PepsiCo goes craft – or perhaps crafty?

What is “craft” about the production of sodas, many wonder? But with the success of craft beer, it’s been seemingly inevitable that U.S. soft drinks companies will launch their own craft lines too.

It will be interesting to see if these “craft sodas” catch on. Should consumers willingly buy into the “craft soda” moniker, my guess is we probably won’t have to worry about definitions for ’craft’ in the future!

Media reported in June 2015 that PepsiCo plans to introduce a line of “craft” fountain sodas made with real sugar with the hopes of appealing to people who shun big soda brands.

The company says Stubborn Soda will be made with sugar, rather than the high fructose corn syrup used to sweeten many other sodas like Coke and Pepsi.

The line of sodas will include fancy flavours like black cherry with tarragon, orange hibiscus, pineapple cream and agave vanilla cream. At present, Stubborn Soda is in an “incubation” phase and the company doesn’t yet have any restaurant clients to announce.

PepsiCo says its Stubborn Soda line is a follow-up to its recent launches of Caleb’s Kola and Mountain Dew Dewshine, which are sold in glass bottles and positioned as “craft” sodas.

The push to develop a market for “craft” sodas comes as Americans have been cutting back on carbonated drinks generally. Market research says that people are increasingly buying things they feel are natural or wholesome.

This trend has also prompted The Coca-Cola Company to introduce Coke Life, which is sweetened with a mix of sugar and the plant-derived sweetener stevia.

While Coke Life is easily available in supermarkets, PepsiCo’s stevia-sweetened version called Pepsi True is up to now is only available at Amazon and sells in 7 ounce cans.

Some observers complained that Pepsi appears either slow or unwilling to push its new products real hard. Caleb’s Kola is sold in New York City and in Washington, DC, it was reported. Perhaps these critics are not on PepsiCo’s marketing wavelength?