Fashion fans may find themselves sipping cola instead
of champagne at parties during the next Paris Fashion Week, which runs from
Feb. 25 to March 5. But it won’t be just any cola as the French capital now has
its own caramel-flavoured drink, called – what else – Paris Cola.
The company behind the product, Fonbelle, is a sponsor
of Fashion Week and has been heightening its profile recently as it tries to
push ahead of other cola contenders and also appeal to civic pride.
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| Rousseau shows off Paris Cola |
“The main thing about Paris Cola is that it’s a local
product, made with Parisian water and with locally produced beet sugar,” says
Pollyanna Rousseau, Fonbelle’s marketing manager.
The company first developed the product in 2007, but
it was only last year that Paris Cola became a viable commercial drink,
competing with both international brands as well as a similarly named local
beverage.
This year, it has launched a major offensive, with public
demonstrations and free tastings in upscale Parisian supermarkets such as the
Grande Epicerie.
Rousseau says she wants to position the cola as a
drink one wouldn’t feel embarrassed to offer to a dinner hostess, much like a
good bottle of wine.
It took eight months to create the right taste, she
says, with studies conducted among consumers to make sure the drink wasn’t “too
sugary, too caramel or too strong”.
“We wanted the perfect taste for a Parisian, and that
was quite difficult,” she adds. “You had to forget about other products and
find the taste that you would like to have as a French cola.”
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| If it's red it must be cola. |
After the public testing, the company designed flashy
bottles in glass and plastic for retail in French supermarkets such as Auchan
and Carrefour, with the product now being available in more than 300 outlets.
“We targeted two kinds of consumers - first young
Parisians between the age of 20 and 35 who are willing to try new things, and
secondly the tourist market,” Rousseau says.
Fonbelle has long been active in the food-souvenir
sector, and the idea is for travellers to have an unusual memento to take back
home. The cola, for instance, is sold in glass bottles at stores that tourists
frequent, such as the ever-crowded Galeries Lafayette.
The bottle, with a red label, is a deliberate design
as consumers seem to identify the colour with colas, perhaps because of a
famous international brand.
“When people ask why we’re using red, we explain that
the Parisian flag is red,” says Rousseau. “So it makes sense.”
This is meant to evoke the stylishness associated with
haute couture and other luxuries, one of the reasons for the link with Fashion
Week. Who knows, perhaps consumers will start calling the drink Paris Cola-Champagne. - L. McKenzie & J.M. De Clercq
