Andrew's Letters
Andrew wrote the following letter to The Coca-Cola
Bottling Co. of New York, Inc.:
September 5, 2003
The Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of New York, Inc.
3 Skyline Dr., P. O. Box 1012
Hawthorne, NY 10532
Dear Coca Cola Bottler,
I am taking my time to write you in order to ask
you to reconsider your decision concerning SURGE soda. I am a great
fan of this soda, and purchased large quantities of it regularly
before it disappeared from my area in Central Pennsylvania.
I, along with many others, feel that the decision
to discontinue distribution of this fine product was made too soon.
Since the disappearance of SURGE, there have been many baffled SURGE
fans wondering why SURGE had to go the way of the buffalo, especially
while there is still a large community of very dedicated fans of
this soda.
After the initial shock of what happened, a few
of us regained our heads and created an Internet haven for the heart-broken
SURGE fan known as saveSURGE.org. Here we are able to share our
love of SURGE through pictures and stories, but we are not content
with mere reflection. We are dedicated to bringing back this most
beloved soda.
Nearly every time I talk about SURGE to someone they say, "I
remember SURGE, it was good. Why did they stop making it?"
I now ask you the same question.
I know that Coke is a very respectable company,
and every respectable company listens to their consumers. The production
of the soda TAB was stopped for a long time until Coke could no
longer ignore the fact that it has a dedicated fan base. I do not
like the taste of TAB, and I have not encountered many people who
do. However, I know what it is like to have a favorite soda taken
away and I am glad that TAB has been brought back. I implore you
to not wait as long as you did with TAB before you realize that
SURGE has many diehard fans and a large amount of people that enjoy
it.
Please take my comments seriously. This is the
second time I have written to this bottler, and I will continue
to write frequently until I see SURGE on shelves. Thank you for
your time.
Sincerely,
Andrew Rothacker
Surge Vivat (Let Surge Live)
Andrew wrote the following letter to Coca-Cola
Headquarters in Atlanta:
May 30, 2003
The Coca-Cola Company
P.O. Drawer 1734
Atlanta, GA 30301
To the Coca-Cola Company marketers:
I am a sophomore at Penn State University and
a big fan of your hard-to-find soft drink Surge. I know that it
is your official stance that Surge has not been discontinued, and
that the local bottlers make the decision regarding which products
to make available in their area. I am not taking the time to write
this letter to tell you that you should bring back Surge, because
it is not your responsibility to make it available in my area. I
am writing you because it is my opinion that you are missing major
opportunities to market Surge.
To me, it was never a hard decision whether or
not to buy Surge. I bought very large amounts of it as long as it
was available in stores. The commercials that I did see on television
were very good, though: The phone rings, people drop what they are
doing, and all race to a single point using whatever means necessary
in order to get a precious bottle of Surge. And you can see the
satisfaction that the sweet, sweet beverage brings to the victor
by the look on his face. Those were great commercials. Also, the
many "under the cap" and "under the label" contests
drew me to buy even more Surge. The marketing campaigns that you
employed were truly good ones, and I am sorry that there was ever
a reason to discontinue such marketing campaigns.
I am especially saddened to see the many ways
Surge is not advertised. Just as an example, the movie "The
Hulk" is coming out this summer. I am not a big Hulk fan, but
the fact that he is big and green and that Surge is the only widespread
green soft drink could have been used to market the soda. It pained
me to see the Hulk drinking Mountain Dew in a television commercial
I saw the other day; I just shook my head thinking, "A bottle
of Surge would look so much better in his hand." I realize
there are other things involved in getting promotional contracts
with big-name movies, but something tells me that not much was done
on the part of Coke to get this one.
