BOSTON – With approximately $6 billion in annual sales, Dr Pepper is the largest brand in Keurig Dr Pepper Inc.’s (KDP) portfolio. Two years ago, the brand became the second largest carbonated soft drink brand in the United States, according to Beverage Digest, and KDP management is charting a course to maintain that position and apply the strategies that propelled Dr Pepper to other brands within its portfolio.  

“(Dr Pepper is) the No. 1 brand … among teens today,” said Timothy Cofer, chief executive officer of KDP, during a Sept. 10 presentation at the Barclays Global Consumer Staples Conference. “That’s a good indicator of future health vitality of the brand. And we’re a brand that very much invests in continuous recruitment … to really fortify that share. In fact, year-to-date, we’re on track for share growth, and when we achieve it, it will be our tenth consecutive year of market share growth on brand Dr Pepper.”

Innovations that have helped drive brand growth include Dr Pepper Zero Sugar, Dr Pepper Creamy Coconut and Dr Pepper Blackberry.

“Dr Pepper is now the second largest zero sugar brand in the marketplace and over $1 billion in retail sales,” Cofer said. He added that in the company’s most recent quarter, the variety had a 30% growth rate.

From a marketing perspective, KDP is attempting to position Dr Pepper as a unique, one-of-a-kind brand.

“I think … a lot of our consumer cohorts … identify with that because they’re unique and one of a kind,” Cofer said. “So, a distinctive positioning, really strong marketing and marketing that we’re investing (in) to get even better, more precise and more personalized, but it’s a hell of a platform.”

KDP’s 7Up brand has been reformulated with an emphasis on lime flavor in marketing.

| Photo: Cully Wright

KDP is now applying the playbook that helped Dr Pepper gain share to other brands in its Refreshment Beverages portfolio like Canada Dry and 7Up.

“Canada Dry (is a) billion-dollar-plus brand; far and away leader in ginger ale,” Cofer said. “(It has a) distinctive positioning; all about the demand space of a relax and rejuvenate time …”

Innovation from the brand includes Canada Dry Fruit Splash, which is the combination of the flavors ginger, cherry and strawberry.

“(We’re) finding that platform to be highly incremental to the base business, driving overall trademark sales, great sales execution,” Cofer said.

With the 7Up brand, KDP has reformulated the product and is emphasizing the lime flavor in marketing.

“So, we’ve got an all-new formula, lime over lemon,” Cofer said. “We’ve got a new visual ID. We’ve got a really clever marketing campaign. I think that’s part of the success formula you’re going to start to see employed across these brands.” 

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An air traffic control system failure that sparked widespread travel chaos earlier this month was caused by a “software defect”, the UK’s National Air Traffic Services (Nats) has said.

The failure led to more than 2,000 flights being cancelled and hundreds of thousands of passengers affected, with some sleeping on airport floors or getting stuck overseas.

Flights in and out of the UK’s main airports were affected, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Glasgow.

The incident prompted questions over the resilience of Nats’ systems, and some airlines questioned the position of its chief executive Martin Rolfe.

The government had previously ruled out a cyber attack, and last week the Ministry of Defence denied a report that a military aircraft was to blame.

In an initial report, Nats said the defect happened in the system which “underpins the management of UK airspace”.

The problem happened “in the space of a millisecond”, Nats said, leading to the system producing corrupted data.

Air traffic controllers then had reduced information available, so restrictions were put in place to limit air traffic to maintain safety.