New Coke Case Study Analysis
I most cases, research is conducted by organizations to aid business success. The data collected from the participants play a significant role in determining the steps that an organization should take to enhance growth and become successful. In 1982, Coke decided to do research that could support the launch of a new Coke. The project name was Kansa, a reference to the Emporia Gazette (Schindler, 2016). Controlled experimental designs were used to eliminate bias related to the brand name. Data collected from the participants provided vital information for the introduction of the new Coke. This discussion suggests some of the things that Coke should have done with the data collected during the cola war before the launch of the new Coke in 1985.
One of the things that could have been done was to identify the issue. Before any data is collected, organizations need to identify an opportunity for collecting data. Coke could have identified the issue by conducting an internal and external assessment to see what was happening within and outside the organization. This implies that both employees and the customers should have been involved so that the company could easily identify the issues. Coke, just like any other company, was experiencing problems and the best way to identify the problem was to involve the external and internal environment. This way, the company could have discussed some of its achievements, what they had not accomplished, and what other companies were doing. Thus, it could have been easier for Coke to determine that taste had become important due to the Pepsi challenge. Involving the public could have made it possible for Coke to realize that the customers were no longer interested in refreshing and thirst-quenching but what mattered was the taste.
Additionally, the company could have selected an issue and set the goals. Since the company is involved in both external and internal environments, the problems presented are numerous. The best thing to go about the issues to select a priority issue. All issues presented are important in enhancing the growth of any organization, but it is difficult to address all the issues simultaneously. The best thing that Coke could have done was to identify priority. Priority is the most vital issue that needed to be solved, and, in this case, the problem was a competitive challenge from Pepsi. This was the priority issue for Coke at that time that needed to be addressed urgently. Having determined the priority issue, the other thing was to set the goal. The issue being addressed should have a goal. This is the target or what the company intends to accomplish by solving a given problem (Gilsenan, 2017. Thus, Coke could have identified a goal for collecting data. This could have motivated the team members to work on the issue to accomplish the business goals. A business cannot be successful without goals, and this is the same case when it comes to data collection. Coke needed to identify the goal of collecting data to know what their aim was in the entire process.
The other step was to plan an approach and methods that could have been used in the process of data collection. Before the launch of the new product, the company could have been keen on selecting collecting information methods. One of the best approaches could have been to use the interviews. One of the things that could have been considered is discrimination. Since the target was to compare the new tastes with the old one and the Pepsi, discrimination played a vital role. Interviews are vital when it comes to data collection because different channels can be used. The most important thing with interviews and the survey was that more participants were going to be involved.
Before launching the new product, it was vital for the company to analyse the data collected during the interviews and surveys. This could have enabled the company to discover useful information for business decision -making (Demir, 2017). Through this analysis, the company could have determined its target customers and trends in that market. When filling the questionnaires, people who are interested in participating are the target customers. Thus, Coke could have identified its target customers and some of the trending market issues. Interviews enable the respondents to express their thoughts, especially when it is not a face to face interview. Also, this process could have given the company rough ideas of future trends in consumer behaviours. This is because analysis brings about innovations. Looking at this case, the future consumer behaviour was going to be based on taste, and this was a good thing for the Coke company since it was going to work on the taste of its product. With the data analysis process, the company was likely to determine other vital information such as the finances used, use of technology, areas that need improvement, and other issues. Financing is crucial for any organization since no operations can be conducted without capital. The analysis would have enabled to company to determine the unnecessary finances.
The last thing which is also the most essential that Coke could have considered before the launch of a new product is awareness. The company needed to inform the public that it was in the process of developing a new product with a different taste from the current and previous ones. Since it was in the 1980s, and the use of the internet had not taken root in marketing and communication, other communication and marketing channels such as the media could have been used to create awareness. The most effective platform was Television, and Coke could have taken that chance to inform the customers of their new products (Chawla & Kowalska-Pyzalska, 2019). This way, the customers could be ready for the change and give their feedbacks. Also advertising the new products could have attracted more customers since most people could be interested in tasting a new product on the market.
In conclusion, this paper has provided some of the things Coke should have done before the launch of a new product. In most cases, when companies introduce new products in the market, it is vital to follow some steps so that the customers can be well informed. Currently, there is the use of technology that helps businesses when launching new products. There is an increased use of social media, which has proven to be more useful for companies. A primary recommendation for organizations is that they should identify the target before launching new products. Also, data collection from the public is one of the best strategies to consider before introducing new products.
References
Demir, A. (2017). Importance of data analysis on achieving the organizational goals during the short term strategic plan: Case of service quality and students’ satisfaction level at Ishik University. International Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies, 3(3), 110.
Chawla, Y., & Kowalska-Pyzalska, A. (2019). Public awareness and consumer acceptance of smart meters among Polish social media users. Energies, 12(14), 2759.
Gilsenan, M. B. (2017, September). The importance of data collection for timely and accurate risk assessment. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 85, No. 1, p. 012001). IOP Publishing.
Schindler, R. M. (2016). The real lesson of new coke: The value of focus groups for predicting the effects of social influence. Marketing Research, 4(4), 22.