For more than a century people around the world have been enjoying the cool refreshing taste of Coca-Cola, and helping put their dentists’ kids through college while they did it. Sure, most carbonated soft drinks such as Coca-Cola contain lots of sugar and are bad for your teeth, but not all of them have the same name brand recognition of Coke which is turning 125 years old this year.
Coca-Cola and its unique red and white label is one of the most recognizable brands in the world. The uniquely Coke cans show up in stores around the world. It is now possible to buy a Coca-Cola in just about every single country in the world. Sure, the label may be written in a language other than English, but the product inside tastes exactly the same because the formula does not change from place to place. What makes a Coke a Coke in the United States is the same thing that makes a Coke popular in Africa, South America, Europe, Asia and all points in between.
In the early 1980s Coca-Cola experimented with the recipe, causing a near public panic. They decided to update the recipe for what they considered to be the evolving palates of the general consumer. So, the introduced New Coke and began clearing the old-style product from store shelves. People began hoarding their supply of the traditional product, fighting over it, doing whatever was necessary in some cases to hold on to every drop of the original product they could find.
Sure, some folks reportedly liked the flavor of New Coke better, but these folks were few and far between. For the most part people expressed their desire to do anything to avoid drinking the new product. Coke consumers started turning away from the brand, feeling betrayed by the decision to arbitrarily replace their beloved product with another simply because it seemed like a good marketing idea.
It was actually the idea of Coca-Cola CEO Roberto Goizueta who took the reins of the company in 1980. By 1985 he had begun replacing the original formula of Coca-Cola, and forcing the New formula on the unsuspecting public. There was immediate and heartfelt backlash. In fact, the opposition to the New Coke formula was so strong it is to this day considered one of the greatest marketing fiascoes ever committed by a major brand.
Pepsi began running advertisements proclaiming it had won the cola war! And saw its highest month over month sales increase ever omore than 14 percent. Sales of New Coke flattened out in the summer months when sales normally surged, and just three short months after the introduction of the New formula, Coke Classic was re-released to a public that was eager to buy it. In fact, the re-introduction of Coca-Cola Classic outsold both New Coke and Pepsi by a wide margin.
It has been more than a century since the first Coke splashed into a glass at soda fountains in the southern United States, but consumers are seemingly not bored with the product. In fact, Coca-Cola sales have remained strong through the recent Recession and they still command a majority of the soft drink market, though they now offer a wide range of soft drink products.
With the New Coke fiasco behind them, Coca-Cola has made strides to re-connect with consumers and seemingly put all thoughts of changing the traditional formula out of their heads for ever. Or, at least for now.
Sheeja Watson is a writer for a Virtual Assistant company based out of Atlanta. She’s been working with Virtual Assistants for the past 5 years and is considered an industry specialist. To speak with Sheeja or to find out more, visit her website.
