the race for volume in the drinks industry is drawing to a close, with smaller packaging options coming to the fore, particularly in beer and soft drinks. tom vierhile from datamonitor investigates.bigger is usually better. until it isn&rsquot. just ask exnew york city mayor michael bloomberg.while bloomberg&rsquos effort to curb beverage serving size inflation and fight obesity by banning large size soft drinks in new york city fell flat, portion sizes are beginning to shrink on their own as soft drink and beer makers warm up to mini and slim cans and bottles.this embracing of downsized packaging like 7.5oz minicans marks a sea change in a soft drink market that has always equated success with volume growth. but, larger package sizes aren&rsquot the profit generators they used to be. cocacola itself made that point in a presentation to the analyst community late last year, saying its traditional 2litre and 12oz packages were &ldquomassively promoted&rdquo and locked into the &ldquoalmost commodityoriented part&rdquo of the soft drink market.reduced size packaging may be a way out of this commodity price trap.indeed, cocacola north america president sandy douglas pointed out in november that more focus on lifting &ldquoprice per occasion&rdquo and less on simply growing volume could unlock future revenue growth. douglas put the &ldquoprice per occasion&rdquo of a 12oz can of cocacola at us0.31, a figure representing the average price of the serving size at retail through the majority of 2014. that was well under the 0.40 &ldquoprice per occasion&rdquo for the company&rsquos 7.5oz mini can over the same period. converted to priceperounce, the minican trounced cocacola&rsquos regular size can, delivering 0.053 per ounce versus around 0.025 per ounce for the 12oz can.that said, not even the most optimistic marketer is likely to believe that mini packaging can replace traditional size soft drink packaging. but, mini drink packaging may be able to preserve and even grow consumer usage occasions while keeping consumer guilt in check.this balancing act reflects the choices consumers would prefer to make when managing body weight and have relevance across the entire soft drink spectrum, including fruit juices and drinks.consumers would much rather cut down on serving sizes to lose or maintain weight than utilise any other type of weight management approach, like tracking calories or increasing physical activity. according to the international food information council foundation&rsquos 2014 food & health survey, 81 of us consumers were either &ldquosomewhat likely&rdquo or &ldquovery likely&rdquo to eat smaller portions to manage weight compared to 60 that expressed support for substituting lower calorie foods for full calorie alternatives.celebrating the &ldquolittle things in life that make us happy&rdquo without being guilty about the consequences strikes an emotional chord with consumers, and was the theme of a clever advertising campaign for mini cocacola undertaken by ogilvy & mather berlin. last year, the ad agency placed mini kiosks complete with diminutive cocacola vending machines in five german cities. the machines vended minicans of coke while the manned kiosks celebrated everything small by selling miniature versions of other products. about waist high in height, the kiosks were a resounding success, selling an average of 380 mini cans of coke a day nearly triple the turnover of a typical coke vending machine.more recently, cocacola pushed this &ldquosmall treat&rdquo positioning by enlisting fitness and nutrition experts to blog and write about how a minican of coke represents a &ldquosensible snack.&rdquo timed to coincide with american heart month as designated by the american heart association last month, the tactic backfired on the company, when it became clear that many posts were &ldquosponsored content&rdquo and not spontaneous expressions of support from the fitness and nutrition world.controversy aside, alcohol beverage makers are also looking at reducedsize packaging to invigorate sales. a year ago, heineken usa rolled out 8.5oz slim can packs for its flagship beer, citing tripledigit sales growth in this package size in prior years. the effort seems to have paid off, because heineken recently announced a doubling of its investment in the &ldquoslim can&rdquo segment in 2015 through increased advertising, pointofsale displays and the launch of a 24pack of the slim cans. heineken also cited the new can&rsquos strong appeal with ethnic consumers including hispanics and africanamericans, suggesting another benefit of mini packaging the mini can is a pointofentry for new consumers that aspire to luxury brands.heineken&rsquos apparent success with minican packaging may also have to do with addressing a major negative issue with existing beer packaging, one that goes beyond calorie control. warm beer is bad beer, and beer packed in a slim can is less likely than beer in a &39regular&39 size can to warm up before it is consumed. this enhances the consumption experience while minimising product waste &ndash a winwin for heineken and consumers alike. heineken has made this benefit a major component of its slim can marketing, noting that beer stays &ldquocold till the last drop&rdquo in the packaging format.other alcoholic beverage brands are &ldquogetting small&rdquo and experimenting with variations of the &ldquomini&rdquo theme. in the us, millercoors has offered 10oz cans of its &ldquolimited edition&rdquo coors light summer brew citrus radler, which is described as &ldquoa refreshing blend of coors light and refreshing lemon flavors.&rdquobrooklyn, ny&rsquos sixpoint brewery recently added 12oz &ldquosleek&rdquo cans of bengali beer a departure from its existing 16oz cans. in france, kronenbourg launched 1664 "minicanettes" of beer each 25cl &ndash roughly 8.45oz per can. carlsberg uk is even extending the package format to alcoholfree beer, launching san miguel 0.0 limon in a slimline can in the uk.smaller size packaging may work especially well for beer and other packaged alcoholic beverages as a way to manage alcohol consumption. nearly onethird of alcohol beverage consumers globally 31 said that they paid a &ldquovery high amount of attention&rdquo to ensuring they do not drink too much alcohol in general, according to a 2013 datamonitor consumer global survey.smaller size packs may be a great way to achieve this goal without avoiding alcoholic beverages entirely. 
