Thanks much dr pepperman!

I found 20 oz bottles in Harrisburg at the Progress Ave. 7-11. Also, a local delivery service in northern NJ but they won't deliver outside their local area. They sell in cans and 20 oz bottles.

If anyone knows of a place who will ship to PA, please let me know!

My hope is that Coke will not discontinue it and when their current obsession with Mello Yello dies it will have a sort of rebirth or atleast in some areas. It seems foolish to me that Coke is trying to revive Mello Yello its been around for soo long and never been popular. Atleast Surge had some popularity once. If Coke wants to fight Dew they are gonna need more than Yello.

-Avery

It seems like a lot of what Coke does makes no sense. Surge the product shouldn't die just because Coke couldn't market it properly. It's a good product and I've always believed that a good product can come through in the end. All Surge needs is another chance. If Coke promotes it in a more intelligent manner, they can make up some of that lost market share. They are never going to beat Mountain Dew, but at least they won't be a laughing stock.

Although I am not a fan of Surge (or Mello Yello or Moutain Dew for that matter...I'll stick with Sun Drop), I doubt that the geniuses at Coca Cola will retreat from THEIR retreat on this product anytime soon. Your best hopes will be that they don't formally kill it off and maybe, just MAYBE, reintroduce it down the road. Coca Cola has had no direction for several years now. The stock price is languishing. New product introductions have been truly uninspired. In fact, the "huge" profits of just a few years ago were largely due to "one-time only" bookings of sales of assets (interests in bottlings operations) and NOT the result of sustained case sale profits. Their missteps over the years have seen customer satisfaction erode even as they notched themselves up on the percentage of soft drink-drinks market share. Remember Fanta? They took a modestly successful product line in the U.S. and dumped it in favor of their Minute Maid brand name as the stable for fruity drinks. In the process of doing that they created brand confusion in the U.S. as the relatively respected Minute Maid name was cheapened/confused by associating it with candy-flavored sugar water rather than REAL juice or juice-based products. Now they reintroduce the line in the U.S. ostensibly to target underserved customers (Hispanics) and in the process confuse the customer base further. Well the story goes on...

And as to the belief that the best or at least superior products prevail. I wish it were so. But if that were the case we would never have had some of those crappy U.S. (and some foreign) cars back in the 70s and 80s that seemed to proliferate. We might also have seen the Sony Beta format of VCR prevail, which was praised by many as superior to VHS, yet which failed largely because of disastrous technology licensing decisions by Sony. The Apple OS computing devices might also have trounced PCs, again if so many missteps had not been made, and are STILL being made today. We might also have seen soft-pack orange juice concentrate still around if the producers had effectively marketed and distributed the product to a public that ACTUALLY liked the product and WANTED it. Remember, Proctor and Gamble took control of a well-respected refrigerated orange juice line (Citrus Hill) and drove it into the dirt. There are countless examples of superior or respected products that did not survive, whether for reasons of marketing failure, unprofitability, lack of direction /commitment, etc.

[This message has been edited by dlhancock (edited 12-04-2001).]

I agree with Karks SURGE was so poorly marketed it made me cry. If Coke had not just gone on sprees and had a more consistent more intelligent ad campaine SURGE would still be doing fine. As for not being able to beat Dew I think Coke has all the ingredients to whip Dew's ass off the market but they are just too dumb to figure out how. I used to love Coke. Now I mearly put up with them. More than I can say for Pepsi.

-Avery

I'm glad dlhancock noticed the ROTTEN advertisement ploys of Coca Cola for some products. YOU GET WHAT YOU PUT INTO AN AD CAMPAIGN!, & if you put in a little, that's the results!!

Fanta is well known in Mexico, BUT, Coke pushed Minute Maid in its place, WITHOUT MUCH OF AN AD CAMPAIGN! I only heard ONE ad series for Fanta in the US , back in the 70's. Now we have people who remember drinks like Fanta Red Cream Soda & Ginger Ale, but they are NOT to be found in the Fanta restart. Minute Maid is still on the shelf, but I don't think it sells too well.

I'm shocked that Sprite is being pushed as much as it is. Surge could have used this kind of push. RIP, Surge?

[This message has been edited by Hacksaw (edited 12-03-2001).]

Yeah, why does Sprite get such a huge ad budget? I like the drink, but it seems Coke could do more with that money.

