---
title: "Big bottles are still trending, but Coca-Cola has set its sights on small bottles again"
description: "In recent years, large bottles have been gradually taking over shelves and becoming a mainstream consumption trend. Especially with the overall weak market consumption, large bottles with better value for money have become more favored by consumers, prompting many brands to follow suit and launch large-bottle drinks to seize the market. However, the author noticed that Coca-Cola, as an international beverage giant and industry bellwether, is thinking in the opposite direction, announcing on June 5 the launch of more portable and compact pocket-sized bottles."
author: "Aaron"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2024-06-12"
language: "en"
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---

# Big bottles are still trending, but Coca-Cola has set its sights on small bottles again

> In recent years, large bottles have been gradually taking over shelves and becoming a mainstream consumption trend. Especially with the overall weak market consumption, large bottles with better value for money have become more favored by consumers, prompting many brands to follow suit and launch large-bottle drinks to seize the market. However, the author noticed that Coca-Cola, as an international beverage giant and industry bellwether, is thinking in the opposite direction, announcing on June 5 the launch of more portable and compact pocket-sized bottles.

In recent years, large bottles have been gradually taking over shelves and becoming a mainstream consumption trend.
Especially with the overall weak market consumption, large bottles with better value for money have become more favored by consumers, prompting many brands to follow suit and launch large-bottle drinks to seize the market.
However, the author noticed that Coca-Cola, as an international beverage giant and industry bellwether, is thinking in the opposite direction, announcing on June 5 the launch of more portable and compact pocket-sized bottles.
Image source: WeChat official account @Coca-Cola
While facing public opinion on "price increases" and "declining sales," what is Coca-Cola's "clever plan" behind this counter-trend thinking?
**Launching pocket-sized bottles**
**Fashion seems to be a cycle**
Once upon a time, influenced by the "single-economy" and "mini-economy," the beverage industry once saw a trend of small packaging. The exquisite and compact outer packaging was not only cute but also more convenient to carry, and was sought after by many young consumers. However, with the impact of the three-year pandemic, **large bottles with better value for money began to dominate the market and gained more favor from consumers.**
Now, small bottled drinks seem to have caught Coca-Cola's attention again.
On June 5, Coca-Cola announced on WeChat, Xiaohongshu, Weibo, and other channels that it would launch three "pocket-sized" bottles: Coca-Cola, Sprite, and Fanta. In terms of appearance, the "pocket-sized" Coca-Cola differs from the previous 300ml mini bottle, being closer to the 500ml bottle shape but with a slimmer body.
Image source: Xiaohongshu @Coca-Cola
According to Coca-Cola, alongside the launch of the "pocket-sized" bottles, it will hold limited-time check-in events for "Refreshing Pocket Blocks" in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Beijing, focusing on a consumption experience of "refreshing anytime, anywhere." The products have already been launched in Guangdong, Hubei, Yunnan, Beijing, and other places.
From the official information released this time, **the "pocket-sized" bottles mainly target leisure consumption scenarios such as City Walk.** As a new way of traveling, from longing to escape the city to enjoying strolling through the city, City Walk has continued to boom in the past two years, becoming a new social activity for young people. According to the "2023 Xiaohongshu City Walk Trend Report," in the first half of 2023, the search volume for City Walk on the Xiaohongshu platform increased by more than 30 times year-on-year.
Image source: Xiaohongshu
An industry insider told the author that **in relaxed leisure scenarios like City Walk, consumers' demand for beverages is no longer about "value for money," but more about portability.** After all, regular sizes and the currently popular large bottles are not particularly easy for consumers who want to free their hands in relaxed leisure scenarios. **Coca-Cola's "pocket-sized" bottles undoubtedly help consumers "free their hands."**
At the same time, as a cultural symbol, "cola" needs to continuously seize the new generation of consumers in various scenarios. City Walk, which is highly sought after by young people, is undoubtedly a fast and efficient promotional scenario that can quickly gather a large number of young consumers and form a strong communication effect.
**Coca-Cola's "consumer battle"**
**In the author's view, there is another reason for Coca-Cola's launch of "pocket-sized" bottles—to win back consumers who have been "taken away."**
After all, as a giant in the beverage industry, Coca-Cola did not have a good year in China last year.
