McDonald’s has turned familiar fountain drinks into something consumers will make a special trip to buy. For grocery retailers, the bigger opportunity may be hiding in products already on their shelves.
My 10-year-old son has a new weekly request. He wants to go to McDonald’s and get a Dirty Dr Pepper. Not a Happy Meal, fries or even a burger — he wants the drink.
At first, I didn’t think much of it. But when the beverage starts driving the trip, my category-management brain starts wondering what is going on.
McDonald’s isn’t selling just one specialty soda. Its lineup includes Dirty Dr Pepper, Orange Dream with Hi-C, Vanilla Swirl with Coca-Cola and Orange Dream with Fanta, along with other specialty beverages. At my local McDonald’s, the four drinks I noticed were priced from $3.19 to $3.29, turning fountain brands consumers have known for decades into something that suddenly feels new.
That is the interesting part. Dr Pepper didn’t have to invent another soda. Take an existing beverage, add cream, flavored syrup or another ingredient, and you have created an entirely new occasion.
This Is Bigger Than McDonald’s
The beverage industry has noticed. PepsiCo brought the concept directly into grocery this year with Dirty Mountain Dew, a ready-to-drink version of a beverage consumers had largely been creating themselves. When PepsiCo announced the national launch, it cited a more than 600% year-over-year increase in Yelp searches for “dirty soda.”
Coffee mate may offer an even more interesting example for grocery. The brand developed Dirty Soda creamers, including Coconut Lime, specifically designed to be mixed with soda. A product associated with coffee suddenly has another reason to end up in the shopping cart.
Even Coca-Cola is leaning further into beverage customization through its next generation of Freestyle equipment. The company says pour data can help turn consumer trends into new beverages in as little as 90 days. Customization itself is becoming part of beverage innovation.
Haven’t We Seen This Before?
Last week, I wrote about hot honey and its journey from a relatively niche condiment to pizza, chicken, potato chips and restaurant menus. Hot honey didn’t reinvent those foods; it gave consumers another way to experience products they were already buying.
Dirty soda appears to be following the same playbook.
Consumers aren’t abandoning traditional soda for a revolutionary new beverage category. They’re taking products already in the refrigerator and playing with them. The lesson from both trends may be that CPG innovation doesn’t always have to begin with another SKU.
The Basket Is the Opportunity
A traditional soda purchase might put one item in the cart. Making a Dirty Dr Pepper at home could mean buying Dr Pepper, flavored syrup, creamer and fresh limes. One beverage occasion has suddenly connected categories that normally have little reason to interact.
Most supermarkets already sell everything necessary to participate. The problem is that the soda might be in aisle eight, the syrup somewhere else, the creamer in dairy and the limes in produce. The shopper sees four unrelated products. The retailer should see one occasion.
That’s why I wouldn’t chase the trend by loading the shelf with a dozen permanent dirty-soda SKUs. A small “Make Your Own Dirty Soda” display could connect soda, syrups and mixers, while a QR code provides recipes using creamers and fresh citrus elsewhere in the store. Digital coupons could bundle ingredients and encourage trial.
Sampling could be even more effective. Give shoppers three combinations to try on a Saturday afternoon and the retailer isn’t merely selling another bottle of soda. It’s demonstrating something consumers can recreate at home, with incremental sales potentially coming from several departments.
Sell the Occasion
That’s the lesson McDonald’s provides grocery retailers. A fountain Dr Pepper is about as familiar as a beverage can get, yet add something to it, give it a name and suddenly my son considers it worth making a special trip.
Hot honey did that for familiar foods. Dirty soda is doing it for beverages. Maybe the bigger trend isn’t either one. It’s consumers taking products they’ve bought for years and finding new ways to use them.
My son will probably ask for his Dirty Dr Pepper again next week. He has no idea his $3.29 drink has me thinking about merchandising, basket size and beverage innovation. He just knows somebody took an ordinary soda and made it more interesting.
For grocery retailers, that’s an opportunity hiding in plain sight. The products are already on the shelves and the shopper is already interested. The retailer that connects the two doesn’t just sell the soda — it sells the occasion.
