Lessons for Brand managers from the Success of
Coca-Cola
Kenya ’s brand terrain is littered with many brands.
Some are as old as Kenya while others are relatively new having made it to the
scene in the 21st Century. Amongst these brands, there are those that boast of
having a special place in the hearts and minds of Kenyan consumers.Coca-Cola is
one of these brands having been in existence for the last 125 years and still
very fresh,funky,cool,warm and an exciting brand that has remained 'young'.
Studies have shown that Coca-Cola is among the
most-admired and best-known trademarks in the world. In fact, it is documented
that “Coca-Cola” is the second-most widely understood term in the world, after
“okay.”If you are a brand manager; or a business owner wouldn’t you want to get
this kind of brand awareness and loyalty? Well it doesn’t come cheap to start
with!!!However this kind of loyalty,adoration and recognition this brand enjoys
is worth all they spend on it. The success of this brand is worth every coin they
pump into it and gives them value for money .But just how do they do it? The
core of Coca-Cola's success is their marketing department with the biggest
beneficiary being the advertising, media and creative industry because of the
astronomical budget allowances allocated to the Marketing manager & brand
managers.
I am totally fascinated by the transformation of
this iconic brand over the years. It remains my most admired company to work
with as a marketer and a social media specialist. As you read on you will feel
that i sound like am totally sold out to
Coca-Cola!
Moving on swiftly,it’s the kind of visibility and
brand love they seek that has endeared them to many suppliers.With loads of
cash to splash on any idea that gives them an edge over their competitors in
the market who would want a share of the cake?
Who doesn’t love Coca Cola? It’s probably the only
beverage you can find in a high end joint or store and still get it in a remote
village deep in Western Province in same great refreshing taste. So go right
ahead and Open Happiness!
Well the brand too had a few major failures notably
the 1985 launch! To hear some tell it, April 23, 1985, was a day that will live
in marketing infamy when Coca-Cola took arguably the biggest risk in consumer
goods history. It was working on a new kind of Coke, a variation of a
product to tackle the emerging challenge from an upstart called Pepsi.Its was
disastrous and what no brand manager would want his or her brand to go through!
Here are 4 pillars/secrets behind Coca-Cola's
success.
1st Pillar
Advertising
Coca cola’s advertising budget surpassed $100,000
for the first time in 1901 and hit the $1M dollar mark in 1911!That was a lot
of money back the and even today just how many business can spend $100,000 of
their revenue in advertising?
Interestingly in 1921 Outdoor billboards are
introduced as part of the advertising mix.
They began advertising on television on Thanksgiving
Day, 1950.have you watched their 1971 Hiltop commercial "Id love to
buy the world a Coke"? That was a great ad to show the world in 1971 and
it pains me a lot when i see brands airing poorly done ads on Kenyan TV in 2012!Here's
what Coca-Cola global posted on their twitter handle after the company was
inducted into the advertising hall of fame.
Closer home who doesn’t remember Papa Shirandula’s
Brrrrrr ad that aired a few years ago? Their billboards are are really cool too.Fast
forward to their latest A Billion Reasons To Believe in Africa" ad, I so
feel this ad...can't stop humming I love you Africa.Kudos Steve Kekana &
the kids; you did an awesome job. Although I am a big fan of the Guinness &
bud light commercials; Coca- Cola did a great job on this one. We had a
discussion with a group of marketers and ad critics and after watching the ad
and interestingly they sang along to the ad the second time they watched it
,with some nodding their heads like rock stars! I also asked a few tweeps on
Twitter how they feel about the ad and got really pleasant replies and several
retweets!
Please leave a comment at the end;let me know
what you felt after watching the ad.
If you haven't watched it yet;click here to view the
A Billion Reasons To Believe In Africa Commercial
2nd Pillar
Digital Media
At first glance this doesn’t seem like a corporate
blog at all. But in truth this blog that was started in 2008 and already has 1
million hits is all about one thing… marketing.
Here’s how:
It’s about deepening the brand – in a very subtle
way, with all the historical items they share, this blog shows you that not
much of the Coca-cola brand has really changed… the brand has been a leader
for over a century.
It’s about deepening loyalty – because Coca-cola can
reach back and bring up historical documents that are over 125 years old
they are communicating to their customers “you can trust us to take care of you
and your children.”
It’s about deepening the experience – Experiential
marketing is hot these days, so it’s natural Coca-cola would jump on that
train, giving fans a taste of what the brand was like in the past. It’s truly a
unique experience.
What can you do with your blog to adopt some of
Coca-cola’s strategies? Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- Outside of your cornerstone content, what do your readers find interesting? What do they care about?
- Can you develop a niche blog and niche community around that topic?
- What is it about your brand that’s unique? Are you giving it enough attention?
- In regards to content, what can you give your readers that will build loyalty today and in the future?
This is a great platform for deepening engagement
with your consumers. Coca Cola knows it’s wise not to ignore the 800 million
member social site. Although you can’t fully brand your Fan page experience you
can customize certain aspects of your page. The new time line pages enables you
to list your milestones; a good way of sharing Coca cola’s rich heritage!
