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Case Study: Coca-Cola’s Freestyle Machines

Coca-Cola, an iconic brand synonymous with beverages, has embarked on a journey of innovation with its Freestyle machines. Beyond the familiar red and white cans lies a cutting-edge product that has embraced the power of product analytics . This blog post takes an in-depth look at the compelling case study of Coca-Cola’s Freestyle machines and their strategic use of product analytics. By understanding how data insights have transformed beverage dispensing and consumer experiences, we unravel the behind-the-scenes story of this remarkable advancement.

Central to the success of Coca-Cola’s Freestyle machines is their adept use of product analytics to offer personalized beverage dispensing. By analyzing data related to user preferences, popular flavor combinations, and seasonal trends, the machines create an extensive menu of beverage options. This customization empowers customers to craft their unique concoctions, ranging from classic cola mixes to exotic flavors, making each visit a tailored experience. The product analytics-driven customization not only enhances consumer satisfaction but also adds an element of novelty to the beverage dispensing process.

Coca-Cola’s Freestyle machines are a prime example of how product analytics can elevate user engagement . By monitoring usage patterns and beverage selections, Coca-Cola gains insights into consumer behavior beyond taste buds. This data enables the brand to refine marketing strategies, introduce limited-time flavors, and create loyalty programs that cater to the preferences of its diverse customer base. The result is a two-way interaction: consumers receive beverages tailored to their taste, while Coca-Cola gains a deeper understanding of its audience.

Product analytics within Coca-Cola’s Freestyle machines extend beyond consumer-facing features and enhance supply chain efficiency. By analyzing data on ingredient consumption, machine utilization, and maintenance needs, Coca-Cola gains a comprehensive overview of each machine’s performance . This data-driven approach streamlines inventory management, ensuring machines are always stocked with the right ingredients and reducing waste. The result is a seamless blend of product analytics and operational efficiency, contributing to a smoother customer experience .

Coca-Cola’s Freestyle machines leverage real-time product analytics to address maintenance needs promptly. The machines have sensors that monitor various parameters such as ingredient levels, temperature, and functionality. When anomalies are detected, the machines can proactively alert maintenance teams, ensuring prompt resolution and minimizing downtime. Fueled by-product analytics, this predictive maintenance approach guarantees that customers can consistently enjoy their beverage choices without interruptions.

Coca-Cola’s Freestyle machines testify to how product analytics can drive continuous innovation. By analyzing customer feedback and consumption trends, Coca-Cola can introduce new flavors and combinations to cater to evolving tastes. The dynamic menu offerings keep customers engaged and curious, fostering brand loyalty. This innovation-driven approach showcases how product analytics can transform a simple beverage dispenser into a platform for creativity and exploration.

Product analytics within Coca-Cola’s Freestyle machines also contribute to sustainability efforts. By analyzing ingredient consumption and waste generation, Coca-Cola can fine-tune recipes to minimize excess and ensure efficient utilization of resources. Moreover, data insights into popular flavors and consumption patterns can influence production decisions, aligning with sustainable practices and reducing the carbon footprint associated with beverage manufacturing .

Coca-Cola’s Freestyle machines are a testament to the transformative impact of product analytics on traditional industries. Through personalized beverage dispensing, enhanced user engagement, operational optimization, and innovation-driven initiatives, Coca-Cola has demonstrated how data insights can reshape consumer experiences and drive business success. The Coca-Cola Freestyle machines case study underscores the pivotal role that product analytics can play in transforming everyday products into interactive, dynamic platforms that cater to individual preferences. As we look toward the future of beverage dispensing and beyond, the integration of product analytics will undoubtedly remain a catalyst for innovation and customer satisfaction in a rapidly evolving market.

Coca-Cola Free Style

The essence of product analytics in Coca-Cola’s Freestyle machines lies in its ability to personalize beverage dispensing to an unprecedented degree. By leveraging detailed data on user preferences and popular combinations, the machines offer various options catering to diverse tastes. This high level of customization, powered by product analytics, not only delights consumers but ensures that each interaction with the machine feels unique and tailored. This strategic use of data enhances the customer experience, making it more engaging and satisfying.

Moreover, Coca-Cola’s Freestyle machines utilize product analytics to deepen user engagement. Coca-Cola can gain a nuanced understanding of consumer behavior by tracking how customers use the machines and what beverages they choose. This valuable data informs marketing strategies, allowing the introduction of new flavors and limited-time offerings that keep the menu fresh and exciting. The feedback loop created by product analytics helps Coca-Cola stay attuned to consumer preferences and adapt quickly to changing tastes.

Operational efficiency is another significant area where product analytics shine in Coca-Cola’s Freestyle machines. Coca-Cola can optimize its supply chain and reduce operational costs by analyzing data on ingredient usage, machine performance, and maintenance requirements. Real-time analytics ensure that each machine is adequately stocked and functioning correctly, crucial for maintaining customer satisfaction and minimizing downtime. The proactive maintenance enabled by product analytics reduces the likelihood of machine failures and ensures a consistent and reliable customer experience.

