The other day I had a stupid idea for the Coca-Cola company so I went to their website, looked up how to contact them and sent them this message
Dear Coca-Cola,I know that your company probably does not take suggestions but I would really like to see this idea given some thought.
The basic idea is that you could try selling coca-cola brand tea as you do in Japan. I’m sure your at first thought that sounds like it would never fly in America but please hear me out.
First, look at your line up in Japan which is here
http://www.cocacola.jp/products/lineup/index.html7 of those products are Chinese or Japanese tea and at least 4 of them are among the top selling in their category.
As you know, Americans are getting fat. One reason is possibly because they drink so many sweetened drinks. I’m not in anyway suggesting that Coke is bad. I happen to drink Diet Coke nearly every single day. But, I also happen to drink Coca-cola brand teas just as often.
Coca-cola could really start a major trend and major PR campaign if they were to market their own products, the teas, as healthy alternatives to some of the other products on the market. It would be a win for Coca-cola because you would expand the market AND at the same time project an even better image than you already do in helping the situation out and of top of that you’d know you are doing something to help this problem of obesity America seems to be having. You’d also be promoting cultural understanding, the difference between Asian teas and Western Teas. You could even promote the health benefits. The teas in many of those drinks are supposed to prevent all kinds of things from cancer to heart disease etc.
Anyway, please consider it. I would love to come home to the U.S. to find a I don’t have to give up my new tea habit
Thank you for listening.
I didn’t expect them to take my suggestion but I did at least expect a form letter saying “thank you, we always listen to our customers” even if it was a lie.
Instead I got this
Thank you for contacting our Web site, Mr. Tavares. We appreciate your interest in The Coca-Cola Company.Because of our worldwide visibility, we receive many unsolicited suggestions from persons outside of our company. We are complimented that our consumers are interested enough in our company to want to help us improve our performance. At the same time, however, we are unable to consider any submissions from persons or business groups outside the company when the submission relates to advertising, sales promotions, formula modifications for any of our brands, or concepts we have previously reviewed.
We recognize that having such a policy may occasionally cause us to miss an opportunity for good suggestions from our friends outside the company. However, experience has shown us that our policy is the best course to follow. The result is that we cannot consider your suggestion.
If you have additional questions or comments, please visit our Web site again.
Greg
Industry and Consumer Affairs
The Coca-Cola Company
I understand some of the logic behind their decision but it’s funny to me if only because a larger company has the opposite policy. Note, Apple is more like Coke, they say “blow it out your ass“. And you thought Apple actually listened to their customers.
Sounds to me like Apple and Coke are paranoid about being sued in the event that someone submits an idea that happens to be similar to something they actually plan to do. Apparently, they aren’t aware that the opposite tactic (such as the one used by Microsoft in your example) still provides plenty of legal insulation while promoting a much warmer and fuzzier image to potential customers. This type of attitude is one of the reasons I’ve never been an Apple fan…
Dear: Greg of
Industry and Consumer Affairs
The Coca-Cola Company
You really need to work on your “people skills”. A loyal Coke fan gives a humble suggestion and you say…”because WE are SO big, we cannot take the time to listen to your suggestions”.
We’ve been there….done that…..REALLY? when….1980’s ? Instead, you come out with Vanilla coke??
A Loyal Pepsi fan.
Greg, If you lived in LA (in the states) couldn’t you just go to Little Tokyo?, unless you are planning to live somewhere else you could get your tea there since they have plenty of shops that sell Japanese drinks there.
saying i was interested in using their products from a retail perspective, but i like got zero reply. it would have been cool to use cool looking imacs or cinematic screens at the cashier, but oh well…
I cannot believe that Coca-Cola would reply in such a way! Why, they are being given ideas for the company, and even more so, they are being given a marketing oppurtunity. I for one, think that if they already make tea in Japan, why not the U.S.? It wouldn’t be that hard. (Also, what I mean to say by marketing oppurtunity, is that they should be researching the public opinions of the people who buy their products)
Why Coke turns down opinions without even considering them, i’ll never fully understand. What ever happend to, “The customer is always right.”? If you can’t sell to them, something must be wrong, however, at this point, I may just be blowing the whole thing out of proportion. And, being only 15, I feel that my jabbering may cause more disputes. But still, I can’t believe that Coke would do such a thing…
Can’t expect much from money hungers. All Cola cares for is the quick buck. After all they did use real cocain in their old cola to get people to keep buying it. I wouldn’t support a company like that even though I enjoy cola, so I just buy the no name cola for cheaper anyways.
I’m pretty sure they rather just not take suggestions because people are so crazy today they are likely to try to sue Coka Cola by saying THEY STOLE MY IDEA! So they can just say this so nobody can say Coke stole their idea.