A few years ago, The Coca-Cola Company approached movie theaters with an interesting proposition.

They wanted to install Coke vending machines in the lobbies of movie theaters that were already selling Coca-Cola fountain drinks.

Of course, most movie theaters declined the offer because they feared that the vending machines would cannibalize existing fountain sales. But one enterprising movie theater company decided to test the premise assuming that they could always take the vending machines out if they saw a large decline in fountain drinks.

The Coca-Cola Company found new ways to grow market share by encouraging some of their customers to take a calculated risk. What calculated risks are you taking with your business?

To the movie theater company’s surprise, when the Coke vending machines were installed in the lobbies, fountain sales didn’t decline at all. What’s more, with the addition of the Coke vending machines, overall sales of Coca-Cola increased for each theater!

Who would have expected those results? 

Lessons Learned
The movie theater company that took the risk with the vending machines learned several important lessons:

• Sometimes you have to look in unexpected places to grow sales
• Taking calculated risks is a necessary part of growing your business
• Every time you think you’ve got consumer behavior figured out, consumers surprise you with unexpected nuances

Action Steps for You

Here are some action steps you can take today based on the story above.

1. Brainstorm 15 unexpected new revenue streams with key executives from your company. Be sure to employ the “no idea is a bad idea” rule
2. Do a cost/benefit analysis of the top 10 ideas you come up with
3. Test the best idea you generated. Be sure to set expectations for the test and track results rigorously

Even if your new idea isn’t a clear winner, you can sometimes test your way into success. Don’t give up. Refine the idea until it begins to show positive results or until it dies an ugly death.

Other Articles of Interest from the 60 Second Marketer Blog:

• 19 Ways to Use Mobile Marketing to Drive Traffic to Your Website

• How to Increase Landing Page Conversions 45%

• Are There Really More Mobile Phone Users than Toothbrush Users?

Posted by Jamie Turner, Founder of the 60 Second Marketer and co-author of “How to Make Money with Social Media” and “Go Mobile.” He is also a popular marketing speaker at events, trade shows and corporations around the globe.

It’s crossed my mind that there are two articles on The 60 Second Marketer that discuss the Coke vs. Pepsi cola wars. One of them recounts a study done at Baylor University that used brain-scans to analyze the findings of a taste test. The other talks about the brand essences of Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi.

You might read these two articles and think that I’m a bit biased towards Coke, but that’s not actually the case. (If anything, I usually root for the underdog, which is why I’m an Apple computer fan.)

Anyway, there are a lot of incredible things Pepsi has accomplished over the past several decades. They spotted the bottled water trend before The Coca-Cola Company did. They were the first to jump on the consumer shift to non-carbonated beverages. And they’ve done a fabulous job with some of their core brands like Gatorade and Mountain Dew.

There’s a lot to be said for the folks at Pepsi — including the fact that they have Indra Nooyi as their CEO, proving that the gang in New York is a forward-thinking bunch. (For the record, I can recall 7 or 8 top people at The Coca-Cola Company from the past two decades and 100% of them are white males.)

Anyway, the cola wars continue in part because Pepsi keeps The Coca-Cola Company on its toes. And that’s definitely something worth acknowledging.