Posted on 01/30/2009 3:01:28 PM PST by Daffynition
NEW YORK (AP) -- Neither "New" nor "Classic," Coke is simply itself again.
Two decades after adding the designation, the Coca-Cola Co. is removing the word "Classic" from its prominent location on the flagship cola sold in the U.S., a company spokesman said Friday.
"The reason for being, for classic as a descriptor, has all but disappeared," spokesman Scott Williamson said.
The "Classic" tagline -- right under the script Coca-Cola logo -- was added in 1985, when the company introduced a formula that consumers called "New Coke." New Coke never caught on and was sold sparingly until it was dropped in 2004.
Coke Classic is the leading soda brand in the world. About 1.7 billion cases of Coke Classic were sold in the U.S. in 2007, according to Beverage Digest. The trade journal reported the removal of the "classic" name earlier Friday.
Williamson said Coca-Cola decided to make the change as it launches a new global marketing campaign it's calling "Open Happiness." He said it was not an appeal to younger consumers, although the company has said before it wants to appeal to younger drinkers as soda sales decline in the U.S.
"Taking it off will modestly contemporize the brand because, to some people, classic doesn't sound youthful and contemporary," Beverage Digest Editor John Sicher said.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
I drank Vernor’s Ginger Ale when I lived in western NY.
Great stuff.
I rather drink lukewarm used dishwater than Coke.
We haven’t been back to Ohio for awhile so we’re out of Vernor’s. We’ve gotten it in Florida too.
I buy tons of Mexican coca-cola.
Real cane sugar makes a difference.
The world has changed in many ways since pharmacist, John Styth Pemberton first introduced the refreshing taste of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, Georgia. However, the pure and simple magic of one thing remains the same - Coca-Cola. The name and the product mean so many things to hundreds of millions of consumers around the globe. Coca-Cola products are served more than 705 million times every day, quenching the thirsts of consumers in more than 195 countries in every climate. That’s a long way to come after such a modest beginning...
May 1886 - Pemberton concocted a caramel-colored syrup in a three-legged brass kettle in his backyard. He first “distributed” the new product by carrying Coca-Cola in a jug down the street to Jacobs Pharmacy. For five cents, consumers could enjoy a glass of Coca-Cola at the soda fountain. Whether by design or accident, carbonated water was teamed with the new syrup, producing a drink that was proclaimed “Delicious and Refreshing.” Dr. Pemberton’s partner and bookkeeper, Frank M. Robinson, suggested the name and penned, in the unique flowing script that is famous worldwide today, “”.
1886 - Sales of Coca-Cola averaged nine drinks per day. That first year, Dr. Pemberton sold 25 gallons of syrup, shipped in bright red wooden kegs. Red has been a distinctive color associated with the No. 1 soft drink brand ever since.
1891 - Atlanta entrepreneur Asa G. Candler had acquired complete ownership of the Coca-Cola business. Pemberton was forced to sell because he was in a state of poor health and was in debt. He had paid $76.96 for advertising, but he only made $50.00 in profits. Candler acquired the whole company for $2,300. Within four years, Candler’s merchandising flair helped expand consumption of Coca-Cola to every state and territory.
1893 - In January “Coca-Cola” was registered in the U.S. Patent office.
1894 - The first syrup plant outside of Atlanta was opened in Dallas.
1899 - Chandler’s great achievement — large scale bottling of Coca-Cola
1906 - The first two countries outside the United States to bottle Coca-Cola were Cuba and Panama
1915 - The Root Glass company created the Coca-Cola contour glass bottle.
1917 - 3 Million Coke’s sold per day. “” is the worlds most recognized trademark.
1919 - The Coca-Cola Company was sold to a group of investors for $25 million.
1923 - The Coca-Cola Company was sold after the Prohibition Era to Ernest Woodruff for 25 million dollars. He gave Coca-Cola to his son, Robert Woodruff, who would be president for six decades.
Woodruff’s leadership took the business to unrivaled heights of commercial success, making Coca-Cola an institution the world over. Woodruff was an influential man in Atlanta because of his contributions to area colleges, universities, businesses and organizations. When he made a contribution, he would never leave his name, this is how he became to be known as “Mr. Anonymous.”
