Coca-Cola’s ‘Surge’ is Back From the Dead

Now, more than ever, your customers’ thoughts and desires are just a few clicks away. Whether they call your contact center, shoot you an email, or more likely, reach out to you on social media, it’s never been easier to know exactly what’s on the minds of your customers at any given time.

Most companies understand that, at the most granular level, they are in business to serve their customers. As such, it is important that they strive to deliver the precise products and services that they want.

Enter Coca-Cola, the prominent soft drink company. There are many reasons the company has been successful to date. One of them, certainly, is because the company is always listening to its customers. Think back to when New Coke was released. Met with harsh criticism about its taste, the company eventually abandoned that product and went back to its original recipe.

And it seems as though the company has followed a similar path recently.

Earlier this month, Coca-Cola announced that it was bringing back Surge, its popular citrus-flavored soft drink that was released in 1996 and taken off the shelves in the early 2000s. During its short initial life, the drink gained a strong fan base. Once Surge was pulled from the shelves, these rabid fans took to the Internet and spent years petitioning the soft drink manufacturer to ramp up production once again.

It took more than a decade, but Surge is back. Coca-Cola announced that the citrus soft drink would be available exclusively through Amazon.

“In this new era of marketing, we’re exploring segmented delivery of our portfolio to customers,” explains Racquel Mason of Coca-Cola. “Previously, a smaller brand would never have had a realistic shot at commercialization. Now, with Amazon, consumers can order a product like Surge and have it delivered directly to their doorstep. It’s the democratization of demand.”

With Surge’s rerelease, Coca-Cola is also trying something new with its marketing strategy. The company will forego traditional means of advertising and stick to digital and social media only to promote the product.

The takeaway for marketers? Your customers are out there talking, and it’s important that you make sure you keep your ears open as often as possible. In today’s digital world, it’s easier than ever to target your customers more effectively. Thanks to the evolution of e-commerce, buyers and sellers from across the globe can connected with one another in no time. As a result, marketers are able to offer niche products to their localized audiences.

Your customers are talking. Do you hear them?

Before this “hard-hitting news guy” came to Content Boost, Justin Reynolds was serving as an editor for AOL’s Patch.com in Fairfield County, Connecticut. As one of Content Boost’s Content Producers, Justin draws on his extensive news background to help clients conceptualize and create quality content that converts. Justin has a particular fondness for the written word—he’s had three poetry chapbooks published by various small presses—and particular distaste for both jeans and American cheese. Fun fact: He’s been to 44 states. His favorite? It’s a tossup between New Mexico and Montana.