New Coke: the cola that won Coca-Cola's biggest taste test and lost America
Project Kansas: Coca-Cola's secret new taste, tested on nearly 200,000 people
In secret, Coca-Cola asked nearly 200,000 people to taste a new, sweeter cola. It was the biggest test the company had ever run. What did the tasters say, and what did nobody tell them?
-
1
In the early 1980s, chemists in Atlanta are making a new drink, Diet Coke. On the way, they find something else: a new recipe for Coca-Cola itself. It is smoother and sweeter, a little more like Pepsi.
-
2
The bosses give the plan a code name, Project Kansas, after an old photo of a newspaper man from Kansas drinking a Coke. It is a secret. Only a small team knows what it is about.
-
3
Now it is your turn to be a taster. Someone gives you two paper cups with no names: the old Coca-Cola and the new recipe. Which one do you like more? Over three years, nearly 200,000 people take part in tests like this.
-
4
The answer is close, but it is a yes. Out of every 100 tasters, 55 pick the new recipe. When the tasters are told which cup is which, even more of them pick the new one.
-
5
Goizueta has the proof he wanted. His market research, the work of asking people what they think before a product goes on sale, says people like the new taste.
-
6
One question is left: sell the new cola next to the old one, or in its place? For a while, the team thinks about a different name for the new drink. Goizueta says no: two Cokes would confuse shoppers. Coca-Cola will have one taste, the new one.
-
7
So the recipe of 1886 will stop. The testers asked all these people which cola they like more. But they did not clearly tell them that the old one would be gone for good.
-
Go further
Two more things about the secret plan.