“Share a Coke” Campaign
How Coca-Cola took the next step in marketing, by getting into the personal lives of its consumers
A good marketing strategy has the ability to take any product, and determine whether it will be successful or unsuccessful in its release and ongoing sales. Some companies strategies are better than others, but for me, nothing will beat the absolutely genius way that Coca-Cola encouraged consumers to buy their same old, classic Coke recipe in recent years. In 2015, people all around North America began to see their names popping up on various Coca-Cola products around the country. Having names on the bottles was all apart of Coca-Cola’s marketing strategy, and “Share a Coke” campaign that urged consumers to buy their favourite Coke product for themselves and someone else. Although still the classic Coke recipe, and not a new product, it drew a lot of attention to the Coke products, and continued to prove why they are the leading drink company in the world.
The marketing strategy for this “Share a Coke” campaign was well thought out and targeted to a market that values inclusivity, friendship and making memories (Moye, 1). Their campaign statement includes, “An iced cold Coke tastes better when shared together with friends, family and even strangers”. The interesting thing about the market for this campaign, is that it is inclusive to every single person with a name. It gives the opportunity for everyone to be able to connect with the product, and have a reason to buy it. Even if you can’t find your own name, you’ll find the name of someone you know, and eventually, Coke made ways to customize bottles for each user individually. Not only is Coke urging you to buy their products, but they’re encouraging you to buy more than one, to share with a friend. The call to action is very clear for consumers, they know exactly what they should be doing with the product- share it with their favourite people.
The brand connects with the audience on a super personal level, calling the customer by name, and by their peers names to attract them to their product. Specifically looking to market towards young people who are interested in individualism, self expression and story-telling, it was important for them to feel as if they were special, and that they could relate personally to this product. Subconsciously, every name consumers came across, they would try to find a real life connection to, whether it be their friends name, co-workers name, favourite celebrity or even just a peer they met in passing, the campaign brought us to reflect on everyone in our lives.
The consumers really ran this campaign. A large part of this campaigns marketing was reliant on social media, and driven by the people who are buying these products. There was a large social media trend that occurred right after people started to find their names on Coke bottles. Using the hashtag- #ShareaCoke, consumers began to post and promote Coke products when they found their names. Whether or not they knew they were promoting Coke, it was a seamless transition in users social media accounts, and benefited the company, with exposure and the sharablity of posts. Even I fell into this- posting a photo every time I found the name of someone I knew- tagging them in it, and promoting Coca-Cola without even knowing it.
In addition to consumers posting pictures, Coca-Cola gave consumers the ability to virtually put any name or phrase they wanted on a bottle, share it and even order it to have forever. This customization could be anything from your name, friends name, celebrity name, phrase or even class code!
In attempt to advertise this new campaign, Coca-Cola created a series of commercials that tried to share meaningful, heartfelt stories to positively affect the viewers, and give them feelings of happiness and warmth. The commercial series aims to showcase different moments that will bring happy memories and emotions to the minds of viewers. One commercial being “Share a Coke with Love”, follows a series of young, diverse couples in different stages of their relationships. The two things each couple has in common- they are in love, and they are sharing a Coke with their partners names on it. Another commercial in the series includes “Share a Coke with Friends”, which showcases friends in different settings: hiking, at the pool, at a party, playing soccer etc. The friends are all having fun, and sharing a Coke with their favourite people. These commercials all value the important moments in our lives. They want to connect with viewers in their favourite times, and remind them of the love and people that they are constantly surrounded by. These advertisements are light, fun and relatable, and share a happy message, that the best moments are shared with a bottle of ice cold Coca-Cola. These advertisements are important as they are now making consumers associate Coke products with these happy, memorable feelings. The overall message of this campaign wasn’t just to buy and drink a Coke, but more about the meaning behind what it’s like to share the beverage with your favourite people.
The marketing strategy of creating this campaign and the addition of names on Coke products proved to be a successful strategy with the proof being in numbers of purchases, social media followings and the engagement that they received from their consumers. According to “The Wall Street Journal” Coke products were on a decline in sales, but in the first year since the campaign launched, sales reportedly increased by more than 2%. In addition to sales being up, social media engagement also showed a spike, having more than 500,000 posts using #ShareaCoke on social media. Online engagement and the creation of “virtual” personalized Coke bottles gave users a chance to create their own bottles with their own phrases. More than 6 million personalized bottles were created, which is important as users are taking the time out of their day to specifically look at the Coke brand, and interact with it (Esterl, 1).
This simple marketing idea, proved to be very successful and although only meant to be temporary, returned for years. Everyone became obsessed with finding their names, and whenever they came across a name of someone they knew, they were tempted to buy and give that product to their peers. Even if the consumers weren’t purchasing Coke products, if they came across their names in stores, they were more likely to think about buying them, or even take a picture and share with their friends- I know I’ve done this many times. This inclusive strategy gave every single person a connection with Coke products, and gave every consumer a reason to buy their products. Even if customers weren’t able to find their names, if they were more uncommon names, they still had an opportunity to participate and create their own online and to order. This was a genius marketing plan on Cokes behalf, as it encouraged everyone to buy coke, even if you were a fan or not, and also turned attention towards the products, as people became fixated on seeing what new names were on the bottles. The campaign will continue to strive, this past summer focusing on Special Moments, taking the previous values and mission, and adding in new features to our Coke bottles that will allow us to interact further on a more transmedia level, revealing a code on each bottle and allowing consumers to enter contests and free prizes.
Sources can be found at:
Esterl, Mike. “‘Share a Coke’ Credited with a Pop in Sales”. The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, Inc. September 25th 2014. https://www.wsj.com/articles/share-a-coke-credited-with-a-pop-in-sales-1411661519
Moye, Jay. “Share a Coke and Share the Summer: 2018 Campaign Focuses on Special Moments”. Coca-Cola Journey. The Coca-Cola Company. May 2018. https://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/share-a-coke-and-share-the-summer-2018-campaign-focuses-on-special-moments
Tarver, Evan. “What Makes the ‘Share the Coke’ Campaign so Successful?”. Investopedia. Investopedia, LLC. 2018. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/100715/what-makes-share-coke-campaign-so-successful.asp
