Coca-Cola brings back the "new coke" 34 years after its first failure

It's the most famous soft drink brand on the planet – but in the 80s, Coca-Cola made a catastrophic decision that almost destroyed everything.

In 1985, Madonna's Like a Virgin dominated the airwaves. Back to the Future was the biggest hit at the box office. And Coke released a new product so disastrous that it almost ruined the whole society.

Considered to be one of the biggest marketing gaffes of all time, the brand, aged 99, decided to change for the first time the formula of its iconic drink.

The reaction against New Coke was as brutal as brutal, with indignant fans lashing out at the unprecedented decision.

Popular campaigns to bring back old Coca-Cola broke out across the United States, collecting signatures, creating anti-New Coca-Cola products and opening hotlines to get things done.

In short, it was a public relations nightmare, and the outcry was so intense that the missing beverage had been abandoned just 79 days after its launch, and it remained to this day a cautionary tale for other brands, even at home. foreground in Sweden – named museum of failure.

But in May of this year, New Coke made the headlines again 34 years after the initial disaster, after the company revealed that it would bring back the controversial drink for a limited time only as part of the deal. a partnership with Stranger Things from Netflix.

It was a natural fit, since the show's third season was set for 1985 – and this time, New Coke was a hit.

THE NEW COKE DEBACLE

New Coke's failed experience is a direct result of Pepsi Challenge's famous Pepsi Challenge promotion campaign, which began in 1975.

It was asking consumers to do a Pepsi and Coca-Cola blind tasting test – which revealed that most Americans actually liked Pepsi's taste, which contained more sugar, while Coca-Cola was the market leader.

Coca-Cola reacted to this information by playing with its famous recipe and making it even sweeter.

However, according to Dr. Gary Mortimer, retail expert at Queensland University of Technology, what they did not take into account is "the effect of the brand".

While people liked Pepsi's taste better, they identified more strongly with Coca-Cola and were more loyal to this brand. So when the old recipe disappeared, people responded.

"They always wanted to buy the red Coca-Cola can because it's iconic, that it's been around for longer and that people have grown up with it since childhood," said Dr. Mortimer at news.com.au.

"Do not mess with the original – the same would be true of Tim Tams, but do not mess with her.

"The fundamental mistake they made was to dump the original based on data from a tasting test on the blind."

Less than three months later, Coca-Cola announced that it would return to the old formula, which was renamed Coca-Cola "Classic", while New Coke has quietly disappeared.

"The simple fact is that all the time, the money and skills devoted to researching consumers on a new Coca-Cola could neither measure nor reveal the depth and constant emotional attachment and deep feeling by so many people originally from Coca-Cola, "said Coca-Cola. The president of the company, Donald Keough, said at a press conference at the time, according to CBS.

Dr. Mortimer said that Coke had learned from past mistakes and regularly introduced new products such as diet coke, zero coke and aromas such as cherry and orange, but without departing from the original primordial.

NEW COKE 2.0

But in late May, Coca-Cola released a limited number of New Coke cans as part of the Stranger Things package, and an "upside down" distributor inspired by Stranger Things also appeared in some US cities to distribute free cans for a limited time.

At the time, a spokesman for Coca-Cola Australia told News Corp that New Coke's limited lineup would not come to Australia – but Dr. Mortimer said the publication would have been enough for "absolutely "increase profits.

"They would have benefited from that, and it would also have helped to increase brand awareness, especially for a younger audience that may not be drinking Coca-Cola, and they may end up taking an extra share of the market," he said. did he declare.

He added that if the initial release of New Coke was a total failure, the decision to recover it temporarily was a great move, as it capitalized on the "nostalgia effect" of the 80s and relied on the popularity of the hit series.

"They want people to remember and think about the 1980s, and there would have been conversations around dinner and barbecues," he said.

"This also created the FOMO effect because it was launched in very small quantities before giving up, which made people think that they had to come in and grab it."

He said that a similar phenomenon had been observed during the revival of other iconic abandoned items such as Pollywaffle chocolate bars.

"Sometimes, when a brand disappears, there's a general outcry about wanting to bring it back in. There's an avalanche of social media comments that get media coverage – people go crazy," he said. he declares.

"They would also have a good knowledge of the person viewed by Stranger Things and I guess a lot of young people look at it, but also middle-aged people who think and remember."