Coca-Cola changed its flavor in 1985 and angered an entire world. Now, he will do the same and we will see what the public reaction is.
Now, the company is doing it again, risking other grievances. This time, it changes the taste and appearance of one of its most popular soft drinks: Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, better known as Coke Zero, the diet version, which is supposed to be very similar to the sugar version of Coke “Classic”.
Company officials they declared recently that the plan was to change the drink so as to “give an even more iconic taste of Coca-Cola.”
New can. New formula. Introducing the new and improved Coke Zero Sugar. Now more delicious. #BestCokeEver pic.twitter.com/wq4z01WF7s
– Coca-Cola (@CocaCola) July 13, 2021
Anxious Americans, or at least those who regularly quench their thirst with Coca-Cola Zero, will be the judges of this change.
Coca-Cola is reinventing itself again
Already, on social networks, people are worried and afraid. Some consumers have promised to switch to other drinks, such as Diet Dr Pepper or have threatened to use its rival, Pepsi.
Others remembered the marketing disaster of 1985, when Coke revealed “New Coke”, a sweeter version of the original soft drink, which was rejected by many consumers.
This change was an attempt to remove Pepsi’s growing success. But consumers hated New Coke. In June 1985, the company received 1,500 calls a day on the Consumer Helpline.
In July 1985, after only three months, the company announced that it would restore the original drink, now renamed “Coca-Cola Classic”. “If that’s what the consumer wants, that’s what we’re going to give them,” said Charles Millard, president of the Coca-Cola franchise in New York.
This time, the change is unlikely to provoke the same kind of reaction, despite concerns, said Doug Bowman, a marketing professor at Goizueta Business School at Emory University.
“This is a strategy in which Coca-Cola is trying to stay ahead of the market,” he said.
In general, consumers have become accustomed to beverage companies that change and adapt beverages. The company even made a limited offer of “New Coke”, available in 2019, as part of a promotion related to “Stranger Things”, the supernatural thriller of the 1980s.
Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, which the company launched in 2005, has changed its flavor in the past. In 2017, the company said the product had been “reformulated” to taste more like standard juice.
In its statement, the company said the new amendment “optimizes existing Coca-Cola Zero sugar flavors and existing ingredients.”
Although the company did not say what the process would look like, it promised not to change the ingredients, which include carbonated water, caramel dye, phosphoric acid, aspartame, caffeine and potassium benzoate.
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