[quote="Flack"]Yes. The changing of Coke's formula to make it sweeter is exactly like snipers shooting cops from rooftops.[/quote]
No, you have it backwards, it wasn't the company that reacted, it was the huge, [i]extremely negative[/i] reaction from the [i]general public towards the company[/i] that was the equivalent of snipers shooting cops from rooftops. Companies change products or product formulas all the time, most people don't care. But this turned into a firestorm of protest. People were [i]suing them[/i] for Chrissakes! They lack standing to sue, but you still have to take time and expensive lawyers to defend against the cases.

I remember "The Old Cola Drinkers of America," a protest group that used the best technology for making widespread distribution before the World Wide Web existed. They had a 900 number where for 75c you got to hear their protest song, done in the style of a Country and Western ballad where a guy's farm goes under, his wife dies and his dog runs away (or maybe it was in the style of where the guy's wife leaves him and the dog dies, I'm not sure). I remember part of it.

[quote="Old Cola Drinkers of America"]I go into a restaurant and order
I want a nice, ice-cold Coke
But the waitress says "Pepsi alright, Mister?"
And I turn to leave
Each time these words are spoke.
Cause a Pepsi ain't a Coca-Cola honey,
And an RC almost makes me want to choke.

So why did you have to go and change the taste of Coke?
Why'd you wanna go and fix it? It ain't broke![/quote]

That guy whose podcast is referenced above and the BBC report [i]both[/i] mentioned how ABC news [i]broke into its regularly scheduled programming[/i] to announce that Coca-Cola was bringing back the old formula!

Yes. The changing of Coke's formula to make it sweeter is exactly like snipers shooting cops from rooftops.

[quote="AArdvark"]Wasn't the return to old coke the beginning of the avalanche of 'classic' product marketing. The same stuff, for more money, but now it's called classic.[/quote]

What do you mean, 'for more money'? The prices for Coke vs. Pepsi, which hasn't been changed, are basically the same, and I don't remember any serious price increases.

And the news reports I've seen make it clear, the 'New Coke' incident was a fuckup by the Coca-Cola company, it was [u]not[/u] a marketing ploy. The BBC report mentions this. The backlash was huge, and unprecedented. Since the Coca-Cola company had already called the new product 'Coke' they had to call the old product something else, so they decided to call it 'Coke Classic' in order that people would know the difference, buy what they wanted, (and quit bitching about it).

Consider the 'Occupy Wall Street' protests, and the NYC police decide to break them up, and snipers from nearby buildings start killing cops - and only cops - with high-powered rifles until the police go away. The police would be rather surprised at the level of opposition. That, more-or-less was what happened to the company.

Wasn't the return to old coke the beginning of the avalanche of 'classic' product marketing. The same stuff, for more money, but now it's called classic.



THE
CLASSIC
AARDVARK

Last year, the Retroist did a podcast dedicated to New Coke. It's a great show, and I highly recommend listening to it.

http://www.retroist.com/2010/02/12/retroist-podcast-episode-045-new-coke/

More than 25 years ago, Coca-Cola decided to cave in to what it thought was consumer demand for a different taste in its flagship product, after having steady declines to its major competitor, Pepsi, over the prior 20 years or so. It changed the flavor of the world's most well-known product, and ended up with a disaster on its hands.

This [i]BBC World Series[/i] audio program [i]Witness[/i] takes a look back at the 1988 fiasco that gave the Coca-Cola Company one of the worst Public Relations disasters in the history of marketing. The program runs 10 minutes and is worth listening.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00kncgj