Dave Smith wrote:
>
> That was an interesting marketing phenomenon. In an effort to boost
> sales in a business where gaining a small increase in the market can
> reap huge profits, they aimed at a piece of the market from their major
> rival, Pepsi. They went around and did blind taste tests to come up with
> a more popular taste, and people picked the one that tasted more like
> Pepsi. So they called that New Coke. All of a sudden, people insisted
> that they preferred the old Coke, so they resurrected it as Classic and
> sales rose. Strange.

It wasn't that strange, at least in hindsight -

The "Pepsi challenge" side by side taste comparisons used tiny
servings, and with tiny servings most folks go for the sweeter of
the two options in blind tests.

But the way many folks actually drink sodas is in servings the
size of a 12 floz can or larger. In the US cans are 12 floz, bottles
come in half liter for 6-packs, single 20 floz bottles at the corner
store, and the larger 24 floz bottles. Those plus the 2 liter size
and every once in a while I size 1 liter or 3 liter sizes. By the time
you get to the bottom of a larger serving the extra sweetness cloys
and the sourness of the older Coke formula wins at that.

If the "Pepsi challenge" had been to drink a 12 floz serving of a
sweeter soda and a 12 floz serving of a sourer soda the old Coke
would have won. No one *did* that side by side comparison so
they learned about the effect after the fact.

Try it for yourself. Do a shot glass of Coke and Pepsi side by side,
then a 2 floz pair, then a 4 floz pair, then an 8 floz pair, then a 12
floz pair. Unless you know in advance about the sweetness versus
sourness effect in advance it is very likely you'll like the sweeter
one at the small sample size and the sourer one at the large sample
size.

Magazines - The market evolves. Eventually all magazines but
National Geographic bites the dust. Sometimes it's a magazine we
have never heard of. Sometimes it's an old friend like Gourmet or
Food and Wine.