In the later years of the 2000s, I worked for a beer company that had a fairly successful "light beer" product in Europe, and we considered launching it in Canada too. I was reminded of our brand considerations at the time when I read about Diet Coke's rebranding, which was just announced yesterday. Along with a snappy new can and a series of new "flavours," the Diet Coke folks also introduced a new sweetener to their list of ingredients - at least on the new flavours.
The challenge we had with our European beer product was that its fewer calories were the result of added artificial sweeteners. It's something most consumers expect from diet soda pop, but fewer consumers understand that artificial sweeteners are sometimes added to beer too. Our challenge was that Canadian regulations regarding ingredients disclosure are different than they are in Europe, and our particular sweetener had the most unappetizing moniker "Acesulfame Potassium." Furthermore, Canadian regulations demanded that we print "Contains Acesulfame Potassium" on the front of every can in a typeface that was a minimum of 0.5cm high. That's about a 20pt font.
We didn't launch that formulation into the Canadian market (though an alternate formulation using beet sugar was allowed, and we didn't have to disclose that ingredient). I didn't even need to go to a focus group to make that decision - nobody wants to consume a raw chemical (even though we do it every day), which is why nobody markets under most scientific words.
As I read about the Diet Coke rebrand, I saw that something else has been rebranded too. "Acesulfame Potassium" is now being added to the new Diet Coke flavour formulations alongside aspartame, but under the snappy nom de guerre "Ace-K." Isn't that special? Ace-K sounds like a James Bond villain - or maybe even Bond's love interest.
Sometimes you just need a better name if you want to sell more stuff. Would you buy a beverage that bore the legend "Contains Ace-K" in 0.5cm text? I hate to be the one to shy away from science, but I don't imagine there are many beer drinkers that want to know which chemicals are added to their beer. Might they be OK with drinking a tall, frosty pint of Ace-K?
