Dive Brief:
- Sierra Mist is preparing for a major brand overhaul as it drops the "Sierra" to become "Mist Twst" and PepsiCo zeroes in on the soda's flavor messaging, particularly the "lemon-lime credentials of the product," a PepsiCo spokeswoman told Ad Age. It's unclear if the formula will change.
- This is the latest of many changes the brand has seen since its 2000 launch, the latest of which was last year when both the look and formula of the brand changed to incorporate stevia into the recipe, which reduced the soda's calorie count.
- Per Beverage Digest, Sierra Mist saw a 3.7% decline in volume last year, after falling 11.6% in 2013. One of its main competitors, Coca-Cola-owned Sprite, on the other hand, increased its volume by 1% in 2014.
Dive Insight:
The revamped brand will focus on flavor messaging rather than sending a health message, Beverage-Digest reported. This contrasts other soda brands' recent attempts, which include Diet Pepsi's switch from aspartame to sucralose and Coca-Cola and other companies focusing on smaller-portioned (and more profitable) mini-cans.
Sierra Mist has undergone a variety of brand changes, from different imagery and font styles to bearing the name "Sierra Mist Natural" for a time after the brand switched out high fructose corn syrup for sugar. The brand later dropped the word "natural" "due to the lack of detailed regulatory guidance on the use of the term [natural]," a PepsiCo spokeswoman told Ad Age.
Since opening up the period for public comments on the use of the word "natural" for food and beverage products, the FDA has fielded thousands of suggestions.
Because an image of Mist Twst's label, which PepsiCo shared with Ad Age, includes an NBA logo, the publication concluded that Mist Twst may share PepsiCo's new NBA partnership with Mtn Dew, which the company snagged from Coca-Cola earlier this year.
