Coca-Cola Products That Were Massive Fails

The Coca-Cola brand is arguably one of the world's most popular and recognizable companies. According to an article published on CNBC's Make It, Coke made just $50 during its debut year in 1886, but grew to sell almost $32 billion worldwide in 2018, with products available in 200 countries. As competition in the beverage market continues to grow, and with consumer preferences constantly changing, the only way to stay on top is to embrace innovation and to make adjustments with the changing times. 

The problem? Innovation and change are rarely guarantees for success. Just because a brand is popular and well-known doesn't mean that every product they introduce to market will be embraced by consumers. And fearing failure — fearing detrimental sales, and the immense cost of advertising and marketing a new product only to have it pulled from shelves — can lead to stagnation in innovation among company leaders. 

Coke's company-wide solution for encouraging innovation is to offer the Celebrate Failure Award every year — they literally reward leaders who introduce a product to market, only to have it fail. And man, oh man, have they had some massive product failures over the years. It's refreshing when you think about it — even with a slew of failures, Coca-Cola continues to thrive and grow. They do so by learning from their failures. It's a lesson worth taking to heart. 

These are some of the Coca-Cola products that were massive fails.

Dasani water may be a staple on grocery store and mini-mart shelves throughout the United States, but for a global brand like Coca-Cola, just because a product works well in one location, that doesn't mean it will work well worldwide. That's certainly what happened when Coke tried to introduce Dasani in the United Kingdom. The blunder was two-fold. First, according to an article in The Guardian, this "filtered water" wasn't from a crystal-clear spring in the mountains of an unkissed tropical forest, but rather from a tap in Sidcup, southeast London. When people in the UK realized they were, essentially, being sold tap water — you know, water they could access with a turn of a knob — they scoffed at the thought of paying for such a thing. 

Second, Coke was marketing the water as "bottled spunk." In the United States, "spunk" may mean spirit, courage, or determination, but in the UK? It's a slang word for semen. Not exactly a well-planned marketing ploy good for boosting sales of water. In less than a year, Coca-Cola discontinued selling Dasani in the United Kingdom, and for many, it remains as a running joke for how it's possible to butcher introducing a new product to market when you lack the appropriate knowledge of the culture where you're introducing it. 

Sometimes drinks with a popular fan base simply don't make financial sense for companies to continue producing long-term, and that's exactly what happened with Coca-Cola's Sprite Remix. The original Tropical-flavored drink was released in 2003, and according to an article on Business Insider, its initial success led to the addition of two more flavors — Aruba Jam and Berryclear. Unfortunately, its diehard following wasn't large enough to last more than a few years, and Coke killed production in 2005.

That said, sometimes failures with a solid following can lead to future, albeit temporary, successes. Coca-Cola seemed to take a note out of McDonald's playbook in 2016 when it decided to do a limited-time release of Sprite Remix Tropical, not unlike McDonald's famed limited-time releases of the McRib sandwich, which has a cult following. Fans were able to pick up their tropical-flavored soda temporarily, and with any luck, Coca-Cola will decide to do another limited-time release in the future. 

With the rise in popularity of energy drinks in the early 2000s and 2010s, especially with PepsiCo's Mountain Dew positioning itself as a champion of extreme sports like snowboarding and skateboarding, it was just a matter of time before Coca-Cola responded with its own hybrid energy/soft drink. According to Business Insider, the 2005 release of Vault was Coke's direct answer to Mountain Dew, even using a citrus flavor and green packaging to draw consumer interest. Likewise, when PepsiCo added to its Mountain Dew line with Mountain Dew: Code Red, Coca-Cola played along, sending Vault Red Blitz to stores in 2007. 

And while Vault ended up having a longer lifespan than many other failed products, ultimately sales couldn't continue justifying the cost of production. After six years of moderate success, Coke pulled the plug on the drink. That said, with its popularity being greater than most failures, there's always a chance that Coke could decide to offer the drink again on a limited-time basis in the future.

Coca-Cola C2 was a product destined to fail. According to Harvard Business Review, its sole purpose was to appeal to men ages 20 to 40 who might want to drink diet soda, but wouldn't do it for the fear that drinking diet soda would be perceived as "feminine." Sigh. 

So, Coca-Cola put C2 on the shelves in 2004. This drink was like a hybrid diet drink, non-diet drink, with a flavor more-or-less like a normal Coke. It featured half the calories and half the carbs of a regular Coke, and was pushed hard, with a $50 million advertising campaign. A campaign that many simply don't remember because it was a massive failure. Men weren't interested in making the purchase — it just wasn't different enough or appealing enough to opt-in — and women who wanted a low-calorie drink could already opt for zero-calorie Diet Coke. 

C2 was quickly pulled from shelves after it became clear that it didn't help grow market share. But true to their mission, Coke applied the mistakes made from the release of C2 and tried again a year later with Coke Zero — it offered a similar taste with zero calories, and it can still be found on shelves today. 

There is little that sounds quite as disgusting as fruit-flavored, carbonated milk, amiright? But somehow this idea was given the thumbs up by Coca-Cola execs in 2009 and was released in a limited market under the brand name Vio. According to CB Insights, the drink failed rapidly in the U.S. (was anyone actually surprised?), although apparently it's been given a second-life (although, presumably an also limited life) in India. 

Just think for a second about how bad this idea really was. Yes, milk beverages like chocolate milk or strawberry milk are popular with kids around the world, but who in their right mind wants to drink a carbonated "fresh citrus" milk drink? And it's not like marketing directors were helping explain the phenomena very well. According to an article on Time, a Coke copywriter described the drink as "like a birthday party for a polar bear." Uhhhh... what? Obviously, Vio fizzled out fast. 

As with Coca-Cola's short-lived C2 product, Coca-Cola Life has faced similar problems with reception and brand differentiation. The problem is that Coca-Cola Life is another lower-calorie (but not calorie-free) product sweetened with natural sweeteners like cane sugar and stevia. The idea — along with its bright green branding — is to position the soda as a "healthier" option than full-calorie sodas (like Coca-Cola) and artificially sweetened diet sodas (like Diet Coke). According to Beverage Daily, the product has 45-percent fewer calories than the full-calorie soda and Food Navigator points out that in blind taste tests, the product often performs better than other low-calorie or no-calorie sodas. 

Unfortunately, low-calorie options like Coca-Cola Life appear to simply dilute the market of buyers interested in lower-calorie or no-calorie sodas, rather than bringing new customers to the market — in essence, people who buy Coca-Cola Life are the same people who buy products like Diet Coke or Coke Zero — they're not new customers. As such, Coca-Cola Life was pulled from shelves in the UK in 2017 and was phased out of its original markets — Argentina and Chile — in the same year. While it can still be found in the United States, Food Navigator points out that it hasn't been performing well. It may just be a matter of time before it gets the ax there, too.