DALLAS — Dr Pepper, facing new products from larger competitors, plans to roll out the first new flavor in the 117-year history of the brand, a fruity drink called Red Fusion.
Dr Pepper said the soda will be available in stores, vending machines and soda fountains in mid-July.
Not a minute too late, say analysts, who warn that soda giants PepsiCo Inc. and the Coca-Cola Co. are taking aim squarely at the No. 3 U.S. brand.
This week, Coke announced that it would start selling Vanilla Coke in a few days, and Pepsi — which scored a hit with high-caffeine Mountain Dew Code Red last year — said it would sell berry-flavored Pepsi Blue in August.
Both moves threaten Dr Pepper's position as the top alternative to cola drinks, especially among the teens that soda makers covet, said Tom Pirko, an industry consultant with Bevmark Inc.
"Coke and Pepsi are not going to allow (Dr Pepper) to become the alternative to cola, so they're developing their own alternatives," Pirko said. "Whatever Dr Pepper does in response had better be really dramatic, or it could be the 7-Up of the category."
7-Up, also part of Dr Pepper/Seven Up Inc., based in Plano, Texas, once was the dominant "uncola" but has been relegated to the end of grocery shelves by Sprite, Coke's lemon-lime drink.
Red Fusion, which contains caffeine, will be sold in 12-packs of cans and 20-ounce and 2-liter plastic bottles. The Dr Pepper name is there on the bottle but in small type.
The company won't detail what's inside, other than saying it's a variety of fruit flavors and a hint of Dr Pepper. Company officials say the flavor and the Red Fusion name are the result of taste-test research that began in September.
"The consumer is reaching out for variety, and you need to listen," said Doug Tough, chief executive of Dr Pepper/Seven Up, a unit of London-based beverage and candy maker Cadbury Schweppes.
Tough said Dr Pepper bottlers were also eager to offer another product in the line. Ed Frazer of Reno, Nev., president of Dr Pepper's bottler association, called Red Fusion "the biggest news for Dr Pepper since the brand was created."
Dr Pepper hasn't added a new flavor since the brand was created in 1885 in Waco. The company thought about it a couple years ago but backed off, deciding instead to concentrate on building its namesake brand, which is hugely popular in Texas but less so in Southern California and New England.
Gary Hemphill, an executive for Beverage Marketing Corp., said Dr Pepper's caution in adding flavors made sense because most new brands fail.
But, he said, times have changed. Consumers once identified themselves as Coke, Pepsi or Dr Pepper drinkers and rarely switched, but now they want to try new tastes.
"That's why we're seeing this proliferation of new sodas," Hemphill said, "and we're going to see more of it."