Making the Most of Soft Drinks

Thinking about soft drinks outside of the box

Soft drinks are an American staple. With carbonated soda comes familiarity and preferences. Most consumers already have a loyalty to certain soft drink brands before even walking out of their door to go out to dinner or to the grocery store.

Making the most of soft drinks entails showing the consumer that the soft drink business consists of more then their typical cola. Providing your customers with different choices than they are used to can expand your business and their buying habits. Consider the following when choosing your soda inventory:

1. The soft drink industry produces an endless number of flavored carbonated beverages.

2. The packaging of carbonated soft drinks can be as much of a factor as what is inside.

3. Allowing customers to sample soft drinks may increase the likelihood that they will make a purchase.

 

Think outside of the box and provide uniquely flavored soft drinks

Typically, people think of carbonated soda as either lemon-lime or original cola flavor. These flavors, though, are just the tip of the iceberg of what soft drink companies manufacture. Offering your customers unusual soda flavors may be just what you need to set you apart from the restaurant or grocery store down the street.
Try: Grapette International offers every soda flavor, from apple to coconut. Briar's Premium Soft Drinks produces sarsaparilla and lemon cream. Find reviews on diet sodas -- unique and otherwise -- at Diet Soda Reviews to get an idea of what the public likes and dislikes.

Offer soda in interesting cans and bottles

Sometimes just a change in packaging can be enough to catch your customer's eye. Choosing to offer soda products that are in unique cans or bottles or that have a particularly eye-catching label may be enough to entice them to try something new.
Try: Sprecher Brewery has a soda line that is all made to look like beer bottles. Soda Pop Stop even has a Black Lemonade flavored soda that has a skull on the front of the bottle. ShelfImpact! discusses how even the material that the packaging is made of can make a difference in a consumer's preference.

Allow customers to sample soft drinks to entice them to purchase something new

Offering samples or a free new soft drink with the purchase of another may help urge your customers to try something new without the risk. Customers may be wary about trying a soda that they have never had before in case they don't like it or it wasn't what they were expecting. A sampling program will allow them to try a carbonated beverage before buying it and hopefully bring them back to purchase the product again.
Try: MarketingProfs explains some of the benefits of a sampling program. Marketing College discusses Costco's sampling opportunities and gives insight into how this may contribute to consumers' purchases.

 

• Consider ordering or selling unusual soft drinks in smaller quantities for your customers. This, too, may encourage your customers to take a small risk to buy something new. Then, hopefully, the next time they will buy the regular size of that soda.

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