Cocaine: The Brand

In American Gangster, drug lord Frank Lucas, played by Denzel Washington, confronts one of his dealers for diluting his Blue Magic cocaine brand. “Brand names mean something, Nicky. Consumers rely on them to know what they’re getting. Blue Magic that’s a brand name; Like Pepsi, that’s a brand name. I stand behind it. I guarantee it.”

Lucas understood even back then the role brand plays in business, and to a greater extent the role cocaine plays in brand.

The fuel of progress

Cocaine became highly popular in the Western world in the early 80’s, primarily among the highrollers of Wall Street, the Madison Avenue ad execs and the Hollywood jet set.

Unlike other drugs before it such as weed and LSD that were anti-business; part of a counter-culture that rebelled against the traditional power structures, or Heroine whose users simply became dysfunctional, cocaine was totally pro-busines — the perfect drug for the new world; Reagan’s America and Thatcher’s Britain.

It was the perfect fuel for the fiercely competitive capitalism that was emerging; for the American Dream itself.

Fuck coffee and sweets, cocaine let you work longer, gave you the confidence to close deals, had the aura of winners — and it was most often the celebration of choice for winning itself.

A brand backed by numbers

Unlike other drugs or pastimes, cocaine, the brand, has never fallen out of style. In a world of fleeting loyalties, it definitely belongs in the category of superbrands — and in terms of net value, it definitely is numero uno. It has protected its value, maintained its desirability, and constantly continues to grow its distribution and markets globally and mercilessly, regardless of inflation, war, pandemic and whatever comes next.

Wu-Wei: marketing with no marketing

Wu Wei is an ancient Chinese philosophy of doing without doing; ruling without ruling.

Unlike other brands or businesses, cocaine has a ZERO marketing budget. It simply relies on an army of volunteer influencers who lead by example and promote the brand ad hoc.

Product placement plays a big role as well. While big brands negotiate for months with Hollywood to place their products in movies, cocaine is often simply part of the plot; part of the art, and never pays for the perk and pleasure of mass exposure.

It has been immortalised in popular culture by endless charming villains, charismatic psychopaths and bon vivants.

And while these characters never have a happy ending, the brand itself only grows stronger.

No press is bad press

Fads and awareness impact the ebb and flow of brand popularity and perception. Less people are drinking coca cola as the world has become aware of the harms of sugar. Sweatshops affect the popularity of fashion brands, growing veganism affects the popularity of leather apparel and so on and so forth. But the harms of cocaine have been known pretty much from the beginning — and yet, consumption is constantly on the rise. No brand can boast such an inexplicable claim. It defies logic.

And as such, no brand practitioner can remain indifferent to the secret of its success.

Product vs Brand

Brands are ultimately about loyalty and legacy. They seek to hook you, to have you come back for more.

Part of that is having a superior product. In the case of cocaine, the product itself is not a wow…Ecstasy, MDMA, and Ketamin are much more thrilling, as well as significantly cheaper and less addictive, yet they come and go. Only cocaine maintains its market position of Top Dog.

With time, and I’m sure Frank Lucas would be deeply saddened by this, many middlemen have diluted the product, added unconscionable additives ranging from rat poison to baking powder, to speed and god knows what else — yet miraculously the brand continues to thrive.

For any reasonable person the proposition of having 3–4 hours of fun followed by 24–48 hours of misery, both physical and emotional, doesn’t quite appear to be an appealing proposition.

Yet it is exactly with this point that the power of brand; perception of value becomes so intriguing; so powerful. Cocaine is a success story against all odds. And perhaps here lies the secret of its appeal.

Danger and risk are often overlooked as emotional motivators, but for professional risk-takers and blind believers of success at any cost who feel they are above societal norms, cocaine is a deadly aphrodisiac; a venus fly trap.

The Outlaw Brand Archetype

If we look at cocaine in terms of the 12 brand archetypes, it definitely belongs to the Outlaw — and it plays that role to perfection. People who thrive on breaking the rules can’t find any better partner in crime.

Cocaine: No Happy Ending

Ernst Hemingway once said there are 2 ways to go bankrupt. Gradually, then suddenly. So goes cocaine, the brand and the product. For the individual user, the community and society at large.

But from a brand perspective, damn, it’s a killer story.

For those who build brands, whether it’s an organic dog food brand, the safest car seat in the world, a dear political cause or an AI solution that can disrupt the way society interacts, we can only strive to emulate such timeless appeal — in our case we just pray for a happier ending.

<Laxer>