During my last vacation in Italy I saw that soft drink brands’ largest SKU is the 2 liter PET.
In Romania in the last couple of years producers pushed the pedal down for a larger size as the common 2 liters PET is being replaced by the 2.5 liters version.
Pepsi Romania leads for 2 years a fierce “price war” disguised in a “limited size offer”, pushing the 2.5 liter PET at the price of a 2 liter PET. Coca-Cola matched their effort for some time, and Orangina, the youngest competitor, decided to follow the herd as well. Still, third soft drinks player (European Drinks) is completely absent and the fact that they’re losing clients and volumes doesn’t seem to bother them too much.
Soft drink producers are very smart in pushing large sizes since Romanians are willing to buy almost anything that’s new or cheaper. This is reinforced by the fact that soft drinks are among the not-complicated, affordable (price/liter) beverages.
This evolution also influenced cross-category competitors, like Skol beer, the popular brand that recently launched the new 2.5 liters PET at the price of the old 2 liter PET (and now it shares TV commercial breaks with Coke’s and Orangina’s similar initiatives). I anticipate that other PET beer brands will copy Skol / colas, because when it comes to volumes, any competitor’s idea can be contagious.
So first were soft drinks, second beers. What’s next, mineral water? Wine? Spirits? Petrol?
And what is Pepsi going to do now since the 2.5 L PET at the price of 2L PET became a point of parity? PET kegs will do it, and so they stay in line with “Dare for more” slogan. 
(Coke picture via Nu-mi place)
2.5L at the price of 2L: An epidemic marketing trend
During my last vacation in Italy I saw that soft drink brands’ largest SKU is the 2 liter PET.
In Romania in the last couple of years producers pushed the pedal down for a larger size as the common 2 liters PET is being replaced by the 2.5 liters version.
Pepsi Romania leads for 2 years a fierce “price war” disguised in a “limited size offer”, pushing the 2.5 liter PET at the price of a 2 liter PET. Coca-Cola matched their effort for some time, and Orangina, the youngest competitor, decided to follow the herd as well. Still, third soft drinks player (European Drinks) is completely absent and the fact that they’re losing clients and volumes doesn’t seem to bother them too much.
Soft drink producers are very smart in pushing large sizes since Romanians are willing to buy almost anything that’s new or cheaper. This is reinforced by the fact that soft drinks are among the not-complicated, affordable (price/liter) beverages.
This evolution also influenced cross-category competitors, like Skol beer, the popular brand that recently launched the new 2.5 liters PET at the price of the old 2 liter PET (and now it shares TV commercial breaks with Coke’s and Orangina’s similar initiatives). I anticipate that other PET beer brands will copy Skol / colas, because when it comes to volumes, any competitor’s idea can be contagious.
So first were soft drinks, second beers. What’s next, mineral water? Wine? Spirits? Petrol?
And what is Pepsi going to do now since the 2.5 L PET at the price of 2L PET became a point of parity? PET kegs will do it, and so they stay in line with “Dare for more” slogan.
(Coke picture via Nu-mi place)