Blue-collar soda? Yeah, we've got that.(selling it: Goofs / Glitches / Gotchas)

Whether you want to "party like a rock star" or picture yourself as an "influential cosmopolitan," Coca-Cola has a drink for you--or so it says. On a recent trip to a food-industry trade show, a CR reporter picked up some tidbits about how one of the world's biggest companies matches the beverages it sells (more than 80 in North America) with the people who drink them. Such trade shows are usually open only to industry professionals and the media, and a company will trumpet any niches it can create to add to its real estate on store shelves--even if that means making water, flavorings, and corn syrup sound like a must-have accessory.

Examples of who drinks what, based on what our reporter saw at Coke's trade show displays and Web sites, are in the table below. Notably absent from this type of hype at the trade show was the biggest seller of all, the original Coke. When our reporter asked a sales rep why, he laughed and replied, "Everyone drinks it."

 
Product          What is it?     Age of    Comments 
                                 buyers 
 
Fanta            fruity soda    15 to 19   "Teens crave the burst 
                                           of intense sweet fruity 
                                           flavors." 
  ...