Coca-Cola has been around for a long, long time. It’s not a company or just a drink, it’s so entrenched in pop culture and society that the name goes beyond cultural differences and even language barriers. Everyone drinks Coke, right? And for 125 years since it’s inception as a company, this has been the case. Through the course of their company history, they’ve ventured into iced tea, water and many other sugar-water products, but never have they entered the alco-bev industry. Well, that’s until now. Coca-Cola is gearing up to start retailing alcopops exclusively in Japan, as this market is huge there. Chu-Hi, the already existent, low-alcohol, alcopop is a watered-down mix of the shōchū spirit, sparkling water and flavouring.
The canned Chu-Hi drinks have 3 – 8 percent alcohol content and are extremely popular among Japanese women. And although this is an experiment they are undertaking, there are no plans for it actually being a global thing. Instead, the US company has made the decision to tap into this already-popular market in Japan with this move. But it might not be as easy to make a mark considering there is already a slew of dominant players in the market, with the likes of Japanese brands such as Strong Zero, Highball Lemon and Slat, which have been around for a while now.
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