Innovation is at the heart of Coca-Cola’s Freestyle machines, driven by the insights gleaned from product analytics. The ability to introduce new flavors based on data trends keeps the beverage options dynamic and aligned with consumer desires. This continuous innovation keeps the brand relevant and strengthens customer loyalty by offering a diverse and evolving product range. Additionally, the insights from product analytics help Coca-Cola refine its sustainability practices, ensuring that ingredient use is efficient and waste is minimized.

In conclusion, Coca-Cola’s Freestyle machines exemplify the transformative power of product analytics. Coca-Cola has set a new standard in the beverage industry by leveraging detailed data to personalize the customer experience, optimize operations, and drive continuous innovation. This case study highlights how product analytics can turn a simple beverage dispenser into a sophisticated platform that delights consumers and drives business success. As Coca-Cola continues to harness the potential of product analytics, it paves the way for future advancements that will further enhance customer satisfaction and operational excellence in the competitive market.

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How Coca-Cola turns to its Freestyle machine to create shelf-ready flavors

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Food and beverage companies across the CPG space are constantly on the lookout for real-time data they can put to work in developing new products that resonate with consumers. For beverage giant Coca-Cola, its Freestyle has proven to be the holy grail.

The touch-screen beverage dispenser, which was introduced in 2009, is now present in tens of thousands of restaurants, grocery stores, movie theaters and other establishments across North America.

There are more than 50,000 Coca-Cola Freestyle dispensers in use today that pour more than 11 million drinks daily, according to Coca-Cola. Each pour from the 32 different brands available generates a treasure trove of valuable data that the Atlanta-based company combs through each day.

Coca-Cola can see what drinks are poured most often, what time of the day they are consumed how it varies by location. In some cases, the data can show an opportunity to bring a popular beverage flavor from the Freestyle machine to the beverage aisle.

Felicia Hale, Coca-Cola

“The data really gets us to the heartbeat of what our consumers are really drinking,” Felicia Hale, vice president of equipment strategy for Coca-Cola Freestyle. “We’re able to use that data to help inform some of our innovation strategies in our bottle and can line of business.”

Coca-Cola is very methodical when it comes to bringing a flavor profile from the Freestyle to store shelves, with new offerings making the leap every few years.

Following the Coca-Cola Freestyle’s debut 13 years ago, the beverage giant has brought four creations to bottles or cans, starting in 2017 with Sprite Cherry. Since then, it has also introduced Coke with Cherry Vanilla, Coke with Orange Vanilla and Sprite Strawberry with Lymonade, the latter of which will roll out next spring.

Coca-Cola, Freestyle, Sprite

Each of the three launches remains on shelves today, a period of longevity that gives Coca-Cola confidence that when it takes an already popular offering from Freestyle dispenser and packages it, the beverage is going to have a high likelihood of succeeding.

“It’s helped with the innovations that we’ve launched,” Hale said. “Those are still round, those are sustaining SKUs for us.”

Coca-Cola Freestyle acts as a way to not only find and test out ideas but gather data in real time . 

The experimentation that occurs with consumers using the device is emblematic of the tendency across the marketplace,  especially among younger shoppers, to experiment and try new things. While Coca-Cola moves quickly to bring new innovations it creates to store shelves, the Coca-Cola Freestyle allows the company to do it more quickly, and in a way that is uniquely tailored to each individual consumer.

“We’re finding that when a consumer goes up to our Freestyle , they’re almost looking for what’s new and different,” Hale said. “And that newness and freshness really helps to inform our pipeline and how we think about innovation.”

Charlie Higgs, an associate partner of consumer staples research at Redburn, said while Freestyle is unlikely to ever be a major tool for creating new products, it’s particularly useful for helping Coca-Cola ascertain consumer taste trends.

For example, if the data gathered shows the public is favoring a particular flavor, that information could influence work being done at the company’s R&D labs or to expand the number of SKUs available of an existing offering to meet that demand. 

“Freestyle is a slightly underappreciated asset,” Higgs said in an email. 

The touch-screen dispenser also offers the company a valuable way for Coca-Cola to grab the consumer at another consumption point. While Coca-Cola Freestyle  connects with drinkers in places such as restaurants or theme parks, products launched in cans or bottles inspired by the machine tend to be largely consumed by consumers at home, in the car or even at work. 

Hale said as Coca-Cola Freestyle looks for ways to “optimize” its portfolio, new product launches developed from insight collected on the Freestyle will “absolutely” play a key role in that strategy. 

“It’s kind of built into our cadence for how we think about innovation,” she said.

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See how Coke is going beyond the traditional packaging

Innovating Beyond the Traditional Package

Giving people the drinks they want.

By combining Coca‑Cola Freestyle®, the touchscreen-operated beverage dispenser, with micro-chipped, self-serving reusable cups, mugs and bottles, Coca‑Cola is using its innovative spirit to help reduce packaging footprints and give people more of the drinks they want.

First introduced in 2009, now with tens of thousands of units installed worldwide, Coca‑Cola Freestyle offers more than 100 sparkling and still beverage choices, including more than 70 low- and no-calorie options and 90-plus caffeine-free selections. This revolutionary product delivery method is helping the company respond to people’s evolving tastes and introduce them to new products and options. It also is playing a role in reducing waste.

Refillable beverage containers, equipped with micro-chipped, ValidFill® radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, have recently been introduced for use with Coca‑Cola Freestyle machines via a variety of universities, cruise lines and theme parks. These smart refillable cups directly interact with the Coca‑Cola Freestyle, conveniently providing preset pours toward favorite beverages and new tastes while, helping people reduce their packaging footprints.

