4 ms·

When I was a kid, you could buy 4 or so different soft drinks, a few juices and some flavoured milks. Now, the drink fridges take up a whole wall in the store,

by Gatsky 4y ago

When I was a kid, you could buy 4 or so different soft drinks, a few juices and some flavoured milks. Now, the drink fridges take up a whole wall in the store, and there are multiple waters, flavoured waters, sparkling waters, non-sugar soft drinks, the usual big brand soft drinks but with many varieties, iced teas, energy drinks of all sorts, many juice permutations, multiple coffee drinks, protein shakes, kombucha, specialised kiddy drinks… the explosion in options is quite striking. I assume this is because selling drinks is a good business, essentially reselling people their tap water for a huge margin. I also think that the gargantuan marketing expenditure of Coke and friends has deeply implanted the idea of drinking from bottles into a whole generation, and other drink makers benefit from this advertising ‘penumbra’.

olsgaarddk 4y ago
Obviously there are many things going on here, and I am not saying this is the end all explanation to the whole thing, but an interesting part of the puzzle I came across during a project I did on the brewery industry during my bachelor, is that there exists a whole market segment of consumers who just wants to "try something new". When you ask yourself in the super market "Who in their right mind wants a snickers and mint flavored orea?" this is that segment. So, in my case, the beer industry was (is? This was a decade ago) losing sales to ready-mades (Barcadi Breezer, cans of rum and coke, etc.) and a way to hold on to consumers was simply to add new, limited run recipes. All classes of drinks are trying to hold on to consumers who are being stolen by other classes of drinks, by offering up new colors and strange flavor combinations. But at the same time I think you are right about companies training consumers to drink larger and larger portions sugared drinks. Like, 1.5 liter coca-cola isn't even the largest size drink in the cinema sometimes!
- ezconnect 4y ago
  So that explain the different flavor of Korean Soju.
- Gatsky 4y ago
  Right, yes this makes sense! I suspect that these short-lived new flavours actually increse sales of the original flavours, since the consumer desires to taste the original again.
lkozma 4y ago
Socrates supposedly loved going to the market. When his students asked him about this, Socrates replied, "I love to go and see all the things I am happy without." :)
scotty79 4y ago
I've seen a funny observation that bottled water comapnies don't produce water, they just package it. So what they are selling to you are just plastic bottles.
- ezconnect 4y ago
  They actually buy the location of the water source like springs or rivers and is becoming a problem for locals and tourists since they can't enjoy the natural resource anymore once they fence it and put guards around it.

by Gatsky 4y ago

olsgaarddk 4y ago

Obviously there are many things going on here, and I am not saying this is the end all explanation to the whole thing, but an interesting part of the puzzle I came across during a project I did on the brewery industry during my bachelor, is that there exists a whole market segment of consumers who just wants to "try something new". When you ask yourself in the super market "Who in their right mind wants a snickers and mint flavored orea?" this is that segment. So, in my case, the beer industry was (is? This was a decade ago) losing sales to ready-mades (Barcadi Breezer, cans of rum and coke, etc.) and a way to hold on to consumers was simply to add new, limited run recipes. All classes of drinks are trying to hold on to consumers who are being stolen by other classes of drinks, by offering up new colors and strange flavor combinations. But at the same time I think you are right about companies training consumers to drink larger and larger portions sugared drinks. Like, 1.5 liter coca-cola isn't even the largest size drink in the cinema sometimes!

ezconnect 4y ago
So that explain the different flavor of Korean Soju.
Gatsky 4y ago
Right, yes this makes sense! I suspect that these short-lived new flavours actually increse sales of the original flavours, since the consumer desires to taste the original again.

lkozma 4y ago

Socrates supposedly loved going to the market. When his students asked him about this, Socrates replied, "I love to go and see all the things I am happy without." :)

scotty79 4y ago

I've seen a funny observation that bottled water comapnies don't produce water, they just package it. So what they are selling to you are just plastic bottles.

ezconnect 4y ago
They actually buy the location of the water source like springs or rivers and is becoming a problem for locals and tourists since they can't enjoy the natural resource anymore once they fence it and put guards around it.