Brian Dyson, who grew up on a ranch in Argentina, was an outsider when he was named chief executive of Coca-Cola's USA division in 1978.
He quickly zeroed in on two big problems: Coca-Cola had very little control over its bottlers, who packaged and distributed the product. And blind taste tests consistently showed that most people preferred the taste of the No. 2 cola brand, Pepsi.
Dyson eventually cajoled bottlers into signing revised contracts, giving Coca-Cola much more control over how its soft drinks were sold. Tinkering with the taste of Coke proved trickier.
Dyson and the marketing chief of Coca-Cola USA, Sergio Zyman, a native of Mexico, pushed hard for a change in Coke's recipe. Though other senior executives were skeptical, Dyson and Zyman finally persuaded Roberto C. Goizueta, the Cuban-born chairman and chief executive of the parent company. The reformulated New Coke-launched in 1985, to replace the old version-was one of the biggest flops in marketing history. Yet Coca-Cola quickly recovered from its fiasco.
So did Dyson's career.
Dyson, who also helped lead the hugely successful launch of Diet Coke in 1982, died from complications of pneumonia Aug. 9 at the age of 90. He was a triathlon enthusiast and high-level squash player. During an interview with a Wall Street Journal reporter in 1980, he quoted from a book on Zen Buddhism and paced around his office, squeezing a wrist exerciser.
Sweet and sour
By the early 1980s, he was warning that Coke would lose its No. 1 position in the U.S. soft-drink market if it didn't modify the recipe, according to "The Real Coke, the Real Story," a 1986 book by Thomas Oliver. Coca-Cola technicians secretly concocted a sweeter, smoother cola.
In April 1985, Coca-Cola scheduled a press conference in New York to announce "the most significant soft-drink marketing development in the company's nearly 100-year history." Days before that event, the news leaked out, giving PepsiCo a chance to counterattack with full-page newspaper ads. "Maybe they finally realized what most of us have known for years," the ad said. "Pepsi tastes better than Coke."
Journalists arrived at the press conference primed to write about Coca-Cola's apparent surrender. Goizueta tried to regain momentum, declaring: "The best has been made even better." Almost no one was buying that story.
Asked to describe the difference in flavor, Goizueta ducked the question: "When you describe flavor, it is a matter better left to the poets or copywriters or members of the press," he said. Dyson later said Coca-Cola should have been prepared to describe the flavor and explain the reasons for the change more clearly.
"What Have They Done to My Coke?" Newsday asked in a headline. Soon, as many as 8,000 people a day were calling Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta to complain. The company had to hire more operators. Other people mailed in their protests. One sample: "I don't think I would be more upset if you were to burn the flag in our front yard."
Dyson assured colleagues that the protests would die down. In June, he flew to Argentina to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his family's ranch. Unable to reach him by phone, colleagues in Atlanta asked the company's Buenos Aires office to find someone to drive five hours to the ranch and deliver the latest data on falling sales. Dyson flew back to Atlanta early.
In July, Goizueta decided that the traditional version would be revived, under the name Coca-Cola Classic, to be sold alongside the new Coke. ABC News learned of Coca-Cola's retreat and interrupted a daytime soap opera, "General Hospital," to break the news. Some Coke insiders referred to the return of old Coke as "the second coming."
Coke sales surged, as did the company's stock price. What had looked like a catastrophe turned into a marketing coup: In a wave of nostalgia, millions of Americans rediscovered a tried-and-true product. When it was taken away, they wanted it more.
"Some cynics will say that we planned the whole thing," said Donald Keough, president of Coca-Cola at the time. "The truth is we are not that dumb and we are not that smart."
Dyson defended the experiment. "There is not one doubt in my mind that that was the right thing to do," he told the Associated Press in 1986. He predicted that New Coke eventually would outsell the classic version. That didn't happen. In 2002, New Coke-by then called Coke II and nearly forgotten-was withdrawn from the market.
In 1986, Dyson was named chief executive of a giant new bottling company, Coca-Cola Enterprises, created by Coca-Cola. He left Coca-Cola in 1992 but remained a consultant to the company. In 2001, Coca-Cola brought him back for two years as vice chairman and chief operating officer, giving the CEO, Douglas Daft, more time to find a successor. Dyson was still serving as an informal consultant to the company in recent years, while also investing in startup companies.
A practical dreamer
Brian Guillermo Dyson was born Sept. 7, 1935, into a family whose British ancestors emigrated to Argentina in the 19th century. His parents, Charles Dyson and Kathleen (Goodbody) Dyson, known as Molly, ran the family's ranch.
Brian Dyson earned an economics degree at the University of Buenos Aires. In a self-published memoir, he recalled himself as a dreamy young man who longed to become a great writer and explore the world. Dyson also had a practical streak. He found an entry-level job at the Argentine office of an international auditing firm. He knew the work might bore him but figured it would expose him to potential employers offering more exciting roles.
One of the auditing clients, Coca-Cola, came through in 1959 by offering him a junior executive job in Venezuela. It was far from his preferred destinations in the U.S. or Europe, but seemed like a good start. While having a drink in a bar shortly after arriving in Venezuela, he carelessly made a slighting comment about Simón Bolívar. An admirer of the Latin American independence hero pulled a knife. To avoid bloodshed, Dyson shouted that he was buying shots of rum for everyone to celebrate Bolívar's birthday.
During a trip home to Argentina, he met Evelyn Penelope Jane Rose, known as Penny, an Englishwoman who was working as a teacher in a British-style boarding school in Buenos Aires. They married in 1967. She survives him, as do their two daughters and two grandsons.
Dyson spent nearly two decades ascending the Coca-Cola management ranks in South America, the Caribbean and Mexico before moving to Atlanta. For decades afterward, his close friendships with bottlers in those regions bolstered his value to the company. He retired in Atlanta.
In a 1991 commencement address at Georgia Tech, he asked graduates to "imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them-work, family, health, friends and spirit.... You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls-family, health, friends and spirit-are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered."
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