Following large-scale layoffs, Coca-Cola has begun to consider large-scale reductions in its brands.

According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, CNN and other overseas media, in response to the COVID-19 crisis, Coca-Cola has launched a business restructuring strategy. In terms of product portfolio, Coca-Cola plans to significantly streamline its brands.

However, the reduction of its brands is only due to the impact of the epidemic, which cannot shake Coca-Cola’s status as a world-famous brand.

In the "Guinness Book of World Records", Coca-Cola is listed as the world's most famous trademark. Today, it has become an influential beverage giant with a brand value of nearly US$70 billion.

A CEO of Coca-Cola once proudly said, "Even if I set a fire and burn all the property of Coca-Cola Company, I can still rely on the Coca-Cola brand. Rise again." This is enough to demonstrate the power of the Coca-Cola brand!

Why is Coca-Cola such a huge success? What is its marketing secret?

01

Exclusive product formula

Achieve unique market competitiveness

From an unknown small workshop in Atlanta to the world's largest beverage brand, Coca-Cola's entrepreneurial history is also a vast history of brand development. Behind the huge success, what people talk about most is its brand's core competitiveness - puree formula.

More than 99% of the ingredients in Coca-Cola are public, and they are basically a mixture of several substances - sugar, carbonated water, caramel, phosphoric acid , caffeine and “lost” coca leaves and coconut fruits.

The core secret recipe is the secret ingredient that accounts for less than 1% of Coca-Cola - "Goods No. 7x" because it is said to have 7 ingredients.

Since its birth in 1886, it has been stored in a safe for more than 130 years, and less than 10 people in the world know the formula.

However, there are still countless people trying to decrypt it, but the results are the same. The flavors of various counterfeit Cokes are all kinds of weird, and it can be said that they have been imitated all the time. , has never been surpassed. The mysterious 7x continues to maintain the century-old glory of the Coca-Cola brand.

02

Create the image of Santa Claus

Explode the global influence of the brand

In addition, Coca-Cola has also created the most successful character image-Santa Claus.

Coca-Cola sales were off-season around Christmas. In 1931, in order to stimulate sales, Coca-Cola created the "Coca-Cola version of Santa Claus", which was published in the famous "Saturday Evening Post" Appeared in advertisements.

This Santa Claus, in the previous image of "saint", has added many warmer mortal colors: rose-colored face, white Huahua’s big beard, bright eyes, and wrinkled face when smiling...

Unexpectedly, red clothes and white beards, this Christmas created by Coca-Cola based on its own LOGO The image of the old man defeated the previous images of Santa Claus in various countries and quickly became a global cultural symbol.

Since then, Coca-Cola has used the image of Santa Claus in its annual Christmas advertisements and registered Santa Claus as its trademark.

Under the holiday marketing offensive year after year, the "Coca-Cola version" Santa Claus has gradually become fixed in people's minds and become part of the brand culture.

Through a profound insight into human nature, Coca-Cola regards happiness as the eternal value proposition of the brand, and through the subtle brain-attacking brand marketing strategy of shaping the red Santa Claus, Coca-Cola persists The spread of Coca-Cola has made every generation, including newborns, become members of the "Coca-Cola Cult" without knowing it.

This has led to the formation of strong brand recognition and brand reputation, which has promoted Coca-Cola from selling less than 10 bottles a year to today's market value of 150 billion US dollars, and the brand value is as high as 778 billion, ranking first in the world for 13 consecutive years.

03

Keep up with changes in consumer demand

Actively promote product innovation

Enter a new communication environment Facing new consumers and new popular culture, Coca-Cola is still at the forefront of the marketing industry. This is probably due to its core culture-advancing with the times.

Coca-Cola accurately understands the global consumption upgrade trend and consumers’ pursuit of health, constantly innovates products, upgrades taste, and gives consumers emotional attachments. value and reshape the image of health in the minds of the public.

In order to cater to young people’s pursuit of novelty and personalized needs, we launched the functional beverage Shuidongle, water brand ice dew, and launched the high-end line ice dew·Chunyue, functional Beverages include high-end milk brand Fairlife, coconut water brand ZICO, high-end bottled water brand Smart Water, etc.

In addition, the taste has also been upgraded. For example, Diet Coke completed a new upgrade from packaging to flavors in January 2018. The can is slim and colorful, and new flavors of lime, sweet ginger, cherry, blood orange and mango have been added.

04

Play with content

Use packaging marketing to snipe people's hearts

When implementing its brand strategy, Coca-Cola has always played with young people.

A series of bottle activities keep pace with the times, and the selected copywriting is all popular and emotional among young people. Coca-Cola taps into consumers’ inner identity and builds a brand based on society. It can create emotional connections among groups, touch the hearts of consumers, and allow them to actively share and interact, laying a good foundation for later social communication.

Nickname Bottle

In the summer of 2013, Coca-Cola changed due to the "nickname bottle", which became a national topic and Rapidly entering the daily life of the public. Not only did the sales increase by 20% compared with the same period last year, but it also won the grand prize at the China Effie Awards, a grand festival in the advertising industry.

