Coca-Cola’d: A True Coke Tale
When we say the word Coca-Cola, what do you see in a flash in your mind? I see a 1 liter glass bottle with red cap and labeled Coca-cola in their iconic white calligraphic English font in the middle. I remember this from my childhood. In fact, Coca-cola is that famous in my country that everyone calls any black colored carbonated beverage as coke till now. Coca-cola is kind of bonded with the emotion of people (What’s this? Another Bojack episode?)
Coca-cola is the fourth most valuable company in the world right now. Coca-cola, the brand itself didn’t achieve this position in a single night. They had to come through out of the box plannings, strategies and quality products. From a curious lab project of a Atlantan pharmacist to a worldwide 1.9 billion bottled beverage selling company, this organization made some impressive marketing strategies. I will be discussing these in this blog.
Slogan: Let’s start with Coca-cola’s catchy catchphrases over the years. Coca-cola’s first slogan was very simple and subtle, “Drink Coca-cola”. They were serving in two ways back then, fountain and bottle.
They changed their slogan many times through the years. Their current one is Taste the Feeling. This one is being used since 2016. This one replaced the Open Happiness one which was using since 2009. Just imagine, you are having a good good time with your friends, family or loved one while having coca cola. That cola is now not just a mere drink, that’s now filled with your good memories and feelings. From every sip, you are tasting that good vibe. That’s what taste the feeling all about.
They also have so many catchy ones. Let’s share some of my personal favorites:
What you want is Coke (1952)
Sign of good taste (1957)
Red, white and You (1986)
Life tastes good (2001)
Open happiness (2009)
Now come to the marketing strategy of Coca-cola. If we break down their strategies, we will find adequate similarities with the 4P concept (Place, Product, Price, and Promotion). I won’t be going to make any complicated marketing analysis. I will keep the article simple. So, I will break the strategies in some parts and here I go,
Coca-cola Logo: In my country, the Coca-cola logo had to deal with some religious rumors spread by some religious extremists. The main reason behind this is, Coca-cola kept their original logo untouched since 1923. So, the iconic old caligraphic writing was intact. So, the extremists spread a propaganda like this is an ambigram which insults the god. I’m saying all these because they faced these kinds of unwanted problems through the years in so many countries but they kept the logo untouched. Because keeping the originality intact is something far impressive. The logo is always red. You should know, red emerges best in black surfaces. So, in a bottle full of black cola, the red logo catches the eye first. That’s a wise tactic to steal the show.
Also the logo has a white iconic wave below the design. This was added in the logo in 1969 which is still in use. This wave is also called Dynamic Ribbon Device. This wave gave the logo a elegant look.
Packaging: Coca-cola’s bottle shape is very unique and eye-catchy. Shy and introvert guys can even use the bottle as a pickup gesture if you know what I mean. Coca-Cola took their bottle as a logo also cause it is one of their very original vibes. People can think they took the shape’s inspiration from other obvious sources (again if you know what I mean) but actually, it’s inspired from cocoa pod. The shape is very eye-catchy and not just another cola bottle type. The bottle was once called, “The perfect liquid wrapper” for this shape.
Pricing: Coca-cola kept their pricing same till 1959, almost 73 years. It was only 5 cents. This is so much difficult but they made their way out very much successfully. They are also keeping their price very competitive with their rival beverage companies. Because increasing or dropping the price, a big impact will be created among the consumers. A real-life story can explain this easily. Once the price of one-liter coca-cola costed more than Pepsi, so my mother chose Pepsi over Coke where Coca-cola has always been our family beverage. And once again, the price of a small bottle of Pepsi costed less than coca-cola, then I saw my Pepsi lover uncle bought coke. Out of curiosity, I asked him the reason and he replied, “ Quality ager moto nai, tai bechar jonno daam komaise”. Then I realized the game behind doing proper pricing is actually harder than winning Westeros. But Coca-cola is doing fine with these.
Advertising and TVC: Coca-Cola’s taste may vary country to country but their advertising campaigns and TVCs are always mind-blowing. Their TVC always left a deep mark into our hearts. I can recall two TVC of coca-cola which I saw in my childhood but still remember. One was about a couple fight in a rickshaw, stuck in a traffic jam which turned into a happy ending by coca-cola and Another one was all about creating acapella with coke bottles. In recent days they have so many successful ad campaigns but few of them were so out of the box that they’ll roam in our minds for quite a few time. I can tell about one which was about sharing food between people of two religious view in the month of Ramadan.
Their “Share this coke with ___” campaign is something I must not miss adding here. In every coke bottle’s back, there was written a relative’s name after “Share this coke with…” sentence. That could be your Mom, dad, brother, sister or uncle. The message they wanted to share through the campaign was You must share with happiness with others. I personally liked the campaign too much. They really share happiness not only with their beverage but also with their TVC and campaigns.
Coca-Cola’s main marketing strategy was to reach their consumer’s hearts and feeling as close as possible and they did that through their contents, campaigns, and activities. People feel happy when they open the bottles or cans of Coca-cola. This can be one of those memories of them which can allow them to create a Patronus in an instance. That’s why Coca-Cola is the most popular beverage and always the winner of the Cola wars.
