machines, have more shelf space, spend more on advertising,
and are competitively priced, why are we losing [market]
share?” he asked Coke’s top management. “You look at the
Pepsi Challenge, and you have to begin asking about taste.”
This was the genesis of what came to be known as New
Coke. Coke’s scientists went back and tinkered with the fabled
secret formula to make it a little lighter and sweeter — more
like Pepsi. Immediately Coke’s market researchers noticed an
improvement. In blind tastes of some of the early prototypes,
Coke pulled even with Pepsi. They tinkered some more. In
September of 1984, they went back out and tested what would
end up as the final version of New Coke. They rounded up not
just thousands but hundreds of thousands of consumers all
across North America, and in head-to-head blind taste tests,
New Coke beat Pepsi by 6 to 8 percentage points. Coca-Cola
executives were elated. The new drink was given the green
light. In the press conference announcing the launch of New
Coke, the company’s CEO, Roberto C. Goizueta, called the new
product “the surest move the company’s ever made,” and there
seemed little reason to doubt what he said. Consumers, in the
simplest and most direct manner imaginable, had been asked
for their reaction, and they had said they didn’t much like the