Diet Coke Blasts Past Pepsi in Market Share - Coke Brands Now First and Second
The news is not just a major blow to PepsiCo financially, as Pepsi sold 45 million fewer cases last year, but also psychologically. The beverage portfolio has been in the midst of a restage, which has had its fair share of hiccups, since 2009. The news that Diet Coke has surpassed Pepsi as the second leading brand caps a nearly three-year period in which Gatorade has stumbled, Tropicana has weathered an ill-fated redesign and new logos have come and gone across the portfolio. “We are worried about the morale implications for PepsiCo’s beverage people of having the company’s namesake brand and its top beverage brand dropped to a tertiary spot within its category at a time that a tangible sign of brand momentum for the core brands would help,” wrote Credit Suisse analyst Carlos Laboy in a research note. “From our perspective, strong core brands for Coke, upgraded marketing and a better partnership model will feed nutrition and innovation with lower risk and higher rewards to investors.” Mr. Laboy recently downgraded PepsiCo, saying “there is no U.S. beverage category problem, just a Pepsi problem.”
