The most famous product fizzle still pops up

Every once in a while, you’ll hear warnings about so-and-so companies committing a new New Coke blunder, tweaking beloved products to better appeal to general consumer preferences.

The reference comes from the famous Coca-Cola introduction of New Coke in 1985, a sweeter version of the iconic cola that not only fizzled out but became a synonym for a blunder.

Coca-Cola’s original formula remains a secret. In fact, the company has avoided patenting its formula to avoid disclosing it in a patent application. While the company has changed sweeteners, moving from cane sugar to beet sugar to corn syrup, before (and after) New Coke, the company strove to maintain a consistent flavor. But in the 1980s, Coca-Cola was steadily losing ground to its sweeter competitor Pepsi. To counter, Coca-Cola launched New Coke, a sweeter reformulation that performed favorably against the original in blind taste tests.

Customers were sure to rejoice, right? Most of the 200,000 blind taste testers who compared the new formula with the original preferred the new version. Coca-Cola’s then-CEO even proclaimed the step to be an absolutely sure bet. But the new formula was a colossal flop, and consumers flooded the company’s phone lines and mailboxes with complaints. Class action lawsuits were filed, and overseas, bottlers balked at bottling it. It turned out that taste tests weren’t everything, and customers were attached to the original formula.

When Coke changed its formula, the company may have also reminded people just how much they loved the classic version. While Coca-Cola was losing market share in the 1980s, the original Coke formula is king these days, holding roughly 18 percent of the soda market compared to Pepsi’s 11.5 percent. Some theorists even believe New Coke may have actually been a marketing ploy for Coca-Cola Classic.

More recently, analysts have warned that McDonald’s runs the risk of New Coke-ing its menu with adjustments to its burgers. McDonald’s is aiming to improve the softness of its buns, how its cheese slices melt, and an array of other small adjustments. Maybe McDonald’s will ultimately succeed, but they also run the risk of a New Coke-style consumer backlash.