Since the time of its inception in 1886, Coca-Cola had always been America's favorite soft drink. However, a relatively new competitor, Pepsi, had emerged causing Coke's market share (60% after World War II) to fall to only 24% by 1983. Young Americans were being TAGed as the Pepsi Generation and national taste tests often favored Pepsi.
What happened next shook the Cola World. Coca-Cola replaced their leading cola formula with a new formula, simply called New Coke. This decision caused faithful Coke connoisseurs to disown their loyalty and question Coke's motives. After the public distain and backlash for New Coke had ballooned to epic proportions, Coca-Cola re-introduced their original Coke formula which we know today as Classic Coca-Cola.
The aftermath of this three month experiment with New Coke which resulted in Coke returning to its original formula worked surprisingly well in Coke's favor. Coke's overall sales increased to twice those of Pepsi's and people became even more in love and addicted to the soft drink.
Because of the tremendous success Coke experienced, many people believe the New Coke blunder was a calculated risk taken by Coke's management. The conspiracy theory says that Coke's management took away Coke for a brief moment in order to remind people just how much they love Coke. Once they had achieved their goal, Coke gambled on the fact that people would flock back to the original drink with more love and loyalty than ever before.
Is it possible that the NFL is trying to reproduce the same results as Coke realized with the current lockout?
Just like Coke, the NFL has been as successful as ever. And just like Coke, the NFL has been presented with a fierce competitor, rising expenses. It’s a far stretch but could the NFL be temporarily taking away the game we have come so accustom to watching every year in order to draw an even larger crowd, and revenue, this coming fall?
One sure way of knowing if this could be a conspiracy is if they settle the lockout soon, before they would lose money, because if the goal of this gamble is to make money and grow a fan base then they wouldn't risk missing games by extending the lockout much longer.
People often refer to the NFL as a copycat league so could anybody blame them for taking a play out of the most successful company in the world's (in terms of brand equity) playbook? All I know is the cards are on the table and we're quickly approaching the time when the NFL needs to show their hand.
Good job G
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