Editor’s note: This article was first published in November 2013; it describes Coca-Cola Life as a brand-new product first tested in Argentina, and Green Cola’s figures, such as almost 5 million euros in sales by the end of 2012, are the company president’s own claims from that time.
I imagine many of you already know that Coca-Cola has a new product: Coca-Cola Life, the green one… which is basically Coca-Cola’s flavour with fewer calories, thanks to using stevia as a sweetener (which does not entirely remove the sugar from the drink).
Coca-Cola also changed Sprite’s ingredients in the United Kingdom to lower its calories. The company is clearly worried, having realised that the future of business is green: greener and healthier.
Of course, Coca-Cola Life could also be the answer to a small company’s attempt to take over a small market. In Greece, to be specific, “Green Cola” has been sold successfully for some time: a cola drink that contains no phosphoric acid, no sugar and no aspartame, the last of these a controversial sweetener.
It also uses citric acid instead of phosphoric acid. Its caffeine comes from green coffee beans, it has natural flavourings and it is sweetened with the stevia plant, which happens to be Coca-Cola’s new sweetener.
With minimal spending on advertising, the Green Cola Company, which has long sold soft drinks in Greece under the “Sparky” brand, has won over the Greek market with “Green Cola”. The drink is already sold in the country’s supermarkets, and its roll-out into bars, restaurants and kiosks is going well.
Stéfanos Oktapodás, president of the Green Cola Company, says turnover went from almost 1 million euros in 2010 to almost 5 million euros by the end of 2012, and that 2013 could close with an increase of almost 40% in sales volume despite the economic crisis the country is going through. He is also already thinking about taking the brand to neighbouring countries and launching new products, but…
With the launch of the “green Coca-Cola” and the financial muscle behind it, the Greek company’s dreams could be crushed, although it could still win the battle, because it has aimed its strategy at the hearts of the Greeks.
What was this small company’s strategy?
When a small business wants to take on a big company, it has to know where to attack the giant and how to win over its allies (the customers).
Green Cola’s strategy has not been about price alone, since we are talking about a saving of roughly 0.03 to 0.07 euros per can compared with the competition.
The first part of the strategy was already done for them: doctors increasingly warn that sugary drinks should be avoided in many cases, but, according to numerous studies, the sweetener alternative is not much healthier than sugar.
With Green Cola, the company did not sell a product as an alternative to Coca-Cola, but a cola product unlike anything else on the market, one that can be drunk in moderation even by diabetics.
But the real key to Green Cola is the seal that says “Consume Greek”. That simple seal is probably responsible for the product’s success.
Greece is going through the worst crisis in its history, so telling Greeks that by buying Greek products they are helping themselves and their country can have a very positive impact. It might not work in other countries, but in Greece it usually does.
At the other end, of course, there is the reason Coca-Cola has got where it is: despite being enormous, it is a very agile company (Read: Learning from big companies and applying it to your business).
The Greek green-cola company has done Coca-Cola’s market research for it. Big Coca-Cola already has the answer to whether Coca-Cola Life would work. The drink, incidentally, was first tested in the Argentine market, and it is probably ready to jump to many other countries around the world.
See also: Two of the most brilliant strategies in business history
Featured image: SamHolt6, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
