汽水销量下滑预示可乐时代终结？

    软饮料销售连续九年下滑。这个现象远远超过了趋势的范畴，而是消费者口味的根本性转变，无论汽水生产商的产品组合是多么地多样化，这个转变都对他们提出了一个重大的挑战。

    最新的数据触目惊心，但并不出人意料。《饮料文摘》（Beverage Digest）上周一发表的报告显示，2013年汽水销量下跌了3%，创下1995年以来新低。无论怎么看这都是很大的跌幅，幅度比2012年跌幅高出一倍多。人们正在加速远离汽水。

    值此之际，在评判可口可乐（Coca-Cola）和百事可乐（Pepsico）这样的公司时，不能看他们能否复兴各自的旗舰品牌，而是看他们在应对那些品牌的衰退方面表现如何。当然，这对于那些靠汽水品牌扬名立万的公司而言不是个好消息，所以他们仍然在拼命地试图找到至少可以止损的办法，同时明智地继续投资于其他产品，例如能量饮料、运动饮料和加味水。

    百事可乐尝试了很多办法，包括新的百事可乐瓶装设计和与碧昂斯签订的5,000万美元代言合同。可口可乐聘请服装设计师马克•雅各布担任“创意总监”。但销售仍然在继续下滑。

    被寄予厚望的救星（添加人工甜味剂的减肥饮料）没有起到作用。几年前，减肥汽水的销售下滑速度与加糖汽水相同，但如今下滑得更快，因为消费者继续听到健康方面的担忧。3月31日发表的一项研究显示，减肥汽水会增加老年妇女患上心血管疾病的风险。

    但健康担忧不是唯一的问题。如果它们是唯一的问题，那么能量饮料、运动饮料、咖啡饮料和加味水不可能趁虚而入。但事实上它们填补了缺口。这种情况进一步表明，汽水陷入困境的原因在于可选饮料种类的激增，尤其是以年轻人为目标客户的饮料。越来越多的年轻人认为，可口可乐、胡椒博士（Dr. Pepper）、雪碧（Sprite）和百事可乐（尽管请了碧昂斯代言）是他们的祖父母在很久以前喝的东西。（财富中文网）

    译者：千牛絮

    Soft-drink sales have been declining for nine straight years. This is much more than a trend -- it's a fundamental shift in consumer tastes that poses a major problem for soda makers, no matter how diversified their product portfolios might be.

    The latest numbers are astonishing, but not surprising. Sales of soda fell 3% by volume in 2013, to the lowest levels since 1995, according to a report from Beverage Digest issued on Monday. That would be a big drop no matter what, but it's also more than double 2012's decline. People are moving away from soda at an accelerating rate.

    At this point, companies like Coca-Cola (KO) and Pepsico (PEP) must be judged not on what they're doing to save their flagship brands, but on how well they're managing those brands' decline. Of course that's not easy for companies that are named for those very brands, so they're still going nuts trying to figure out how to at least staunch the losses, even as they wisely continue to invest in alternatives like energy drinks, sports drinks, and flavored water.

    Among many other initiatives, Pepsico tried a new bottle design for Pepsi, and it signed Beyoncé to a $50 million endorsement deal. Coke hired clothier Marc Jacobs as its "creative director." Sales have continued to plummet.

    And the hoped-for savior of the business -- diet drinks with artificial sweeteners -- are no help. Up until a few years ago, sales of diet sodas were falling at about the same rate as the sugar-filled ones. Now they're actually falling faster as consumers continue to hear about health concerns. Just yesterday, a study was released indicating that consumption of diet soda can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in older women.

    But health concerns are not the only problem. If they were, it would seem unlikely that energy drinks, sports beverages, coffee-based beverages, and flavored waters would be taking up the slack. But they are. That's a further indication that what's doing soda in is the proliferation of choices in the beverage aisle, especially those aimed at young people, an increasing number of whom think of Coke, Dr. Pepper, Sprite, and Pepsi -- Beyoncé notwithstanding -- as the stuff their grandparents drank in the olden days.