New Coke and Coke II
The Coca-Cola Company
1985 and 1992
Over one hundred years ago, Dr. John S. Pemberton of Atlanta unknowingly created a moment in history that would forever change the world of soft drinks. With his newly developed syrup, he made his way to soda fountains. With the aid of soda water, and a deeming of "excellent" by those who sampled it, Coca-Cola the drink, though not yet in name, was born. The year was 1886.
Pemberton would pass away in 1888, but not before selling off portions of his business. This included the formula for his soda, which was purchased by Asa G. Candler. Candler improved on the formula, a decision which purportedly made the drink taste better, and then expanded the "franchise" by distributing it to soda fountains beyond Atlanta. With demand for the drink growing rapidly, fountain shop owner, Joseph Biedenharn of Mississippi, installed bottling machinery behind his store. In doing so, he became the first person to put the drink in a bottle.
In 1899, entrepreneurs Benjamin Thomas, Joseph Whitehead and John Lupton, purchased bottling rights from Candler for a mere dollar. They developed what would become the Coca-Cola worldwide bottling system. With knock off versions of the soda taking a piece of the Coca-Cola pie, it was agreed upon that a distinctive bottle was needed to distinguish the drink from all the rest. The official design was approved and manufactured in 1916, and was eventually trademarked in 1977.
In 1919, Candler sold the company to a group of investors led by Ernest Woodruff. As collateral, Woodruff placed the original formula for Coca-Cola in a vault of the bank which loaned the money for the purchase of the company. When the loan was paid off in 1925, the formula was transferred to another bank. It wouldn't be until 2011 that the formula would be transferred to the actual grounds of the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta. It's now on public display.
Like most soft drinks, Coca-Cola was marketed for medicinal purposes, claiming it alleviated headaches and acted as a "brain tonic". Its use of coca leaves, which contained a small amount of cocaine, and caffeine from kola nuts eluded to its medicinal benefits. In 1903, the cocaine portion was removed, leaving just the caffeine as the only stimulant. However, coca leaf extract, with the cocaine removed, remained as part of the formula.
Though it was initially limited to signs, coupons and newspaper advertisements, Coca-Cola eventually reaped the rewards of the age of radio and eventually television. Its adds, in and of themselves, have become as iconic as the drink itself. Its first television commercial broadcast in 1955. The add sold it as an energy lifting drink, great for after a long day of ice skating. It also put the count of drinks sold per day at fifty million.
As the sixties rolled in, Coca-Cola continued its sports themed advertisements. Baseball, golf, swimming, racing and bowling all got worked into the commercials. However, it wouldn't be until the 70's that one of the most memorable commercials would air. The jingle ingrained itself into your head as it starts with a young girl singing, "I'd like to buy the world a Coke..." The camera then pans out to show a multitude of people who all begin to sing the song atop a grassy hillside. The commercial was revisited in 1990 when Coke found every last person who was in that commercial, along with their children, and brought them back to film a remake. The nostalgia of the commercial impacted hard among Americans who remembered the original iconic ad.
However, before 1990, Coke had a little rough patch wedged in there. The year was 1985. The world was changing in the wake of pop culture and new wave, and Coke wanted to show the world it could be just as rad as all those crazy teenagers out there. Thus the concept of New Coke was born.
On April 23, 1985, Coca-Cola released the drink. To really drive home the point that the soda had changed, the company discontinued its "original" formula, removing it from markets. There was only one problem. The public consensus was that New Coke was terrible.Mass hysteria ensued as diehard enthusiasts for the original drink ran to stores across the country to buy out every last bottle and can of the now discontinued soda. Some reportedly spent upwards of one thousand dollars on stockpiling it. That's about $2,300.00 in today's standards (based on an inflation calculator).
Was New Coke really all that bad though? Truthfully, not really. It wasn't as horrible as people want to remember it. In all actuality, it tasted like Pepsi. Still, purists of Coke hated it, and they weren't about to go quietly into the night.
Letters and phone calls bombarded the Coca-Cola Company, most of which weren't for the intentions of singing New Coke's praises. The company realized all too quickly it had made one of the biggest mistakes in marketing history. They took a beloved iconic drink, and essentially threw it away in lieu of trying to show Coke was hip. Some bottlers / distributors outside the USA weren't even interested in the new drink, and refused to bottle it. Whether this was a result of the home front backlash or not is unknown.
By June, Coca-Cola was back peddling on the drink, making a public announcement that the original Coke would be coming back in the newly branded Classic Coke can. Meanwhile, New Coke was quietly shuffled under a rug to be forgotten...For a little while anyway.
Despite the original backlash, the company wasn't ready to throw the towel in on New Coke just yet. Instead, they rebranded it in 1992 as Coke II. It wasn't the overnight train wreck that New Coke had become, but it still wasn't a very popular drink - Let alone one with any longevity behind it. By 1998, Coke II was sparsely available, and then discontinued.Coke would announce in 2002 that the word "Classic" would no longer be prominent in their label, and by 2009, removed the word completely from labels. It seemed the world had finally seen the end of the New Coke / Coke II era for good. Closure, if you will.
While you could call New Coke and Coke II a PR nightmare, and possibly the worst decision ever made by a major corporation, I try to look at it another way. Coca-Cola learned a valuable lesson from their rebranding and new formula. They learned that the original Coca-Cola wasn't just a soft drink to the world. It was something bigger. Something important and dear to the people. When the company brought back the original drink, it not only gained the trust back from loyal patrons who felt shunned, but also brought with it a resurgence in the drink's popularity.
Why?
Because not only did Coca-Cola learn a valuable lesson, but so too did the people who drank it. If you take it for granted, thinking it may be there forever, think again. It may not. Coca-Cola isn't just your average run of the mill soda. It's the soft drink of choice that many American's fought for vocally and won.
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