I don't understand how a company that has so many brands chooses only to market 3 of them. What they did to Surge was ridiculous.

Spend huge money during the launch, then cool off after about a year. Then, they retool in 1999 but it's not a very big push. If Coke would have just spent wisely and nutured the brand instead of their on-again off-again ad campaigns, Surge would still be a viable competitor. Too much, too fast and not long enough has lead Surge to where it is right now.

It's great to have a big launch for an exciting new product, but it does nothing if you don't try to sustain some the early success.

Seriously though, some of the products they keep around (Tab, for example) are lousy and generally don't sell and yet Coke keeps them alive. Why should Surge be discontinued? I could probably name at least 5 Coke products that are more deserving.

karks your reading my mind man. I agree with everything you said. Coke had a huge launch...then nothing...then the redesign a fair re-launch...then nothing. They have NO CONSISTENCY the same can be said about Citra, Surge's litttle cousin. I dont understand why Coke doesnt advetise anything but Classic and Sprite and whatever is new at that time. As for Tab dont get me started my question is who the hell buys that stuff?!?!? Or Fresca, Try Deit Cherry Coke, Or even Mr. Pibb in cans and bottles or KMX or any of that other stuff they sell.l I mean I like fresca and Pibb but with some good marketing Surge could really go somewhere. Coke has wasted alot of time effort and respect atleast in my mind.

-Avery

Thanks Avery! I'm glad to hear that somebody loves Surge as much as I do.

Citra is also a good product, and again, rare in my area. There is a beverage distributor that carries 12 packs and a grocery store has bottles but it doesn't seem to be moving too quickly.

Earlier this week I actually wrote to Coke and asked for a list of bottlers that still make Surge. I've yet to get a reply. When I asked them about Surge's status a few months back, all I got was a standard form letter saying it's all up to the bottlers. This time, I demanded a real response so hopefully they will help us out a little!

By the way, is it just me or does it tastes better in cans than in bottles? I'm not too familiar with the bottling process but I notice it has a stronger flavor in a can.

Well Karks, good luck on getting that reply to you demanding a more detailed explanation from coke on the availability of a certain product. They are quite adept at sending out those form letters telling you it is up to the local bottlers (which it IS), yet seem to have no interest in helping you locate a product in which you...THE POTENTIAL CUSTOMER...might have an interest. I mean, they KNOW to whom (i.e. which bottler or bottling groups) they sell the various syrups. They also have marketing data that tells them WHAT products sell in each market. Therefore they must surely be able to tell you that a particular product is available in a given market or not. If they are showing consumption data for a market doesn't it seem reasonable that someone (a bottler of the product perhaps) is actually producing it for sale in that area? Hmmmm. Maybe they don't release that information to those who inquire because they consider all such sales data proprietary (which it is), but how stupid can you be to frustrate your customer base, someone who may just want to drink your precious beverage and put money into your pocket? So you end up with a corporate office telling you to ask your local bottler whether they make the product or not. Well corporate really KNOWS the answer but won't tell you. Then you call the local bottler and with any luck they will tell you that they do or do not carry the product in your area, but if they do you'll just have to hunt for it yourself because if anyone there knows they won't be able to tell you the individual retailers to whom the product is delivered. Customer service and satisfaction are truly the number one priorites for Coke! Tell me another one. :O

Yes, it seems that Coke only promotes Coke and Sprite. Any new product will get pushed for a while, then is allowed to languish, with maybe a product redesign or two. Another flurry of promotion, then ignore it again. It is sort of like the toys a kid gets at Christmas. The child plays with them like mad for the first few days...tires of them...them relegates them to a closet shelf where thery are totally forgotten. Maybe a friend comes over, sees the toy in the closet and plays with it again for a short time. Eventually that friend has to go home. The toy is put back on the shelf again. Mama eventually comes along and sees the ignored toy and throws it away as part of cleaning out the closet.

Tab has been around for a long time. Coke does almost NO promotion on it anymore, yet they still keep it around. Why? Who knows. Who drinks it (well I do)? Again, who knows. But here I would bet that Surge will not be relegated to the same status that Tab enjoys. They will essentially dump the product, not even giving it the same amount of production attention that Tab gets.

I live in Atlanta. Simple phone calls to corporate yield nothing. :O

[This message has been edited by dlhancock (edited 12-06-2001).]