Lyric Bottle

The 2014 "Lyric Bottle" also set off a summer carnival. Coca-Cola prints lines that are familiar to the public on the bottle, blending them with life scenes. Everyone can find the youth they are experiencing or passing away in the line bottle.

From Jay Chou to Mayday, from the World Cup theme song to the graduation season song, the songs selected are all popular and widely familiar, making it different People of all ages, genders, and personalities willingly paid for it.

City Bottles

Coca-Cola has launched more than 30 city modern bottles, accurately summarizing many Chinese cities in one word characteristics.

For example, Shanghai Chao, Chengdu Xian, Guangzhou Flavor, Beijing Fan, Luoyang Rhyme, Xi'an Diao, Hangzhou Mei, Dalian Chang, Changsha Spicy, etc. wait. Also, the copywriting on the can condenses the city’s food culture and humanistic sentiment into one adjective, like “raising a can”. This marketing method that highlights local characteristics makes Coca-Cola, a foreign brand, look more down-to-earth.

Inversion bottle

Young people are willing to express themselves and make friends, but they are often shy about expressing themselves. They are witty and humorous and refuse to make "awkward chats". Therefore, expressions similar to "local love words" are enthusiastically pursued by young people, and all kinds of "local love words" are played with great joy.

It is precisely because of the insight into the social sentiment of young people that Coca-Cola launched a new inverted bottle, which cleverly combines Coca-Cola with the product itself: when the amount of Coke in the inverted bottle decreases, the back of the text will appear on the bottle. The half-sentence is a reversal from the existing text, making Coke drinkers feel surprised and interesting.

In the era of social media, content wins and products are the best marketing. As the medium that consumers are most directly exposed to, designed product packaging has become a way for Coca-Cola to provide personalized consumption experience and enhance brand freshness.

It is precisely for this reason that Coca-Cola has become famous in China and even around the world in recent years, and has created countless surprises and joy for people.

05

Linked brands engage in cross-border marketing

Give consumers a sense of freshness

Coca-Cola’s cross-border marketing The scope of industry marketing is very wide, from beauty, clothing, shoes to bags, Coca-Cola continues to cross borders and innovate in various fields.

For example, Coca-Cola has cooperated with Korean beauty brand Face Shop to launch a series of Coca-Cola cosmetics products, including cushion powder, eye shadow, lipstick, etc.;

Cooperated with OPI, the largest market share nail brand in the United States, to launch a global limited edition co-branded nail polish;

In commemoration of the Sydney Olympics, it cooperated with Nike to customize "Vascular" running shoes;

A three-party joint venture with KITH and CONVERSE to produce T-shirts, swimsuits, sweatshirts, hats, socks and other items.

In 2018, Coca-Cola has developed new ideas in cross-border marketing, highlighting the choice of products that are consistent and reciprocal with itself. partners.

For example, Coca-Cola has reached cooperation with major trendy clothing brands such as New York trendy brand KITH, which has given full play to brand synergy.

The two brands complement each other, adding up to each other’s accumulated market popularity and brand communication effects, thus enhancing the overall influence of the brand.

06

Get involved in the sports field

Constantly try brand innovation

Sports event marketing is a must-have field for many brands, and the same is true for Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola chose to cooperate with FIFA for the World Cup in Russia in 2018. But unlike previous sports marketing, Coca-Cola has made a lot of innovations.

First of all, the World Cup theme song "colors" was released and translated into songs in multiple languages ??to maximize localization. World Cup themed TVCs "Stock Up", "Readyfor" and "Uplifed Alex" were launched in 200 countries through multiple channels.

Secondly, the digital version of the bottle is designed to create an entertainment-oriented social network. Coca-Cola designed cans with numbers on them. Numbers 0-9 can be used as score predictions, and fans can participate in social media betting during the game.

Finally, limited editions are released to create rare collectibles. In order to cooperate with the marketing of the World Cup, this year Coca-Cola launched a limited edition set of the Russian World Cup (6 bottles), representing 6 different countries. The bottles were printed with the patterns of the 1998-2018 World Cup. The product was snapped up as soon as it was released, and the scene was very spectacular. .

Most of Coca-Cola’s marketing is based on brand culture as the core, with the bottle as the carrier, with youthful language as the link, with the communication of major events as the tipping point, and with social We use media as the main communication channel, and inject every idea into communication activities to subtly let users accept the product. This may be the reason why Coca-Cola has always been an "evergreen tree" in marketing for more than a hundred years.

07

Conclusion

For many people, Coca-Cola is no longer a single product; And represents a kind of collective memory. To this day, Coca-Cola is still a powerful brand.

In the fast-moving consumer goods market that is increasingly segmented and emphasizes personalization, the possibility of another Coca-Cola being born is slim. It is more likely that it will quickly become mediocre after being popular for a while.

Coca-Cola’s ability to stay at the forefront of the industry for more than a hundred years is closely related to its constantly innovative marketing methods that keep up with youth trends, technological trends, and cultural trends.