWIRL YOUR
SODA?
No, you’re not looking at the
new tasting lab for BevNET.
This is the new Dry Soda office and store in Seattle, Wash.,
where the new, food-friendly
soda brand is trying to counter
the notion that CSD’s are only
for fast food by serving it up in
all kinds of winery-like digs.
WORLD
OF SODA
PEPSI PACKAGES PERMUTATE
Giving former spokescelebrity
Madonna a run for her money
in the quick-change costume category,
Pepsi Cola will feature a
new package design every three or
four weeks this year.
The frenzied molting will take
place on bottles and cans and
is expected, according to PepsiCo,
to demonstrate the brand’s “fun,
optimistic, and youthful spirit.”
It’s real estate that the company
has realized might be a source of
interest rather than consistency,
according to Dawn Hudson, the
president of PepsiCo’s North
American division.
With advances in packaging
technology, according to Hudson,
sending a new graphic template
is not as difficult as it might once
have been; in fact, it offers the
opportunity to get the company in
synch with its bottlers.
ZERO GROWTH
It’s not even two years old, but
the next couple of months will
be a major coming out party for
Coke Zero.
The no-calorie Coke clone
– called “bloke coke” in Great
Britain because of its calculatedly
masculine color scheme – will be
featured in a major ad push during
that most masculine of events, the
NCAA basketball tournament.
The Coca-Cola Co. is also pushing
a slightly revised black-andsilver
color scheme that plays up
the darker color, as well as a real gift
to the brand, an emphasis on placement
next to flagship Coca-Cola
Classic on shelves and displays.
The idea is to stress the brand’s
closeness to Classic in terms of taste
– one that the company hopes to
back up by adding fountain taps for
Zero in major on-premise accounts
like Wendy’s restaurants.
Zero has shown steady gains:
it’s sales put it in the top 25 skus
nationally, according to AC Nielsen.
With most full-calorie sodas in
decline, cannibalization can’t be as
much of an issue for Coke as the
loss of share to water
and energy drinks.
THROWDOWN: HOGAN ENERGY
VS. THE BLUE DEMON
Holy Captain Lou Albano! Even if mixed martial arts are displacing it
on television, there’s just no stopping the progress of pro wrestlers onto
the front of energy drink cans. The last year has seen a team-up between
Socko Energy and barely-ambulatory former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan,
while Coca-Cola has gone full throttle into ethnic marketing with the
launch of sub-brand Blue Demon, which is named for Blue Demon,
a famous masked Mexican wrestler and film star. Each man raised the
profile of their sport in their own country, the Hulkster through a
bombastic form of all-inclusive jingoism, the Blue Demon by, uh,
wearing a mask. Ah, such innocent times. Anyway, here’s how the two
brand mascots stack up against each other. Betcha neither one could top
Hillbilly Jim or Uncle Elmer….
EXECUTIVE MOVES
Beam Wine Estates appointed
Christopher Lynch as chief marketing
officer.
Beam Global Spirits & Wine,
Inc. named Rory Finlay as senior
vice president and global chief marketing
officer.
InBev named Glen Walter president
of Labatt USA.
David G. Burke has joined Primo
Water Corporation as vice president
for business development. Brad Redenius, general manager
of Judge & Dolph distributors in
Peoria, IL, has been promoted to
vice president and general sales
manager of Griggs, Cooper &
Company. Both companies are part
of the Wirtz Beverage Group.
The Switch Beverage Company
has named Maura Mottolese
president.
Signature Wines, a specialty wine
marketing company, announced it
has hired Sarah Hundley Garcia
as its new chief executive officer.
The Coca-Cola Company
named Muhtar Kent as president
and chief operating officer.
Heineken USA announced that
John Larkins has been appointed
general manager of the organization’s
Central Regional Business
Unit. He replaced Chris Steffanci,
who is now the general manager
position for Heineken USA’s
Northeast Regional Business Unit.
Additionally, Jim Sloan has assumed
the general manager role for
Heineken USA’s sister company,
Star Brand Imports.
Patrick Piana has been named
senior vice president, spirits marketing,
at Pernod Ricard USA.
Bob Koon has joined Snow
Beverages in the role of COO/EVP.
Other new hires for Snow Beverages
include Melanie Randall, vice
president of marketing & promotion
and Dennis Connelly, vice
president of operations.