Dive Brief:
- PepsiCo announced that it will return the aspartame-sweetened version of Diet Pepsi to store shelves in September.
- Pepsi faced falling sales and complaints about Diet Pepsi after changing the sweetener from aspartame to sucralose last year.
- PepsiCo also announced plans to change the name of smaller diet soda brand Pepsi Max to Pepsi Zero Sugar in the U.S.
Dive Insight:
After reformulating Diet Pepsi to replace aspartame with sucralose in August, consumers responded unfavorably to the change, and sales plunged more steeply than the diet soda brand had in preceding quarters. The beverage company conducted two years of research before making the switch away from aspartame, but the move fell flat in an environment of declining diet soda sales. Now, the company is backpedaling and bringing back aspartame, a move that will put two versions of the soft drink on shelves, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Chief beverage competitor Coca-Cola has taken a different approach to addressing declining diet soda sales. In late April 2015, Coca-Cola announced that it was sticking with aspartame for its Diet Coke recipe, promoting its Coke Zero brand as an alternative diet soda option. Diet soda sales continue to fall, but Diet Pepsi's attempt to appease health-conscious consumers only exacerbated sales declines for the brand.
The Wall Street Journal points out that Pepsi's aspartame issue is somewhat reminiscent of Coke’s disastrous rollout of New Coke back in 1985, which created a massive backlash and forced Coke to reissue Coke Classic amid a brand crisis. In this case, Pepsi tinkered with the formula of a soft drink with considerably smaller market share than Coke’s flagship product still commands, but the backlash illustrates the danger in making changes to a product with a dedicated user base. After rolling out the new Diet Pepsi formula last August, the backlash began immediately, with negative comments on the internet outpacing positive comments six to one.