Urge Making a Comeback in Norway
Our friend Christer recently had the honor of attending a focus group that Coca-Cola Norway put together to discuss SURGE's cousin, Urge.

He tells us, "For the longest time I had been hoping to get a chance to really speak my mind to the Coca Cola Company here in Norway about their utter neglect for their number one finest product. I've sent numerous e-mails to their consumer contact of course, and gotten the standard replies back, but what I was really looking for was to be able to talk to them in a setting where I knew they would listen and care.

That opportunity finally arrived yesterday, when after years of waiting, I got to attend a focus group they were holding on the future of Urge.

I practically begged them to let me attend, and it seemed they thought it would be interesting to hear the opinions of someone who had been buying and drinking Urge steadily since its launch, and not just people who would pick up the odd bottle every other month. They have been holding these focus groups around the country for the last couple of weeks, and they are still on-going."

From what we in America know of Urge, it appeared to be a struggling brand. It was no longer made in cans or 1.5 liter bottles and was generally hard to find. So, how were sales doing in Norway? Christer says "As it turns out, after a steady decline year by year, a clear trend of ever worse sales, things had now turned around completely! Suddenly and inexplicably, sales were booming, and they could not for the life of them figure out why! *That's* what the focus groups were about - to figure out why people had suddenly started buying Urge again.

Urge has been about as neglected as can be by the Coca Cola Company. Apart from its initial launch, it has received no advertising - it has in effect had a zero marketing budget since about 1996. You can't get Urge in restaurants or cafes, you can't get Urge in most vending machines (although that seems to be slightly improving lately), they have long since discontinued Urge cans, Urge economy (1,5 liter) bottles, and in stores there's usually one Urge shelf to every five Sprite shelves - if there's any at all."

So, why in the world has Urge made a comeback?

"It seemed that more or less the only theory they could think of was that their total neglect of the product was what had suddenly made it cool again," Christer said. "It has passed into retro territory, and for its non-compliance with today's norms, had inadvertently become the rebel soda it was once intended to be. Drinking Urge has become a statement, a way of saying that you don't care for all of today's diet and zero brands, a way of showing which generation you belong to, and something that is more or less unspoiled by numerous re-branding and countless cheesy advertising campaigns. By staying in the market for so long, despite declining sales and zero focus, it had become the little soda that could. And drinking it apparently makes you different, a whole 'I'm not like all you other guys' non-conformist type of thing. "

One of the purposes of the focus group was also to figure out what Coca-Cola should do to keep the brand's revival going. Should they start a heavy advertising campaign? Release new packaging? New flavors? It turns out there is a possibility of showing the original Urge commercials from the 1990s and even bringing back the old 1.5 liter bottles. Coca-Cola seems like they want to give Urge a slightly higher profile.

"Which final conclusions they will reach after finishing these focus groups remains to be seen, but it's by now clear that they've actually started caring about Urge again, which is about the best news I've heard since it first came on the market."

It just goes to show that a fiercely loyal group of fans can make a difference.

Thanks to Christer for his report!