Discuss about the Coca Cola Organization And the New Product Failure.
The idea of bringing the new product to any company just like Coca-Cola needs extensive survey along with preparation. Nevertheless, it is clear from different extensive research conducted on Coca-Cola that only one in four products in the development pipelines ever make it to consumers (Crawford & Di Benedetto 2015, p. 11).
Coca-Cola was created by Dr. John S. Pemberton in 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the most popular and largest selling soft drink in history and the most acknowledgeable brand globally. The Company serves a global market as a beverage organization. Coca-Cola presented reformulated Coca-Cola, frequently alluded to as “New Coke,” in 1985 denoting the main recipe change in 99 years. The organization didn’t set out to make the controversy of consumer complaint that followed; rather, Coca-Cola proposed to re-invigorate its Coca-Cola mark and the cola class in its biggest market, the United States. Conversely, the original Coke brand was already popular and worth fair competition with Pepsi.
There are various vital reasons why the “New Coke” produced by Coca-Cola failed in the market right after its launch in 1985. All these reasons are the vital concern to inventors as well as entrepreneurs who need to achieve success in the international marketplace (Vaquero et al., 2016, p. 1011). Therefore, some of the critical reasons for new product failure by Coca-Cola include; lack of demand, inadequate marketing investigation, flawed product, lack of product uniqueness, poor planning, unfortunate timing, together with lack of knowledge on targeted market (Linnander et al., 2017, p. 6). Moreover, other key reasons for the new product failure by “New Coke” include marketing uncertainty and timing of new product introduction, targeting of the wrong group with the product, using weak positioning strategy, along with over-optimism about the marketing plan that can lead to unrealistic forecast (Kahn 2013, p. 3). All these reasons make the company to be considered as one of the most significant brand failures of all times that resulted in a marketing mishap.
Coca-Cola developed “NewCoke” with the perception of receiving the high demand from consumers, but in many cases, consumers may just reject the product. The outcome might fail by failing to catch eyes of different targeted consumers even though it remains to be available in different marketplaces (Rosenberg 2018, p. 2). People around the marketplace might have little knowledge of the new product on offer leading to minimal demand for such “New Coke.” In most cases, Coca-Cola finds it hard to continue with production of such products that receives little demand from the targeted consumers (Crawford 2008, p. 9). In return for low demand by consumers, the company undergoes the situation of little income from the produced new product and as a result the product fails in the market (Powell & Gard 2015, p. 858). Lack of demand can arise from distributors that fail to take new products to resell to retailers of consumers making such products to fail in reaching marketplace efficiently. Furthermore, cases of reduced demand from suppliers and distributors turn to be the significant factor that leads to failure of “New Coke” produced by Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola has an extended period managed to earn billions of dollars despite bringing to the marketplace products that seems to be flawed according to the perception of several users together with reviewers that include soft drinks. Coke has been able to pour millions of dollars into marketing its “New Coke” that the company designed to replace the existing noncarbonated beverages (Trott 2017, p. 2). Instead, targeted and esteemed consumers found the new product to be flawed and replacing the current product to be tough. The perfect product arises since the company had failed in conducting pre-market testing through the representative cross-section of actual potential clients that assist its operations in avoiding such prospect pitfall (Karol & Nelson 2007, p. 7). Flawed product arises because the company in most cases produces the product without having the appropriate understanding of the needs together with wants of targeted consumers (Otero-Losada et al., 2015, p. 9). The targeting of the wrong market with “New Coke” remains to be the fundamental reason why the product ended up in the market as a flawed commodity leading to its failure in attracting revenue to the company as well as consumption by many consumers.
The market success of any new coke product by Coca-Cola relies to a massive degree on ability of the organization to launch new products at time when the demand of targeted consumer is at its highest level. Cases of undue delay make New Coke to fail in attracting the huge number of consumers in the international marketplaces (Mubayi 2012, p. 541). Besides, un-opportune time might mean that the demand for the new coke product along with product demonstrated during the phase of testing consumer might vanish by the time of launching of the product in the commercialization era.
Poor planning can lead to product failure of new coke products by Coca-Cola if the company fails to have the game-plan that carriers its operations through every phase as well as aspects of the life of products. Therefore, there is a need for the company to focus on producing new products that care for needs of targeted consumers (Gorchels 2012, p. 21). Moreover, many forces are always at work that alters the requirements and wants of the clients for products. The company needs to focus on various factors that affect buyers of “New Coke” by focusing on changing business opportunities shortage of energy along with material and advancements in technology (Farris et al., 2010, p. 19). Therefore, company management need to focus on the market potential of the product together with the nature of competition that must be determinable before introducing new products to the marketplace.
