New Coke (coca Cola) Analysis

The team at Coke carried out an exploratory market research process which was not as smooth as expected by the company. There were flaws in the process, which are discussed in the following analysis.

In the blind taste test, customers motivation was based on the research subject of taste only. Even tough the test showed that the respondents preferred the new Coke taste over the old Coke, there are other factors behind customers’ purchasing decisions. Based on Sheth’s Consumer Motives theory, social motives may be one of the underlying reasons behind a customer’s purchase (Sigy et. al 2017). In the case of Coke, their initial customers are used to buying the old Coke as part of their habit, loyalty, and nostalgia tied to to the historical roots of Coca-Cola. Due to its rich history, Coca-Cola has a symbolic significance to buyers, especially to the buyers that had consumed the product since the war era. This symbolic ties also shapes the buying behavior of consumers. In the interview research, researchers did not ask respondents how would they feel if the current Coke is replaced with a new Coke; which might have drastically affected the response. It can be said that researchers did not provide relevant independent variables to reach the ultimate dependent variable of gaining the desired sales revenue. The research was heavily dependent on statistics, as it was based on a quantitative research. Such type of research is not able to measure consumer feelings and attitudes.

In the taste test, people took a sip of the cola and may be why they prefer the sweeter taste. However, when one is consuming the actual product (Can or Bottle size), the less sweet taste of old Coke may be more desirable. There is also the social effects in the focus group that may alter the response, which should have been considered. Social effects may come from the interviewer or fellow respondents. Another aspect from the results that were overlooked is that 45% that chose the old Coke made the choice with such passion. The passion was reflected in the strong customer backlashes that occurred.

There was a lot of research conducted by Coke which may not entirely be useful; particularly the tests that were conducted to fight Pepsi. Executing taste tests consumes time and cost, and it eventually failed to attack Pepsi. However, the research was still able to show Coca Cola that taste tests are not enough to alleviate consumers from Pepsi. It would have been better for Coke to allocate more effort to Project Kansas.

The launch of the new Coke is contradicting with previous marketing efforts of the old Coke, which had the tag line of ‘Coke is it’. Then the launch had confused audience that the new Coke was the new ‘it’. Moreover, the new packaging was not relatable for the consumers due to the word ‘new’ on it. ‘New’ seemed to fit more for Pepsi due to its emergence in the market and its