In Kenya their fan page is currently at 4700 fans
since it was created in February 2012.Well I have always argued that social
media isn't just about the numbers; Its not just about being there and posting
daily;it's about the level of interaction and engagement with your fans. What's
Coca-Cola Kenya is doing is amazing.The page is all about sharing
happiness,excitement and joy while subtly pushing the brand in a very creative
way. With a lot of Fan to Fan interactions this is definitely a page you need
to check out.The page has applications that keep people coming back to the page;such as the Coke Parties Rock App,The Media App for Coke Music and the A Billion Reasons App which is set to go live next week.
Please note that the page has been grown to that
number with minimal give aways and thus the people their are consumers in love
with the brand and they aren't just fans;It's a marketing ARMY!
However Coca-cola Kenya twitter handle is inactive!This doesn't mean you should not go on to twitter,simply work with what you can handle!What you understand well and can control! I hope you know Twitter can be disastrous to brands at times,Some companies have faced the wrath of tweeps case in point the famous Mc donalds #McDstories promo that turned into a PR nightmare after the conversation digressed to a platform of airing the bad customer service one had experienced at the store.All wasn't lost though at least because Mc Donalds saved tons of research cash they could spent have on customer surveys.
Please Check Coca-Cola Kenya Facebook Page here and pick a few more lessons to apply on your Social Media.
However Coca-cola Kenya twitter handle is inactive!This doesn't mean you should not go on to twitter,simply work with what you can handle!What you understand well and can control! I hope you know Twitter can be disastrous to brands at times,Some companies have faced the wrath of tweeps case in point the famous Mc donalds #McDstories promo that turned into a PR nightmare after the conversation digressed to a platform of airing the bad customer service one had experienced at the store.All wasn't lost though at least because Mc Donalds saved tons of research cash they could spent have on customer surveys.
Please Check Coca-Cola Kenya Facebook Page here and pick a few more lessons to apply on your Social Media.
3rd Pillar
EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING
Experiential marketing allows your customers to
engage and interact with your products, and services in sensory ways that
provide the icing on the cake.It's all about personal experiences that help
people connect to a brand to help them make intelligent and informed purchasing
decisions.It's a unique approach which integrates elements of emotions, logic,
and general thought processes to connect with the consumer.
Coca-Cola Kenya has a few campaigns running of
currently such as;
1.Coke Parties Rock-takes the brand to the 18-24
target market.Its a very personalized strategy to take the brand to consumers.
This solid idea leaves a longer lasting impression to the young people hence
more talk ability leading to increased brand loyalty. You just register your
party on the Coke parties Rock App,Vote and if you win they crash your house
party with Ghetto Radio or Capital Fm which are the most listened to FM
stations among the urban and the ghetto segment of youths.
2.Copa Coca-Cola-This is a under 17 youth
championship tournament that seeks to develop talent among the youths.Some of
the notable players in Kenya discovered in the tournament are amongst others Mc
Donald Mariga.
3.Coke happiness Machine; check what the machine
does,what happened when they visited USIU Kenya and find out where happiness
will strike next here
4.Sprite slam 2012 Check all about it here; Be Uncontainable
This is the real deal.
There are close to 1 billion people in Africa each
with a reason to believe in Africa and because Coca-Cola knows,
understands, lives and breathes Africa they can influence positive attitudes
amongst Africans. The world sees Africa as dark & hopeless with majority of
the news that come out of Africa being negative e.g. war, hunger, poverty etc
locally, our focus is also on negative news, as that’s what sells and people
are tired of the negativity & it’s effects. Africa has a lot of positive
news to offer and so why not tell those stories? So Coca-Cola created platforms
for Kenyans to tell their positive African stories and opportunities for teens
to interact with positive African influencers/role models and showcase their 1
Billion Reasons To Believe in form of (stories/images/videos) in Africa. Watch
out for this campaign; with Patricia Mbatia of EXP Kenya handling the
experiential arm of the campaign you can rest assured that this will work out!
Plus others such as the Open happiness concerts & Open happiness caravans
4.DISTRIBUTION
After all the marketing what a consumer needs is a
Coke near his place of work, home or school and Coca-Cola has managed to
deliver happiness to almost every corner of this country. Coca-Cola is a sort
of franchised operation. Most people refer to Cola-Cola as if it were a single
entity and it is not. You have the people in Atlanta who take care of the brand
and overall marketing, product development and so on, but then each country has
its own bottler, or more likely, bottlers. Although Coca-Cola may have an
interest in some of these bottling operations they are generally separate legal
entities. Having said that, many, in their current form, are totally dependent
on Coca-Cola as they do not bottle anything else. The bottlers do have the
technical capability and financial muscle to handle the demand in a region. Then
there's the Manual Distribution Centre (MDC) model which operates within
densely populated areas eg around large towns and cities. The MDCs are
independent businesses with links to their local bottler who may provide
technical support (eg sales training and general support) and credit to the
MDCs. Distribution from the MDCs is mostly ‘manual’ with crates being loaded on
to handcarts, bicycles etc. This ensures that you will get Coca-cola's products
to a Kiosk near you anytime!
Please tweet me your comments @KenyanMarketer and join the #BillionReasons
& #iBelieveInAfrica conversation on twitter.
i am working on a localized version of the "A billion reasons to believe in Africa" campaign for Kenya. localizing it down to the wire, Would you know who i can approach with the final idea?
ReplyDeleteFollow me on Twitter @KenyanMarketer and I'll share more with you over there! Cool? Can help you get your ideas to them. However much of what the brand does locally is stuff sent from Atlanta hence at times the disconnect with the local market....but they'll definitely adopt a great idea!
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