All products that fail to satisfy the unique needs of targeted, as well as esteemed customers of Coca-Cola, fail in achieving its objectives in markets. Such products that fail to meet the particular needs and requirements of clients also fail to dislodge more established available brands. Therefore, in the most cases management of Coca-Cola must focus on comprehending the advantages of “New Coke” (Kahn 2013, p. 37). The lack of strategy of sound communication that supports the introduction of “New Coke” leads to its failure in catching up with other products as produced by competitive companies such as Pepsi. New Coke is bound to fail if they fail to be perceived as unique by failing to satisfy the new function (Sharp 2017, p. 7). Besides, if such products fail to meet the existing service in new ways by lacking the absolute price and performance that can give it the advantage over the competitive products (de Chaves et al., 2017, p. 68). The uniqueness of New Coke must remain to be distinctive in one way or the other to ensure that it achieves enormous customer base that leads to massive profits to Coca-Cola.
Most cases, technical product deficiencies in the introduction of New Coke remain to be the standard causes of failure of such new products. Circumstances of product deficiencies arise due to lack of achievement of best laboratory product by over-engineering a service that should be offered by engineers together with product technocrats (Karol & Nelson 2007, p. 24). The company as to focus on technical superiority as it is the primary concern that can help in improving the quality of new product over competitors. The company fails in the launching of its product since the focus on over-engineered products charges a lot to the firm and finally to the consumers where competitors have the edge over the operations of Coca-Cola (Ponte & Richey 2014, p. 82). Therefore, technical deficiencies that cause New Coke failure in different targeted markets along the market need to be removed but too much should not cost much money that can have diverse effects in the operations of Coca-Cola.
Some new product management concepts are relevant or aided to the New Coke failure since the development of the product is simple in concept. It remains to be the conversion of needs of the market to the reality-based solution in operations of most companies such as Coca-Cola. New product development creates the tangible from the intangible while it also concentrates on the creation of new wealth (Mokhov&Ryabukhin 2018, p. 71). Therefore, the success of construction of the new product by Coca-Cola’s hard work normally needs significant resources, and the prospect for uninspiring outcomes or absolute letdown that is far superior than someone will confess. Presence of such elevated danger of collapse of new products in the market, it is essential for the company to understand and learn why the New Coke development is vital to their operations in different communities globally (Paavel et al 2017, p. 282). Therefore, some new product management concepts that are relevant or contributed to the New Coke failure include new product development strategies, speed, and teams, along with processes.
The company and its management must focus on the ideal plan of action designed to help the operations of the company to achieve the long-term or overall objectives and mission during the establishment of New Coke. The company ensures that the responsibilities for the New Coke product strategies are shared among the design, management of product, along with its development (Rankin 2017, p. 274). The ideas of shared development strategies for New Coke have enormous impact on reducing the cases of failure of product around international marketplaces. The design team for Coca-Cola can then have some input into the strategies chosen, and they will be capable of influencing these set strategies with the research conducted on needs and desires of consumers. The outcome of such surveys acts as the guide in implementing the different approach that can fit the needs of the users of New Coke (Sainsbury et al., 2017, p. 6). Moreover, speed to market New Coke remains to be a crucial factor towards the achievement of success in the marketplace. There is a need for Coca-Cola management to develop a new product development process than their competitors (Ultrich&Eppinger 2011, p. 9). There is a need by the administration to refine the process of designing New Coke to help in the maximization of speed while protecting the experience of consumer that is the delicate balancing act that must be entirely within the remit of designer.
There is a need for management of the company to concentrate on ideas that deal with the development of the precise method for designing as well as developing new products. The development of New Coke focuses on fitting specific circumstances that form a methodology for the company working that remain to be understood and agreed to by all members of the product development team that is likely to produce better results that products created with no formal operational processes (Rosenberg 2018, p.2). The management team of Coca-Cola aims at having some input into these processes and remains capable of negotiating modifications to methods when they fail to produce expected optimal outcomes around global markets. Besides, the management of Coca-Cola should concentrate on forming different teams to boost in the process of developing new products that can suit desires and needs of consumers. The idea of working with the team helps the company to conduct investigations around the market to understand the ideal processes and activities to follow in the development of new products (Wojdynski et al., 2018 p. 123). Besides, teams will tend to be highly creative and more successful than groups of the more standardized nature. Therefore, the way teams within Coca-Cola work continues to be critical in their success along with designing operations that deal with the production of quality products that will successfully become accepted by many targeted customers.
Over the past few decades, Coca-Cola has made considerable progress in dealing with cases of product failure by focusing on developing ideal marketing survey techniques. Factors that lead to controlling of instances of New Coke failure in the market are many. Some of the things that management should have done differently should have been the focus forming teams to deal with cases of market surveys (Sainsbury et al., 2017, p. 10). Such recommendations could have allowed management of Coca-Cola to concentrate on building survey departments to help it in improving the success of New Coke in international marketplaces. While management is responsible for usability, utility, along with the rest of the user’s experience after several recommendations would contribute to the success of New Coke development and some might be outside the direct control of the company (Crawford & Di Benedetto 2015, p. 6). Some of these factors that would have led to the success of New Coke include ideal market orientation process, knowledge management, and use of advanced technology for advertisement, improving the process, speed, team, and strategies of New Coke development. Concentration on ideal market orientation would have helped management of Coca-Cola to concentrate on the philosophy that focuses on discovering as well as meeting different desires and needs of its clients through its product mix (Corliss 2016, p. 907). The appropriate focus on ideal research on consumer and where appropriate, marketplace survey could have helped in developing high-quality consumer experiences that will lead to the discovery of their needs and how to meet such requirements by the management of Coca-Cola.
