New Coke

From TheBestLinks.com

In 1985, The Coca-Cola Company changed the formula and taste of its flagship product, Coca-Cola, a universally successful drink whose name was almost synonymous with soft drinks. The new drink was called New Coke. The New Coke formula consisted of the Diet Coke formula with real sugar instead of aspartame.

New Coke was introduced on April 23, 1985, with the slogan "The Best Just Got Better", and production of the original formulation ended that same week.

Coke's over-all market share had been shrinking for decades, from 60% just after World War II to under 24% in 1983.

To preserve secrecy during pre-marketing taste tests, Coca-Cola marketers never asked the focus groups, "How about if this product replaced Coke?"

The product was launched after Coca-Cola's own product testers determined that many people preferred the sweeter taste of Pepsi.

"The Best Just Got Better..! Coke is it!"

New Coke advertisement

At a July 11, 1985 press conference, two Coca-Cola executives announced the return of the original formula. "We have heard you," said Roberto Goizueta, then Chairman of Coca-Cola.

Donald Keough, President and Chief Operating Officer, said:

There is a twist to this story which will please every humanist and will probably keep Harvard professors puzzled for years. The simple fact is that all the time and money and skill poured into consumer research on the new Coca-Cola could not measure or reveal the deep and abiding emotional attachment to original Coca-Cola felt by so many people.

At first it was a marketing and public relations debacle. The public was unhappy with the new taste, and even more unhappy that they were no longer able to obtain the original product, and so the company had to backtrack and return to the older formula. However, when they went back to the original formula -- now renamed Classic Coke/Coca Cola Classic -- demand for the classic taste grew to a greater extent than before New Coke, propelling Coca-Cola to continue its market lead over rival Pepsi. Some people believe this was the deliberate purpose of introducing New Coke. Others believe New Coke was a distraction to keep Americans from noticing the switch between cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup, even though Coca-Cola contained corn syrup before New Coke was introduced. Another widely held belief is that the natural flavorings used in the beverage include actual extracts from the coca plant, from which it is also possible to extract cocaine. If Coca-Cola still contains genuine de-cocanized coca extract, then the truth behind the New Coke debacle may be that the Coca-Cola company attempted to placate the Drug Enforcement Administration which had been a source of pressure to eliminate any and all use of the extract -- which would put the DEA closer to pursuing an agenda of eradicating the coca bean plant to extinction. Discerning customers however, were not fooled by whatever went into the new batch of "natural and artificial" ingredients, and so that when the old recipe was re-instated the New Coke continued to be sold but fell to only 3% of the total market. It was test marketed under the name Coke II in 1990 and finally renamed Coke II in 1992.

New Coke was only sold in North America -- the original formula continued to be sold in the rest of the world, although had the new version been a success it would presumably have been introduced worldwide.