The new Diet Pepsi is having a rough debut since PepsiCo Inc.
replaced the artificial sweetener aspartame with less-controversial sucralose
in a bid to reverse plunging industrywide diet-soda sales. Sales have kept
sinking since the reformulated cola began surfacing on store shelves more
than a month ago, and Diet Pepsi loyalists are using words like “yuck” and
“unpalatable” to broadcast their distaste on Twitter and Facebook.
The change also has put a spotlight on the artificial
sweetener sucralose, commonly known as Splenda, which has had a lower
profile—and thus less pushback—among consumers than aspartame. Only 3% of
sucralose mentions have been positive and 17% have been negative on Twitter
over the past three months, according to social media tracker Sysomos. For
aspartame, 1% were positive and 7% were negative.
PepsiCo Chief Executive Indra Nooyi says it is too
early to tell how consumers are responding to the new formula. The company says initial consumer sentiment
often skews negative when established brands change and that it received just
over 3,000 complaints over the summer, fewer than the roughly 9,000 expected
but more than nearly 370 positive responses.
The company tested the new Diet Pepsi with thousands of
consumers for about two years before the launch and says three-quarters liked
the taste. Prior to the introduction, its surveys indicated the No. 1 reason
consumers were dropping diet cola was aspartame—a zero-calorie sweetener blamed
for everything from autism to diabetes.
The Food and Drug Administration approves all artificial
sweeteners as safe before allowing them in food and drinks. Some studies,
though, have suggested links to cancer or other health risks. The Center for
Science in the Public Interest, a U.S. consumer health group, recommends
avoiding aspartame, sucralose and acesulfame potassium, another sweetener in
Diet Pepsi and other sodas.
All of PepsiCo’s diet soda sales fell 6.6% in the U.S. in
the four weeks ended Sept. 19, worse than the 5.7% decline over the previous 52
weeks, according to Morgan Stanley, citing Nielsen store-scanner
data. That also was steeper than the 3.4% drop in diet soda sales at Coca-Cola Co.,
which hasn’t removed aspartame from Diet Coke.
Consumers are notorious complainers online. Social-media
tracker Networked Insights estimates negative statements about new products
typically outnumber positive statements four to one. But it estimates the ratio
for Diet Pepsi to be 6 to 1. “The early verdict on Diet Pepsi does not look
promising,” said Rick Miller, a vice president at Networked Insights.
Diet Pepsi has won converts like the Hinds family of
Charleston, W.Va., which had sworn off aspartame. It has switched to Diet
Pepsi, preferring the taste to Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc.’s Diet
Rite, a cola also sweetened with sucralose instead of aspartame. “I never said
it’s 100% safe or chemical free, but [sucralose] may be the lesser of two
evils,” said Fred Hinds, a 50-year-old health care consultant.
Taste matters, however, and tweaking recipes of big brands
is risky business. Coke learned the hard way in 1985, when it introduced New
Coke before quickly switching back after consumers rebelled. Diet soda drinkers
also typically drink a lot, making their taste buds particularly sensitive to
change, said Virginia Lee, a beverage analyst at Euromonitor
International.
At the same time, health-conscious consumers increasingly
are trying to steer clear of all artificial sweeteners. In an International
Food Information Council survey this March, 37% of Americans said they tried to
avoid aspartame but 25% also tried to avoid sucralose.
PepsiCo says it is rolling out thousands of National
Football League-themed advertising displays in stores featuring Diet Pepsi and
is ramping up free “sip samples” across the country after shipping the new
version to celebrity athletes and musicians.
Sysomos estimates Diet Pepsi generated more than 5 million
Twitter impressions when the wives of NF L quarterbacks Matt Ryan and Ryan
Tannehill tweeted their samples tasted “great” and “better than ever” to
thousands of followers, who then retweeted the messages. The players’ wives
weren’t directly paid by Pepsi for their endorsements, however, a portion of
Pepsi’s contract with the NFL is allocated for local player deals.
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