Competing With Yourself

Remember the new Coke? Everyone hated it. Not that it tastes bad…

While watching Joe Cocker’s Woodstock 69′ performance this hot night (Only 30° C my friend), I look around on me ol’ library beside me and this ancient book caught my eye “The end of marketing as we know it” by Sergio Zyman, former chief marketing officer of Coke.

Like what I do on all books that my hand grasps, I browsed the table of contents and ran through the index – tons of topics on the index, positioning, ad agencies, portfolio management, etc. but what got me is this little one line shouting “New coke” and it’s on page 48.

People said it was a big fat mistake

It wasn’t. In fact, it was not REALLY that bad as it won the taste test against the classic Coke. Heck, that’s not really the reason why we buy Coke. Pepsi tastes better right? (Oh sorry bout that Coke lovers)

In Zyman’s own words “I’ll admit that it didn’t play out as I had thought it would, not at all, but in the end, we achieved the destination that we set out for.”

How? Simple. They competed with them selves – because now we have the new Coke, people will compare the new Coke to the classic Coke. Not Coke and Pepsi. New coke and classic Coke.