pitch unfairly

Cheat Codes · Strategy and planning

Coca-Cola, 1985. Pitched unfairly, 2026.

200,000 sips said change it. The can disagreed. Same story, same numbers. Rebuilt the way we'd pitch it today.

Template: Competitive and market analysis

  • ~200,000 taste tests
  • Lead down to 2.9 pts
  • 79 days
Play the 2026 deck Read the real story Steal the structure
1985 Competitive and market analysis

Coca-Cola

200,000 sips said change it. The can disagreed.

Legend
Original craft
Unfair

The story→10 slides

It's a live deck. Press start, then scroll or use the arrow keys, or play it full screen.

Play the 2026 deck

Coca-Cola's competitive and market analysis, slide by slide

Every slide opens the live deck right where it is.

  1. Coca-Cola deck, slide 1: Pepsi is winning the sip. We can win it back. 01Pepsi is winning the sip. We can win it back.
  2. Coca-Cola deck, slide 2: We outspend Pepsi by $100 million. Why are we losing? 02We outspend Pepsi by $100 million. Why are we losing?
  3. Coca-Cola deck, slide 3: Our lead fell from 6.8 points to 2.9 in nine years. 03Our lead fell from 6.8 points to 2.9 in nine years.
  4. Coca-Cola deck, slide 4: We win every lever we pay for. We lose the sip. 04We win every lever we pay for. We lose the sip.
  5. Coca-Cola deck, slide 5: Customers told us what they want: a sweeter sip. 05Customers told us what they want: a sweeter sip.
  6. Coca-Cola deck, slide 6: The SWOT says change the formula. One box is empty. 06The SWOT says change the formula. One box is empty.
  7. Coca-Cola deck, slide 7: We tested a sip. People drink a can. 07We tested a sip. People drink a can.
  8. Coca-Cola deck, slide 8: If the sip decides, the formula is the lever. 08If the sip decides, the formula is the lever.
  9. Coca-Cola deck, slide 9: Launch the new taste April 23, 1985. The hotline is our test. 09Launch the new taste April 23, 1985. The hotline is our test.
  10. Coca-Cola deck, slide 10: Test the whole can. Then ask what losing it would feel like. 10Test the whole can. Then ask what losing it would feel like.

Then · 1985

How it really went

Read the real storythe story, via The Coca-Cola Company's own history page
  1. Coke outsells Pepsi better than 2 to 1 in the mid-1950s
  2. The Pepsi Challenge puts blind taste tests on TV from 1975
  3. Coke's lead falls from 6.8 points (1975) to 2.9 (1984); Pepsi leads in grocery
  4. Coke outspends Pepsi by $100 million and still loses share
  5. Project Kansas: about 200,000 consumers, $4 million, two years of taste tests
  6. A sweeter formula wins 55% of 191,000 tasters over Pepsi and the original
  7. April 23, 1985: New Coke replaces the 99-year-old formula
  8. The hotline jumps from 400 calls a day to 1,500; the Old Cola Drinkers of America forms
  9. July 11, 1985: Coca-Cola Classic returns, 79 days later
  10. By year end Classic outsells New Coke and Pepsi

Now · 2026 · 10 slides

What we changed

  • Take the blind testPick cup M or cup Q on the one-sip promise, then see the reveal: you just voted like 191,000 tasters in Project Kansas.
  • Sip versus canBehind a one-way mirror, toggle one sip, half a can, and a whole can, and watch the winner change from the sweeter formula to the one people grew up with.
  • The SWOT with an empty boxStrengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are all full. The fifth box, what customers feel, says "Not measured" until you press "What we missed".
  • The test plays outThe recommendation says "watch the hotline"; then the hotline counts from 400 to 1,500 calls a day and the timeline runs 79 days to Classic.

Steal the structure

Build your competitive and market analysis like Coca-Cola did.

  1. 01 Cover The finding and the matchup in one line: who is winning what.
  2. 02 The question The one question this analysis answers, and the decision riding on it.
  3. 03 The market Share over time for you and the main rival, with the gap you are trying to explain.
  4. 04 Who competes, on what A grid of the dimensions that matter, with the one row you lose highlighted.
  5. 05 What customers value What buyers say they want, and exactly how you measured it: sample, cost, format.
  6. 06 SWOT Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, plus a box for what customers feel, so it leads to a move.
  7. 07 What the data can't tell us The limits of the method: what it measured versus how people actually buy and use.
  8. 08 Implications Three things that must now be true, and the stake if you act on them.
  9. 09 Recommendation and test The move, the date, and the signals with baselines that would prove you wrong.
  10. 10 What we'd check again The lesson to carry into the next analysis, stated as a rule.

Make yours in ChatGPT

Type your site. We'll write the prompt with Coca-Cola's structure and your brand.

Back to the cheat codes