PITTSBURGH, PA — Vending operators may be missing out on the most dynamic
element in today’s soft drink mix, according to Patricia Enderle of Management
Science Associates here. Despite the attention paid by the vending industry
to the tremendous proliferation of packaged cold beverage options, the diet
soft drink segment appears to be underrepresented in vending machines.
MSA has analyzed its "VendScape" database of sales information, uploaded
from representative cold drink machines in locations of various types and
sizes across the United States, to identify recent trends in cold beverage
sales. One such trend is the strong performance of diet drinks in an
otherwise flat cold drink market, which caused MSA's Enderle to wonder
why they do not occupy more space in packaged cold drink vending machines.
"As a representative of the Perpetually Dieting Adult (PDA) community, I beg
the vending operators of America to give us more selections," she said.
"We love our diet drinks and enjoy them whenever possible, from a midday
treat to the beverage of choice with our burgers and fries. For some
PDAs, diet sodas have replaced the morning cup of coffee."
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The connoisseur of diet soft drinks too often finds slim pickings at the cold
drink vender, she pointed out. "The problem that PDAs would like to bring
to your attention is the lack of choices in the vending machine," Enderle
observed. "Most of the time, we are limited to colas. Not that we mind
colas; we love them. But we want the option of having our diet colas
with a little vanilla or cherry flavoring. We would also like to enjoy
some of the other wonderful flavored diet drinks."
And there is reason to believe that operators would benefit by heeding this
call, she explained. According to Management Science Associates’ "VendScape"
machine-level data, the diet segment share of the cold beverage category
is 17.5%.
"In contrast, of the 264 different brands/flavors of cold beverages
– excluding waters – carried by vending operators, only 18 were diet
drinks," Enderle reported. "This means that only 7% of the cold
beverage items sold were diet, yet they contributed to 17.5% of
the category.
"During the past 12 months, the cold beverage category had an anemic growth
of 0.45% in units sold," the market researcher continued. "In contrast,
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the diet category grew a robust 5.74%. Without the diet segment, the
cold beverage category could have declined by -0.61%."
The "VendScape" information demonstrates that, among diet varieties, the top
cola brands are still growing. Not surprisingly, these have the widest
distribution in cold drink vending. What’s more, the noncola
diet soft drinks are selling strongly, too, despite their narrow
vending machine distribution. "Imagine what the non-cola
items would sell with a stronger presence in machines," Enderle commented.
"Our membership may change, but the 'PDAs' will be around forever," she
vowed. "If you give us more selections, we will reward you with increased sales."
Management Science Associates, founded in 1963, is the world’s largest
processor of marketing, sales and financial data, with 650 employees and
offices in six U.S. cities as well as Canada, Malaysia and the United Kingdom.
MSA pioneered the introduction of syndicated retail scanner data services in
the late 1970s. In the last decade, MSA teamed up with Validata Computer
& Research (Montgomery, AL) to develop "VendScape," which was launched
in 1999. Their objective was to create a tool that accurately reports
market-wide product performance in a form immediately useful to clients.
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