**On the one hand, despite price increases, Coca-Cola's total sales in China in 2023 were approximately 44.2 billion yuan, showing a downward trend.** Looking at Coca-Cola's two major operators in China, China Foods and Swire Coca-Cola, China Foods' 2023 revenue was 22.756 billion yuan, with its soda business growing slightly by 0.6%; while Swire Coca-Cola's 2023 revenue was 21.446 billion yuan, with its soda business declining by 4%.
**On the other hand, the entire carbonated beverage category has lost its dominant position.** According to NielsenIQ's "2024 China Beverage Industry Trends and Outlook," carbonated beverages were officially surpassed by ready-to-drink tea in terms of market sales share in 2023. Specifically, in terms of market share, carbonated beverages accounted for 18.5% of sales share in 2023, only 0.1 percentage points higher than in 2019, and far lower than the 20.4% in 2020 and 21.2% in 2021 and 2022.
And the revenue and market share lost by Coca-Cola have been largely taken by "Oriental Leaf" and similar brands. After all, **as health consumption trends become mainstream, more and more consumers prefer low-sugar (or sugar-free), zero-additive, and functional products.**
Taking the tea beverage industry as an example, NielsenIQ shows that within the 19% growth of ready-to-drink tea, the sugar-free tea segment contributed a 110% year-on-year increase. The financial data of Nongfu Spring also reveals the heat of the sugar-free tea track. In 2023, Nongfu Spring achieved revenue of 42.667 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.4%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 12.079 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 42.2%. The tea beverage business revenue increased significantly by 83.3% to 12.659 billion yuan, accounting for 29.7% of revenue contribution, with Oriental Leaf becoming the absolute main driver.
Image source: Xiaohongshu user @momo
According to the "2023 China Sugar-Free Tea Beverage Industry White Paper" released by iyiou, among the main consumer groups of sugar-free tea beverages, people under 30 (including 30) account for 70.8%; among new users in the past six months, those under 30 (including 30) account for 84.1%. This group is also Coca-Cola's main target group.
Image source: iyiou
Therefore, by launching "pocket-sized" bottles and focusing on scenarios like City Walk, Coca-Cola can, to some extent, reach more young consumers and promote terminal sales through new products.
**Small bottles still have a market**
In fact, not only Coca-Cola, but also Oriental Leaf, Dongsheng Beverage, Wahaha, Master Kong, and Uni-President have all launched small bottles.
So, judging from the actions of major brands, **although large bottles are the current consumption trend, the market prospects for small bottles are still considerable.** After all, the original design intention of small bottles is to be easy to carry, low-priced, quick to consume, and avoid waste. Compared with the currently popular large bottles, they have obvious differences, especially in some segmented scenarios where small bottles often have more advantages than large bottles.
Taking neighboring Japan as an example, Suntory has launched a small bottle of "Iyemon Green Tea" with a capacity of only 195ml, which is less than half of the regular 525ml bottle. This green tea is used by many companies in business occasions such as meetings and events where a large number of beverages need to be distributed, and it can be easily packed into a briefcase if not finished, making it popular among many companies.
At the same time, **compared with large bottles, small-capacity, low-unit-price products are more conducive to "bulk sales,"** after all, the speed of commodity circulation and turnover is key to whether a product can survive at the terminal, and small bottled beverages cater to some consumers' demand for "high frequency and low volume," so they have considerable market potential.
"On the one hand, with the younger consumer base, small packaging is more suitable for trying new flavors; on the other hand, lowering the consumption threshold is more conducive to stimulating high-frequency consumption among young consumer groups," said Yin Qiuping, director of the Consumption Promotion Division of the Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Commerce.
The author also observed that **small bottles have also appeared more frequently in discount channels such as "Liangpin Youming" and "Hema Te Mai."** After all, as offline channels that have become popular in the past year or two, many brands are unwilling to give up this wave of traffic, but also do not want to damage the price system they have worked hard to build. Therefore, similar to the previous "online exclusive" approach, they have launched small-spec products with price advantages exclusively for bulk snack channels.
In fact, regardless of the specification, there is a certain consumer market and audience. As long as they accurately target the corresponding consumption scenarios, they have the opportunity to gain consumer favor.
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