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LEARN MOREInnovation spotlight: Simply Pop Prebiotic Soda
Welcome to Innovation Spotlight! Each month we’ll spotlight a brand that’s capitalizing on a current consumer trend with a new product innovation.
This month we researched Simply Pop, Coca-Cola’s latest innovation in the prebiotic/probiotic soda category. Read on to get our analysis of the product's in-market potential, the audiences it appeals to, as well as what you can learn from it to innovate smarter.
Simply is a Coca-Cola brand that offers orange juice, lemonade and fruit drinks. Simply Pop is a new extension of the Simply brand that uses the line: “Soda that’s obsessed with juice.”
The company describes it as “A sensationally delicious prebiotic soda made with real fruit juice and no added sugar.”
Becca Kerr, CEO of Coke’s North American nutrition unit, says, “We went out and really listened to consumers. They love this space, they’re really looking for stuff that tastes good, and that’s something we know how to deliver on at Simply and at Coke.”
Simply Pop offers five flavors, including:
Strawberry
Fruit Punch
Citrus Punch
Lime
Pineapple Mango
As consumers continue to look for healthy alternatives for their food and beverages, prebiotic and probiotic sodas have grown in popularity due to their healthier positioning against traditional sodas. Prebiotic and probiotic sodas often claim to improve “gut health,” contain less sugar than traditional sodas and use natural ingredients.
Newer brands like Olipop and Poppi (which recently advertised in the Super Bowl) have become synonymous with the category, but there are a number of brands in the space.
It’s exciting to see power player Coca-Cola enter the category, and do so with an existing brand in its portfolio — rather than create a new brand to compete.
Do consumers think the connection between Simply and prebiotic sodas make sense? That’s what we set out to learn with this research.
New vs. existing brands: When entering this new category, Coca-Cola needed to decide whether to create a new brand or leverage an existing brand in its portfolio. Using an existing brand allows Coca-Cola to benefit from that brand’s equity, but consumers have to believe the brand can credibly deliver in the new category. Simply, with all its existing fruit flavors and natural ingredients associations, is a perfect fit for fruity prebiotic sodas.
Smartly playing the flavor game: In categories where flavors are critical (like sodas, chips, gum, etc.) it's important to choose the right combination of flavors to maximize your reach in the market and appeal to the most consumers. Simply Pop seems to have done this right. When we look at how the individual flavors scored vs the total range, they wouldn't be able to reach the same levels of purchase intent with just one flavor — it’s the combination of many flavors that makes Simply Pop work.
The importance of advantage: Establishing an advantage with a new product is critical. Getting consumers to try something new means they have to see that new product as clearly better than the alternatives. Simply Pop has done that across consumer segments, which is a key driver behind its high breakthrough potential.
What’s the potential?
Simply Pop falls in the top 10% of carbonated soft drink innovations in the US on trial potential and in the top 20% on breakthrough potential — putting it in the “scale and sustain” section of our concept potential assessment framework.
This is a great result for a product capitalizing on an emerging trend in the carbonated soft drink (CSD) category!
Digging further into breakthrough potential, we look at two key measures to determine this:
How different a product is (distinctiveness)
How superior a product is compared to what’s already available in market (advantage)
Simply Pop is not seen as significantly more distinctive compared to other carbonated soft drinks (distinctiveness T2B: 76.8% vs 77.6% CDS norm). However, it is seen as significantly more distinctive vs. beverages generally (distinctiveness T2B 76.8% vs. 67.4% beverages norm).
Carbonated soft drinks score higher in distinctiveness overall, so it is more difficult to score significantly above the norm in this category.
While it isn’t seen as significantly more distinctive across consumer segments, people who buy carbonated soft drinks at least once a week do see it as more distinctive than the average consumer (distinctiveness T2B: 83.2%).
However, Simply Pop is seen having an advantage over other carbonated soft drinks (advantage T2B: 54.8% vs. 44.6% CSD norm). Nearly all segments see the advantage of Simply Pop compared to other carbonated soft drinks, with the exception of adults aged 46 and older — suggesting a relatively broad advantage for the new product. (More on the importance of advantage in Richard Shotton’s article FOMO and new products: Why parity is not enough.)
A key area to pay attention to when entering a new category with an existing brand is whether consumers believe the brand can credibly deliver in that category. Simply Pop’s brand believability is significantly higher than the norm for carbonated soft drinks, indicating that consumers do believe the brand makes sense in the category (brand believability T2B: 79.1% vs. 70.1% CSD norm).
This is great news for Coca-Cola, as it can rely on Simply’s existing brand awareness in the beverages category.
What’s the purchase likelihood?
Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they would be likely to buy Simply Pop if available at a reasonable price, which is significantly above the norm for US carbonated soft drink innovations (purchase likelihood T2B: 65.4% vs 51.3% CSD norm).
Looking at different segments, both males and females are more likely to purchase compared to the carbonated soft drink norm, with males slightly more likely to purchase.
The groups most likely to purchase include adults under the age of 45 (purchase likelihood T2B: 75.1%) and regular CSD purchasers (purchase likelihood T2B: 75.2%).
Most people said they would buy Simply Pop in addition to what they typically buy (62%) vs to replace what they typically buy (38%). This shows great potential for driving brand and category incrementality!
Finally, the individual flavors all seem to be well-liked, with Strawberry being the most likely to be purchased and Lime being the least likely. Pineapple Mango is the most polarizing flavor, with 55% saying they would purchase it compared to 30% who would not.
What do people like about Simply Pop?
The different variety of flavors were praised by respondents, who thought the fruity options were appealing.
The prebiotic benefits were also a big draw, with 47% agreeing that Simply Pop “supports gut health.” Respondents appreciated that there was no added sugar and many recognized it as a healthier alternative to traditional soda.
A third of respondents (33%) saw the product as innovative.
Here’s what people had to say about Simply Pop:
"I like how this drink is very health conscious and is a prebiotic soda that helps with gut health, I also appreciate how it comes in several fruity flavors.”
“I like that it has yummy flavors but is also healthy for you and you don’t have to feel guilty when drinking it.”
"I like the variety of flavors and the added prebiotic fiber to aid digestive health."
"The fact that it's fruit based flavors and produced from natural sweeteners."
"That it's soda and carbonated, but it's still a good healthy alternative to the regular ones."
"I like the packaging and color scheme. It seems inviting."
Becca Kerr, CEO of Coke’s North American nutrition unit, said they went out and listened to consumers to come up with this new product, and clearly they did!
It was smart for Coca-Cola to use an existing brand in the portfolio to enter an emerging category. But to do that successfully, you have to pick an existing brand that consumers see as fitting naturally with the new category. Zappi’s connected Innovation System makes identification, assessment and testing of such cases much easier. Get a demo to learn more.
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