The reason for the new coke was that Pepsi was doing blind taste tests and they were beating coke badly. I actually took one of the tests in front of a store in Chesapeake, VA.
Coke did the same thing with new coke and it was chosen by a good majority over classic coke.
People are interesting tho and they had a fit over the new coke and refused to buy it.
That may be true, but so what? There are many products that outsell other products quality having nothing to do with things.
I usually defend corporations, but they have some glaring faults. One of them is catering to popular opinion. I doubt people who like a certain kind of whiskey would like it much if some corporate execs changed the taste because it wasn't selling as well as some other brand.
It's all dollars and sense. There's no founder or single owner to hold the line and keep things as they are. Mostly faceless executives are quite willing to ruin something good just to make a dollar more. Which is one reason popular culture is so awful...the people at the top are only concerned with dollars and cents. Quality of the product is largely irrelevant.
Again, I doubt many of the execs involved in the decision to change the taste of Coke drank much of it themselves.