With soda volume down globally, most brands like Coke are pushing amped-up waters, juices and tea beverages in hopes to keep its increasingly health-conscious consumer in its court. Dr Pepper Snapple Group, however, is swerving heavily back in the direction of that most American of beverages: a can of soda. The company is counting on its new Ten platform—all the taste, just 10 calories—to become the vehicle for a reconnection with soft-drink fans that will stun the industry.

In rolling out 7Up Ten, A&W Ten, Sunkist Ten, Canada Dry Ten and RC Ten, in addition to its existing Dr Pepper Ten, company CEO Larry Young is insisting that Dr Pepper Snapple will not be cowed by increasingly aggressive attacks on the effects of soft-drink consumption on the American diet.

"You have to step up to the plate and take a big swing, so I think it's a necessary action," he said on a conference call recently. "We're not going to sit back and let [attacks] bring our volumes down and affect us. We're behind this." 

Meaning, of course, the company is getting behind its rollout of the Ten platform across the variety of its soft-drink platforms, which comprise a stable of iconic brands that Dr Pepper Snapple has assembled over the years. The company plans a $30 million marketing outlay this year to launch 12-ounce-serving versions of the drinks across the U.S. in 2013.Continue reading...

Pepsi has launched its latest specialty cola for Japan, Pepsi Special, which claims to not only block fat but help you lose weight. Below, check out the TV campaign that features women portraying unhealthy temptations — a slice of pizza and a giant hamburger — along with an ABC News segment on the launch.Continue reading...

Japanese lab rats have paved the way for a new wave of sodas. Back in 2006, Japan’s National Institute of Health and Nutrition found that rodents that were fed dextrin and fat simultaneously absorbed less of the fat into their system than the rats that were given fat without dextrin.

Welcome to your new dextrin-rich diet, Japan! Earlier this year brewer Kirin released a Mets Cola beverage, which contains dextrin, onto the market, selling it as a soda that would keep consumers from packing on too much fat. It sold well enough that PepsiCo and Suntory, the sole bottler and distributor of Pepsi products in Japan, are jumping into the fat-blocking cola fray on Nov. 13 with Pepsi Special. As the Huffington Post notes, the “Japanese government certifies these colas as ‘food for specific health use.’”

Pepsi has long experimented with novel flavor combinations in Japan (case in point: yogurt, watermelon or strawberry/milk flavored cola, anyone?) In fact, in December it's also introducing a new clear cola called Pepsi White in time for the holidays with seasonally cute snowmen. Despite being clear, ABC News reports that it's tangerine-flavored. And that's not the only limited-edition variation PepsiCo is rolling out internationally.Continue reading...

The last major food that promised to cut weight by inhibiting digestion of fat after ingesting it was potato chips that contained Olestra. And we know what happened with that.

Now, Japan's Kirin Holdings is selling a beverage called Kirin Mets Cola that claims to reduce fat absorption by the body if it's consumed with a meal. Launched in Japan in April in 480ml bottles, Mets Cola became the first cola to receive clearance under Japan's strict new food-regulatory regime, according to BeverageDaily.com.

While it has nothing to do with the New York Mets or baseball, it certainly has a pitch as a "fat busting health drink" for men. No surprise, the cola drink is a runaway hit in Japan.Continue reading...

While they suffer from even more ignominy under a new glare induced by the HBO documentary series The Weight of the Nation, the roundly condemned purveyors of "junk" salt, sugar and calories aren't exactly lying low and saying their mea culpas. McDonald's, Coca-Cola and 7-Eleven are each fighting back in their own way.

Coca-Cola has launched a test of its own new "mid-calorie" sodas to join PepsiCo in trying once again the concept of a "hybrid" diet/non-diet drink even though other attempts by both companies to mine a moderately-minded market have failed. Coke plans to test Sprite Select and Fanta Select products this summer — with only half the calories, 70 of regular drinks per 12-ounce can — in test markets in Atlanta, Detroit, Louisville and Memphis.

Interestingly, Coke's new toe in the mid-calorie water will depend on a blend of sugar: Cargill's Truvia brand of natural sweetener stevia plus erythritol, a "sugar alcohol" (unlike the ingredients in PepsiCo's new, nationally available mid-cal, Pepsi Next, which includes sucralose and high-fructose corn syrup). That gives Coke a leg up on an "more natural" claim it might want to make for select beverages against Next.Continue reading...

CPG brands and supermarket retailers understand there's nothing that gets consumer trial and acceptance of new products like good, old-fashioned sampling. So as Pepsi is attempting once again to grow the U.S. market for mid-calorie sodas with a new sub-brand, Pepsi Next, it's time to put the reliable sampling technique to massive use.

In fact, sampling will be a centerpiece of the campaign, "Drink it to believe it," that Pepsi has launched behind Next, the product it tested last year and will begin rolling out nationally to retailers on March 26. Walmart stores will be a key partner for the launch as Pepsi samples Next at 800 Walmart Supercenters across the country. Pepsi also plans to continue a national sampling program for Next in more than 40 cities nationwide through August.Continue reading...

PepsiCo is fighting back in the war on soda by offering a new version of its flagship beverage, called Pepsi Next, which will have 60 calories, about half of its regular soda, according to the Associated Press.

Don't think of it as a "diet" or "low calorie" beverage so much as a mid-calorie drink. Consumers should be able to find the beverage, made with three artificial sweeteners and high fructose corn syrup, on store shelves by the end of March.

Pepsi has been researching the "taste curve" to figure out the sweet (but not too sweet) spot as it tweaks the brand. The move follows sibling brand moves at Gatorade, whose G2, at 20 calories, has a little less than half the calories of the original version; and Trop50, which is half of the 110 calories in a regular glass of Tropicana orange juice.Continue reading...

Weight Watchers has been bucking the tide in the weight-loss business during the year since introducing a huge wrinkle in its long-used diet-evaluation system, called Points Plus. And now, the company wants to apply its new success formula to male dieters.

Even though January is the seasonal high tide for Weight Watchers, Jenny (Craig), Nutrisystem and other dieting brands, overall the weight-loss business has been getting leaner these days. Recessionary times and consumers taking a dollar-saving, individualized approach to weight loss have been largely to blame for a lagging industry performance that gained only 2 percent last year compared with a traditional 6-percent year-on-year improvement.

That's one big reason Nutrisystem has increased its focus on men.Continue reading...