Word: coked
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Even after the decision to bring back Classic Coke, company officials were still not quite sure what had hit them. "We did not understand the deep emotions of so many of our customers for Coca-Cola," said President Donald R. Keough. "It is not only a function of culture or upbringing or inherited brand loyalty. It is a wonderful American mystery. A lovely American enigma. And you cannot measure it any more than you can measure love, pride or patriotism...
Everything looked different on April 23, when Coca-Cola Chairman Roberto Goizueta introduced the new Coke, which the firm called "the most significant soft-drink development in the company's history." Gushed Goizueta at the time: "The best has been made even better...
...Coke's change was immediately greeted by angry protest. For three straight months, Coca-Cola headquarters received some 1,500 phone calls daily, as well as a barrage of angry letters. Wrote one correspondent: "Changing Coke is like God making the grass purple or putting toes on our ears or teeth on our knees." Among the most common complaints: new Coke was dull and watery and tasted distressingly like Pepsi...
...chastened Keough admitted last week, "The passion for original Coke was something that just flat caught us by surprise. The simple fact is that all of the time and money and skill poured into consumer research on the new Coca-Cola could not measure or reveal the depth and emotional attachment to the original Coca-Cola felt by so many people...
Keough denied a widely held belief that the company had brought out new Coke as part of a deliberate, Machiavellian plot to create support for the older product. Said he: "Some critics will say Coca-Cola has made a marketing mistake. Some cynics say that we planned the whole thing. The truth is, we're not that dumb, and we're not that smart...