To Diet Coke or Not: The Beverage Wars Take Shape

Designer water and designer Coke highlight the growing battle between the Moderns and Cultural Creatives over consumption, packaging and branding trends.

The Moderns

“I found the collaboration was the right fit, it worked well” said Nathalie Rykiel, Sonia’s daughter and now the president of the fashion house. “Fashion is not just fashion - it’s also a universe, a way of life, a philosophy even. Diet Coke isn’t far, for women, from the world of Sonia Rykiel.”With dwindling sales, drink marketers like Evian, Perrier and Diet Coke want to embellish their sales niche as luxury, fashionable brands.

You heard me. Diet Coke wants to be a luxury brand, and they hired  Nathalie Rykiel to celebrate Diet Coke’s 20th anniversary in France.

The International Herald Tribune reports that striped aluminium Rykiel bottles went on sale Jan. 14 in the modish Parisian boutique Colette, the foodstores of Monoprix and Bon Marché’s La Grande Épicerie, selling at the fashionable price of €1.25, or about $1.76.

The Cultural Creatives

Followinging a collaboration with Christian Lacroix in 2007, Evian worked with Jean Paul Gaultier to design ready-to-wear and haute couture Evian bottles for its Winter range, with the frosted ready-to-wear bottle selling for €3, or about $3.80, as far afield as the Great supermarket in Hong Kong’s Pacific Place mall.Part of the sales decline in bottled water and soft drinks like Coke accompanies the global economic meltdown. But part of the decline is on principle.

Consumers are impacted over concerns of supporting locally produced items, fairtrade and sustainiable resources.

Writing for the Independent UK, Johann Hari says: “By the time you read this, my head will be thump-thumping – but this is not a standard-issue New Year’s Day hangover. No. My New Year’s resolution is to finally give up my addiction to two liquids that are trashing the lives of some of the poorest people on earth: bottled water, and Coke. In 2009, I’m determined to lose my bottle.zzzz’

In France, the Chambre syndicale des eaux minérales began a campaign urging customers to drink tap water, after discovering high levels of antimony (a toxic metal) in bottled water.

The Compromise Hybrid

The proceeds from the sale of Jean Paul Gaultier’s Haute Couture Evian bottles (of which there are five, each made from crystal), for example, will go to the Ramsar Convention to conserve wetlands, an organization that Evian has been working with since 1998.Some brands are trying to have it both ways. Evian is promoting itself as a stylish, ethically conscious brand, donating the proceeds from the sales of five Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture bottles to the Ramsar Convention to conserve wetlands, an organization that Evian has been working with since 1998.

According to the IHT, this contribution could be substantial, a Christian Lacroix Haute Couture bottle sold for $23,000 at auction last year, making it the most expensive liter of water ever sold, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

The strategic battle in the coming consumption wars are heating up, with both sides articulating strong messages, in the battle for consumers’ wallets and mindsets.

The Compromise Hybrid is the most interesting position, blurring the lines in ways that appeal to consumers wanting to have it both ways. The studies around Cultural Creatives show that CC’s with the most endowed wallets (every bit as rich as the Moderns’) are probably the most impacted by the Compromise Hybrid.

The banned PETA Super Bowl ad (which probably got more attention than if it played) is an excellent of reverse thinking, in this case taking a Cultural Creative concept of vegetarianism and marketing it with a marvelously Modern style and message. Anne

Note Mar 28, 2011: since this article was written, I now use the term Smart Sensuality to denote the hybrid person with cultural creatives values and a love of style.