During the Woodruff era, Mr. Woodruff made a promise to the armed forces of the United States to supply Coca-Cola to every serviceperson. He said that costs and location did not matter, he supplied 5 billion bottles to the service.
Robert Woodruff did have one dubious distinction, he raised the syrup prices for distributors. But he improved efficiency at every step of the manufacturing process. Woodruff also increased productivity by improving the sales department, emphasizing quality control, and beginning large-scale advertising and promotional campaigns. Woodruff made Coke available in every state of the Union through the soda fountain. For all of these achievements he earned the name, “The Boss”
1923 - Woodruff introduced the six bottle carton
1925 - 6 Million Coke’s sold per day.
1927 - The first Coca-Cola radio advertisement.
1928 - Sales of bottled Coca-Cola surpassed fountain sales for the first time.
1929 - Coca-Cola was made available through vending machine
The Coca-Cola bell glass was made available
1931 - The Coke Santa was introduced as a Christmas promotion
1934 Johnny Weissmuller, and Olympic champion swimmer, and Maureen O’Sullivan, a motion-picture star, appeared on a metal serving tray for Coca-Cola.
1940 - Coke is bottled in over 40 countries.
1943 On June 29, an urgent cablegram arrived from General Dwight Eisenhower’s Allied Headquarters in North Africa, requesting 10 Coca-Cola bottling plants to serve American servicemen overseas. Eventually, 64 plants were set up during WWII.
1950 - Advertising on on the television began. Currently Coca-Cola is advertised on over five hundred TV channels around the world.
1952 - “The Big Beverage”, the first novel about Coca-Cola, was written by William T. Campbell.
1960 - The twelve ounce Coke can was introduced.
1961 - Sprite was introduced.
1971 - The song “I’d like to Buy the World a Coke” was released.
1977 - The Coca-Cola contour bottle was patented
1978 - The two liter bottle was introduced, and during that same year the company also introduced plastic bottles
1979 - Fifteen hundred employees moved to the new corporate headquarters in Atlanta located on North Avenue. The new corporate headquarters came to be known as “The Tower.”
1982 - Diet Coke was introduced in July.
1985 - The Coca-Cola Company made what has been known as one of the biggest marketing blunder. They stumbled onto a new formula in efforts to produce diet Coke. They put forth 4 million dollars of research to come up with the new formula.
The decision to change their formula and pull the old Coke off the market came about because taste tests showed a distinct preference for the new formula. The new formula was a sweeter variation with less tang, it was also slightly smoother. Robert Woodruff’s death was a large contributor to the change because he stated that he would never change Coca-Cola’s formula. Another factor that influenced the change was that Coke’s market share fell 2.5 percent in four years. Each percentage point lost or gain meant 200 million dollars. This was the first flavor change since the existence of the Coca-Cola company. The change was announced April 23, 1985 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at the Lincoln Center. Some two hundred TV and newspaper reporters attended this very glitzy announcement. It included a question and answer session, and a history of Coca-Cola. The debut was accompanied by an advertising campaign that revived the Coca-Cola theme song of the early 1970s, “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke”
The change to the world’s best selling soft drink was heard by 81 percent of the United States population within twenty-four hours of the announcement. Within a week of the change, one thousand calls a day were flooding the company’s eight hundred number. Most of the callers were shocked and/or outraged, many said that they were considering switching to Pepsi. Within six weeks, the eight hundred number was being jammed by six thousand calls a day. The company also fielded over forty thousand letters, which were all answered and each person got a coupon for the new Coke. Many American consumers of Coca-Cola asked if they would have the final say. When Pepsi heard that the Coca-Cola company was changing its secret formula they said that it was a decision that Pepsi tastes better. Roger Enrico, the president and CEO of Pepsi-Cola wrote a letter to every major newspaper in the U.S. to declare the victory.
Coca-Cola management had to decide: Do nothing or “buy the world a new Coke”. They decided to develop the new formula.
