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> The box could remain the same for 100 years, and I'd buy the same thing, as long as the taste and quality inside didn't diminish.

See this comes down to simple maths though. If you can retain enough of the loyal customers and win some news ones with the "exciting change", the net difference is worth it.

This keeps happening so I guess the maths checks out.

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I no longer assume rationality on the part of businesses and consider doing so a serious mistake. Businesses often have short term thinking and have shown themselves perfectly willing to shoot themselves in the foot.

The original comment that started this thread listed a bunch of plausible and probable causes of branding changes, and all of them are only rational from the point of view of an individual and orthogonal at best to the improvement of the business they are working for.

It’s also possibly done because people train themselves to like familiar tastes. There might be a small drop in sales, but eventually as more customers buy the product they will get used to the new flavour.

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