The Cola Wars

Why would a multi-billion dollar company change an item that has made them successful for over 100 years? This was the case regarding Coca-Cola back in 1985. Coca-Cola decided that after 100 years of unfathomable success, it was time for a change the recipe of Coca-Cola. Basing this “New Coke” on the tastes of Diet Coke, Coke thought that this new taste would be a great hit with people. However, only after a few months on the shelves, New Coke was taken off the shelves due to the overwhelming public outrage. The public hated New Coke for the mere factor that their favorite soft drink had been suddenly substituted for a new Cola. So why would Coke have even done this in the first place? The factors of competition, blind taste tests, and Diet-Coke’s

Up until that time, Pepsi had steadily gained ground on Coke’s market advantage. Coke had been seen as somewhat mello. Some even referred to Coke as a “Grandma Drink.” Pepsi used this public viewpoint to their advantage, marketing Pepsi as “The Choice of a New Generation.” This led to a highly competitive marketing and advertising fight in the 1980’s, known as “The Cola Wars.” Coke had to get this notion of uneventfulness out of people’s heads, and take back their lost territory in the market. So what does any company do when a formula for success does not work well anymore? They make a

With Pepsi’s climbing of the market, they held a blind taste against Coke and Pepsi. Because Pepsi contained more sugar which meant a sweeter taste, people naturally chose Pepsi over Coke. Pepsi started showing these results in commercials, resulting in even more loss in Coke’s market share. In response to this, Coke held their own blind taste tests, only these test were up against the classic Coca-cola, Pepsi, and a new version of Coca-Cola they had secretly been working on. The results were surprising, as this new Coke was regarded better than both the old Coca-Cola and Pepsi. So with this surprising information Coke thought that surely that this new Coke would be well received and even liked better than the original. To Coke’s astonishment though, the public thought the exact opposite to this