Another big disappointment to me is that in order
to combat the strong hold that Pepsi has on the citrus end of the
soda market, you are not using Surge to its full potential. Instead
of using Surge as your primary weaponry against Mountain Dew, you
use Mello Yello. I personally do not like the taste of Mountain
Dew, and that is just one of the reasons why I prefer the crisp
taste and easy drinkability of Surge. When consumers are faced with
the decision of which citrus soft drink to purchase, they now have
two options: Mountain Dew or Mello Yello (I do not bring in Fresca
or Citra because both of these do not really match up with Mountain
Dew or Surge). These are what are available in grocery stores, and
are equally priced. Of course there are many other Mountain Dew
knock-offs, such as "Mountain Frost" and other locally
distributed sodas that taste the same as Mountain Dew and Mello
Yello, but are priced much lower. So when the consumer goes to choose
a Mountain Dew-tasting product, they either choose the original,
Mountain Dew, or the less expensive local soft drink. I do not believe
that promoting Mello Yello is an effective way to contest Mountain
Dew's strong hold on the citrus soda industry. By more strongly
promoting Surge, you are giving the consumer a definite choice:
the taste of Mountain Dew or the taste of Surge. Two clear and distinct
tastes; two clear and distinct choices.
When Surge was first introduced in 1997 it sold
very well (69 million cases), but by 2000 it had dived to under
27 million cases, and that is when distributors began choosing not
to keep it on shelves. Three years later, Surge fans have yet to
move on from their lost loved-one, Surge. It is my belief, along
with many others, that a reintroduction of Surge via a new marketing
campaign would give lasting results, and sales would only grow as
time went on. It is very clear that there is a market for Surge,
and it deserves to be marketed to the many fans that want to buy
it. The website "www.savesurge.org" is proof that there
is a large community of incredibly devoted fans, such as myself,
who go to great lengths to acquire their beverage of choice: Surge.
What I am trying to say is that Surge is a very marketable soft
drink; you just aren't trying hard enough.
With all of this having been said, I wish to reinforce
my love of the Coca-Cola Company. You continue to make superior
products, and I thank you for that. The only regret I have about
going to Penn State is that it is a Pepsi school, and it is impossible
to find Coca-Cola products on campus. Please consider what I have
written regarding the marketing of your product Surge. Thank you
for your time.
Andrew R. Rothacker
Surge Vivat (Let Surge Live)
Andrew wrote the following letter to The Coca-Cola Bottling Co.
of New York, Inc.:
July 12, 2003
The Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of New York, Inc.
3 Skyline Dr., P.O. Box 1012
Hawthorne, NY 10532
Dear Coca Cola Bottler,
To start off, let me say thank you for producing such wonderful
products! Coca Cola products have a truly unique identity and they
are a welcome edition to my everyday life.
After writing the Coca-Cola Headquarters
in Atlanta, they wrote back and informed me that your bottling company
is the one that serves my area. I live in Lancaster County Pennsylvania,
and there's a bottler in Lancaster County, so I am not sure if that's
right, but it does no harm for me to contact you anyway.
All this being said, let me get down to
the reason that I am writing you. I am and have been a very avid
fan of your soda SURGE. Unfortunately, SURGE is no longer available
in my area. As I understand it, local bottlers make the decisions
regarding which products to make available in their area. I am asking
you to please reconsider and make SURGE available once again. SURGE
has a crisp and full flavor, but is not heavily carbonated which
increases its drinkability. SURGE is very unique, and is truly the
only Fully Loaded Citrus Soda to be found anywhere.
There is certainly a large enough market
for SURGE soda. This can easily be seen by the following that has
surfaced ever since bottlers stopped distributing it in their areas.
E-Bay listings for SURGE and SURGE memorabilia sell everyday at
high prices, proving that people will pay for the only soda that
lets them Feed the Rush. The website saveSURGE.org allows one to
peer into the lives of those who will not let their beverage of
choice go quietly into the night.
I think removing SURGE from shelves was
a bad idea. But it doesn't matter what I think; the commotion it
has stirred and the following that has risen proves that it indeed
was a bad idea. Please consider making SURGE available once again,
and let me say that if I learned that SURGE was available in New
York, I would drive from PA many times to get some.
Sincerely,
Andrew Rothacker
Surge Vivat (Let Surge Live)
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