Sierra Mist is being sidelined again. Pepsi’s new contender in the lemon-lime soda wars is Starry.
This is just the latest move by the beverage company to compete with Sprite, Coca-Cola’s lemon-lime soft drink which has captured 7% share of the $82 billion U.S. soda market, according to Bloomberg. Sierra Mist held about 0.1%.
Starry’s launch marks the “most aggressive move made by the company’s reinvigorated beverage business in years,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Kenneth Shea said.
If you remember, Sierra Mist was replaced in the past, too, in 2016 with a drink called Mist Twist, as detailed on the Eat This, Not That food news website. Two years later, that product was discontinued and replaced with … Sierra Mist.
The new caffeine-free lemon-lime flavored soda is on shelves now in regular and Zero Sugar versions. Starry is a “great-tasting soda bursting with lemon lime flavor that delivers the crisp, refreshing bite consumers have been longing for,” the company said in a press release announcing its debut.
“With one product dominating the category, consumers deserve another option … one that hits different. Starry is bright, optimistic, and rooted in culture and fun,” said Greg Lyons, chief marketing officer at PepsiCo Beverages North America, in a statement.
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Since Sierra Mist only accounted for about 0.2% of Pepsi’s total revenue, “it probably makes sense to discontinue the brand and then maybe try something else that’s new to the market, which consumers tend to like,” said Gerald Pascarelli, an analyst with Wedbush Securities. “It’s a low risk move.”
Some soda samplers chimed in on Twitter about the new product.
Not everyone was on board with the new drink – one tweeted a video of pouring the soda into a trash can – but a fan tweeted, “Starry is better than I expected.”
Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.
