Subject:
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Re: New colors and other info (ATTN JAKE)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Sat, 22 Nov 2003 13:59:32 GMT
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Viewed:
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999 times
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In lugnet.general, Erik Olson wrote:
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Look at it like this. Coke knew that 1 in 12 of its customers in focus groups
was rabidly, militantly opposed to messing with the flavor. Coke also knew
full well that that 1 in 12 had a way of swaying the other 11 in the room,
who liked New Coke because it was more like Pepsi.
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The easy way around this is simply to not use focus groups, but to poll
individuals. The idea behind a focus group is to see how interaction between
the participants unfolds so that you can anticipate how general public reaction
might unfold. If they suspected that we rabid militants have the power to sway
the opinion of the rest of their customers, that in itself is a good reason not
to make the change.
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They had a risk assessment
that said it was possible the change would be a disaster. They did it anyway,
because a majority of Coke drinkers thought Pepsi was just as good or better
at the time. Sound like most Lego-buying parents?
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Not really. Most LEGO-buying parents that I have ever spoken with know that
LEGO has always been a higher quality product than any of the clones. (Sorry,
MB fans!) And not because I told them so, either. They all played with it as
kids, too.
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After 6 months, Coke was able to launch the sweeter Coke III in the US as
“Classic Coke” with few the wiser.
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I’m sure that the present-day Classic Coke formula is not identical to the
original one, but when is the last time that you saw a can of New Coke on the
store shelves? Ultimately, they were forced to reverse their decision to
sweeten the product. I don’t know anyone who stockpiled New Coke when it went
away, but I know many who stockpiled Classic before the original change took
place.
My point is not that they should have had Jake ask us whether we thought the
color change was a good idea, but that they could very easily have asked him how
he thought it would unfold. I’m sure that, given what he knows from interacting
with AFOLs every day, he could have predicted this reaction for them.
Instead, they chose to sneak the new colors into production to see if anyone
would notice. Well guess what? We did.
- Chris.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: New colors and other info (ATTN JAKE)
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| Look at it like this. Coke knew that 1 in 12 of its customers in focus groups was rabidly, militantly opposed to messing with the flavor. Coke also knew full well that that 1 in 12 had a way of swaying the other 11 in the room, who liked New Coke (...) (21 years ago, 22-Nov-03, to lugnet.general, FTX)
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