According to ACNielsen, 62% of volume sales for Coke Zero for the 12 weeks to the end of September have been cannibalised from its flagship sister variants, with 32% of its sales taken from Diet Coke and 30% from regular Coke.
It is normal for some intra-brand switching by consumers following a major launch, but sources say the effect has been particularly heavy in this case.
Retailers said Coca-Cola had focused heavily on promotions to shift Zero, which hit sales of both regular and Diet Coke. The company refuted this, saying that although there had been some swapping between brands, it had been "less than anticipated".
A Coca-Cola spokeswoman said year-on-year sales of Coke, Diet Coke and Coke Zero were up "substantially", pointing to TNS data showing that 47% of Coke Zero sales were incremental and 9% taken from arch-rival Pepsi.
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