Coca-Cola Company: New Coke campaign (1985)

Robert Schnakenberg

The 1985 reformulation of Coca-Cola has become known as one of the epochal blunders in marketing history.

Coca-Cola Company: New Coke campaign

Robert Schnakenberg

Overview

The 1985 reformulation of Coca-Cola has become known as one of the epochal blunders in marketing history. In a risky strategy that seemed to defy all of the laws of brand loyalty in the soft drink category, Coca-Cola executives decided to retire a much-loved soft drink flavor in favor of a sweeter alternative designed to taste like its major rival, Pepsi. But what ended in a wholesale reintroduction of the original product began as a bold response to declining market shares.

During the 1980s, sales of Coke's flagship brand were steadily declining....

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