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From: root@bu-cs.UUCP (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: net.misc.coke
Subject: Re: Classic Coke
Message-ID: <490@bu-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 13-Jul-85 18:00:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: bu-cs.490
Posted: Sat Jul 13 18:00:43 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 15-Jul-85 02:14:26 EDT
References: <377@petfe.UUCP>, <420@moncol.UUCP>
Organization: Boston Univ Comp. Sci.
Lines: 29

Oh, just a little something I heard on a CNN interview that I thought
was a good point (from some marketing type, not affiliated with Coke):

Many, many of the people who drink Coke (and other colas) are
habituated, at least mildly and as such are sensitive to the taste and
other aspects of the formula.

Most habituating substances have one thing in common: they don't taste
very good to casual users (eg. tobacco, scotch etc etc)

The mistake Coke (and others) makes in these random taste tests is just
that, using random people who may often be trying their particular
product for the first time.

Could you imagine grabbing random people off the street and asking them
to puff a cigarette? I think you might end up with a very sweet
cigarette.

The relationship between how good something tastes the first time and
the likelihood that the user will become habituated (ok, if that bothers
you replace 'loyal') may very well be inversely correlated!

(a lot of this is paraphrased and salt and peppered w/ my own thoughts
so sorry if you saw the show and are a little confused, but I think
I captured the point.)

Anyhow, food for thought

	-Barry Shein, Boston University