Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Brands Management
Report Pt. 3
Brand Personality : Coca - Cola
Submitted by: Aimen Imran, Sehar Salman Adil, Sindhya Kirshan,
Sumayyah Khan and Syed Labib Iqbal
Why?
Why then did Coca-Cola embrace this personality and position itself in this
manner?
It makes sense when we understand that Coca-Cola, founded in 1892, was
the pioneer in the cola industry and has been one of the very few brands in
the world that have turned into a global power-house while still remaining
icons of a certain culture i.e. Coca-Cola and Levi Strauss turned into iconic
symbols for the American dream; they permeated every facet of the
American culture and garnered a demand in the global marketplace (Goethe
Institut, -)
Therefore, with this rich heritage as a valuable asset for the company, it
made sense for Coca-Cola to position itself as the authentic and reliable
brand for all ages. The values that were picked out by the companys
strategy team were that of joy and happiness; two values that are consistent
the world over.
Score
Sincerity
Excitement
Competence
Sophistication
Ruggedness
Brand as a Person
Coke
Pepsi
Age
21-25
18-20
Gender
Male
Male
Income
Millionaire
Children
1-2
Unmarried 0
Educatio
n
Graduated
Occupati
on
Musician, Philanthropy
Hobby
Sports, Music
Brand as a Destination/Animal/Car
Coca-Cola
Destination
Venice or Paris
History, Heritage
Pepsi
Las Vegas/California
Fun, Energetic, Sporty,
Young
Animal
Elephant Happy,
Reliable, Stable
Dolphin Fun-loving,
Cool
Car
Mercedes Reliable,
Lamborghini Sporty,
Comfortable, Safe, For Young, Impulsive,
All Ages
Slightly Reckless
brand.
Coca-Colas Happiness Machines (Moth, 2013) : Classic Coke
vending machines that hand out treats to visitors. There have
been several variations on the theme in this campaign; while
some vending machines dish out freebies to all visitors, others
are activated by certain actions such as hugging the machine
Coca-Colas move to switch to Aspartame as an alternative to sugar for lowcalorie and sugar-free beverages has been questioned by critics. The Coke
campaign had its roots in functional benefits as can be seen expressed in
this print ad (AdWeek, 2013):
This
titled
products
ad was
quality
you
can
feel good about which shows the overlap in the value proposition between
the functional and emotional benefits that are employed by the brand.
The self-expression model could be seen in use in the share-a-coke
campaign when customers could choose to share pictures of bottles with
their
names
on
it
across
different
social-media
platforms
with
the
BRAND PERSONALITY
Self-Expression Model:
Feel Good
Share Happiness
Spread Love
Relationship Model:
Family-Oriented
Old Fashioned
Authentic
Genuine
Accesible
Caring
Loyalty
Functional Benefit
Representation Model:
Pioneer in the Cola industry
Global Brand
A Mistake
Now ubiquitously known as one of the largest failures in marketing witnessed
in recent times, Coca-Colas New Coke campaign can be said to be a lesson
in the importance of brand personality. While most critics argue that this
marketing mistake was easily preventable, others argue that it was a
marketing ploy to drive home the importance of Classic Coke.
In the 1980s, two decades after Pepsi had repositioned itself as a youth
brand, Coca-Cola kept on losing market share. The reason was two-fold;
Pepsis aggressive campaign that involved signing up celebrities and taking
on the world by storm in their Pepsi Challenge. The second reason was the
introduction of products like Diet Coke that had reduced the size of the
sugared-soft drink category. In 1983, Diet Coke was third in position behind
Coke and Pepsi (Haig, 2003).
With people favouring the taste of Pepsi in blind-taste tests, the company
decided to alter the formula of Coke. Blind taste tests confirmed that the new
and altered formula was preferred over that of Pepsi and Classic Coke, the
Coca-Cola Company launched New Coke. Despite the success of the taste
tests, it quickly became apparent that sales were declining and people were,
not only indifferent but aggressively against the brand. Why was this so?
It can perhaps best be understood in the words of the CCO of the company,
David Keough who admitted:
While Coca-Cola had attributed all its failure to its product, it had failed to
realize the importance of Coca-Cola the brand. As has been mentioned
before, Coca-Cola was the pioneer in the cola industry and as such had
always maintained its stance as the original and authentic cola. The word
new was simply not one that was used by consumers when referring to
Coca-Cola. Referred to by William Allen White (Pulitzer Prize winning editor)
as the sublimated essence of all America stands for a decent thing,
honestly made, universally distributed and conscientiously improved with
the years, the New Coke was also a cognitively dissonant message for the
consumers according to Al Ries who said that it if Coca-Cola stood for the
real thing, then there could be no New Coke for that is like saying there is
a New God. Classic Coke was re-launched amidst much publicity and Coke,
once again, returned to its position as the market leader. The company
realized that the brand was more than just the product.
The lessons that were taken from New Coke are summarized in as Brand
Failures (Haig, 2003):
References
AdWeek. (2013, August 14). Coca-Cola Ad Defends Aspartame Beverage
giant continues push back against health concerns . Retrieved November 12,
2013,
from
AdWeek:
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertisingbranding/coca-cola-ad-defends-aspartame-151845
Coca Cola Company. (2007, July 30). Diet Coke drinkers to get more from
their favorite no-sugar soft drink. Retrieved November 12, 2013, from Coca
Cola:
http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/presscentre/2007/july/diet_coke_drinkers_get_more.html
Daily Mail. (24 , May 2013). Daily Mail. Retrieved November 11, 2013, from
Mail Online : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2330315/Coca-Colaunites-enemies-India-Pakistan-interactive-vending-machines-encourageusers-countries-make-friend.html
Goethe Institut. (-, - -). Levi Strauss. Retrieved November 11, 2013, from
Goethe
Institut:
http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/lp/kul/mag/deu/saf/his/en1603674.htm
Haig, M. (2003). Brand Failures. London: Kogan-Page.
Lindstrom, M. (2008). Buy-ology. Crown Publishing.
Moth, D. (2013, August 5). 10 Inspiring Digital Media Campaigns from CocaCola.
Retrieved
November
12,
2013,
from
Eco
Consultancy:
http://econsultancy.com/pk/blog/63175-10-inspiring-digital-marketingcampaigns-from-coca-cola
Palamino, J. ( 2010, August 25). Value Prop. Retrieved November 12, 2013,
from
Value
Prop:
http://www.valueprop.com/blog/2010/08/avoid-theoverlapping-value-proposition/