Sustainable Partnerships

Ohio State University (OSU) in the United States and the University of Reading in Great Britain are two universities that have implemented the innovation.

OSU launched its MyCup program in 2016, handing out 15,000 personalized, premium cups to all incoming first year and returning sophomore students. The 24-ounce high-tech cups, which came encoded with 10 free drinks, communicate with the university’s network of more than 20 Coca‑Cola Freestyle dispensers. Once the free drinks have been consumed, students can recharge their cups with additional drink bundles semester after semester.

Coinciding with the start of the 2017 academic year, Coca‑Cola European Partners (CCEP) and The University of Reading partnered to place Coca‑Cola Freestyle machines on campus and offer compatible, micro-chipped refillable bottles for purchase by students and staff. Users, who had access to pre-paid refills throughout the 10-week term, were able to pour familiar favorites and try drinks and flavor variants from Coca‑Cola’s global total beverage portfolio – including some not even available in Great Britain stores. Free drinking water was also available through the trial, a request from students.

Since September 2017, over 2,300 refillable bottles have been purchased for use on The University of Reading campus, with 24 refills the average per bottle used. CCEP is in dialogue with a number of customers, including other universities, to roll out similar Coca‑Cola Freestyle and refillable bottle programs.

The Sustainability of Freestyle

In addition to helping consumers to avoid waste, Coca‑Cola Freestyle machines can contribute to cutting waste in product transportation and manufacturing. Coca‑Cola Freestyle’s SmartPAK™ cartridges have a smaller carbon footprint than traditional syrup packaging, are manufactured in a Gold LEED certified facility with renewable power and water conservation technology and contain 15-30 percent recycled content.

Coca‑Cola Freestyle’s SmartPAK™ cartridges have a smaller carbon footprint than traditional syrup packaging, are manufactured in a Gold LEED certified facility with renewable power and water conservation technology, and contain 15-30 percent recycled content.  

When considering the savings on consumables, fountain profit margin and earnings from incremental retail purchases, each ValidFill®-enabled container drives an estimated $88 in annual profit. The ValidFill® RFID technology also enables Coca‑Cola to gain consumer insights related to its beverage portfolio, and Coca‑Cola Freestyle makes sharing a variety of beverage opportunities in one spot possible, and fun.

Investments in the development and distribution of the Coca‑Cola Freestyle beverage dispensers and ValidFill® RFID self-serve technology are promoting sustainability and revolutionizing the fountain experience for consumers. Reducing packaging and strengthening the sales and profit potential of beverages is just one of the ways Coca‑Cola is innovating in the beverage delivery space and partnering to help shape a better world.

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Coca-Cola Freestyle Case Study

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April 20, 2017

Submitted by bottle rocket.

  • Create and save custom mixes
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QR code
  • Locate a nearby Coca-Cola Freestyle dispenser 
  • Receive special offers at a user’s favorite location
  • Includes loyalty component via check-in and badging
  • Promotional challenges, achievements and 
special prizes

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The Future of Coke Freestyle

Challenge The Coca-Cola Company was using a 10+ year old technology and 5 codebases to manage over 50,000 Freestyle soda machines across 200+ geographic locations.

Solution Built 2 Freestyle proof-of-concepts to test theoretical solutions to have a single code base. Tested and refined until we had one digital software solution that standardized all 50,000 Freestyle soda machines.

Results What Coca-Cola had spent 2 years trying to solve was completed in 2 months with our engineers.

The Future of Coke Freestyle

Photo by Lukas Ballier on Unsplash

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Market research, customer insight, store segmentation & location planning case study.

“S2 have been great to work with across all areas of the brand research, insight, strategy and creative execution piece. The feedback we have received has been fantastic and the website has been hailed a real best in class effort.”

Laura Bartkowski, Freestyle Project Manager, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners

Coca-Cola Freestyle, (FS), offers the ultimate personalised soft drink experience giving unprecedented choice to the consumer in a fun and engaging way. S2 was tasked to define the profile of the end consumer with a view to developing a full brand strategy roll out which can be implemented across on and offline media channels. To define the brand strategy and creative execution, we worked with Coca-Cola to develop an understanding of the consumer profiles for Freestyle and provide recommendations on route to market activation. The development of pen persona consumer profiles via consumer research and data analysis, helped define the target audience and how their behaviours relate to purchase occasions and engagement with the product.

Our Approach

Consumer research focus groups allowed us to test reactions to the FS brand and explore attitudes to soft drink dispensers. The responsiveness of the UK market to the Freestyle concept and detailed attitudes to the pairing of drinks with food were also tested with a wider online research survey. The research resulted in delivering consumer awareness recommendations and how best to communicate brand and flavour possibilities. This work helped quantify the Freestyle effect for retailers, to explore how it can improve or enhance consumer’s views on outlets where it is available. Social media usage and sharing behaviours across pen persona groups also helped define the most effective digital channels for education and awareness campaigns to build the brand via promotional, POS and competition campaigns. Alignment of personas to the UK population enabled sizing of the FS opportunity by each persona, thereby providing a basis for a future brand advocate communication plan. Mapping the population densities of each pen persona provides Coca-Cola with a geographic targeted approach for the marketing of Freestyle across ATL and BTL media communications. Route to market strategy is supported by using Marketview , our data visualisation tool, to heat map key locations and customer sites across the UK which have the highest propensity for Freestyle dispenser placement.

