Coke Blak

Ohh dammit! Its been a busy week, this is the first day that I’m home at this time. I’m tired, but here’s some stuff…

Coke is doing away with Coke Vanilla and is bringing in Coke Blak,

I’ll try it, and see if its any good, its from yesterday’s YAHOO newspage on yahoo.com:

Coke to launch coffee-infused Coke Blak

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE:KO – news),
the world’s No. 1 soft drink company, on Wednesday
said it will launch a coffee-infused soft drink called
Coca-Cola Blak in various markets around the world in
2006.
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The news of the launch came hours before Coke Chief
Executive Neville Isdell was scheduled to address
financial analysts and investors in New York.

The new drink, a combination of Coca-Cola Classic and
coffee extracts, will be first launched in France in
January before being rolled out in the United States
and other markets during 2006.

A Coke spokesperson said Coca-Cola Blak will be a
mid-calorie drink, similar to Coca-Cola C2, which was
launched in April 2004 and contains half the sugar,
calories and carbohydrates of regular colas. The
formula for the new beverage is expected to vary based
on local tastes.

Analysts have said one of the keys to the company’s
future is capturing more consumers who have moved away
from sugary soft drinks to diet versions, or to
healthier low- or no-calorie beverages.

Today, there was word that Coke, afraid to loose its top spot in the beverage race with Pepsico decided to change its slogan, yahoo.com also has that article:

Coke backs targets, sets new slogan

By Anupama Chandrasekaran Wed Dec 7, 4:50 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE:KO – news), the world’s biggest soft drink maker, on Wednesday backed its long-term earnings growth target and unveiled a new marketing slogan that welcomes consumers to “The Coke Side of Life.”

Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, which has struggled for five years to boost sluggish soft drink sales and meet changing consumer tastes, said it still expects earnings-per-share growth in the high single-digit range. Coke also stood by an earlier forecast for long-term annual operating earnings growth of 6 percent to 8 percent.

Unit case volumes, a key sales measure in the beverage industry, are still forecast to rise between 3 percent and 4 percent per year, the company said.

Chief Executive E. Neville Isdell told analysts at a meeting in New York that many people had told him Coke “had an innovation deficit in North America, and they were right.”

Some industry watchers have said that Coke fell behind competitors such as PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE:PEP – news) since it held off from acquisitions and took less risks with innovative products.

Isdell said the company would likely pursue more smaller geographic acquisitions in 2006.

Coca-Cola also discussed plans for several new drinks during the presentation, including Coca-Cola Blak, a new cola-coffee beverage that will debut next month in France. The company also plans to introduce “indulgence coffees” in the key North American market next year.

“The depth of the presentation was new and impressive,” said John Sicher, editor of industry newsletter Beverage Digest. “Coke has certainly stepped up innovation and marketing. It waits to be seen if it can be executed.”

Chief Financial Officer Gary Fayard said that currency translation would likely be a drag on next year’s results. A stronger dollar hurts U.S. companies as it reduces the income from overseas when converted into U.S. dollars. Fayard also said that Coke plans to spend $2 billion to $2.5 billion on share repurchases and boost its dividend next year.

Also during the presentation, Coke marketing chief Mary Minnick announced the company’s new advertising slogan, “Welcome to the Coke Side of Life.” The campaign will include variations like “Chill on the Coke Side of Life,” she added.

Coca-Cola has introduced several diet and reduced-calorie drinks in recent months to meet changing consumer tastes. It is also now packaging Coca-Cola in an 8.4-ounce can and touting that the serving has just 100 calories, Minnick said.

The company unveiled a new advertising campaign that will promote wellness and showcase its broad lineup of drinks, which includes everything from Coca-Cola and Diet Coke to Dasani water and Minute Maid juices. The campaign will debut in North America during the 2006
Winter Olympics, Minnick said.

The wellness campaign and 100-calorie servings of Coca-Cola come amid concerns about the growing rate of obesity in the United States, particularly among children.

“It shows how difficult the challenges are going forward,” said Michael Bellas, chairman and chief executive of Beverage Marketing Corp., a research, data and consulting firm. “It’s a transformation of the company from everything starting from product lines to distribution to retail accounts and they have put a lot of effort into it and they have to make it work.”

Coca-Cola has reported quarterly profits above Wall Street forecasts so far this year, but that has done little for the stock. Its shares have fallen about 17.5 percent since Isdell succeeded Doug Daft in June 2004 and are 52 percent off their lifetime high of $88.94 set in July 1998. By contrast, rival PepsiCo’s stock has soared 57 percent over the same period and hit a life high on Tuesday.

Coca-Cola shares closed down 34 cents, or 0.8 percent, at $42.20 on the
New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, while PepsiCo slipped 23 cents to $59.22.

(Additional reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago and Nichola Groom in Los Angeles)

Nice, makes me want to have a nice cold Coke. Actually, while student teaching I have become accostomed to drinking Diet Coke, but I think my true Diet love will probably be Diet Pepsi. Coke will always have a place in my heart as my #1 soda…

–Socram

4 thoughts on “Coke Blak

  1. socramforever says:

    haha! I don’t know, Coke is my true love in soda, pepsi is a far second. But if I want something really sweet I’ll drink pepsi. Coke and Pepsi are like the democratic and republican parties, they are so dominate that they would never let the independent party (RC cola) in to steal some costumers away.

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