Out of the Box

Learning from Coca Cola

By Menachem Lubinsky on March 14 2008

The 3- page ad in the New York Times the other day caught my attention as I am sure it did many other readers. Here was Coca Cola showing its distinctive and ageless bottle on a full page followed by a spread that included some of its other flagship products like Diet Coke, Coke Plus, Coke Zero, and even its small cans that the company calls its “portion control” product.

I am sure that there must have been some readers that wondered out loud why Coca Cola needs to place such large ads in a major daily newspaper in the first place. After all, it is the world’s leading beverage and its leadership position does not appear to be threatened, albeit that it has Pepsi and other non-carbonated beverages breathing down their neck.

Coca Cola, like other major brands, never takes its leadership position for granted. They are constantly involved in marketing their brand, even if the data gives them a clear lead in market share. But the most recent ad, marketing professionals say, was more than an ordinary branding ad.

It appears that the ad was designed to respond to critics that charge that Coke is almost indifferent to health and wellness concerns. Advertising Age, a trade publication for the advertising industry, had reported weeks ago that Coke had decided to mount an advertising campaign to counter the charges of the critics. Their argument will be that they do so much for the environment and the community, but don’t flaunt it.

Apparently the ads are also designed to remind people that Coke is more than the traditional or classical Coke and that they had diverse products that appeal to diverse tastes and different health needs. The ad also appears to be a teaser for upcoming products. As part of its campaign, the company embarked on a major effort to educate their employees about what the company is doing for the community, environment and health and wellbeing in general. It also launched a special Web site to profile some of the activities that they do in the community.

Well, you say, that’s Coke; how could this possibly apply to my business? There is a great deal to be learnt from this effort that can apply to many businesses. Coke is probably second-guessing their decision years ago to keep their communal and health support under the radar. They must be asking themselves, “if we were doing so much anyway, why didn’t we go to town with it?” It could be that they always feared the backlash of the health critics who would counter with the negatives of sweetened carbonated drinks. But now it appears that Coke calculated that it is important for them to tell the health and wellness story anyway.

The Coke effort also points to another important strategic lesson in marketing. While it is true that the most visible part of the campaign will be the ads, an effective effort requires much more than that, including the all important aspect of having employees buy in to the strategy behind the program and being aware of the implementation of that strategy. Employees can be very effective ambassadors in any drive and leaving them out can have a negative impact.

The use of public relations in conjunction with a successful advertising effort has proven time and again to be a winning combination with far reaching results. The fact that Coke announced the campaign with a great deal of fanfare and explained the motives behind what it was doing was worth a great deal in the ultimate effectiveness of the initiative.

I have seen many campaigns fall flat because they weren’t thought out as they should have been. Money may have been wasted because some important steps were missed. A good example was a company that launched a major advertising campaign on the improvement of its products. The only problem was that the sales staff was not briefed on the campaign and many stores got the impression that there was a total disconnect between the salesmen and their company.

Another example of un-Coke like behavior was an advertising campaign that sought to build a brand name by knocking their competitors. In the follow-up research, it appeared that the consumers remembered the knock but couldn’t for the life of them remember who the good guys were. They certainly could have used the space to emphasize the virtues of their brand.

Like any other business venture, it is crucial that there is an evaluation on the return on the investment. After mounting such an effort, Coke will be looking to test its audience to see that the message was received. It will expect in the very least to retain its market share but is probably hoping that it picks up a few percentage points in market share, which in Coke’s case can spell billions.

It isn’t always correct to say that the big boys like Coke get it right, but in this case “Coke is it!”

Out of the Box is a collection of strategic marketing articles that Lubicom has published on various topics, trends and ideas in the marketing world. The articles have been published in the Hamodia weekly newspaper circulated on three continents to a readership of well over 100,000.

The name, "Out of the Box" is a term used frequently in business nowadays to describe creative thinking that is not the norm. It is meant to help a business pull away from the pack or separate oneself from the competition. It is to some extent fraught with risk, simply because it is not the run of the mill thinking, but it is at the same time the key to reaching the next opportunity.