Ever heard of ‘New Coke’? In 1985, Coca-Cola confidently launched a re-brand of their famous drink. It lasted just 77 days, and then tanked—proof that the best-laid marketing plans can go awry.
At Growth Experts, as we wrap up 2024, we’ve been reflecting on why marketing is so much harder than it looks. Even brand giants can stumble – and sometimes those stumbles make history.
Consider Coca-Cola. This wasn’t just any product. In the 1930s, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, William Allen White referred to the drink as “The sublimated essence of all America stands for—a decent thing, honestly made.” It’s a drink so embedded in American culture that when Apollo 11 astronauts returned from the moon, they were greeted with a sign reading “Welcome back to earth, home of Coca-Cola.”
In 1985, one hundred years after its inception, the company decided to launch New Coke. New Coke was a response to Coca-Cola losing market share to diet soft drinks for a few years.
A different formula, this one had been taste-tested to meet Americans’ growing preference for sweeter things. The public reaction would surely be good, right?
Well, this is what happened instead:
After just 77 days, the company had to bring back the original formula as “Coca-Cola Classic”.
If New Coke was a blunder, Hoover’s 1992 flight promotion was a catastrophe. The plan seemed simple:
Everything, as it turned out:
They made the application process deliberately arduous, hoping people wouldn’t follow through. One customer reported that when his Hoover broke down, the repair technician told him, “If you think buying a washing machine’s going to get you two tickets to America, you must be an idiot.”
The fallout was devastating. Multiple executives lost their jobs, lawsuits continued until 1998, and the scandal ultimately led to the sale of Hoover’s European division. The final blow? A damning 2004 BBC documentary that cost them their Royal Warrant.
These historic marketing disasters aren’t just entertaining cautionary tales. They illuminate why marketing remains one of business’s most challenging disciplines. This is because there are so many factors that add in to a successful marketing plan – event the biggest companies in the world face some of these challenges:
Marketing isn’t like baking, where you follow a recipe and get predictable results. You have to do many things simultaneously, often for months, before seeing any effect. And when results do come? Good luck pinpointing exactly which action triggered them!
“Give it three months” is a common marketing mantra. But the truth? Nobody really knows. Sometimes results appear in weeks, sometimes years. As venture capitalist Naval Ravikant says, “You have to be impatient with action and patient with results”. Easier said than done.
Here’s what makes marketing particularly deceptive: activity feels like progress. Publish a newsletter, post on LinkedIn, and send some emails—you feel productive. But these actions don’t immediately translate to success. When it comes to the crunch, something’s got to give…
Marketing is often the first thing that stops when business gets busy. Then work slows down, and you need marketing again, but you’re starting from zero. It’s like trying to get fit—you can’t just exercise when you feel like it and expect results.
Think defining your target audience is simple. Industry, business size, location, and job title can all feel frustratingly vague. And that perfect message you crafted might land brilliantly on Monday and fall flat on Tuesday, depending on your prospect’s mood.
If someone claims they fully understand Google Analytics 4, they might be stretching the truth. Modern marketing tools require expertise in data science, statistics, user interface design, and more—just to figure out if your campaigns are working.
What can we learn from both historic blunders and current challenges?
As we head into 2025, remember: that marketing is hard because it’s human. It’s about understanding people, building trust, and creating connections. Even giants like Coca-Cola and Hoover have stumbled trying to get it right.
At Growth Experts, we believe in acknowledging these challenges while helping businesses navigate them. Because understanding that marketing is complex is the first step to doing it better.
Need help building a marketing strategy that learns from the past while looking to the future? As an all-you-can-eat marketing agency, we’re here to help you avoid the pitfalls and find the opportunities.
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