Coke Zero

Could someone please explain Coke Zero to me? I just don’t get it. The Coca-Cola company has a full flavored cola: Coca-Cola. For those who want to experience a watered down fake cola product with zero calories they have Diet Coke. Well, and now Coke Zero.

So what is the purpose of Coke Zero? What corner of the soft drink market are they trying to secure? It seems to me they’re just shooting themselves in the foot. The most likely drinkers of Coke Zero are either going to be Coca-Cola drinkers who want less calories but don’t like Diet Coke or Diet Coke drinkers who just want to switch to the new zero calorie Coke. So why go through all of the expense of creating a new product just to get your current customers to switch?

Pepsi’s doing it too with Pepsi Max so there must be a market out there somewhere. What am I missing?