From the contexts of the textbook, ATAR model can be applicable in correcting cases of New Coke failure around business community (Crawford, CM & Di Benedetto, C 2015).The case of failure by New Coke arises because of failure of the product to satisfy needs and desires of consumer need extensive market research. Therefore, the use of ATAR model by the management of Coca-Cola is essential as it concentrates on developing appropriate ways of reducing the chance of failure (Crawford & Di Benedetto 2015, p. 8). It help product managers within the company to focus on the use of proper tools to assist in identifying preferences along with attitudes to help in improving the desire of consumers to purchase New Coke and usage. These tools that managers can use to boost the utilization of such devices by managers can range from simple surveys of the marketplace to help in sophisticating conjoint studies along with models of pre-test markets (Keller & Kotler 2016, p. 12). Besides, managers can concentrate on the examination of the findings from different models before deciding to continue with the development of new product, test market product, or focus on attempting full-scale commercialization (Schneider & Hall 2011, p. 3). There inappropriate timing during the launch of new Coke product remains to be the significant failure of establishment of product in different market making Coca-Cola fail in its activities of producing such products. Therefore, appropriate timing of launching, distribution, or production has its strategic advantages in the success of the product of Coca-Cola in different markets as the target by management.
The process of concentrating on the ideal moment to launch New Coke can help Coca-Cola to eliminate cases of product failure due to launching of the product at the wrong time. The use of speeding product to market by the company can concentrate on tree different strategic elements. These elements can be product innovation, new product process, along with portfolio management. The use of speeding product to market by the company by management of the Coke Company to re-launch their new product at the appropriate time with attractive features, additional benefits, as well as promoting remains to be more aggressively during the process of introduction to marketplaces (Collin et al., 2017, p. 9). Product innovation is an idea that helps the organization to be successful in attracting enormous consumer base since they would have understood the expectations and trends of markets. The need to understand different expectations and ensuring that the company does not offer the opportunity to complain during the time of launching New Coke remains ideal in becoming successful by attaining huge consumer base (Crawford & Di Benedetto 2015, p. 6). Besides, new product process concentrates on the need of careful analysis before the company concentrates on offering the product to distributors. The idea of portfolio management helps the company to understand why their new product might fail to outshine other available brands in the international markets.
Coca-Cola and its management should focus on getting as many quality clients even light, occasional consumers as quickly as possible. The idea of attaining more clients means that the company will have increased sales of New Coke that will lead to more shares and with that leading to the conversation between loyal and heavy consumers (Crawford & Di Benedetto 2015, p. 6). The acquisition of new customers will have the vital attribute that every marketer in global society need to leverage to word of mouth. Higher consumer base will help in understanding different products that the company produces and it will then enable other consumers in the market to know about such products. Therefore, the company and its management should focus entirely on ideal ways of attracting and attaining huge consumer base over their competitors in the market (Crawford 2015, p. 2). The company can focus on sending samples to attract the enormous customer base. The examples can be applicable as representative of the real-world situation by sending New Coke (Cova &D’Antone 2016, p. 176). The idea will allow management to have different feedback from customers that will enable them to improve their product before releasing to markets.
Coca Cola Company can ensure the success of New Coke in the different market by learning how other dominant companies have been operating to remain advantageous around marketplaces. The idea of borrowing operational ideas by management of Coca-Cola can ensure that they learn from the mistakes as well as failures of existing companies towards ideas of offering the improved product to targeted customers (Gorchels 2012, p. 4). Learning from other dominant companies that deal with non-alcoholic beverages such as Pepsi will allow management of Coca-Cola to conduct the market survey on the needs and wishes of clients that deal with such products before its introduction to the market (Kahn 2013, p. 7).
Conclusion and recommendations
From this report analysis it is clear that for an extended period, Coca-Cola has lost millions during its operations in the global marketplace because of the market research mistakes during the production and launching of New Coke in the market. From the report it is evident that fundamental concepts relevant to the new product failure in Coca-Cola include inadequate analysis of the marketplace, product deficiency, lack of marketing efforts, high production costs, production issue, poor timing of introduction, and competitive strength among other factors. Inadequate analysis of market remains to be a key concept relevant to the New Coke failure in Coca-Cola due to the inability of management to determine motives of buying, habits and misjudgments as to what products the marketplace needed. Lack of marketing effort occurs due to the inability of management of the company to offer sufficient effects of marketing that tend to support the sales of the new product. Competitive strength concentrates on the strength of Coca-Cola relative to other competitors such as Pepsi that offer similar products that can then lead to failure of new products in the market.
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