Another marketing boo boo

Sprite Zero is my soft drink of choice these days, but they’ve really annoyed me with their latest packaging change. For as long as I can remember, their 2-liter bottles have been the same shape as everyone else’s. But this week when I picked up a few bottles at the store, I noticed they’d changed their design. Now they are sort of nipped in at the hip and have some dimples.

I don’t know why they bothered, but I rarely know why a company changes its packaging. No doubt they spent a ton of time and money laboring over their rationale and new design, and of course their marketing people were getting paid, so they did as they were told. Come up with a new bottle, a great new marketing strategy.

I noticed a few days later as the bottles sat on the counter that they were only filled to within about three inches of the top, unlike the accompanying picture. Enough space to make me think they weren’t completely filled. No big deal. I’ve seen the fill level vary before. It would be sad, though, if that empty space is the result of the new design. It looks like the consumer has been shorted. I’d have designed the bottle to be full with 2 liters in it.

The big shortcoming of the new design, however, became apparent today when I decided to put the bottles in the fridge to chill. The new bottles are an inch or so taller than the old ones! As a result, they will not stand up on the bottom shelf where the old ones stood, nor will they fit in the door where the old ones fit. Not acceptable! I’m not going to empty the entire fridge to rearrange the shelves to accommodate those stupid new bottles.

Bad, Coca Cola Company. Bad!