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Welcome to the 68th issue of Write On!
The newsletter that doesn’t really drink soda.
In today’s issue I’ll be covering:
Learn AI in 5 Minutes a Day
Coke vs. Pepsi
Write your first story email that sells
Estimated read time: 2 minutes 35 seconds
Learn AI in 5 Minutes a Day
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Coke vs. Pepsi
Imagine this...
You just surveyed 200,000 customers about your new product.
The results are unanimous. Customers want the new product.
What do you do?
If you answered, "launch the new product..."
Congrats! You're wrong.
Here’s the story of Coca-Cola’s biggest marketing mistake:
April 23, 1985:
Coca-Cola introduced a change of their famously secret formula for the first time in 99 years.
They called it "New Coke."
Why the change after 99 years?
In the 15 years prior, Pepsi had slowly been gaining market share on industry leader, Coca-Cola.
Consumer preference and awareness of Coke were dropping.
The cola category, in general, was sluggish.
Meanwhile, the Pepsi Challenge was getting all of the hype.
Blind taste testers were choosing Pepsi over Coke!
That forced Coca-Cola to go to the drawing board...
They ran focus groups and taste tests of nearly 200,000 people for the New Coke formula.
It received very high marks. Many claimed it was better than the original!
Back to 1985:
Coca-Cola's CEO stands before the press and introduces New Coke with confidence:
"smoother, rounder, yet bolder—a more harmonious flavor."
In reality, it was just sweeter and more like Pepsi...
The backlash was instantaneous.
Coca-Cola share prices went down. Pepsi's went up.
Pepsi gave its employees the day off and declared victory in full-page newspaper ads:
"After 87 years of going at it eyeball to eyeball, the other guy just blinked."
Coke lovers were in disbelief.
It is estimated that Coca-Cola started receiving as many as 8,000 angry phone calls per day regarding the switch to New Coke.
On a normal day, they would only get 400 calls per day.
That's 20x!
How did it come to this?
We already know the data from the New Coke taste tests were great.
But, what Coca-Cola didn't account for was the importance of Coke in American culture...
People wanted to drink the same Coke that Marilyn Monroe had.
The same Coke "Mean" Joe Greene received in the famous 1980 Super Bowl Ad.
In short, it really mattered to people.
Coca-Cola hired a psychologist to listen in on complaint calls.
It was reported that some callers were so distraught that it sounded as if they were discussing the death of a family member.
Given the severe pushback, Coca-Cola returned to its original formula 79 days after the New Coke release...
This time calling it "Coca-Cola Classic"
New Coke and Coke Classic were sold alongside each other with different branding and messaging for each.
New Coke was later renamed Coke II and then discontinued in 2002.
Today, on average, over 10,000 soft drinks from Coca-Cola are consumed every second of every day globally.
Safe to say, Coca-Cola re-established the love and attachment to its iconic brand.
But what have we learned from one of the biggest marketing blunders of all time?
Three lessons stand out:
Don’t get distracted by shiny objects.
Watch what your customers do. Not what they say.
A passionate audience matters more than a great product.
💥 How to take action: Your business probably has 2-3 value props that work better than the rest. Spend less time trying to come up with new ideas, and more time doubling down on what’s already working.
If you put too much emphasis on testing new messaging, your customers might just end up confused.
That’s all for this week! See you next Wednesday.
Cheers,
P.S. Let’s settle the debate once and for all…
Who ya choosing? |
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