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The project resulted in delivering consumer awareness recommendations and how best to communicate brand and flavour possibilities. This work helped quantify the Freestyle effect for retailers, to explore how it can improve or enhance consumer’s views on outlets where it is available.

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How Coca-Cola Created the Soda Fountain of the Future

Coca-Cola’s headquarters building rises 29 stories above Atlanta. But the team working on a new kind of soda dispenser in 2007 was stashed away in the basement. Two levels of passcodes and one very stringent non-disclosure agreement were required to enter the lab. The endeavor, code-named “Project JET,” was kept separate from other R&D initiatives.

“Leadership set up a skunkworks team that was incredibly secretive and given resources, but kept very close to the vest,” says Jim Sanders, Vice President of Freestyle Business Development and Fleet Performance. Because the workspace was located underground, “the initial engineers called it the dungeon,” Sanders says.

The Project JET team was trying to tackle what Coca-Cola viewed as a big problem: Consumers wanted more choice. While Coca-Cola was addressing that by offering an array of flavors packaged in bottles and cans — like cranberry Sprite or Barq’s French vanilla cream soda—the self-serve fountain you’d encounter in a fast food restaurant was stuck in the 1960s, Sanders says. “At fountains, there were just six or eight choices, and it was really limited on diet or low calorie options,” he says. “The idea of more choice was the heart and soul of the project.”

Designing a new kind of fountain might also give Coca-Cola a competitive edge. Even though the company already commanded greater than 70 percent market share at fountain-based locations in the US, “every time we developed something new, the other guys in blue were quick to follow it on,” Sanders says, referring to Pepsi. Part of the problem was that both companies relied heavily on outside suppliers for technology.

This time, Coca-Cola opted to try to build something on its own, rather than just buy from third-parties, so that it could have “a unique solution that [restaurant owners] couldn’t get from the other guys,” Sanders says.

There are now about 52,000 of the Project JET machines out in the world, and odds are good you’ve used one, maybe at a Firehouse Subs or Five Guys. (It’s now known as Coca-Cola Freestyle.) But getting there wasn’t simple.

Reimagining the Soda Fountain

The common soda dispenser — push the lever and fill a cup — blends carbon dioxide, water, and concentrated syrup. But the flavor balance can be imprecise, as valve settings drift over time. And if the company wants to launch a new flavor, it faces a tough decision. Which existing flavor has to go?

The Project JET team, about a dozen engineers and managers, borrowed an approach called micro-dosing from the medical industry — a way to precisely control how fluids were mixed. What if you could do that same thing with the flavors of a soft drink?

“We initially thought we were going to use the traditional beverage suppliers to this industry,” Sanders says. “But in an effort to keep the intellectual property and the ideas to ourselves, we did a lot of the engineering, and we used a lot of new approaches to designing and manufacturing the equipment.”

Funding, and the approval to create a separate innovation team that was fully resourced with dedicated people, came from then-CEO Neville Isdell, Sanders says, as well as the company’s head of R&D.

The typical model for Coca-Cola was to give suppliers a design brief, and let them develop designs for the company to evaluate, Sanders says. “Then, we’d forecast how many we might buy,” he explains. “It was an arm’s-length…relationship.”

coca cola freestyle case study

The second-generation Freestyle beverage dispenser was unveiled in 2018; more than 52,000 of the original model, launched in 2010, are already in market. Photo by Tim Redman for InnoLead.

But Coca-Cola wanted to own the product — from the fluidic system that would allow precise flavor control to the refrigeration technology to the software. And, says Sanders, after a few false starts, the Project JET team realized that the company’s existing supplier base didn’t have sufficient “capability to work in some of those areas,” he says.

The Project JET team didn’t do everything itself, however: It found an outside partner that had worked on micro-dosing before, New Hampshire-based  DEKA Research and Development , run by inventor Dean Kamen. (Kamen’s first successful product, invented in the 1970s, was a medical device that delivered precise doses of insulin for diabetics.) A Seattle company,  Bsquare , brought expertise in internet-linked products.

The system Coca-Cola developed invited customers to use a touchscreen to select a beverage. Then, as carbonated water is shooting from a nozzle into the customer’s cup, “the drink is being mixed in mid-air,” Sanders explains. “The ingredients are being fired from about 36 different pumps, which gave you an absolutely fresh and perfect drink every time.”

Even so, questions always surrounded the secretive project. Executives wanted to understand, Sanders recalls, “Is there a business case here? Do we want to invest at the next level?”

Before the project had been launched, one of its original champions, Isdell, retired, and a new CEO, Muhtar Kent, took over. “One of Muhtar Kent’s first inputs to the project when he came on as CEO was that he brought in Pinanfarina [the Italian car design studio] and they helped us with the external look of the device,” Sanders says.

By the end of 2009, the company had given Project JET a real name — Coca-Cola Freestyle — and green-lit the plans to commercialize it. Freestyle would be able to serve up about 100 different beverage flavors.

