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Coca-Cola could take heed from the story of Schlitz. The beer that made Milwaukee famous was the second-best-selling brew in the U.S. in the early 1970s but then changed its taste in 1974. Sales soon began slipping, and the company never successfully shed its reputation for what many considered an inferior brew, even after it switched back to its original formula. Schlitz was sold to Stroh Brewery in 1982, and now has only 1% of the U.S. beer market. Coke, though, believes its careful and exhaustive testing and a huge advertising campaign will make its new taste successful--at least for the next 99 years. Chairman Goizueta calls the change to the new taste "the surest move ever made."
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