Community Relations Archive

All incidents and products referred to are entirely fictitious, and any resemblance to corporations are entirely coincidental.

A short time ago, in a consumer led society not too far away…

Interior, day. A new farmboy sits in front of a wrinkled veteran hermit.

Farmboy -You knew my father?

Hermit -Yes. In fact we fought together in the Cola Wars

Farmboy -Tell me about the Cola Wars

Hermit -A great soda republic existed. People loved its product, which was known as Red Soda. Over years, the loyalty displayed for Red Soda grew and grew

Farmboy - So what caused the Cola Wars then?

Hermit - A new soda was created. Blue Soda gained popularity amongst consumers, and Red Soda felt threatened. They saw some consumers trying out Blue Soda, and became afraid. They forgot that loyal consumers loved Red Soda, and would never change. But the leaders of Red Soda decided to change.

Farmboy -Change?

Hermit - Red Soda was to be reborn to attract consumers who loved Blue Soda. Rather than be different to Blue Soda, New Red Soda would try and copy the taste – but all in the Red Soda packaging. The new formula – an upgrade they called it – was trialed in test centres across the galaxy. Results were mixed at best, but it had been decided that New Red Soda would be on the shelves, regardless of feedback saying that it wasn’t ready and didn’t taste right

Farmboy - Sounds arrogant really

Hermit - A matter of opinion. But in a blaze of publicity, New Red Soda launched, and consumers were told they would love the taste.

Farmboy - Did they?

Hermit - No, they hated it. And to make it worse, the old formula Red Soda was taken off the shelves. Consumers would have to drink New Red Soda, or nothing. Many chose nothing, and sales of New Red Soda plummeted

Farmboy - But people eventually grew to love New Red Soda, didn’t they?

Hermit - No. The Red Soda people eventually realised their mistake, but only after many consumers left. They had tried to bully consumers into the new taste, suppress objections, but to no avail. A few months after New Red Soda launched, Classic Red Soda became available. People responded well, and New Red Soda was moved to a dark corner of the supermarkets.

Farmboy - So Red Soda recovered sales?

Hermit - Eventually, and New Red Soda faded into the distant memory as a poor idea. But consumers never really trusted the Red Soda people again as much as they had done before. Which was a shame, because the New Red Soda incident had managed to destroy years of loyal customer satisfaction

Farmboy - Thank you for your wisdom. I will take heed and spread the word

hmm, I can see a number of similarities in that and "new red soda" was nasty.