The Alpha Test

But first, the company needed to test the device in a real restaurant. It chose a suburban Atlanta burrito shop, Willy’s Mexicana Grill, for the alpha test of the Freestyle machine, which had been hand-built by the engineering team.

Why Willy’s? “We knew the owner [Willy Bitter] very well,” Sanders says. “It was close to headquarters. And they allowed us to have three or four engineers in there constantly” to babysit the prototype machine. The team also shot videos of how customers interacted with Freestyle.

“We’re watching not just how consumers react,” explains Scott Harrison, Vice President of Platform Leadership at Coca-Cola, “but we’re trying to find the bugs we didn’t catch in the lab. … We can go back and look at the film, see the use case, and fix it.”

Another reason for choosing Willy’s as a test site was its size — at the time, Willy’s operated just a handful of locations around Atlanta. “Consumers could’ve rejected Freestyle,” Sanders says. “We might’ve pulled it out. And you wouldn’t want to disappoint one of your large national customers” if that happened.

And there were definitely the sort of snafus one would expect from what Sanders dubs an “alpha test.” Pininfarina had designed a swoopy, elegant lever for dispensing ice into the cup. But if you pulled your cup away too fast, and the machine emitted a few extra ice cubes, the lever would essentially punt them onto the floor of the restaurant. The team realized that “we’ve got to go back and get much more of an industrial, usable device, instead of this thing that was more about looks,” Sanders says. It was also too complicated to reboot the Freestyle, something that restaurant operators would need to be able to do on their own, especially if the machine was having issues connecting to the wireless network.

But consumers who tried Freestyle at Willy’s “fell in love with it,” Sanders says.

Not long after, the company created a Facebook page — one of Coca-Cola’s first — to see what consumers were saying about Freestyle. “One thing we’d see on that early Facebook page was, ‘Bring Freestyle to Peoria,’ or wherever the person was from,” Sanders says. “And you also had people telling each other how to mix different brands to get something that tastes like an ice cream treat or a certain candy. There was that notion of the consumer owning the experience.”

As Coca-Cola continued to shepherd Freestyle toward the market, it needed to make several big changes. First, the skunkworks group had to move out of R&D — and the basement — and into a more commercially-oriented part of the company, Coca-Cola’s FoodService and On-Premise division.

The company would rely on contract manufacturing firms to build the machines — the same way Apple builds iPhones. A new supply chain had to be designed, and Freestyle required different training for service technicians. And the machine “needed quite a lot of maintenance in the early days,” says Thomas Stubbs, Vice President of Engineering and Innovation for Freestyle.

Testing a Rental-Based Business Model

Coca-Cola also planned to price the Freestyle at a premium to the traditional fountain dispenser. And it wasn’t exactly selling Freestyle machines to customers — it was renting them. “The idea of a program fee is one of the other big, courageous steps we took,” Sanders says. “The company made the decision that we would own all of these devices,” and the customer would pay a monthly program fee ranging from $160 to $300 a month, depending on the size of the machine. That fee includes use of the equipment, the software, installation, and any service; it doesn’t include the cost of flavor cartridges that go into the machine to enable it to produce beverages.

The pitch was, according to Sanders: “[I]f you’re looking for low price, use our traditional fountain. But if you want to innovate and grow your beverage business with young consumers, [Freestyle is] a premium option.” The company hasn’t disclosed how much it spent on the Freestyle project, but it spent $100 million upgrading an Atlanta plant so that it could produce concentrated ingredients for Freestyle cartridges.

Taming a complicated new technology while deploying a new business model could be headache-inducing. “We would tell each other, ‘If you ever have a day when you feel this is too difficult, go out and just watch the consumer in restaurants that have [Freestyle],'” Sanders says. “They’d be giggling, and sharing with each other how to use it. The engineers would have to rub that into their wounds like a salve. There were plenty of technical hurdles we had to go through…but we knew we were onto something that would change the game.”

Once Freestyle machines started showing up in restaurants around the country, in mid-2010, the wounds began to heal. “We have seen it, the promised land,” wrote Elina Shatkin in LA Weekly. “The soda dispenser of the future.” The Disney Food Blog dubbed it “the coolest Coke machine you’ve ever seen.” Esquire doled out negative reviews to nine of the more exotic flavors (Powerade ION4 Lemon “tastes like the kind of lemonade you can make at home if all you have is a lot of water and a lemon rind”), but reluctantly admitted that Sprite with grape was pretty good. The company’s Facebook page quickly amassed 8,000 fans. Pepsi — those “guys in blue” — raced to catch up, eventually launching a rival machine called Pepsi Spire in 2014.

Over the next nine years, Coca-Cola deployed more than 52,000 Freestyles to customers like Qdoba, Wendy’s, Burger King, Subway, and AMC Theatres. (While beverage consumption at Freestyle restaurants tends to increase about 8 percent, according to Coca-Cola, calories-per-serving goes down, as more consumers choose low-calorie or no calorie options.) It was granted more than 80 patents for the technology inside.

coca cola freestyle case study

Freestylers (from left) Chris Dennis, Keith Gibson, Scott Seccuro, Lindsey Bozung, Thomas Stubbs, Brian Barrett, Chris Hellmann, Kristen Shappert, Dave Harvey, Scott Harrison, Eric Lewis, Jim Sanders, and Roy Francois.

