可口可乐首席执行官詹姆斯昆西是该公司
25 年的资深人士，他一直从心怀不满的小众饮料粉丝那里听到它。
“我收到了很多关于 Tab 的电子邮件，”Quincey 告诉 CNN Business。
投诉之前，Quincey 去年做出了一项引人注目的决定，将公司的产品组合削减了一半——在此过程中杀死了减肥饮料 Tab、冰沙品牌 Odwalla 和 Zico 椰子水等深受喜爱的品牌。总的来说，大约有 200 个品牌在砧板上。
昆西甚至听说粉丝为他们已故的最爱举行葬礼。他补充说，这必须是“我职业生涯中的第一次”。
没有人比可口可乐更清楚搞乱粉丝的最爱会产生后果。当公司在 1985 年试图改变可口可乐的配方时，客户非常心烦意乱，公司很快就改变了方向。著名的新可乐惨败证明，忠诚的客户不容小觑。
但是，让旧的最爱保持活力也有后果。表现不佳的品牌，比如被淘汰的品牌，会从更受欢迎的产品中夺走宝贵的货架空间。这意味着 Quincey 必须不断校准，以确保可口可乐生产的每一件产品——无论是像 Coke Energy 这样的新进入者还是像可口可乐零糖这样的主食——都值得在那里，并且每个产品都为品牌带来尽可能多的价值。否则，可口可乐将落后于竞争对手，增长将放缓。
“最终，这是一场达尔文式的超市或便利店空间争夺战，”他说。 “零售商希望为货架上的每个位置赚取尽可能多的美元”。如果一个品牌，即使是心爱的品牌，“销售的只是其他瓶子的一小部分，最终它会被淘汰。”
但并不总是清楚一个品牌将如何表现。而且总是很难杀死你的宝贝。
“以前的 CEO 也曾试图让 [其中几个品牌] 落伍并让它们消失，”昆西说，并指出他自己几年前曾试图杀死其中一些品牌。
但昆西说，在进行这些类型的变革时，公司的规模和整体成功可能是一把双刃剑。领导者可能认为所有品牌“都必须成为整体成功公式的一部分，”他解释说，“即使我不确定这个品牌扮演什么角色。”再加上品牌领导者的反对，成功完成一项就变得很困难。然后可能需要数年时间才能逐步淘汰它。
但大流行的危机迫使公司迅速采取行动，并在供应链摇摇欲坠的情况下专注于最受欢迎的产品，这给了昆西一个机会。 “我看到了我的机会，”他说。
Beverage Digest 的编辑和出版商杜安·斯坦福 (Duane Stanford) 指出，这些举动是昆西作为领导者的特征。
自从昆西于 2017 年成为首席执行官以来，“他所做的一件事就是拒绝圣牛，”斯坦福说。这并不总是意味着他做出了正确的决定。
He killed some of Coke's most beloved brands. And he'd do it all over again
Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey, a 25-year veteran of the company, has been hearing it from disgruntled niche beverage fans.
"I got a lot of emails about Tab," Quincey told CNN Business.
The complaints follow a striking decision Quincey made last year to slash the company's portfolio of products in half — killing beloved brands like the diet drink Tab, smoothie brand Odwalla and Zico coconut water in the process. Overall, about 200 brands were on the chopping block.
Quincey even heard about fans who held funerals for their dearly departed favorites. That had to be a "first in my career," he added.
Nobody knows better than Coca-Cola that messing with fan favorites has consequences. When the company tried to change Coke's formula in 1985, customers were so distraught that the company quickly reversed course. The famed New Coke debacle proved that loyal customers were not to be trifled with.
But there are also consequences to keeping old favorites alive. Underperforming brands, like the ones that have been eliminated, take away precious shelf space from more popular products. That means Quincey must calibrate constantly to ensure every product Coke makes — whether newer entrants like Coke Energy or staples such as Coca-Cola Zero Sugar — deserves to be there, and that every one brings as much value to the brand as possible. Otherwise, Coca-Cola will fall behind its competitors and growth will slow.
"In the end, it's a Darwinian struggle for space in the supermarket or in the convenience store," he said. "The retailer wants to make as many dollars" as it can for each spot on the shelf. If a brand, even a beloved one, "sells a fraction of what these other bottles will sell, eventually it will get pulled out."
But it's not always clear how a brand will perform. And it's always hard to kill your darlings.
"Previous CEOs have tried to sunset [several of those brands] as well and make them go away," Quincey said, noting that he himself had tried to kill some of them years ago.
But the company's size and overall success can be a double-edged sword when it comes to making these types of changes, Quincey said. Leaders may think that all brands "must be a part of the overall success formula," he explained, "even if I'm not sure what role this brand plays." Couple that with pushback from the brand leaders, and it becomes hard to successfully finish one off. Then it can take years to phase it out.
But the crisis of the pandemic forced companies to act quickly and focus on their most popular products as supply chains faltered, giving Quincey an opening. "I saw my opportunity," he said.
The moves are characteristic of Quincey as a leader, noted Duane Stanford, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest.
Since Quincey became CEO in 2017, "one of the things he's done is reject sacred cows," Stanford said. That doesn't always mean he's made the right call.
