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From: lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein)
Newsgroups: net.misc.coke
Subject: Re: "Classic" Coke
Message-ID: <710@vortex.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 11-Jul-85 16:49:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: vortex.710
Posted: Thu Jul 11 16:49:50 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jul-85 11:45:58 EDT
References: <541@hou2g.UUCP>
Organization: Vortex Technology, Los Angeles
Lines: 33

It is doubtful that "classic" Coke will be priced substantially differently
from "regular" Coke, at least in the short term (except for 
particular promotions that have been present for the new formula
for quite some time).

The manufacturing costs of the two are exceptionally similar.
The primary push for the availability of the old formula was 
extremely poor sales in certain areas of the country, especially,
oddly enough, outside of major metro areas like L.A., N.Y., S.F., etc.
The new formula performed horribly in the South, where it sometimes reportedly
can be difficult to get a Pepsi in some areas if your life depended on 
it (remember that Coke world headquarters is in Atlanta).

The new formula is performing very well internationally, where I
believe something like 60% of Coke's sales are originated.  Apparently
sweeter drinks really do better outside the U.S., and there are fewer
historical, psychological tie-ins such as people have over here with 
the "old" formula.  So Coke doesn't lose on this score.

It now becomes something of a waiting game.  There are no accurate
long-term sales figures for the new formula, since sales to this point 
were driven largely by curiosity and major promotional campaigns/discounts.
Coke will now sit back and see what the local bottlers (who were
screaming for the return of the old formula, since after all the hoopla
their sales were still pretty much flat instead of increasing substantially)
do, and how markets and other vendors partition their sales between
the two similar products.  From this data will come the long-term
distribution and pricing decisions.  So if you want to have immediate impact,
start buying the old forumula as soon as you can.  I believe that a 
1% change in the market for these beverages is worth about
$250 million/year...

--Lauren--