Wednesday, February 17, 2016

For Coke, Innovation Comes in Small Bottles

The past few years have been tough on Coke.  Health-conscious populations have dramatically reduced their consumption of soda.

But now, after a jujitsu maneuver, Coke's global sales are rising.

What was their innovative, jujitsu move?  Instead of fighting the anti-soda trend, they went with the flow by selling smaller servings.

After decades of bigger bottles and "super-sizing", Coke started introducing small cans and bottles.

This has had 2 effects:

1. Coke makes more profit per ounce, because packaging is a large percentage of their cost.

2. More people are buying soda, because they see the small package as a comprise between drinking regular servings, and the ideal of drinking no soda

The lesson here is that innovation doesn't necessarily mean bigger or better.  It could be smaller and less.  The key is to give customers something they value.