Coke backs Fuze Tea as brand sets its sights on Lipton’s market share

Over the course of its 136-year history, Coca-Cola has achieved near-total domination of the global soft drinks market, barring the odd hermit state of the likes of Cuba and North Korea.

Coke’s market domination does not hinge solely upon its flagship beverage. Indeed, the multinational has astutely developed an extensive portfolio of brands, now owning global soft drink powerhouses such as Sprite, Fanta, Dr Pepper, Schweppes and Oasis.

With such an omnipotent presence across all soft drink categories, one might think that the beverage giant has none left to conquer. In the ready-to-drink tea category however, Coke remains a relatively small player on the global stage, but is the balance shifting? Coke-owned Fuze Tea is now the fastest-growing ready-to-drink tea brand across the international market.

George Wheen

Having recently launched a new, global marketing platform, ‘Made of Fusion’, Marketing Beat sat down with Coke’s senior director of brand strategy for tea, George Wheen, to discuss Fuze Tea’s long-term ambitions within the category.

READ MORE: Coca-Cola’s Fuze Tea launches global brand platform

“When you bring contrasting things together, you create something better and unique.”

Launched in March this year, ‘Made of Fusion’ marks a complete 180 break with Fuze Tea’s previous marketing outlook.

With this new platform, Wheen explains that going forward, the brand intends to “move away from marketing campaigns, towards more platforms, which have real longevity and provide more experiences to consumers rather than a one-way piece of content.”

With the roll out set for 87 markets around the globe, Coke clearly has confidence in the new platform, designed by IPG-owned agency McCann Worldgroup.

Wheen indicates that Made of Fusion will be shaping the brand’s strategic direction for several years to come: “It’s definitely long term, meaning three years plus. We’re looking to move from campaigns, which may have only been six months or a year in nature, to platforms on which we can build year on year, so that consumers have a consistent experience of what the brand is.”

With this new platform, Fuze Tea is looking to emphasise its unique qualities, namely that it contains a blend of flavours and ingredients, in contrast to the category’s traditionally mono-flavoured beverages.

“What we’ve been looking to do, is talk about the truth of fusion. When you bring contrasting things together, you create something better and unique, just like Fuze Tea,” Wheen adds.

The roll out will of course cover all the traditional mediums: TV, radio, digital and out-of-home, but ambitiously – this is set to be the brand’s first truly global marketing push. Whether the content is being rolled out in South America or Asia Pacific, Wheen tells us that it will be “the same platform with similar executions”.

 

“What the platform does is bring a natural halo to the brand.”

Building a brand into a major new player in an already established and somewhat crowded category would be a tall ask for anyone. But then of course Coke isn’t just anyone, and the tools it has at its disposal simply aren’t available to most other brands.

So just how has Fuze Tea managed to shake up the iced tea category, and become the fastest growing brand in the sector? Wheen believes firstly that differentiation is key – as Fuze Tea’s blend of flavours offers something different to the traditional key players – but he has also earmarked the new ‘Made of Fusion’ platform as the tool he believes will really enable the brand to plough its own furrow right through the heart of the market.

“We really think it’s something which will bring something new and motivating to consumers, but it’s also competitive in the marketplace. I think what the platform does is bring a natural halo to the brand.

“From a taste perspective, it is a sort of a new sensorial experience, which is very revitalising for consumers.”

With a relatively undeveloped global marketplace in comparison to other soft drink sectors, Coke has pinpointed the iced tea category as a targeted area for rapid growth, which Wheen himself has already witnessed in his 15 years with the firm.

“It has definitely rapidly evolved, it’s in very different stages of development around the world,” he says.

“You’ve got markets like Japan, China and North America, which have very established iced tea categories, where we’ve got good, strong positions and we can see how the future of the category is very strong.”

“Our ambition really is to become the leading global tea brand.”

With Fuze Tea’s sights now set squarely upon the market leader position and with a brand new, global brand platform to boot, now is the time to dislodge Lipton Iced Tea and Nestea from their perches. Both brands have been established market powerhouses for decades, dominating the European market in particular.

However, Fuze Tea has now gained a 14% market share on the continent, and continues to outstrip its competitors on the global scene. Could this then signal the beginnings of a shift in the traditional status quo?

Wheen believes so, pointing to the beverage’s unique fusion proposition as what sets it apart: “One of the reasons for Fuze Tea’s success has been the fact that we’ve been challenging the category which has been dominated by mono-flavoured teas, such as Lipton and Nestea.

“Bringing that fusion of tea, fruit and herbs to the market has proved to be a really a strong edge for the brand and a differentiating factor. That’s why we’ve the fastest growing global ready to drink tea brand.”

READ MORE: Coca-Cola launches new campaign to promote caffeine-free range

Hinting at the brand’s further expansion, Wheen tells us that Fuze Tea is indeed working on a number of new products. We can assume that an expansion of the brand’s portfolio – which currently consists of Mango Camomile and Peach Hibiscus – may not be too far off.

Nor does he shy away from the brand’s ambitions of building upon this success by diversifying and eventually becoming the category leader: “We’re looking to explore new avenues for growth. Our ambition really is to become the leading global tea brand.”

Having achieved remarkable growth figures over the past several years and quickly establishing itself in what is a rapidly-growing global category, could Coke come to dominate the iced tea market too?

It will certainly need all the tools at its disposal to kick Lipton off its perch, but then again Coke undeniably has a bigger toolkit than most, and can clearly give Fuze Tea the foundations it needs for a protracted assault on the global iced tea market.

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