Blunder or Blessing?
April 23rd marked the anniversary of one of the biggest marketing mistakes of all time, or at least it seemed so at the time. For those of us old enough to remember that fateful day in 1985, when The Coca-Cola Company announced that they would be changing their 99 year old formula and calling it New Coke, it set off a fire storm of protests, calls, and news stories like you wouldn’t believe. All over a soft drink?
Did Coca-Cola make a mistake? Plenty of people at the time thought so. But as we look back, it might be one of the smartest things they ever did. Coca-Cola didn’t make this decision lightly. At the time they were losing the Cola Wars and sales had been slipping for some time, so they needed to do something to re-energize their brand. Of course they couldn’t have predicted the mass chaos that ensued with their announcement. They also couldn’t have predicted that the people’s hatred for New Coke would be their saving grace.
Why was it their saving grace? Because it reminded people how much they loved Classic Coke. It was more than just the taste; it was an emotional response for many. Coke had actually done taste tests and found that many people liked the taste of New Coke better. But Coke, to many, was more than a drink – it was a reminder of good times and perhaps simpler times.
So what lessons can we learn from this:
- Emotions are powerful.
- Sometimes failure can be a good thing, as long as it is responded to properly and learned from. Every company will make mistakes!
- Sometimes research results are better left in the lab.
- Customer loyalty is important.
- Last but not least- sometimes our blunders can be blessings!
