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New Coke proved a serious fizzle in 1985

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11 Jan 2022
5 min read
Question: this updated (super sweet) soda proved a fizzle in 1985...

With a declining grip on the sift drink market, beverage titan Coca-Cola rolled out what company exes thought was a pretty “sweet” rally idea in 1985 . . . only to learn that its massive consumer base was reluctant to flavor change.

Known as “New Coke,” the company’s reworked recipe of its internationally-renowned soft drink was the first change to the beverage in its 99 year history, and was born from a continual slip in market share 15-years in the making.  

At its April of ’85 unveil, company chairman and CEO Roberto Goizueta told a New York press gathering that the fresh formula was, “smoother, rounder, yet bolder—a more harmonious flavor.”

A result of nearly 200,000 blind taste tests with customers in the United States and Canada -- in which consumers preferred the New Coke’s sweeter version over both the classic Coca-Cola and the rival Pepsi soft drink – the resulting cry of foul from an insulted soda public made more bubbles than any freshly-opened can ever could.

According to reports, within two months of the New Coke release, the company was fielding around 8,000 angry calls per day to the 800-GET-COKE customer service line; and, as offered by Time.com, the calls came in concert with 40,000 angry customer letters.  

By July of that summer, Coke executives saw the soda on the wall and brought the classic recipe back on the market.  New Coke (later renamed “Coke II”) remained on the market despite its plight, before being discontinued in 2002.  In the interim, to distinguish between new and old, the original recipe was labeled as “Coca-Cola Classic” until 2009.

According to the Coca-Cola website, in revisiting the “New Coke” move a decade later, Goizueta would tell employees gathered at a special company event:

"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. But the most significant result of 'New Coke' by far," Mr. Goizueta said, "was that it sent an incredibly powerful signal ... a signal that we really were ready to do whatever was necessary to build value for the owners of our business."

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