Lessons from the introduction and ultimate success of New Coke

Any business that wishes to have success and longevity must have three elements in place, a superior product, an innovative spirit, and an understanding that their customers will be the ultimate determiner of success or failure.

When the Coca Cola company introduced New Coke in 1985, they did so in a manner that made consumers believe their wants and desires were meaningless to Coca Cola. The resulting furor was only assuaged when Coca Cola reintroduced the original Coke as Coke Classic.

But here's the kicker, even then, most people were fine with New Coke and it was only a very vocal minority (are there any other kind?) that caused this supposed disaster for Coca Cola.

Coke survived the storm and is still the number one soft drink in the world today because:

1. It has an excellent product line.

2. It is willing to innovate instead of staying put and resting on its laurels.

3. And it was willing to listen if it inadvertently alienates its customer base.

So what is the point of all this. Like Coca Cola, NGC sprung something on all of us without warning, they have caused a very big uproar among many loyal customers, and they have taken a big risk while hoping for ?increased crossover business?, or some other business goal, unknown to us.

Here is how I think they can save the day and still meet their goals. Scrub the 01 February PCGS (foreign) purge and grandfather in ALL PCGS coins currently in any competitive set. Bar any new PCGS additions to competitive sets but continue to allow PCGS coins in the Collection Manager (and custom sets).

This would still be a much more welcoming policy than PCGS and it does not alienate loyal customers by forcing them to disband sets that have been carefully constructed over months and years.

Thanks for your Time,

Later,

Malcolm