COMPANY: Coca-Cola
CAN DESIGN: Yeah, it's Tab but in a smaller can. There is nothing new about the design and nothing really to get excited about.
CAN DETAILS: 10.5 FL OZ, 5 Calories
PRICE: 1.99 at Albertsons
WEBSITE: I can see the marketing angle from the site design. Obviously it's aimed at women who want to watch their weight and desire the have-it-all lifestyle (love, physical beauty, career and independence), as is the regular soda drink which has a long history. You can visit the site here, a solidly designed flash interface with music controls where you can pick between 4 tracks and adjust volume and balance. I don't think too many people would spend time listening to the music but the point is to impress the visitor and set the mood for the drink--goal accomplished. It feels like my wife's women magazines, not that I, er, read them (oh hell, occasionally I'll take a peek, I mean damn, the cover photos are similar to Maxim for Christ's sake).
TASTE: It's not Tab soda. That's what I expected; a twist on the original diet flavor. The taste is nothing new to Energy Drink enthusiats. A plant-like dominated flavor. No soda taste whatsoever. This is disappointing because I would think they would build on the original Tab flavor.
AFTERTASTE: Tastes like you bit into a cactus.
SUSTAINED EFFECTS: Nothing noticeable. One of the pitches on the site is that "women need a different kind of energy" which of course is bullshit. Energy is energy. As usual, marketing tries to appeal to this separatist category specifically reserved for the female gender to make them feel special when the same effect could be had by Red Bull or BooKoo Shots. I'm not saying that's wrong, they do the same thing to men. However, if you're foolish enough to believe there's a real difference in the effect between Tab Energy and a Diet Red Bull then I have some female gender water I'd like to sell you.
OVERALL: As a male, the marketing doesn't work on me. It doesn't have any of the fun that Monster Energy has or Full Throttle Fury has. And I guess why should it? Well, there are plenty of women into sports and some are extreme enthusiasts--why not target an energy drink towards them?
I gave my wife a taste test and had her look at the site to get a female reaction. She didn't like the drink and thought the site was cute but she also thought it seemed to make itself out to be more important than it was. I'm guessing Tab Energy would love to have the impact that Dove Beauty had with their "Campaign For Real Beauty" and maybe that's their problem. There's no original angle here to attract new Tab drinkers. My wife was never a Tab Soda Drinker and the New Tab Energy drink may not have any appeal to women in their twenties and early thirties because of that. I'm guessing that loyal Tab Soda drinkers are more in their forties and fifties. Maybe they will respond to the site marketing which has photography that feels like an eighties Cosmopolitan Magazine. But of course the taste is completely different than the soda so you're asking brand loyalists to stick by something that no longer tastes like what they are loyal to. In other words, Tab is asking their loyal customers to be loyal to their can design. I would have at least given Tab Energy a slight soda taste. It doesn't make sense to me to go with an entirely new taste.
WOULD I BUY IT AGAIN? No. Who knows, they may be slipping estrogen into this formula.

GENERAL COMMENTS: I'll be interested to see if this drink lasts on the market. I think it has a lot of problems as far as the thinking about who is actually going to buy this drink twice. There may be enough of a market to make it worthwhile and fill a void, though I still wonder if this will appeal to younger women. Older women may not even have an interest in energy drinks because they're stuck in their ways and the sweet, plant-like taste has to be acquired. Most first-time tasters of energy drinks stick their tongues out and shake their heads at the extra-sweet taste. This is just guesswork on my part. Most likely Tab did extensive testing to see what taste women liked best. BUT there is nothing new about this taste and it's completely different from Tab Soda.
Tab Soda has been overshadowed by most of the other diet drinks anyhow. I'm amazed it has survived. There must be some brand loyalty out there because as I recall Tab Soda actually tastes like a diet drink (awful) whereas most of the new diet drinks taste like regular soda. Tab Energy is going to have to start all over again to build brand loyalty to their taste. I think despite the quality marketing it too will be overshadowed by Red Bull Diet and more diet energy drinks soon to come.