‘How Do We Scale This Thing?’

After the Freestyle had been in market for several years, the team overseeing it realized the need to create Freestyle 2.0. The first device “was about discovery, and proving the model,” says Scott Harrison, Vice President of Platform Leadership at Coca-Cola. “Now, it’s about how do we really scale this thing?”

Stubbs says that there were several components to the business case. The first was security. “We needed to update our software and the way we connect to the machines to keep the bad guys at bay,” he says. “These are wirelessly-connected devices with screens, and our first goal is to not repeat the mistakes of some companies that have been hacked.” The second was about creating a single Freestyle operating system for the entire “fleet” of machines, rather than running different software on the different models of machines.

The third component was maintenance. “We were aiming to be about 90 to 95 percent more efficient than we were,” Stubbs says. “We needed to make [maintaining the machines, including cleaning them and swapping out flavor cartridges] simpler and more efficient.” The team also wanted to enable Freestyle to handle a wider range of beverages, including juices and coffees.

And the final component of the business case was the ability to innovate with customers, creating specific beverages exclusive to their chains.

Rather than trying to add features or enhance the first version of Freestyle, they redesigned it from the ground up. “It was just more efficient, better quality, and less expensive to go with a fundamentally new design,” says Stubbs.

While the original machine ran on Windows, the new one relies on a Linux operating system that supports tech standards like Java and HTML 5. That “allows us to more rapidly innovate,” Stubbs explains, “and it means that other teams [both within Coca-Cola and at its restaurant customers] can build apps for the machine.” The touchscreen display has much higher resolution and can play videos. The “push to pour” button relies on haptic feedback to vibrate a bit, so the consumer knows the beverage is coming.

And, Stubbs adds, “We filled it with electronics that we know we’re going to need in the future, like bluetooth and RFID radios, and we made it more modular for hardware and software expansion in the future.” The Freestyle’s wireless connection allows for its software to be regularly updated over the air — not unlike a Tesla sedan.

coca cola freestyle case study

Chris Dennis, Group Director for Freestyle Platform Management, uses the machine at the Firehouse Subs test location in Marietta, Georgia.

Halfway through 2018, the Freestyle team decided to run an alpha test of the redesigned machine — known internally as the 9100. This time, they chose a Firehouse Subs location in Marietta, Georgia. Firehouse had been one of the first Freestyle customers to roll out the machine to all of its locations in 2011. Firehouse was “eager to be first-to-market with the latest and greatest,” Sanders says.

This time around, the alpha test was different. “We just needed a close partner, and someone who wouldn’t mind having three engineers in the restaurant constantly,” Sanders says, and executives dropping by to have a look.

But while the engineers were busy keeping the Freestyle up-and-running during the original Willy’s test, “the second time around, the engineers were bored,” says Stubbs. Sanders adds, “We had to make sure the location had wifi. They weren’t having to deal with the equipment constantly, so they needed to be able to work on their laptops.”

After the alpha test, Coca-Cola typically goes to a larger rollout — anywhere from 20 to 50 locations “where we’re trying to simulate ‘real life,'” Harrison says. “We let the typical [restaurant and Coca-Cola] operations take over. We’re testing the supply chain, the install processes, the training for the crew. Then, fast-forward a few more months, and we start to build inventory and manufacture” the machines, and install them in restaurants around the country.

One important test for the new machines: How should Coca-Cola use the screen’s new video capacity? “Consumers have told us, ‘I’m there to get a drink—don’t show me a commercial,'” Harrison says. “When they’re up in front of it, they want to discover something new, or find something fast. When it’s not pouring a drink, that’s when the video might show up. We’re figuring out as we go.”

coca cola freestyle case study

A look inside a Freestyle soda fountain prototype. Photo by Tim Redman for InnoLead.

The Debut of Freestyle 2.0

The Version 2.0 of Freestyle was unveiled in May 2018 at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago.

It has an array of new features, like tracking usage patterns on the machine so that a restaurant manager can better predict when a flavor cartridge will need to be replaced. The original model would report on what percentage of a cartridge was remaining. But “now we can predict that you’ve got ten hours [of use left], or two hours,” Harrison says. “It makes them more efficient and effective in how they maintain the machine.” And the dashboard of information about the Freestyle 2.0 can be accessed using a smartphone, tablet, or PC.

Data about how consumers in various geographies use the Freestyle machines also plays a role in how Coca-Cola makes marketing and distribution decisions. “Last summer, the Sprite team used Freestyle consumption data to understand that Sprite Cherry was a fan favorite,” Harrison says. “So they developed that into a ready-to-drink version you could buy at retail.”

While the first model of Freestyle offered 106 different flavor choices, both that model and Version 2.0 can now serve up about 200.

Consumers can also craft their own custom beverage and store it in the Coca-Cola mobile app; then, on a future visit to that location (or any other Freestyle machine), they can “call up” the same recipe using their phone.

And Coca-Cola has been working with restaurant chains to add their signature drinks to the Freestyle. At Firehouse Subs, that means Cherry Lime-Ade. “They were hand-making it before they had [it on the Freestyle],” says Sanders.

The Freestyle team was at the massive South by Southwest festival in Austin earlier this year, showing off the new machine and offering samples at a park just outside the convention center. As of May 2019, there are about 525 of the Version 2.0 Freestyles out in the wild.

