软饮新宠零卡汽水挑战可乐巨头

    无糖苏打水越来越受到消费者青睐，阿斯巴甜甜味剂渐遭冷遇。于是，一家小型饮料公司抓住时机，先于饮料巨擘可口可乐（Coca-Cola）和百事可乐（PepsiCo），开发出了满足消费者对纯天然甜味软饮要求的新型饮料。

    零卡公司（Zevia）位于加州卡尔佛市，专注生产零卡路里或低卡路里碳酸软饮。它近期销量持续增长，已经跻身前全美销售排名前20名。零卡为什么有这么大的吸引力？它的秘诀是在饮料中加入甜叶菊。这种植物的叶子可用于增加软饮中的甜味，属于纯天然食品，而此时著名的减肥苏打水品牌“健怡可乐”与“健怡百事”因为使用人工甜味剂正惨遭舆论质疑。

    据《饮料文摘》（Beverage Digest）报道，2014年上半年，减肥碳酸软饮在全美的销量下降了7.5%。与此相反，根据SPINS/IR的数据显示，尽管零卡的售价比其它著名苏打水品牌高，但截至5月18日的前三个月中，零卡的销量比去年还上升了67%。

    零卡旗下有可乐、根汁汽水、姜汁汽水等15种不同口味的软饮，去年一年的销量高达9,000万美元，虽然与百事、可口可乐、Dr Pepper Snapple等巨擘相比还有很大差距，但零卡在饮料界已经算得上小有名气了。

    《饮料文摘》编辑兼出版人约翰•西歇尔在接受《财富》采访时说：“虽然大型饮料公司规模大、业务强，但这个领域内的很多创新是由小公司主导的。”

    这些饮料业巨擘也开始警醒起来，开发旗下类似产品，但并没有与零卡直接竞争。

    据《饮料文摘》报道，可口可乐公司九月份在美国推出了“Coca-Cola Life”系列。这是一种“中卡路里”可乐，混合了甜叶菊叶子提取物和糖。同时，百事公司秋季时节更新了Sierra Mist青檬系列的配方，添加了甜叶菊，减少了20%的含糖量。而且，Dr Pepper Snapple眼下正在三大市场中试验营销Dr Pepper、七喜和Canada Dry三种混合了甜叶菊和糖的纯天然甜味饮料。食品公司也紧赶潮流：本周，通用磨坊（General Mills）宣布升级优诺酸奶（Yoplait yogurt）的配方，往原配方中添加了甜叶菊。说句公道话，大型公司之所以犹豫不决，主要是因为担心影响旗下其它热销的减肥饮料，或者害怕顾客形成对新型饮料的偏好。

    富国银行（Wells Fargo）分析师邦妮•荷佐格在研究报告笔记中说：“为了保护现有品牌的销售，大型生产商是否能有效地参与不断增长的新型饮料市场，这点值得怀疑”

    As consumers grow sweeter on sugar-free and aspartame-free sodas, one upstart is trying to build a big head start on beverage behemoths Coca-Cola KO 0.38% and PepsiCo PEP 0.17% in the growing market for naturally sweetened soft drinks.

    Zevia, based in Culver City, Calif., produces the only zero or low-calorie carbonated soft drink with rising U.S. sales among the top 20 brands. Its secret? It uses stevia, a leaf, to sweeten its soft drinks naturally at a time when leading diet soda brands such as Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi are getting slammed by a backlash against the use of artificial sweeteners.

    In the first half of 2014, U.S. sales of diet carbonated soft drinks fell 7.5%, according to Beverage Digest. In contrast, according to SPINS/IR data, Zevia saw sales rise 67% in the three months ending on May 18 compared to the previous year, despite being more expensive than leading diet soda brands.

    Zevia, which offers 15 soft drinks, including cola, root beer, and ginger ale, had sales of about $90 million in the last 12 months, making it a tiny player compared to Pepsi, Coke, and Dr Pepper Snapple DPS -0.60% . But that performance has underscored how slowly the industry’s giants have been to adapt to changing tastes.

    “As big and as powerful as the big beverage companies are, a lot of the innovation has been by the smaller companies,” Beverage Digest editor and publisher John Sicher told Fortune.

    The industry’s giants are taking notice, developing their own similar, though not directly competing, products.

    Coke is introducing Coca-Cola Life, a mid-calorie cola sweetened with a blend of stevia leaf extract and sugar, in the United States in September, according to a Beverage Digest report. Meanwhile, PepsiCo is reformulating Sierra Mist with stevia this fall, lowering the sugar content by 20%. And Dr Pepper Snapple is currently testing three naturally sweetened versions of Dr Pepper, 7up, and Canada Dry, with stevia and sugar, in three markets. Food companies are also getting in on the action: this week General Mills GIS 0.54% said it would reformulate its Yoplait yogurt with stevia.

    To be fair, much of the big companies’ hesitation comes from the risk of hurting their still high volume diet brands, or fear of customers by reformulating a favorite drink.

    “We question whether the major manufacturers will participate meaningfully in this growth without cannibalizing their existing brands,” Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog wrote in a research note.