The continued disruptions to its global business have now forced beverage giant Coca-Cola to kill off one of its more iconic brands. After nearly 60 years in circulation, Coca-Cola announced that it will be discontinuing its Tab brand, the company's first-ever diet soda.
The diet soda brand was deemed by the company as one of its "underperforming" products, which is why it had decided to eliminate it from its portfolio. The move is part of the company's wider strategy to focus more on its profitable products and streamline its operations amid the global economic turmoil.
"Tab had an amazing run. As a business decision, I can understand it, but it's a very sad day ... I do feel it's like losing a friend," Robert Bixby, director of the Concord Coalition and a long-time fan of the drink had said in a post on social media.
According to Coca-Cola, plans to overhaul its product portfolio have been in the works even before the pandemic hit. However, the health and economic crisis had forced it to fast-track its planned changes to ensure its continued profitability. Prior to the announcement, Coca-Cola had already killed off several other brands. This includes its Odwalla-branded juices and its Zico coconut water products.
The company said in the statement announcing the end of Tab that retiring the brand should give its enough capital to invest more in its more profitable products, such as its Diet Code and Coke Zero brand. Coca-Cola said that the entire zero-calorie drink market has changed significantly since Tab was introduced and it only made sense for it to focus more on what meets consumer demand.
"This is not a bottom-line efficiency play. It's a top-line growth play," Coca-Cola's senior vice president of innovation and commercialization, Brad Spickert, said in a statement.
Coca-cola first introduced the sugar-free Tab soft drink in 1963. The saccharine-sweetened, zero-calorie soda was initially marketed to women as an alternative to regular soft drinks. After Diet Coke was introduced in 1982, Tab's sales were more or less cannibalized. Coca-Cola chose to keep the brand alive for the next few decades, mostly for its devoted fans and consumers.
