It seemed like a good idea at the time

Unintended Consequences Dept.
Sometimes bad ideas, or bad luck, happen to good products. Ayds, a chocolate-flavored appetite suppressant candy, was one of the top-selling dietetic products through the 1960s and ’70s, but the name encountered problems shortly after the AIDS virus was discovered in 1980.

The product was eventually withdrawn due to declining sales and challenges of name association no amount of spin could stop.

Whether it’s Coke or candy, the disastrous reaction to a product also reveals the power of unintended consequences.

“Coke wasn't prepared for how the public responded,” said John Craven, editor of BevNet.com, a Web site that monitors trends in the U.S. beverage industry. “If you look at it, the success of New Coke was that it got people pissed off enough to care about regular Coke again.”

Try, try again
After the New Coke debacle, Coca-Cola returned to its original formula (hastily rechristened Coke Classic), then jumped headlong into a diversification of the original brand that continues today.

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola with Lime hit stores earlier this year.

Coca-Cola's latest variations of the original beverage include Coke With Lime, being rolled out this quarter, and Coca-Cola Zero, a no-calorie variation of the low-calorie variation.

The new drinks follow on the heels of Diet Coke With Lime, introduced last year, which followed vanilla, cherry and lemon variations.

For a company whose flagship product once boasted of being “the real thing,” the mind-boggling number of tweaks on the iconic product might seem confusing. But one marketing expert said Coke's strategy is part of an industrywide marketing process.

Carving out ‘emotional territory’
“Companies want a mega-brand, a master brand that has a certain emotional territory that they own,” said Marilyn Raymond, managing director of New Product Works, a brand and marketing consultancy based in Ann Arbor, Mich.

“Our branding and our buying are emotionally connected," she said. "Out of that emotional territory companies can have different line extensions aimed at different targets. It's a perfectly rational way to expand your brand.”

And expansion has been a Coke trademark. In the years since New Coke went belly up, Coca-Cola has maintained the brand's luster where it counts: on the bottom line.

Coca-Cola ended 2004 as the leader in market share, with Coke Classic as the No. 1 carbonated soft drink in the United States.

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