Tab

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**Tab** (stylized as **TaB**). The soda that persevered in poor sales. The pop culture icon of its time. The dead horse that kept getting beat. It was a diet cola made by the Coca-Cola Company in 1963 after the success of Royal Crown’s Diet Rite. It was very popular in the 1960s and 1970s, until the introduction of Diet Coke in 1982.

From there, after 1982, TaB saw dwindling sales. By 2019, only a few million cases of TaB were made per year (as opposed to nearly a billion cases of Diet Coke being made a year), and TaB merely amounted to 1% of Coca-Cola Company sales alone. It was discontinued due to poor sales and the Coca-Cola Company discontinuing underperforming brands as a response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

## Description

TaB was a diet cola, similar to Diet Coke. It was flavored with the artificial sweetener saccharin, and a small amount of Nutrasweet.

### First reformulation

Prior to 1969, tab was formulated with Saccharin and Cyclamate (cyclamate nullified the metallic taste of saccharin.) However, in 1969, TaB had to be reformulated to use just Saccharin instead of Saccharin and Cyclamate (due to studies linking bladder cancer to cyclamate.)

### They did it again

A formula revision in 1984 blended saccharin with a small amount of nutrasweet. This is speculated as the reason why the brand was discontinued in Australia halfway through that same year.

## History

### Humble beginnings

During the mid 20th century, Americans became more weight conscious. This resulted in various soda brands releasing diet sodas or diet versions of their popular brands. One of the leading brands of sodas at the time was Royal Crown’s diet soda, Diet Rite, being one of the best selling sodas in America by 1963.

As a result of the success of Diet Rite, the Coca-Cola Company decided to make their own diet cola, under the project name “Project Alpha”.

Coca-Cola's marketing research department used its IBM 1401 computer to generate a list of over 185,000 four-letter words with one vowel, adding names suggested by the company's own staff; the list was stripped of any words deemed unpronounceable or too similar to existing trademarks. From a final list of about twenty names, "Tabb" was chosen, influenced by the possible play on words, and shortened to "Tab" during development, and designer Sid Dickens gave the name the capitalisation pattern ("TaB") used in the logo.

### The rise and golden age of TaB

TaB was introduced as a diet drink in 1963. Despite performing below expectations, it was nevertheless successful, becoming popular in the 1960s to 1970s, and even became a pop culture icon of its time.

In the 1970s, at the height of its popularity, it saw seven variants:

* Root Beer
* Lemon-Lime
* Ginger Ale
* Black Cherry
* Strawberry
* Orange
* Tab Plus

### The fall of TaB

The golden age of TaB was cut short by the introduction of Diet Coke.

Diet Coke was introduced in 1982. It was a giant success, becoming more successful than TaB has ever been. Despite this, TaB still sold well in 1982. However, shortly after 1982, TaB would struggle to keep up with Diet Coke, and it would see dwindling sales during the 1980s onward.

Despite the unpopularity of TaB by the 1990s and 2000s, it was still produced by the Coca-Cola Company Despite being a struggling brand at this point. The Coca-Cola Company kept releasing variations of TaB, such as Tab clear in 1992, and TaB energy in 2006.

In the 2010s, despite poor sales, the Coca-Cola Company still made a mere 3 million boxes of Tab per year in certain areas due to those nostalgic customers.

### They finally stopped beating the dead horse

by 2019, with it only making up 1% of Coca-Cola Company sales alone by that year, it seemed certain that the Coca-Cola Company would pull the plug on it This finally happened in late 2020, when the Coca-Cola Company announced that it would be pulling the plug on TaB and other underperforming brands.

## Legacy

TaB was highly influential in the tale of Coca-Cola; Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar would not exist without TaB, as TaB proved that a diet soda could work in the Coca-Cola brand.

## References

* https://www.fastcompany.com/90580210/a-brief-history-of-tab-the-iconic-diet-soda-thats-headed-to-the-graveyard
* https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab\_(drink)
* https://us.coca-cola.com/tab