It is the case study every MBA student is aware of – illustrating the significance of branding by citing the hostile reaction of Americans to try a new improved version of coke. No offence to anyone but the behavior of the people was very similar to what would be the behavior of your docile, most harmless dog if you take his bone away from him.
Even the most placid of canines would snap at his owner if he takes his bone away from him. Charlie Munger call this Deprival Super Reaction Syndrome. By super they mean insane or abnormal – the way your dog bites you although you mean a lot to him than the bone he is chewing on.
There is little bit of a dog in all of us. This is why girls ( and no disrespect here either) always want the guy who is hard to get – think Ashley from Gone with the wind, Heathecliff, Darcy and all those mills and boons heroes. The pain of losing something is much more than the equivalent joy you would experience from winning it. That is why a gambler is willing to make a bigger bit to get it all back. And a project manager is willing to throw in more money which will turn the whole thing around.
While the coca cola lovers of America believed they had all the rational reasons to be angry – one way to understand their abnormal behavior was that the joy of a new better flavor could not match up to the loss of their old cherished one.
- Amaresh
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