New Coke: The Beverage That Asked "What if Failure Had Bubbles?" - The 80's #4
The Day Marketing Took a Dump In 1985, Coca-Cola was wildly successful. The company made tons of money each quarter and their product was beloved by millions around the globe. And some executive looked at the numbers and said, "Yeah, but we oughta go full-on bat doo-doo crazy and hit the panic button anyway." Probably because he only had one yacht and drove a Ferrari instead of a Lambo. Thus, New Coke was born. Unleashed on an unsuspecting world by a boardroom full of suits who weren't happy just being bajillionaires. They'd clearly been drinking their own Coke Kool-Aid for far too long. Several things went cattywampus in this comedy of errors. First off, soda is soda, not a corporate chemistry experiment. However, somebody shared a power point... This led to charts and graphs with no solid informational proof being drawn up and nodded at because it had pretty colours. And finally, some dude named Gary said, "Consumers crave change," and nobody had the ...