The team has also been collaborating with Coca-Cola’s Powerade brand to use the machine to create customized drinks for individual athletes “with the electrolytes you need,” says Harrison. “We’re testing that with Louisiana State University’s football programs.”

“One of our big lessons learned is that you can’t wait eight years to keep developing and investing in a technology,” says Harrison. “So we’re working on getting to shorter cycles, which will feel more like incremental innovation. We’re thinking about wearables, and facial recognition, and how those [might relate to the Freestyle]. Is it relevant to us and our consumers?”

Harrison says that 52,000 Freestyle machines served up about six billion beverages last year: “That’s a material chunk of our food service business, and it’s growing each and every night.” Freestyle General Manager Chris Hellmann said in mid-2018 that Freestyle had grown into a billion-dollar business for the company.

That makes it one of those rare skunkworks innovation projects that began in the basement, survived three different CEO switches, and eventually had an impact on a mass scale.

coca cola freestyle case study

Coke Solutions

  • Coca-Cola Freestyle

Have You Considered Coca-Cola Freestyle® Yet?

Five reasons to install the innovative beverage dispenser.

Have you considered adding a Coca-Cola Freestyle dispenser to your outlet?

The beverage market is changing and more competitive than ever. Consumers want variety, fun, and more ways to engage. Pressures are mounting to save time and space. That’s why there’s Coca-Cola Freestyle ®. Here are five reasons you should consider what’s already working in more than 16,000 U.S. outlets.

More Sales The award-winning Coca-Cola Freestyle drives total outlet profitability by offering consumers more of what they want from beverages when they dine out... quality, variety, choice, and fun. According to The Coca-Cola Company and third-party Coca-Cola Freestyle research, outlets with the dispenser see a three percent median increase in traffic, and a five percent median increase in total beverage incidence. With Coca-Cola Freestyle, customers choose 48 percent more from new and unique beverage brands that are not readily available elsewhere.

Loyal Customers Because the high-tech Coca-Cola Freestyle allows drink lovers loads of choices — more than 100, including 70 low- and no-calorie options — people seek it out. Sixty-seven percent of those surveyed by Consumer Tracker say they go to restaurants that have the dispenser because it offers something they can’t get elsewhere. Fifty-four percent say they go out of their way to visit restaurants that offer Coca-Cola Freestyle, according to Consumer Tracker research.

An Innovative App The Coca-Cola Freestyle app syncs consumers’ phones directly to your dispenser. Fans create their favorite drink mixes, save the recipes to the app, and then use the app to get the same drinks on return trips. The app also pushes to limited-time promotions, including sweepstakes and exclusive specialty drink mixes. The app locator leads thirsty customers directly to your door — what more could you ask for?

Operational Ease Coca-Cola Freestyle innovates, saves storage space, and makes it easy for crews to maintain. These dispensers leverage technology to simplify routine operational activities like changing an ingredient package . Plus, the typical customer is able to significantly reduce the amount of backroom space dedicated to its beverage system.

Full-Service Support Not only is the dispenser built with multipatented technology, Coca-Cola Freestyle’s data connectivity capability provides analytics, consumption data, component performance, ingredient ordering, remote diagnostics/repair information, marketing engagement and remote content updates.

No matter the size of your business, there's a Coca-Cola Freestyle built for you. Contact a Coca-Cola representative .

Read Related Stories: Helpful Tips for Your Coca-Cola Freestyle Dispenser Personalize Guest Experiences with Coca-Cola Freestyle Coca-Cola Freestyle SmartPAK™ Cartridges Reduce Waste

Published: June 01, 2015

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Coca-Cola Freestyle: The Marriage of Coca-Cola and Informatics by Theophilus Omodia

Some weeks ago, I walked  into a diner looking for some food. After buying the food I was motioned to get drinks from a nearby dispenser. That dispenser was so lovely  that I thought it was a video game machine. No it was not a video game, it was actually a soda dispenser! Funny enough it has been here with us since 2011.  I thought we should take a deeper look into it.

The Coca-Cola Freestyle is a revolution in the world of soft drink vending technology and was built by Italian design and engineering company  Pininfarina . It makes use of microdispensing technologies which work based on a computerized cartridge flavor system which consists of a data processor which governs the selection of over 140 different flavors of soft drinks and juices based on the choices made by the consumer using the dispenser.  Each button pressed on the touchscreen triggers an instruction via the data processor to the assigned cartridge which is used to create the desired drink. The fact that the machine makes use of microdispensing technology ensures that there is a very precise or accurate measurement of a beverage serving or a mix of different beverages by mixing distilled water with concentrates kept in 1.6 liter packets. 

Cartridges store concentrated ingredients in the dispenser cabinet and are RFID  enabled. The machine uses RFID chips to detect its supplies and to radio resupplying needs to other units. 

Jennifer Mann, VP and general manager, Coca-Cola Freestyle says the advent of the freestyle machine has enabled many fast food stores and eateries to sell drinks in double digit percentages and that has also enabled Coca-Cola have  a very accurate record of their sales and how their sales can be improved based on the choice of drinks statistics.

coca cola freestyle case study

Microdispensing technology makes the numerous choices of the Coca-Cola Freestyle possible.

