Coca-Cola’s decision to consign Dasani to the history books of British grocery before the first trickle of sales figures had even arrived will have come as little surprise to many in the trade. For few products have ever had such a disastrous start to life in the furiously competitive world of fmcg.
Last August, The Grocer exclusively revealed the first details of Coca-Cola’s decision to bring the global filtered water brand to UK shores and the alarm bells were already ringing as influential buyers admitted they were worried about the product’s lack of provenance compared to more ‘natural’ mineral and spring waters.
So it was hardly a bolt from the blue when the nation’s newspapers pounced on the offering following its official launch last month. Headlines like ‘The Real Sting’ and ‘Coke Sells Tap Water’ were just too good an opportunity to miss as Dasani became branded the new ‘Peckham Spring’, a reference to Del Boy’s infamous attempt to flog bottled H20 straight out of the kitchen tap. After all, there was little getting away from the fact that, despite the fancy filtering process, the water had essentially come from Thames Water supplies.
Within days, insult was added to injury when key buyers came back out of the woodwork to tell The Grocer that Coca-Cola had ignored their warnings over those provenance issues. And the cause was not helped, either, when it was reported that homes near the Sidcup-based Dasani plant in Kent had been flooded, even though there was no suggestion that Coca-Cola had been responsible. A further blow came last week when The Grocer revealed that the Advertising Standards Authority was investigating the validity of Dasani’s claim to be a ‘pure’ water.
But the final nail in the coffin, and the subsequent appearance of grocery’s Grim Reaper, was the recall of half a million bottles following last weekend’s blanket-publicised bromate cancer scare. Following that death knell, not even the most optimistic commentators were giving Dasani so much as a fighting chance to stage a comeback.
Indeed, before Wednesday afternoon’s announcement that Coca-Cola was postponing the launch of Dasani Europe-wide, let alone just in Britain, one senior buyer at one of the big four retailers had already told The Grocer he would need “an awful lot of convincing” to put the brand - which he said had hardly been flying off shelves in the first place - back in front of shoppers. The buyer added: “It has lost the support of buyers and consumers. It doesn’t have a future.”
And following the announcement there was a steady flood of commentators eager to explain why Dasani had failed to weather the storm.
Matt Spencer, buying manager for soft drinks at Asda, said: “We certainly saw this one coming. Sales had been as expected for a brand which had suffered that level of negative publicity. At the end of the day, just because you’re Coke doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed success with every launch, unless you get it right.”
Nick Cloke, director of marketing consultancy Catalyst, added: “I doubt many tears will be shed over Dasani’s demise. No pun intended, but it was already dead in the water.”
Last August, The Grocer exclusively revealed the first details of Coca-Cola’s decision to bring the global filtered water brand to UK shores and the alarm bells were already ringing as influential buyers admitted they were worried about the product’s lack of provenance compared to more ‘natural’ mineral and spring waters.
So it was hardly a bolt from the blue when the nation’s newspapers pounced on the offering following its official launch last month. Headlines like ‘The Real Sting’ and ‘Coke Sells Tap Water’ were just too good an opportunity to miss as Dasani became branded the new ‘Peckham Spring’, a reference to Del Boy’s infamous attempt to flog bottled H20 straight out of the kitchen tap. After all, there was little getting away from the fact that, despite the fancy filtering process, the water had essentially come from Thames Water supplies.
Within days, insult was added to injury when key buyers came back out of the woodwork to tell The Grocer that Coca-Cola had ignored their warnings over those provenance issues. And the cause was not helped, either, when it was reported that homes near the Sidcup-based Dasani plant in Kent had been flooded, even though there was no suggestion that Coca-Cola had been responsible. A further blow came last week when The Grocer revealed that the Advertising Standards Authority was investigating the validity of Dasani’s claim to be a ‘pure’ water.
But the final nail in the coffin, and the subsequent appearance of grocery’s Grim Reaper, was the recall of half a million bottles following last weekend’s blanket-publicised bromate cancer scare. Following that death knell, not even the most optimistic commentators were giving Dasani so much as a fighting chance to stage a comeback.
Indeed, before Wednesday afternoon’s announcement that Coca-Cola was postponing the launch of Dasani Europe-wide, let alone just in Britain, one senior buyer at one of the big four retailers had already told The Grocer he would need “an awful lot of convincing” to put the brand - which he said had hardly been flying off shelves in the first place - back in front of shoppers. The buyer added: “It has lost the support of buyers and consumers. It doesn’t have a future.”
And following the announcement there was a steady flood of commentators eager to explain why Dasani had failed to weather the storm.
Matt Spencer, buying manager for soft drinks at Asda, said: “We certainly saw this one coming. Sales had been as expected for a brand which had suffered that level of negative publicity. At the end of the day, just because you’re Coke doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed success with every launch, unless you get it right.”
Nick Cloke, director of marketing consultancy Catalyst, added: “I doubt many tears will be shed over Dasani’s demise. No pun intended, but it was already dead in the water.”
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