Coca-Cola pulls winter cans amid confusion.

[they’ve] ever launched,” Coca-Cola has decided to pull their ‘Artic Home’ cans off the shelves amid reports of confusion and dislike from consumers. After hundreds of facebook posts, tweets, blog articles and comments through coke’s online feedback system, Coke has decided to let the white cans run their course and replace them with an updated red can featuring the polar bears.

[blockquote]”We are not pulling our white cans from store shelves or replacing them with the red can,” according to Coca-Cola spokesman Ben Sheidler. “The limited-edition white ‘Arctic Home’ cans will remain on store shelves until supplies last and then we will switch out to a red Arctic Home holiday can” with the same polar bear motif.[/blockquote]

The trouble began when consumers began reaching for, what they thought, was their favorite diet soda and unintentionally purchased the original Coke product in disguise. This may not seem like a real issue, unless of course you’re diabetic, or just really enjoy diet soda.

All of this brings up an interesting thought, however.  Has Coke unintentionally attacked their own brand?  When a person thinks of Coca-Cola as a brand, one would think of the original “coke bottle” shape, the script logotype, and of course the bright red cans. We don’t usually think of the white/silver cans of Coke’s lesser, but very important diet formula.  In this case, it seems the marketing team at Coke forgot to think of their diet brand as well. By launching the “artic” cans coke has managed to create confusion amongst their own brand and removed the familiarity that they have worked so hard to solidify.

Ultimately, the only one who loses at the end of the day is the polar bears.  They didn’t do anything to cause this confusion. I guess not everyone can get it right every time, not even the big guys.