How does that happen? Well the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine records all the sales hourly, morning, afternoon, evening, daily, weekly , monthly and even … you guessed right, yearly! All these statistics are sent to Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia where the data  is analyzed. The machine gives information on the most consumed and least consumed brands of soft drinks pumped through it on a daily basis.

Another exciting thing about this machine is the fact that the machine has a powerful ability to blend from over 140 brands. This is because of the very unique ability it has to create pump doses of the drinks in accurate proportions due to the aforementioned microdispensing capacities it inherited from the pharmaceutical industry.

Lastly its sleek appearance and easy to use touch screen have radically changed the world of dispensing technology.  This is possible because the Pininfarina company made  use of its excellent skills in contouring car bodies like that of the Ferrari. That body coupled with the corning glass touchscreen make the machine a true work of art.

On the whole this child of very unique parents might just inspire other companies to become yet more innovative in their marketing strategies. I believe Coca-Cola’s Freestyle is a sign of good things to come. Hmm…over to you Pepsi!

Have you used a Coca-Cola Freestyle machine?  What do you think about this kind of microdispensing technology? Share in the comments below.

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Coca-Cola Innovation Sparks Supply Chain Revolution

Although The Coca-Cola Company ’s drink offerings grew from sparkling to sports drinks, waters, juices and more, the choices in its fountains were limited. With the need to offer a greater number of beverage choices from a fountain dispenser, Coca-Cola was challenged to reinvent the fountain business. Engineers and scientists at Coca-Cola realized that micro-dosing technology (typically used to measure precise amounts of medication) might be able to dispense “recipes” of different beverages to increase the amount of choices in a single machine. Thus, Coca-Cola Freestyle was born. Ground-Breaking Innovation “Coca-Cola Freestyle changes the fountain model from eight choices in a standard fountain to more than 100,” explains Richard Gross, Group director of Enterprise Business Solutions, Product Supply Systems, Coca-Cola Refreshments. “Coca-Cola Freestyle also provides valuable data collection to customers. On a daily basis, each dispenser can gather data related to machine performance, micro-dose cartridge usage and beverage consumption.” While the technology for the dispensing machine is unique and ground-breaking, what is revealing is how the data is now being leveraged, particularly for rapid replenishment. Coca-Cola Freestyle fountains are connected to the Coca-Cola network and are constantly reporting sales data – by brand, location, and day part. In the era of Big Data, the machine is also providing game-changing insights. “By innovatively using the data in our SAP Supply Network Collaboration (SNC) module we can react for the first time in a pure demand driven Supply Chain ecosystem to keep the brand cartridges in stock,” adds Gross. In order to ensure replenishment occurs reliably and efficiently, The Coca-Cola Freestyle Replenishment System captures detailed data on every pour, plus data on the remaining quantities in each of the cartridges. Consumption data for each machine is received into SAP’s enhanced SNC module where it is consolidated by outlet and combined with past historical consumption history, future forecasted demand, and any promotional uplift forecasts for the specific time period to calculate a replenishment order. The system also determines and plans shipments to outlets for full micro-dose cartridge case quantities, so in the event a full case cannot be built, the SNC module will forecast future demand and fill the case. The enhanced SNC technology completes the Supply Chain ecosystem for Coca-Cola Freestyle. By dispenser, consumption data by micro-dosed component is automatically received and then utilized to drive automated order replenishment as well as production planning and scheduling of materials and logistics. Beyond Basic Visibility Coca-Cola Refreshments is working to complete a connected supply chain ecosystem for Coca-Cola Freestyle through automated rapid replenishment of the dispensers. By processing the data received each night, the company can calculate and create replenishment orders for any machine that requires it, then automatically process the orders and send them to the distribution center for shipping to the outlets. “This ‘ideal’ Supply Chain ecosystem creates a win for our consumers, our customers and our company...  This system will also help to facilitate the continued roll-out of Coca-Cola Freestyle in the years to come,” concludes Gross. Fast Facts In 2009, the first Coca-Cola Freestyle dispensers were introduced providing more than 100 brands from a single machine. Company at a Glance The Coca-Cola Company markets and sells the drink concentrate to bottlers throughout the world and to Coca-Cola Refreshments. Coca-Cola Refreshments is the largest bottler in the world. In October 2010, The Coca-Cola Company purchased Coca-Cola Enterprises and formed Coca-Cola Refreshments. Breaking Ground Currently, there are more than 9,000 Coca-Cola Freestyle dispensers in use across the United States, with tests being conducted in Canada, Great Britain and Japan. Words of Wisdom “For innovation to succeed it takes vision to challenge an organization to do great things. It takes strong leadership to drive and support the innovation design and development process, and it takes a talented team of individuals that can execute and bring to the innovation to life.” — Richard Gross, Group Director Product Supply Systems Process & Solutions, Coca-Cola Refreshments

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coca cola freestyle case study

  • Corpus ID: 67799892

Whats All the Fizz About? A Teaching Case Study on the Use of Coca-Cola Freestyle Machines in Quick-Service Restaurants

  • Andrew A. Tiger , William H Nance , +1 author B. Emery
  • Published 1 September 2017
  • Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness

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coca cola freestyle case study

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Andrew A. Tiger William H Nance Caitlin Roach B. Emery

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