New name helped boost Coke Zero

U.S. sales growing twice as fast as last year, according to company.

After a summer makeover, sales of Coke Zero — now called Coke Zero Sugar — are on the rise again.

Coca-Cola revamped the popular diet soda in August with sleeker packaging, a new name and an “improved” recipe. And although the ingredient list, which includes aspartame and caramel color, has remained the same, Americans are now buying much more of the diet soda than they did earlier this year.

The company says it “only tweaked the blend of natural flavors” to make the drink taste more like Coca-Cola.

“The headline is: As Coke Zero Sugar comes into marketplaces, we’re seeing continued acceleration of (the drink) lifting the whole franchise,” James Quincey, president and chief executive of Coca-Cola, said Wednesday in a call with analysts. “We’re pleased with how it’s playing out.”

Overall, U.S. sales of the drink are growing twice as fast as they were earlier this year, according to the company. That increase marked a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy earnings report: Coca-Cola on Wednesday reported a 33 percent drop in third-quarter profits, which fell to $4 billion, or 92 cents per share, from a year earlier. Quarterly revenue decreased 15 percent to $9.1 billion in the same period.

The new Coke Zero Sugar is just one of more than 500 products the Atlanta-based beverage giant plans to reformulate this year as it scrambles to keep up with changing tastes.

“We recognize that too much sugar isn’t good for anyone, and we are continually evolving our business to reflect this fact,” Quincey said in a Q&A published on Coca-Cola’s website. “We believe our combined product, package and marketing efforts can be more effective at reducing the sugar people drink over the long term.”

American soda consumption fell to a 30-year low last year, with the steepest declines in sales of Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke, according to data from the trade publication Beverage Digest. Overall, consumption of diet soda fell 31 percent between 2005 and 2016.

The company’s rebranding of Coke Zero Sugar is also part of its broader effort to address falling sales. Coca-Cola says it changed the drink’s name “to be as clear and descriptive as possible” after internal research showed that many consumers didn’t realize that Coke Zero didn’t have sugar or calories. It also changed the drink’s packaging “to make it look more like Coca-Cola.”