<\/p>\n
For years, bigger was better. Customers wanted their fast-food meals supersized, their pre-packaged snacks in bulk, and their movie theater concessions large enough to last a triple feature.<\/p>\n
These days, consumer preferences have changed. Diet trends and growing financial pressures have shoppers reaching for smaller portion sizes and more reasonably priced options.<\/p>\n
The trend has prompted PepsiCo to release some of its best-selling products in smaller sizes, making them more appealing to consumers and helping the beverage giant more directly compete with its largest rival, The Coca-Cola Company.<\/p>\n
PepsiCo quietly adds new bottle size<\/p>\n
Over the weekend, one eagle-eyed Pepsi fan on social media platform Reddit noticed the company had added a 13-ounce bottle of Mountain Dew Baja Blast to its SmartLabel page.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the uninitiated, SmartLabel is a digital platform and barcode system that gives consumers full access to the ingredients, allergens, and uses of any given product. It also generally lists every iteration of every product a company currently has on the U.S. market.<\/p>\n
A closer look through PepsiCo\u2019s SmartLabel page reveals there are actually five sodas currently offered in this 13-ounce size: Pepsi, Pepsi Zero Sugar, Mountain Dew, Diet Mountain Dew, and Mountain Dew Baja Blast.<\/p>\n
As of this writing, PepsiCo has not released any official announcement about the new sizes nor told consumers where they can find them. But a deeper dive into Pepsi\u2019s current size offerings, and those of competitor Coca-Cola, gives a clearer picture of the market gap it might be trying to fill with the new release.<\/p>\n
Before the debut of its 13-ounce bottles, PepsiCo offered its single-serve sodas in four different formats:<\/p>\n
Standard can at 12 ouncesMini-can at 7.5 ouncesStandard bottle at 20 ouncesSlim bottle at 16.9 ounces<\/p>\n
The Coca-Cola Company has equivalent sizing with one notable difference \u2014 in 2022, it introduced a new line of 12.9-ounce bottles.<\/p>\n
It stands to reason, then, that this new PepsiCo size is intended as a response to Coca-Cola\u2019s mini bottles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
PepsiCo quietly added a line of 13-ounce bottles to its product range in May.<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
Why PepsiCo needs new soda sizes<\/p>\n
Beyond matching The Coca-Cola Company\u2019s product lineup, what\u2019s the point of these new mini bottles?\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the surface, the new packaging feels a little redundant. After all, Pepsi previously offered several similarly sized options.<\/p>\n
But the new format actually fills a pretty substantial gap in the company\u2019s catalog.<\/p>\n
For starters, the new mini bottles will likely fill a price-point gap. A perusal of national retailers such as Walmart reveals that Coca-Cola\u2019s 12.9-ounce bottles typically cost around $2. Meanwhile, Pepsi\u2019s smallest bottle size, the 16.9-ounce slim bottle, runs closer to $3.<\/p>\n
If Pepsi follows a similar pricing strategy to Coca-Cola, the new format will give consumers a more wallet-friendly option for their afternoon pick-me-up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
More retail:<\/p>\n
Popular Walmart food item recalled over fatal riskWalmart CEO issues blunt message on rising fuel pricesTJ Maxx has a secret weapon Walmart and Target can’t match<\/p>\n
A study by the National Association of Convenience Stores found that younger consumers, in this case Gen Z and Gen Alpha, tend to prioritize lower unit prices over bulk savings when making snacking decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So while a dollar difference in price may not have meant much to older generations, it could have a significant impact on what these younger consumers choose to buy. If Pepsi is able to offer products at the same price points as Coca-Cola, it will be better positioned to compete with these younger consumers.<\/p>\n
The new mini bottle format is also better adapted to current diet trends. With the rise of GLP-1 use, many consumers are more conscious than ever about their calorie and sugar intake.<\/p>\n
A smaller amount of soda will, by default, have less sugar and fewer calories. So these new sizes could allow GLP-1 users and other health-conscious consumers to indulge in their favorite carbonated beverages without being concerned about overdoing it on the sweeteners or taking in too many calories in a sitting.<\/p>\n
As shoppers continue gravitating toward lower-cost indulgences and more manageable portion sizes, smaller bottles could become an increasingly important battleground in the ongoing competition between PepsiCo and Coca-Cola.<\/p>\n
In other words, Pepsi\u2019s newest bottle may be small \u2014 but the strategy behind it is much bigger.<\/p>\n
Related: Coca-Cola\u2019s new LTO cans create a shopping problem<\/p>\n
#Pepsi #big #change #counter #CocaCola<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For years, bigger was better. Customers wanted their fast-food meals supersized, their pre-packaged snacks in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[259],"tags":[237,1626,3533,5184,6845],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7438"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}