Coca-Cola products may look a little different next year

Last year, Coca-Cola experimented with bizarre, limited-time flavors and immersive online experiences.

Now, it’s looking to add more varieties of cans, bottles and value packs to give cash-strapped shoppers more choice — even if that means paying more for less.

“Packaging innovation plays a bigger role” when shoppers are worried about spending, CEO James Quincey said Tuesday during a conference call with analysts discussing third-quarter results.

“We will be approaching 2023 with a broad innovation agenda, but with a light weight on the package.”

For companies like Coca-Cola, offering more types of containers — particularly smaller ones — is a way to keep or attract spend-conscious customers even as prices continue to rise.

“It’s about extending the price scale,” Quincey said. “Making sure the entry price point is as low as possible on the price spectrum.”

This is especially important now, as Coca-Cola has seen consumers begin to tighten their belts due to rising prices.

Some shoppers began to spend less at the supermarket. “So the price becomes even more important than the price per litre,” Quincey said. “This is absolutely what we are looking for.”

In other words, even if customers end up paying more per liter when they buy small packs, some are willing to make the switch to get a lower price because they can’t buy the higher priced item.

Coca-Cola already sells smaller packages and multipacks with fewer cans. In the third quarter, the company launched a value collection that offers customers products in a variety of sizes.

These items, available in select stores across the US, are “helping us retain and recruit more consumers while creating value for our customers,” Quincey said.

The CEO also pointed to returnable packaging as another way to cut costs because consumers get some money back for returned bottles and cans.

Earlier this year, the company announced a goal to sell at least a quarter of all its beverages worldwide in refillable or returnable containers by 2030. Coca-Cola also recently announced a change to the look of the bottles. Sprite, exchanging its signature green for clear plastic, which is easier to recycle.

These strategies can help offset the impact of higher prices on consumers. The company expects inflation and volatility in the commodity market to affect its own costs and will likely continue to raise prices.

“There will be higher-than-normal input costs,” Quincey said. “So we expect prices to be ahead of normal next year, in addition to what happened this year. ”

The company is also eyeing other changes, including adding “more premium options for those who still have plenty of disposable income,” Quincey said during the conference call with analysts.

And it plans to continue to bolster Coke Zero Sugar, an engine of growth, with more marketing and other innovations.

So far, Coca-Cola’s pricing and innovation strategy appears to be working. In the third quarter, the company’s net revenue jumped 10% to $1.1 billion.