The Coca Cola Company Top Businesses in America Discussion

Review the posts of other students made in Post 1 and select one post to respond to as your Post 2. In your response to the other student’s post, offer your opinion as to whether or not you agree with their analysis of the reason for failure.

NOTE: You must summarize the other student’s selection, his/her response and then provide your opinion – agree – disagree – why?

When responding to your classmate, you may NOT respond to a student who has picked the same product as you did. The goal is to research more than just the one product you selected to discuss.

If you use sources to support your position, list as references and use citations in APA format.

• There will be one initial post and a minimum of one response post required this week.
• All initial posts begin a new thread by replying – “YOUR LAST NAME – Post 1”
• All response posts will be on the original poster’s initial post thread and will be labeled – “YOUR LAST NAME – Post 2”

Note: Additional responses to classmates will increase your engagement score.

TAYLOR – Post 1

The Coca-Cola Company is a Fortune 500 company currently ranking 88 of the top businesses in America (“Coca-Cola Company,” 2020). The company’s vision is “to craft the brands and choice of drinks that people love, to refresh them in body and spirit. And done in ways that create a more sustainable business and better shared future that makes a difference in people’s lives, communities and our planet” (“Purpose & Vision,” 2020). The company served its first drink in 1886, and currently serves over 500 brands in over 200 countries worldwide (“Brands & Products,”2020). However, Coca-Cola has not always been 100% successful. In 1985, Coca-Cola announced that they would be changing the formula of the soft drink and renaming it “new Coke.” This would quickly turn out to be a bust, and it would go on to waste time, resources, “infuriate the public and cost the company a ton of money” (Bigford, 1999).

“New Coke” was introduced with the intention of updating the brand after a decrease in consumer preference and consumer awareness. The major reason why the new product failed was because of the consumer disapproval of “new Coke” and reaffirmed affection for “Coca-Cola classic.” “Thousands of calls and consumer complaints” followed the decision to re-brand the soft drink. While some consumers disapproved of the taste, others were genuinely disappointed with the company’s management and were emotionally distraught by the void left without the original drink. Furthermore, public protests and songs of saudade contributed to the failure of “new Coke” and urged the return of “Coca-Cola classic” (“The Story of,” 2020). Arguably, the new product failed because of the “product development and testing” stage of the new-product development process where consumers were not adequately afforded the opportunity to sample a prototype or test a concept. If concept testing and crowdsourcing occurred, Coca-Cola may have been able to use consumer feedback and further develop an alternative product that more consumers desired. The “idea generation” stage was also neglected because the new product was not based on a consumer want or need— the idea was assumed from the research and development that customers’ current satisfaction at the time was low. Finally, the product was not given the opportunity to grow or mature in the commercialization phase due to the quick public disapproval. This hindered promotional, advertising, and sales campaigns for the new product further limiting exposure and market success (Nickels, et al., 2018. p.366).