Consumers tend to get angry when a company decides to kill one of their favorite products. In many cases, these cancellations happen because the item no longer sells very well.
It was a tragedy to some when Coca-Cola (KO) made the decision to shut down production of TaB because not enough people were buying it. The product had a small, devoted following, but the reality is that Diet Coke and other diet sodas simply had more market share.
Related: PepsiCo CEO addresses major customer concerns amid low sales
Every product, it seems, is somebody’s favorite. That makes it very challenging for beverage companies to make the decision to discontinue a product.
In recent years, Coca-Cola has not been very nostalgic. The company got rid of dozens of beverage brands in order to improve overall efficiency.
The bottom-line move made sense for shareholders. To customers, however, it was a betrayal, since drinks that had significant following were dropped as part of a larger equation.
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PepsiCo (PEP) takes a more measured approach to killing popular flavors. It generally shares notice on its website when it’s no longer making a certain soda.
When that notice gets posted, stores will still have inventory and consumers will have a chance to buy some, as a way to say goodbye.
Image source: Shutterstock
Energy drink brand forced to kill popular flavors
Ghost may not be the best-known energy drink brand, but it’s trying to do things differently in that space. The company markets itself as offering “feel good energy” and describes its beverages as “authentic flavors, zero sugars, and no BS.”
It’s hard to know what “authentic flavors” means, but the company doubles down on the message with its tagline.
“The fully transparent, fully loaded, feel-good energy drink we’ve all been waiting for,” the company shared on its website.
Now, the brand has also shared some bad news.
“Yesterday, @ghostlifestyle announced that MondelÄ“z International (parent company to Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish, @oreo, @chipsahoy, @nutterbutter, and many others) was not interested in moving forward with their long-standing product licensing deal,” the SodaSeekers Instagram page reported.
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That means that Ghost will have to stop making its Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish flavors and will no longer be able to bring customers those authentic flavors.
“The brand then announced that no more stock will be produced for any of these collaborative products; what currently exists on store shelves (or through online sellers) is the last of the supply. In addition to the energy drinks seen here, this announcement also affects many @mondelez_international-branded products across the GHOST Supplements line,” it added.
Hopes remain for a Ghost comeback
MondelÄ“z International owns the Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish brands, but they can’t really stop the energy drink maker from copying those flavors.
One Instagram user expects the flavors to come back in a new form.
“I’m sure they will bring them back just without the branding. It’s what they did with the Faze branded flavors,” Joel_JPG wrote.
Voxirati hopes that happens as well.
“Boo. I hope they just change the branding. I mean Ghost has a lot of good flavors but still, these are all excellent,” they posted.
Related: Coca-Cola suffers an alarming loss from major boycott
HagXPrincess had a very different reaction.
“Just my three favs no big deal or anything,” she wrote.
In the past, it has not been uncommon for companies to lose a license and then come back with a generic version of the same flavor. Everyone knows which cookie you mean when you say “cookies and cream,” but as long as you don’t say Oreo, you are legally in the clear.
