The world’s leading soda company, Coca-Cola Co. (KO), will drop the word “Classic” from its top-selling cola after nearly two decades in an attempt to refresh the brand’s image and attract a younger customer base, an industry report said Friday.
The soft-drink maker hopes that the removal will appeal to younger consumers who may be turned off by the word “Classic.”
“Some people interpreted it like a vintage car,” Hendrik Steckhan, president of Coke North America’s carbonated business told the publication.
The company has been reducing the size of the word in recent years, and it will completely disappear from the label by the middle of this year, although it will still appear in small print on the back of the product in the phrase, “Coke Classic Original Formula,” Beverage Digest reported.
The word was added to its flagship product in 1985 in an attempt to distinguish the original formula from the unpopular New Coke formula. The New Coke formula, which was a slight modification of the secret original formula introduced in 1886, caused a backlash among consumers and production was eventually halted.
The removal of “Classic” will better align the products in the U.S. with products sold abroad, as the word only appears on cans and bottles sold in the U.S.
Coca-Cola shares ended down nearly 2%. The shares have dropped 26% in the past 12 months.
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