In 1985, the Coca-cola company made the decision to change the formula of its leading soft drink. The change was based on the findings of many market studies. These studies had shown that the general response to the new product was good. However, the change of the traditional Coca-cola by New Coke was rejected by the majority of drinkers. In fact, the company had to step back and restart production of the old formula of Coca-cola.

The most important reason why New Coke was rejected was the emotional relationship that existed between drinkers and the old soft drink formula. Drinking Coca-cola had become a tradition for many people over its 99 years of existence. The change made by the company was not only in Coke’s formula but also in the traditional values and memories that it represented to the drinkers. “We had taken away more than the product Coca-cola. We had taken away a little part of them and their past.” The drinkers rejected this “improvement”, because “they believed that Coke stood for traditional value...so they felt betrayed when the product changed completely overnight”.

Although a lot of research was done by Coca-cola company, it didn’t show the depth of drinkers’emotion for the product. The studies took many forms, but none of the tests was able to measure the degree of personal and emotional reactions caused by the disappearance of the old, traditional Coca-cola. The weakness of the research was that it was mainly quantitative in form. The result was only numbers that could not show the deep meaning the product had for many people. A more extensive study focusing on the qualitative aspects of the change would perhaps have been able to demonstrate the close relationship existing between drinkers and product.
According to the passage, the drinkers rejected New Coke because of __________.

A.the late response to the market by Coca-cola company

B.the reproduction of Coca-cola’s old drink formula

C.a strong dislike by Coca-cola’s regular drinkers

D.the emotional relationship between the drinkers and the old soft drink