Marketing Case Studies
Chapter 3: Cola Wars
Question #1: In the new Coke fiasco, how could Coca-Cola 's marketing research have been improved?
To determine how the marketing research could have been improved, let us first define the end result. Ultimately, consumers felt almost betrayed that Coca-Cola scratched their flagship product, Coke, for a newer, updated flavor. Coca-Cola 's marketing research showed that over half of the people who taste-tested the new flavor preferred it over Pepsi and the nearly 100 year old Coke flavor. Looking back, there were several areas in which Coca-Cola 's marketing research strategy was fatally flawed.
First, taste-testers were not made aware of the possibility that the existing Coke flavor would be replaced with the newer flavor. This could have been the million-dollar question for Coca-Cola executives: "How would you feel if we replaced the existing Coke flavor with this new flavoring?"
Second, the sample size who tested the new flavoring was simply too small. Taste-testing was geared more toward determining whether consumers preferred a sweeter taste instead of toward the actual flavoring used. When deciding whether or not to abandon a century old product whose number of customers reaches into the hundreds of millions, even 40,000 taste-testers cannot provide a representative sample.
Finally, in what seems to be the most glaring oversight of all, the research showed that only 55% of the taste-testers preferred the new flavor. This data is hardly convincing enough to scrap an existing product in favor of a new product. Assuming that there were 100,000,000 Coke drinkers in 1984, Coca-Cola essentially cut their market in half to 55,000,000 who would presumably prefer the new flavor. It hardly seems like rocket science that if only half of the taste-testers prefer a new flavoring, you should not replace the existing flavoring.
Question #3: "If it 's not broken, don 't fix it."
Just because a product or service is not broken does
Question #1: In the new Coke fiasco, how could Coca-Cola 's marketing research have been improved?
To determine how the marketing research could have been improved, let us first define the end result. Ultimately, consumers felt almost betrayed that Coca-Cola scratched their flagship product, Coke, for a newer, updated flavor. Coca-Cola 's marketing research showed that over half of the people who taste-tested the new flavor preferred it over Pepsi and the nearly 100 year old Coke flavor. Looking back, there were several areas in which Coca-Cola 's marketing research strategy was fatally flawed.
First, taste-testers were not made aware of the possibility that the existing Coke flavor would be replaced with the newer flavor. This could have been the million-dollar question for Coca-Cola executives: "How would you feel if we replaced the existing Coke flavor with this new flavoring?"
Second, the sample size who tested the new flavoring was simply too small. Taste-testing was geared more toward determining whether consumers preferred a sweeter taste instead of toward the actual flavoring used. When deciding whether or not to abandon a century old product whose number of customers reaches into the hundreds of millions, even 40,000 taste-testers cannot provide a representative sample.
Finally, in what seems to be the most glaring oversight of all, the research showed that only 55% of the taste-testers preferred the new flavor. This data is hardly convincing enough to scrap an existing product in favor of a new product. Assuming that there were 100,000,000 Coke drinkers in 1984, Coca-Cola essentially cut their market in half to 55,000,000 who would presumably prefer the new flavor. It hardly seems like rocket science that if only half of the taste-testers prefer a new flavoring, you should not replace the existing flavoring.
Question #3: "If it 's not broken, don 't fix it."
Just because a product or service is not broken does
Bibliography: Marketing Mistakes and Successes by Robert Hartley