Coca-Cola Great Britain (CCGB) has announced that it will be unifying the Coca-Cola portfolio of products – including Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero and Coca-Cola Life – under a new one-brand strategy to promote the full choice of Coca-Cola variants.

Over the years, as consumer taste, preference and lifestyles have changed, Coca-Cola has launched and developed new brands with distinct and separate identities to provide people with a greater choice in terms of flavour, sugar and caffeine content.

However, recent research shows that not all British consumers fully understand the choice offered within the Coca-Cola trademark and the benefits of each brand. For example, five out of ten consumers do not realise Coca-Cola Zero is a no sugar, no calorie drink.

The announcement will see Coca-Cola Zero integrated with Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Life under one brand – Coca-Cola. Under this new approach, the appeal of Coca-Cola will be extended across all four products in the Coca-Cola portfolio, with new pack designs emphasising the distinct characteristics of each Coca-Cola product in order to make choice easier and simpler for consumers.

Under the one-brand marketing strategy, which CCGB is launching in May:

• Coca-Cola advertising will feature the full range of Coca-Cola variants and so communicate to consumers the full choice available to them
• The lower and no sugar and calorie Coca-Cola variants will now be presented in the final frames of all Coca-Cola television advertising
• 2015 media investment in the lower and no sugar and calorie variants of Coca-Cola will be doubled
• The branding on every Coca-Cola can and bottle, whether sweetened by sugar or by low-calorie sweeteners, whether caffeinated or non-caffeinated, cherry or vanilla flavoured, will be in the same style, with different colours clearly distinguishing each variant
• On pack communications will include clearer descriptors to highlight the benefits of each Coca-Cola – for example, zero sugar, zero calories.

The new packaging, which will appear on shelves in the UK between now and May, will also see the introduction of the UK governments front-of-pack labelling scheme. By adopting the new scheme, which combines nutrient amounts and percentage reference intakes with colour coding to show how much fat, saturated fat, salt, sugar and energy (calories), are in a product, CCGB is providing consumers with even clearer information about the contents of its drinks.