Most of you reading this have probably tasted Coke before. At least I hope you have. Obviously, Coke has a very distinct flavor and while similar to its competitor, Pepsi, any Coke lover can tell you the difference between the two. On April 23, 1985, Coca-Cola decided to take the risk and change the formula of the world's most popular soft drink.
You might be thinking why? How could they ever? Well, Coke at the time was number one and had been number one for quite some time. But their competitor, Pepsi was gaining popularity into Coke's market share.Basically what happened was the Pepsi Challenge, Pepsi filmed taste tests between Pepsi and Coke and turn out, people almost always preferred Pepsi over Coke. This marketing technique proved very successful and eventually, Pepsi became number one at the grocery store. So, Coke decided to change its formula and it called itself "New Coke". Only 13 percent of consumers actually liked the new formula. Apparently, there were some serious Coke fans out there who were not just disappointed in Coke's new formula. Instead, they were outright furious and sent petitions to the company in an attempt to get the original Coke formula back. Not only that, but people were so desperate for Coke, they went to grocery stores and bought a bunch of it to store in their garage because they loved the taste of Coke so much.
In general, New Coke was a fail and it was not long after that the company introduced "Coke Classic". But, thankfully by the end of the year, Coke Classic outsold both Pepsi and New Coke. The disaster of Coca-Cola and their lame attempts to outsell Pepsi are known as a cautionary tale regarding marketing. An established company should never change so dramatically.
Cite:
http://www.pepsi.com/PepsiLegacy_Book.pdf
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/30-years-ago-today-coca-cola-new-coke-failure/
Claire — very interesting post on something we frequently associate with American culture! I found it interesting that Coca-Cola decided change their formula to make it taste more like Pepsi, even though Pepsi was their competitor. Apparently, it was their first formula change in 99 years. I think that their willingness to change their brand and to change their product after so many years of popularity showed that they were ready to do whatever was necessary stay on top. I wonder why Coke Classic eventually outsold Pepsi, as "people almost always preferred Pepsi over Coke." Either way, I'm glad that Coke stayed with it's original formula, and I'm sure their fans are too.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/coke-lore-new-coke
I had no idea that Coke had gone through a rough time. I now understand where the whole Pepsi vs Coke rivalry comes from-I always thought that Coca Cola was the favored drink. I wonder what the New Coke formula tasted like. Another interesting fact about Coca Cola is that in 1985 it became the first soft drink to go to space. http://www.businessinsider.com/facts-about-coca-cola-2015-9#coke-says-the-perfect-temperature-to-serve-its-drink-is-from-34-to-38-degrees-fahrenheit-15
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that the Coke company would do something as risky and drastic as completely changing their only product. Without reading this article, I would have been incredulous had someone told me that there were technically two flavors of coke. However, it seems that the thing that saved coke in the end was the CEO's willingness to admit their mistake and revert back to the original flavor. I read in an article that people generally actually still prefer coke over pepsi; partly because of the iconic branding, and partly because the flavor is just better. However, when people are subjected to taste tests in small servings, people generally rate sweeter tasting drinks higher. Because pepsi taste more sugary than coke, the people participating in these taste test often chose pepsi. However, these taste tests in the end weren't able to help Pepsi over take Coke, and Coke still retains a large competitive edge over Pepsi.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.slate.com/articles/business/rivalries/2013/08/pepsi_paradox_why_people_prefer_coke_even_though_pepsi_wins_in_taste_tests.html
This is a very interesting post about something most people would not have thought about. Coca-Cola being an extremely successful company with a very widely known fact that their formula is secret, makes you wonder why they ever changed it. If they felt like they were losing their customers to Pepsi, becoming their competitor is just an extremely desperate move. Coca-Cola has retained the #3 spot on Interbrand's annual Best Global Brands ranking for the fourth consecutive year, with an estimated value of $73.1 billion. They are an extremely successful and widely recognized company, which leads you to think about how desperate their situation was, how many customers they lost, and what other strategies if any they used before resorting to changing their formula.
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