New Coke
From Invertopedia, the encyclopedia of how things fail
New Coke was the sweeter formula The Coca-Cola Company put in place of its original recipe on April 23, 1985, the first change to the drink in 99 years[1]. Nearly 200,000 consumers had favored it in taste tests[1]. The backlash ran to as many as 8,000 calls a day and about 40,000 letters[2], and on July 11, 1985, 79 days after the announcement, the original came back as Coca-Cola Classic[1][2].
Contents
The bet
Coca-Cola's share lead over its main competitor in the US had slipped for 15 years in a row[1]. In blind taste tests, a sweeter formula beat both Pepsi and the original Coke[2][3]. The company believed that if it gave people the taste they said they preferred, they would keep buying Coke and the slide would stop.
So it did not add the new drink next to the old one. It replaced the old one, and the classic recipe was locked away in an Atlanta bank vault[3].
What happened
| 1982 | Coca-Cola launches Diet Coke. The work behind it leads to the taste tests in which a sweeter formula beats Pepsi and the original Coke.[3] |
|---|---|
| By 1985 | Coke's share lead over its main US competitor has slipped for 15 straight years.[1] |
| Apr 23, 1985 | At Lincoln Center in New York, Coca-Cola announces the new formula, its first change in 99 years.[1][3] |
| May – Jun 1985 | Within weeks the company is getting 5,000 angry calls a day, and 8,000 by June, when extra operators are hired. Coca-Cola's own hotline goes from about 400 calls a day before the change to 1,500.[1][3] |
| Spring 1985 | Protest groups form, including the Society for the Preservation of the Real Thing and Old Cola Drinkers of America, which claims 100,000 recruits.[1][4] |
| Jul 10, 1985 | ABC's Peter Jennings interrupts General Hospital to report that Coca-Cola will bring back the original.[5] |
| Jul 11, 1985 | At a press conference, Coca-Cola admits the mistake and brings back the original formula as Coca-Cola Classic, 79 days after the launch.[1][2][6] |
| Jul 1985 | In the two days after the announcement, the hotline takes 31,600 calls.[1] |
| 1990 | The new formula is renamed Coke II.[3] |
| 2002 | Coke II is dropped.[3] |
The kill shot
The research measured what people liked in a sip. It never measured what they felt about the drink, and the company changed the thing they felt something for.
The taste tests were not wrong about taste. People did prefer the sweeter formula in blind tests[2][3]. But they were not buying a flavor, they were buying a drink they had grown up with, and the tests could not see that. Company president Donald Keough said afterward there had been no way to gauge the "deep and abiding emotional attachment to original Coca-Cola felt by so many people."[5]
Taking the original off the market turned a product change into a loss. Fans hoarded it: a man in San Antonio bought $1,000 worth from a local bottler, and some people kept up to 900 bottles in their basements[1][4].
Red flags ignored
- Blind tests on a brand people buy with their eyes open. The tests stripped away the name, the can and the memories, which were most of what people were paying for.
- Replace, not add. The old formula was pulled and locked in a vault, so fans had no way to keep buying it.[3]
- A sip is not a habit. A sweeter drink can win one taste and still lose a whole can, or a whole year.
- Chasing the rival's number. The change came after 15 years of a shrinking share lead[1], which made the competitor the target instead of the customer.
The cost
Nearly 200,000 taste tests went into the decision[1]. In return the company got as many as 8,000 calls a day and about 40,000 complaint letters[2], organized protest groups[1][4], and a public reversal 79 days after launch[1][2]. Sources do not give a dollar figure for the loss.
The inversion
Find out what people are really buying before you change it. Test the change on people who know what they are getting, and never take away the old thing until the new one has won without it.
What survived
The original. Coca-Cola Classic quickly outsold New Coke and within a few months was again the top-selling sugar cola, ahead of Pepsi[3]. A Coca-Cola spokesperson later said the episode taught the company that "fiercely loyal consumers -- not the Company -- own Coca-Cola and all of our brands."[6]
At the tenth anniversary in 1995, Goizueta said, "We set out to change the dynamics of sugar colas in the United States, and we did exactly that -- albeit not in the way we had planned."[1][2] The new formula lived on as Coke II until 2002, with a small New Coke re-release in 2019[3].
References
- ^ “New Coke: The Most Memorable Marketing Blunder Ever?”. The Coca-Cola Company. The company's account: April 23, 1985 announcement, first change in 99 years, 15 years of a slipping share lead, nearly 200,000 taste testers, hotline calls (400 to 1,500 a day, 31,600 in two days), hoarding, Old Cola Drinkers of America, July 11 return, 79 days, Coke II, Goizueta's 1995 quote.
- ^ “New Coke debuts, one of the biggest product flops in history”. History.com, This Day in History (April 23, 1985). Goizueta as CEO, blind-test preference, up to 8,000 calls a day, about 40,000 letters, the July 11 return as Coca-Cola Classic after 79 days.
- ^ “Why Coca-Cola's 'New Coke' Flopped”. History.com (Christopher Klein), April 23, 2015, updated 2026. Diet Coke and the taste tests, Lincoln Center launch, the vault, 5,000 then 8,000 calls a day, Classic back on top within months, Coke II in 1990, dropped in 2002, the 2019 re-release.
- ^ “Coca-Cola History: History of New Coke”. ABC7 San Francisco (Brock Koller), April 23, 2020. Nearly 200,000 taste testers per the company, the San Antonio $1,000 purchase, the protest groups.
- ^ “What We Can Learn From Coca-Cola's Biggest Blunder”. Time (James C. Cobb), July 10, 2015. Keough's "deep and abiding emotional attachment" quote; Peter Jennings interrupting General Hospital on July 10, 1985.
- ^ “30 years ago today, Coca-Cola made its worst mistake”. CBS News (Rachid Haoues), April 23, 2015. The July 11, 1985 press conference admitting the mistake; the company spokesperson's "fiercely loyal consumers" line.