Goizueta graduated from my high school, and gave our Commencement Address. He was a conservative (Cuban).
He also drank “new” Coke (rebranded “Coke II”) to his dying day, which came far too early.
Only well after that was New Coke completely eliminated.
They might have had better luck had they tried that to start with vs. trying to completely replace the previous, popular product. Just like they’ve had success with other flavors - Cherry Coke, etc...but if they had attempted to replace regular Coke with Cherry Coke, both would have failed most likely.