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Originally Posted by Silver B, my understanding is that (longer ago that I can remember), they switched from Coca Cola to "Coke" and also released "Diet Coke" at the time. Apparently, Coke wasn't accepted all that well, so they went back to "Coca Cola Classic", but did not make the same change with Diet Coke.
Coke Zero is apparently on the same formula as Coke Classic, whereas Diet Coke is the same formula as "Coke".
Or at least that's how it was explained to me. Could be hogwash, but that's what I "know". |
Silver: You are close..
I know a little about the Coca Cola Company...while they are certainly well known worldwide - there has always been a bit of a 'dark side' about them in terms of secretiveness and cunning.
Diet Coke had been around quite awhile before they decided to shelve their traditional formula (Coca Cola) and introduce 'New Coke'. New Coke was modeled in sweetness and taste to be more like Pepsi because marketing surveys indicated Pepsi to be more popular among younger drinkers who liked the sweeter taste of Pepsi. As you know, the whole thing backfired on them as loyal Coca Cola drinkers railed against New Coke. So they reversed their field and did away with New Coke and reintroduced Coca Cola as Coca Cola Classic.
Diet Coke was introduced several years before all of this- of course as a zero calorie drink but (according to my source) was deliberately formulated to 'taste somewhat worse' than Coca Cola. They did this because they were concerned that the sales of Coca Cola would suffer greatly if they introduced a diet version that tasted just as good as The Real Thing. So Diet Coke was (successfully) introduced to taste worse than Coca Cola and it has stayed with this 'taste positioning' since its introduction.
Then - the New Coke/Switch/Switchback debacle came several years later.
Last year, they decided to introduce a zero calorie version of the drink that would taste as close to Coca Cola as possible. Ideally, testers and drinkers would not be able to tell any difference. So this is another 'marketing reversal' of a previous decision. Although I do not drink much Coke, we have both Coca Cola and Coke Zero in the fridge and I cannot tell the difference, whereas I have always thought Diet Coke tasted like tin...