In the late seventies Pepsi launched a famous marketing campaign known as the Pepsi challenge. Blindfolded consumers took a sip of Pepsi and one of Coke and were then asked to make a choice. Pepsi beat Coke hands down, or at least thats what Pepsi said.

Determined to prove the ads were false Coca Cola conducted their own private surveys. The results were unexpected. People did choose Pepsi more often. Mostly they described Pepsi as sweeter. And the people at Coke took that to mean people preferred Pepsi. In perhaps one of the biggest product change blunders in history, Coke changed its age old formula and New Coke was born.

New Coke was sweet like Pepsi and retained the distinctive coca cola flavor. But the same people that voted for Pepsi in the taste challenge hated New Coke. It was a monstrous flop. Why, you ask? Was does that have to do with the Saints? Well, we will get back to that. Lets talk now about Governor Blanco and the Saints.

First a few words about Governor Blanco. Outside her unpopularity in some circles, including most Saint's sites, she is getting good grades by many on her first year. Even her opponents give her high marks in some areas. She is really focused on attracting business. She is seen as not quite as arrogant as some perceive former Governor Foster and not as crooked as some of her democratic predecessors. Her politics seem more middle of the road than right or left. She does have some sense of what her voters want.

Enter the Saints. How do the majority of voters in Louisiana see the saints? In a taste test challenge who would win, Blanco or Benson?

I can tell you this, the saintsreport forum is no barometer of how the majority of the people in the state feel about subsidizing the Saints, no more than an ACLU forum board would reflect how most people view gay marriages. State subsidies for the Saints are hugely unpopular with almost everyone I talk to outside of diehard Saint's fans such as myself. I have had many friends who know I like the saints tell me they would rather see the Saints leave than finance them.

So it would seem that Governor Blanco is free to play hardball with the Saints. Thats what the majority of people in Louisiana want. In a taste test of Blanco/State v Benson/Saints, consumers in the state seem to be overwhelming picking Blanco.

So now we go back to Coca Cola and New Coke. What did they miss? How did one of biggest companies in the world with one of the most famous brands in the world screw up so badly by changing the formula for coke?

Well the answer is they misunderstood what the challenge results meant. As it turns out consumers would pick the sweetest taste after one sip. But toward the end of the whole bottle, New Coke was too sweet. Coca Cola relied on a first impression, knee jerk taste test.

This is where Governor Blanco needs to be careful. Right now people in Louisiana who have "sipped" the Saints have a sour taste in their mouths. The saints are losing the taste challenge against the state. The governor and other legislators are getting the message that if they play hardball with the Saints and the Saints leave, there will be no political fallout.

Perhaps Governor Blanco and some others in the state should take heed from the Pepsi challenge. Yes, many people have a bitter taste in their mouths from Saints football. This is a Saints forum and there are even some here who would let the Saints leave.

But when that whole bottle is done and the saints have left, will all those people feel the same way? When the start of the NFL season comes along and there are no Saints to watch, will some of the same that praised Blanco for her hard stance blame her because they have no local team to root for? Every year the superbowl rolls around will some of the same newspapers that were critical of the Saints write about how much fun and profitable superbowls were in New Orleans? Will so many of my friends who tell me they really don't care that much about the saints miss them when they are gone? Will part of Governor Blanco's legacy be that the Saints left on her watch?

Let us all hope a compromise can be fashioned. Governor Blanco is in a difficult spot right now. If she gives in to Benson and gives too many concessions she looks really bad. If the Saints leave on the other hand, the long term political fallout might be more than she and her advisers anticipate. Even those of us who desperately want the Saints to stay understand the Saints will have to compromise and make it work for the State too.

Coca Cola had some of the best business and marketing minds in the world at work for them and they misread what people wanted. The data seemed so clear to them. As it turns out, drawing final conclusions based on one sip can have disastrous results. Lets hope the Governor and our legislators think about the long term reaction of voters if the state loses the Saints, not the one sip reaction. People might be a lot more upset about the Saints leaving than a poll taken today would indicate.



Sidenote: I have recently replaced some of my diet coke habit with diet pepsi thanks to my golf playing pal who runs a pepsi distributorship and keeps the pepsi's flowing when we play. Its tough when we play course that do not serve pepsi, he would die of thirst before drinking a coke and I have to hide my cokes from him as I think he beats me worse when he sees me sipping beverages from the evil empire.