Dodging Potholes

It was on 23rd April 1985 that marketing history was made. The Coca Cola Company announced that it was scrapping the familiar formula for its flagship product, and replacing it with a new taste they said would certainly be a hit with consumers.

And as we all know, hell hath no fury like a customer scorned.What Coke had underestimated was how deeply attached its loyal customers were to the brand...not necessarily just the flavor, but everything that comprises Coca Cola. And to tinker with it would be like George W. Bush announcing that the Republicans were now suddenly in favor of new tax hikes, environmentalism, and national health care.

It's at times like these that there's a lot of head scratching going on.

But marketing causes a lot of that. You see, in spite of all the best research efforts (Coke did a lot before it concluded that people actually preferred a sweeter-tasting cola), in the real world, marketing is just another day at the casino.

So why do we spend all that time and money then?

Because we still need to know our customers. It is critical that marketers try to more intimately understand the folks who are buying its products. But like two people who have been married for years, you one day realize that the more you know someone, how little you really know them.

And so you keep digging, hoping to find a few more nuggets of truth. Had Coca Cola dug a little farther, they may have unearthed the fact that its customers have an almost fanatical devotion to the brand that goes way beyond anything in a can or bottle. It's almost impossible to put your finger on it (even 21 years later), but Coke made a costly error. It was only by some quick backtracking that they kept the entire ship from sinking (Coca Cola Classic was (re)introduced in July, and was an instant success).

In another product category, Sony's early research showed that the idea of a Walkman tape player would be a failure. It's a good thing that they ignored their research, for the Walkman went on to become a huge success (only to be usurped by the iPod in recent years).

Over 35 years ago, the President of DEC computers declared that the total market for smaller computers might be a handful.

Yeah, right. And you're taking this class on your slide rule, right?

No matter how much research we do, marketers will still come up empty-handed on occasion. Success can come out of the blue (look how Apple has even been amazed at the success--almost 40 million units--of its iPods) just as easily as total failure.

And, of course, that thing we call hindsight is crystal clear. It's easy to armchair quarterback our way through post-mortems and lopsided blowouts, but we must keep our aim through the windshield, not the rearview mirror.

Furthermore, we must also accept that we're always going to be prone to running off the road, fumbling through those nasty rumble strips, and smacking potholes head-on. It simply goes with the territory.

Now if we could only bottle these truths and sell them.

Dr "A Coke and a Smile" Gerlich