1985 - July 10, eighty-seven days after the new Coke was introduced, the old Coke was brought back in addition to the new one. This was greatly due to dropping market share and consumer protest. The market share fell from a high of 15 percent to a low of 1.4 percent. This was said to be a classic marketing retreat. Coca-Cola executives admitted that they had goofed by taking the old Coke off the market. The Coca-Cola company’s eight hundred number received eighteen thousand calls of gratitude. One caller said they felt like a lost friend had returned home. The comeback of old Coke drove stock prices to the highest level in twelve years. This was said to be the only way to regain the lead on the cola wars.
1988 - Coca-Cola was the first independent operator in the Soviet Union.
1993 - Coca-Cola exceeds 10 Billion cases sold worldwide.
1993 - Advertising slogan -”Always Coca-Cola”.
1995 - Coke was consumed aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery — marking the third trip into space for Coca-Cola and the first for Diet Coke.
1996 - The Summer Olympics will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, the home of Coca-Cola.
For more than 65 years, Coca-Cola has been a sponsor of the Olympics.
One great earmark that the Coca-Cola Company has is helping the people of Atlanta. They accomplish this through scholarships, hotlines, donations and contributions. Another large accomplishment that the Coca-Cola has, is being the first company to make and use recycled plastic bottles. One way to see all of the achievements of the Coca-Cola company is to visit the World of Coke in Atlanta. It houses a collection of memorabilia, samples of the products, exhibits, and many other exciting items. All of what has been said is the basis of what Coca-Cola was built on. Without societies help, Coca-Cola could not have become over a 50 billion dollar business. Keep on consuming the world’s favorite soft drink, Coca-Cola.
Until the 1960s, both small town and big city dwellers enjoyed carbonated beverages at the local soda fountain or ice cream saloon. Often housed in the drug store, the soda fountain counter served as a meeting place for people of all ages. Often combined with lunch counters, the soda fountain declined in popularity as commercial ice cream, bottled soft drinks, and fast food restaurants came to the fore.
I’ve had Hansen’s before. The Mandarin-Lime soda is some mighty fine pop.
It never tasted quite right to me when it returned as “Classic”. I can’t say for sure but I believe they eliminated sugar when it came back and just used corn syrup. The woman I talked to at Coke HQ said the only place you could get it with sugar was in kosher stores, and I did that for awhile, but now I’ve gone over to the dark side aka Pepsi.
I’ll take a Coke-Classic over Pepsi-Gay anytime.
I wish I could get some! Is there a .05 deposit on those bottles?
Forget the soda ...I’ll take the bottles.
You can get it in Mexico and the ethnic aisles at grocery stores near the border too.
Diet Coke is my addiction of choice...
That's one of the few flavors I haven't tried. I'll have to do something about that. Hansens's (and other natural soda) is pretty much all we drink in this house, pop-wise. Their Ginger Ale is the best I've ever had. The Root Beer is OK but A&W's is better. Of course, A&W's is HFCS-sweetened and full of artificial crap. The Hansen's cherry creme is really good too.
There's a lot of really good small-batch and natural sodas out there. Full of sugar, they aren't healthy by any means but in moderation are well worth the price.
Very true. I just got used to drinking the Arabic sodas onboard the various navy ships I've deployed on. Once we get to the Gulf, Arabian soda is all we drink and it's all sweetened with sugar. Many of the younger sailors have never had sugar-sweetened Coke, Mt. Dew and Pepsi until they get to the Gulf.
Now if they would just bring back the real sugar instead of the high fructose corn syrup.
They even have the old pop tops that people cut their feet on and get caught in the sewers. I almost forgot how bad those tops were.
That makes perfect sense. Make one of the biggest blunders in corporate history, and then go into teaching.
People dropped them in the cans where they became a choking hazard. I know I used to drop them back in the cans when I was young and then when I drank these sodas on the ship, I'd instinctively do the same thing again! Old habits die hard, I guess.
Funny you say that...
I prefer Colombian Coca-Cola (can’t say the other word lest I be misconstrued) to the American one.
Here in the good ol’ USA, Coca-Cola is sweetened with HFCS, which I find rather dull, whereas in Colombia it’s sweetened with rich natural cane sugar, which I find better.
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