Recently, I have been very busy on my radio works. When I look back, I can't believe that I have working on the Catholic Radio for 3 months!!!! These 3 months remind me that I do not know a lot on my religion. On the other hand, I have learnt a lot from it.
Of course, during these 3 months, I got lots of good comments and bad comments too. When I received good comments, obviously, I felt very happy. When I received bad comments, I actually always found that not appropriate. My first reaction always think like how come we need to be that formal when we talk about the catholic faith? Can we change it? Can we change the tast of the Catholic Teaching?
However, I linked this to the Cola Wars*:
By the mid-1970s, the Coca-Cola Company was a lumbering giant. Performance reflected this. Between 1976 and 1978, the growth rate of Coca-Cola soft drinks dropped from 13 percent annually to a meager 2 percent. As the giant stumbled, Pepsi Cola was finding heady triumphs. First came the “Pepsi Generation.” This advertising campaign captured the imagination of the baby boomers with its idealism and youth. This association with youth and vitality greatly enhanced the image of Pepsi and firmly associated it with the largest consumer market for soft drinks.
Then came another management coup, the “Pepsi Challenge,” in which comparative taste tests with consumers showed a clear preference for Pepsi. This campaign led to a rapid increase in Pepsi’s market share, from 6 to 14 percent of total U.S. soft-drink sales.
Coca-Cola, in defense, conducted its own taste tests. Alas, these tests had the same result—people liked the taste of Pepsi better, and market-share changes reflected this. By 1979, Pepsi was closing the gap on Coca-Cola, having 17.9 percent of the soft-drink market, to Coke’s 23.9 percent. By the end of 1984, Coke had only a 2.9 percent lead, while in the grocery store market it was now trailing by 1.7 percent. Further indication of the diminishing position of Coke relative to Pepsi was a study done by Coca-Cola’s own marketing research department. The study showed that in 1972, 18 percent of soft-drink users drank Coke exclusively, while only 4 percent drank only Pepsi. Only 12 percent now claimed loyalty to Coke, while the number of exclusive Pepsidrinkers almost matched, with 11 percent.
What made the deteriorating comparative performance of Coke all the moreworrisome and frustrating to Coca-Cola was that it was outspending Pepsi in advertisingby $100 million. It had twice as many vending machines, dominated fountains,had more shelf space, and was competitively priced.
With the market-share erosion of the late 1970s and early 1980s, despite strong advertisingand superior distribution, the company began to look at the soft-drink productitself. Taste was suspected as the chief culprit in Coke’s decline, and marketing research seemed to confirm this. In September 1984, the technical division developeda sweeter flavor. In perhaps the biggest taste test ever, costing $4 million, 55percent of 191,000 people approved it over Pepsi and the original formula of Coke.Top executives unanimously agreed to change the taste and take the old Coke off themarket.
That's why there is the word "Classics" on the Coca-Cola can.
From this, I learnt that I need to modify my talking style according to the audience. If I got comments, either good or bad, I should try to balance it out. This is what we can improve our creativity.
- Ah B
