New Coke. It was like old Coca Cola but different, a flash-in-the-pan decision to take on the growing popularity of Pepsi who were eating into the old Coca Cola’s business like a sugary soft drink into children’s teeth. Old Coca Cola got worried, got scared that Pepsi was coming to eat their pie and decided it was time for New Coke, which above anything is just a really poorly thought-out name in the 1980’s. New Coke was to be like old Coca Cola just better, and by better they meant more like Pepsi. Honestly, you couldn’t make it up.
The trouble is the people didn’t want New Coke. Well, over half did but the issue with life is that people who are generally happy don’t take the time to pull out the fountain pens and write into global corporations. But the slightly-less-than-half who were unhappy, they let them know and they let them know hard. The mail room went mental. There were hand written letters and typed letters sent in by the (ones assuming) thousands. The phone lines were (presumably) jammed. Who knows. I was three years old.
What we do know is that Coca Cola got flustered and started making old Coca Cola rebranded as Classic Coca Cola. The same Classic Coca Cola that exists today. And as for New Coke, it hung around quietly until Coca Cola phased it out. Probably for the best given the name. It would have almost certainly needed a rebrand.
Now as alluded above, it turned out that people actually liked New Coke, more so than the original stuff. Impossible to think now in a world of SEO and marketing research, but this was missed. The potential for a potentially even bigger company missed out by the knee-jerk reaction of a few complaints.
Omar had an idea. One of those “lets keep this to ourselves in case someone steals it” types of idea. An idea that not only ties together all of the work for a group we already work with, but one that draws in the businesses that they work with, potentially creating a wider group and opening-up the avenues to work directly with them. “Screens down, pads out” is the instruction. He then sketches the screen of an iPhone. And not a particularly good sketch either. That’s it. That’s the idea. That’s all we can say.
I am Simon Carlo, a food blogger, journalist, copywriter and bonafide mild child. The above words are mine. Mostly. The gooder ones anyway.
