Pepsi took the opportunity to profit from Coke’s mishap. He told executives that some callers were so distraught it sounded as if they were discussing the death of a family member. Coke even hired a psychologist to listen in on complaint calls (about 1,500 per day) the company was receiving. The impact was deep.Ī contingent of people were so furious that they called Coca Cola’s Atlanta HQ en masse. People wanted to drink the same Coke that their grandparents gave them on their birthday, the same Coke that Marilyn Monroe famously touted, and the same Coke Mean Joe Green received in that notorious 1980 Super Bowl Ad.Īvowed communist Fidel Castro even joined in on the roast of New Coke, calling the release emblematic of American capitalist decadence.

Even though focus groups said that New Coke had a better taste, people just didn’t drink the stuff because of the place of regular Coca-Cola in American culture. But most people didn’t actually hate the flavor! In fact, focus groups gave New Coke very high marks, with many claiming it tasted better than the original flavor!īut as Coke learned the hard way, it turns out that people don’t always like products for the reason that we as marketers think they do. The result, New Coke, became the stuff of marketing failure lore when it turned out that people absolutely hated the release. In 1985, Coke decided to test out a new formula. You have to stay ahead of the competition or they will catch up to you and beat you.

“Innovate or die” is a big phrase in Silicon Valley.

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