Soft drinks, at least certain soft drinks, seem to connect with consumers in a way that many products do not. When someone has a favorite drink, they may drink it several times a day.
That's a behavior that's generally exclusive to drinks, since if you ate your favorite food several times a day you'd probably get tired. But, when it comes to drinks, people happily down several Diet Cokes, Sprites, or whatever their favorite soft drink is each day.
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A habit like that becomes a kind of ritual. It's a part of your day like a cup of coffee in the morning is for some people. That makes it incredibly painful when Coca-Cola (IS) – Get a free reportPepsiCo or any other beverage company offers a popular flavor.
It may not affect most consumers, as companies don't get rid of flavors that sell well, but for die-hard fans of the brand, it's a loss that's felt very deeply. Nationally, Coca-Cola's decision to stop manufacturing and selling Tab, its first diet soft drink, led to a grassroots effort to force the company to bring back the drink.
Those efforts have received national press because Tab was a well-known brand that had simply been surpassed by other Diet Coca-Cola flavors. Tab, however, is not the only one who has grassroots support.
There is another organized effort to save a popular, though less nationally known, regional soft drink brand that was discontinued by Coca-Cola.
Coca Cola
Coca-Cola asked to bring back Northern Neck Ginger Ale
While Northern Neck Ginger Ale may not be a name everyone knows, it has a passionate regional following. Some of the soda's biggest fans, led by Stephanie Johnson, launched the Save Northern Neck Ginger Ale Facebook group. in 2018, when people began to notice that it had become harder to find the popular ginger ale on store shelves.
That turned out to be a prelude to Coca-Cola ending production of the popular regional soft drink.
Dating back to 1926, Northern Neck Ginger Ale (NNKGA), originally known as “Carver's Ginger Ale”, was proudly brewed and produced in Montross, Virginia (Westmoreland County). In 2001, Coca-Cola purchased the NNKGA recipe from the Carver family and moved production to its plant in Sandston, VA.
Citing a shortage of aluminum cans at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Coca-Cola ceased production of NNKGA in July 2020. In October 2020, the company announced that the discontinuation would be permanent.
The group has pressured Virginia's congressional delegation to help bring back the drink and has a petition in its possession. website. It's an effort that faces an uphill battle because, while Tab had a national, even global, following, Northern Neck Ginger Ale is largely a local tradition.
“The mission of the Northern Neck Foundation is to promote the preservation of Northern Neck's cultural and historical icons, such as Northern Neck Ginger Ale, through stewardship, leadership and community involvement. Northern Neck is comprised of King George, Lancaster , Northumberland, Richmond and Westmoreland in Virginia,” the group shared.
Coca-Cola has made difficult decisions
While Northern Neck Ginger Ale would be a prized product for a local company, it's essentially a loose change on the couch in front of Coca-Cola. That makes it unlikely that the company will bring back the ginger ale, leaving the brand with the only hope that Coca-Cola will be willing to sell it to a local company.
Even that would be an unlikely scenario, as it would be difficult for a local player to get shelf space or distribute a new version of Northern Neck Ginger Ale.
Coca-Cola has not proven to be a good steward of regional brands because the company operates on a large scale.
Northern Neck Ginger Ale was discontinued as part of a broad effort by Coca-Cola to trim its portfolio.
“The company expects to offer a portfolio of approximately 200 master brands, a reduction of approximately 50% from the current number, and to phase out some products, such as ZICO and Tab,” Coca-Cola said in 2020 in a press release.
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