Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site bu-cs.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!bu-cs!root 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