In 1999, Coca-Cola CEO M. Douglas Ivester thought it would be fair to raise the price of soda on a hot summer day. Vending machines, he said, could be equipped with thermometers, and when demand for a cold soda rose with the temperature, the price would rise also. Let’s just say it wasn’t one of the greatest marketing moments in the company’s history. On social media and in newspaper editorials around the world, angry Coke drinkers denounced the idea. The word “gouging” got tossed around a lot, and Pepsi gleefully accused its rival of exploiting consumers. Coke responded by running away from the heat-seeking vending machine as fast as possible. Executives tried to minimize the damage to Coke’s reputation by explaining to the public that Ivester was speaking “hypothetically” and that there were no plans to add a summer surcharge. They went on to say that Coke was actually looking for ways that vending machine technology could actually lower the cost of a drink. You have to wonder how many people believed that whopper.
