Coca Cola is an international company that has been
successfully marketing globally for many years. The reason why most of its
campaigns have been successful is because it finds something that is globally
appealing. Coca Cola’s main focus is to embody the idea of “Happiness” when it
comes to their product.
Coca Cola wants to make the entire world happy and the way
that they plan on achieving this is by adopting three main principals.
The three principals are:
·
Dynamic
Story Telling:
o
Coke
Wants to create a “unified and coordinated brand experience” and also wants to
void creating unnecessary “noise”. This is done through storytelling. There are
five types of storytelling that Coke uses to engage the global community.
§ Serial
§ Multi-Faceted
§ Spreadable
§ Immersion
§ Discovery
·
Live
Positively:
o
Coca
Cola wants to show a commitment to making the world a better place. The way
that they plan on incorporating this in their marketing strategy is to make
sure that each brand and advertisement shows a sense of “positive living” to
create a change in the world.
·
Bigger
Thinking:
o
Coke
believes that their company thinks to small when it comes to inspiring and
creative ideas. They want to double their sales and to do that Coca-Cola needs
too think big. To start that Coca-Cola started engaging in a global online
conversation to give and take with consumers, as opposed to keeping things
one-sided.
In an interview with the president of the Coca-Cola Company’s
Euroasia and Africa group, he was asked how they make themselves locally
relevant. The president said that Coca-Cola invests a lot of time in
understanding the minds of the local consumer. For example in Egypt during the
Arab Spring, The company was able to understand the mentality of the public,
especially the teenagers. They tried to understand what the people were going
through – they wanted to create a bright future. As coke tries to embody
happiness and optimism, they created great consumer communication with a
message; if everyone came together they would be able to build a better future.
As a result the advertisement was successful.
At the very start of Coca Cola’s career they were able to
grab the public. In 1906 they created an advertisement that focused on the
prohibition age. They marketed themselves as the best alternative to alcohol.
At the time the US were entering the prohibition age, and Coke was able to give
them something to make it through the sober era.
In 1971 Coca Cola in England created a jingle – small little
song – that ended up becoming a hit in the music industry. Their song had said,
“I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony; I’d like to buy the
world a Coke and keep it company.” This advertising campaign was able to
reflect the idea of peace and unity at airports. Both the song and the advertisement
itself were successful.
One of the most successful global campaigns was the “Always
Coca-Cola” advertisement in 1993. They used polar bears and managed to appeal
to the diversity of the world. Polar bears became a classic symbol for Coca Cola
and were also used during future campaigns.
In India and Pakistan Coca Cola worked on creating the idea
of “Happiness without borders”. A video was shown of Indians and Pakistani’s
joining together through machines offered by Coca Cola. It taught the two
groups that were known to live in conflict to share a moment of connection and
joy. Yes, this was done through technology, but it did help work through the
communication gap, and communicating and taking little steps towards solving
bigger issues. The campaign was a huge success as it brought the idea of hope
and happiness.
In the US, Coca-Cola worked on a campaign targeting college
freshmen. The campaign was launched at the start of the new semester. What it
did was create a Coca-Cola Friendly Twist Campaign. They made coke bottles that
could only be opened by connecting two together and twisting simultaneously.
This was an attempt to encourage social interaction for College Freshmen. The
campaign was a huge success in the US as well as globally. The video was shared
virally via social media, and the idea of breaking out of your own bubble and
starting a new life with Coke was shared with the world.
Coca Cola also had some negative campaigns and advertising
mistakes. When they were first introduced in China they were named
“Ke-Kou-Ke-La” which translates into”bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse
stuffed with wax”. Eventually Coca Coal was able to fix this, and they found a
close phonetic Equivalent. “Ko-Kou-Ko-Le”, which translates to “Happiness in the
mouth”.
The most recent Coke campaign was a huge success globally.
They used personal names on coke bottles. In English speaking countries there
campaign was “Share a coke”. What they would do was print out popular names
based on countries and distribute those coke cans in each country. People were
thrilled to find their names on coke bottles and even find the names of their
loved ones. In the Middle East it was translated to “Coca Cola is better with”.
It still embodied the same spirit of sharing a coke, and used the names. This
campaign boosted sales all over the world. It was a campaign that sparked
happiness and enjoyment throughout the world.
Coca Cola also launched a happiness machine. The happiness
machine would give the public treats like pizza or flowers or drinks. It was
successful because it was entertaining. The most known machine is the one in
Singapore and Belgium. In Singapore you would have to hug the machine to
receive a nice treat. In Belgium you would have to dance for the machine to give
you something. These fun interactions alone would make people doing the action,
and watching, happy. The added treat was a bonus from Coca Cola. In a way this
sparked a reward system in the minds of the public. “Happy actions result in
treats.”
In the US one of the most crucial times for advertisements is
during the Super Bowl. In 2012, Coca Cola had an extremely successful
advertising campaign during the super bowl. They had two polar bears that would
interact with the events that happened on the field as it happened. The public
was also able to interact with them through tweets and Facebook comments on
their smartphones, and the polar bears would respond.
In China, Coca Cola launched a friendship experiment. People
in China were asked to participate in the digital marketing campaign. A
photographer would ask people to take part in a moment of connection wile
touring Guangzhou in China. At the end the video showed pictures of strangers
being photographed together as if they knew one another in groups. This was a
way to help link people together, through happiness – which is Coca Cola’s main
mission.
2012 was a good year for Coca Cola advertisements. Not only
did they make use of the Super Bowl in the US, but they also made the best out
of the 2012 Olympics that was held in London. They reached out to teens by
using the social values of the Olympics. The campaign was called “Move to the
beat” and the whole world was seen getting together for the event. Coca Cola
used five Olympic hopefuls and used their sport sounds to create a song. This
was a huge hit during the Olympics, and was watched by almost everyone in the
world!
Coca Cola’s standard “Enjoy” was also successful, because it
helped embody the idea of happiness that Coca Cola aims for in their products.
