What happened to non-alcoholic beverages last year? The pandemic makes them depressed, but some drinks are different!

Rachel Dong
Marketing in the Age of Digital
4 min readOct 26, 2021

In one of my history blogs, I mentioned a sugar-free sparkling water brand with the name Polar. I am a diet controller, and counting the calories of food is my daily life. Sugar-free drinks are my favorite, especially during the pandemic. My demand for sugar-free drinks has increased because I gained ten pounds. In the days when the city was closed, they accompanied my many grocery orders. However, when I look at the entire United States, the sales trend of non-alcoholic beverages is completely different from my needs…

Polar sparkling water

Trends in non-alcoholic beverages across the U.S.

According to the survey, the non-alcoholic beverage market in 2020 has suffered a huge impact in the United States. According to the Statista report, the national sales of non-alcoholic soft drinks have fallen sharply. This shows that during the pandemic, the demand for beverages began to decline, and the income of the entire industry became less in 2020. The report shows that in 2020, the revenue of the U.S. non-alcoholic beverage market fell to 359 million US dollars, but the market is expected to rebound in 2021. Even if people usually stay at home and live with their families, the demand for non-alcoholic beverages seems to have become less.

2020, the revenue of the U.S. non-alcoholic beverage market fell to 359 million US dollars.

This makes me wonder another question, are all market segments reduced? I brought my curiosity and my needs, and I checked the market report and market data of sparkling drinks. Sure enough, this result is in line with my daily expenditure curve. The turnover of soda drinks has not declined in 2020. On the contrary, the total market of sparkling water has increased. Moreover, its sales are expected to continue to grow in the next five years.

Insights with this “white polar bear”

I have analyzed the tone and characteristics of Polar products in my blog. If you have not read that article, I strongly recommend you to read it . Its product advantages are sugar-free, carbon-free, high-reduced fruit flavor, and beautiful packaging. Regarding channel marketing, people’s lifestyles have also changed during the pandemic. People are gradually adapting to the era of e-commerce, and e-commerce platforms such as Amazon have become members of everyone’s lives. Polar has also seen this trend, so they have become strategic partners with Amazon. Consumers can easily order it on the Amazon platform and avoid going out.

Polar bear sparkling water meets people’s new lifestyle and needs. The benefits of sparkling water are rich in minerals, increase satiety, and help intestinal digestion. And Polar is better than ordinary sparkling water because it can help consumers avoid blood sugar problems, and the formula without sucrose and carbon water will not cause blood sugar disorders.

Secondly, it satisfies me and other exercise and diet managers and weight gain. Their formula not only satisfies my cravings for sweet drinks, but also does not cause me high calorie intake. During and after the pandemic, everyone around me began to pay attention to weight and health management. I saw my friends successively purchase sugar-free drinks and sugar-free sparkling water.

If you want to learn more, please visit Polar’s official website. There are more interesting beverage packaging waiting for your discovery.

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Rachel Dong
Marketing in the Age of Digital

A Chinese girl studies in NYC, love marketing and love creative thinking.