Pepsi Should Have Learned from Coca Cola
Yesterdays Blunder
In 1985 Coca Cola decided to change its flagship product. The marketing change that turned Coca Cola into a new formula called New Coke will go down as one of the greatest blunders, and destruction of brand recognition of all time. Millions, maybe even billions, of dollars was lost by Coca Cola, and customer loyalty dropped to all time lows.
It was a marketing bonaza for Pepsi to gain market share, and Pepsi even rolled out a campaign to say that they “Won the Coke Wars” since they are not changing their formula.
It only took 3 months of Pepsi gloating over the victory, until Coca Cola decided to bring the original formula back as Coca Cola Classic.
Today’s Blunder
Fast forward to today and almost 15 years later, Pepsi is having its own “New Coca Cola” blunder.
Pepsi overhauled the juice line’s packaging in January as part of a branding campaign called “Squeeze.”
The Old Favorite and New Debunked Carton
Tropicana fans said the simplicity of the new design reminded them of store-brand generics. There was a brand identity being lost to the marketing arm of Pepsi.
If you are going to pay a premium for Tropicana over the store generics, you don’t want it to look generic.
Within a month, the public’s flogging by e-mail, phone, and blogs forced Pepsi to bring back the old straw in an orange designed cartons.
Post Blunder
The Classic Coke affect allowed Coca Cola to bounce back and regain its original market share, but it did have a product that did taste different.
Can Tropicana gain back its market share with a product that tastes identical to the competition?
The lessons in this story are these:
“Your market testing prior to a huge roll out better be right.”
“Learn from your competitors.”