Coke and L'Oreal Collaborate to Creat New Health Beverage

14/03/07 Brandweek reported that Coca-Cola and L'Oreal are partnering to create a new health-and-beauty beverage to launch in 2008, sources said.

Currently called Lumae, the nutraceutical drink was trademarked as a tea-based ready-to-drink beverage by Coca-Cola's Beverage Partners Worldwide division. The drink, which is still in the early stages of development, is expected to contain ingredients that will help women care for their skin, per a source.

L'Oreal is a leader in skincare, boasting such brands as Skinceuticals, Dermablend, La Rocher-Posay and Vichy thermal spa water.

Lumae is expected to target active, influential, image-conscious women over the age of 25 who embrace health and wellness. Coke is interested in marketing and distributing Lumae like a beauty brand instead of a soft drink. Early plans call for distribution in Saks Fifth Avenue (instead of Coke's usual venues, like 7-Eleven). This could ruffle bottlers' feathers, said a source, considering beauty salons and the like aren't the typical stops on a distributor's route. Product testing is expected to begin shortly.

Coke rep Ray Crockett said, "At any given time we have numerous products and flavors in development. For obvious reasons we don't comment on these."

BPW is a joint venture between Nestle and Coke. Nestle is a major L'Oreal shareholder owning roughly a quarter of its stock.

A similar product, Borba Skin Balance waters, has already cemented itself in Sephora stores. Launched in 2005, the portfolio of drinkable skincare products claims to help various conditions. "We pioneered the category," said company president Scott Vincent Borba. "Even if they come in at a lower price point, they'll never meet the clinical criteria that we have nor will they beat the emotional branding we have with our consumers."

Such nutraceutical products are already popular overseas. In Japan, for example, Coke has launched several entries including Love Body, which it claims not only burns calories, but contains an ingredient rumored to increase bust size.

Products like Lumae were placed on the front burner by Coke's former head of marketing, strategy and innovation, Mary Minnick, who resigned last month. Anomaly, New York, is Lumae's agency, a source said, but the firm did not return calls.