Look at business with a point of view. Super perspectives, cutting-edge observations from new business practitioners.
Wen | Yang Ze (Senior Brand Architect, Social Network Operation Expert)
Many people think that Coca-Cola is a must-have summer cooling off?
There are also many people who think that Coca-Cola is a source of happiness for a total price of 3 yuan, and the first bite is worth 2 yuan and 5 yuan?
And many people think that Coca-Cola is an important symbol of American culture?
What exactly is Coca-Cola?
In 1985, just a hundred years of Coca-Cola experienced a dark moment, in the face of the rapid growth of Pepsi sales, Coca-Cola's first foreign CEO Guo Sida decided to change the original recipe of Coca-Cola, reducing bubbles, increasing sweetness, softer taste, and spending $4 million on a blind taste test attended by 191,000 consumers in 13 cities, and New Cola won an overwhelming victory with 61% to 39%.
In April 1985, Coca-Cola held a grand conference beyond the effects of the Apollo moon landing, 81% of Americans knew within 24 hours of the news of Coca-Cola's change of formula, but what greeted The Coca-Cola Company was a nightmare, from the initial protest call to the parade protest, they showed surprising anger at the better taste of Coca-Cola, and the old rival Pepsi Also added fuel to the fire, not only designating the new Coke launch day as "Pepsi Day", but also mockingly, Since you wanted it to taste more like Pepsi, why not buy Pepsi directly, and eventually Coca-Cola had to change the recipe back.
Is Coca-Cola wrong? From a product perspective, after a large-scale blind test has proved the popularity of the new recipe, but 1985's Coca-Cola went from a sweet, bubble-filled, delightful beverage to a brand that brought joy on an emotional level, and eventually coincidentally became an important part of the world's most influential countries, both economically and culturally. Consumers have also evolved from rational purchases to irrational consumer brands, which is the core driving force behind Coca-Cola's century-long best-selling. In this process, famous cases in the history of marketing such as Coca-Cola Mystery Recipe, Santa Claus, and the Blue-Red Controversy were created.
Coca-Cola was first called CocaKola
Usually, the marketing process of a product can be divided into two stages, the first stage is product marketing, because of product innovation, relying on the attractiveness of the product itself can get the favor of many users, in this process, the use of products more and more people, the number of product exposures also continues to increase, brand awareness will naturally rise. However, with the expansion of product influence, competitors also appear, they will try their best to create products that are very similar to leading products, and seize the market share of the pioneers by reducing prices and copying models, at this time, leading products must find the second curve that affects the favor of users, that is, brands.
The key to the first stage is to grasp the window period of product innovation, seize the market as quickly as possible, and become the leader of this category. The key to the second stage is to tap into the emotional side of users, make them deeply impressed by the brand, and give preference to a certain brand among a bunch of similar products.
Coca-Cola has a longer history and a more complex marketing journey, which can be roughly divided into three stages:
The first stage of cold start: to borrow an Internet term is cold start, the Us Prohibition order for Coca-Cola brought a huge opportunity, he debuted as an alcohol substitute, relying on the addictive nature of the product itself, through large-scale marketing, quickly welcomed by Atlanta and even most of the United States, in one fell swoop laid its leading position in the field of carbonated beverages.
The second stage of brand competition: the emergence of the old rival Pepsi Cola so that Coca-Cola can not stay in the competition of product characteristics, and Coca-Cola chose to establish a strong association with "happy", the word that everyone longs for (especially during the Great Depression in the United States), and eventually penetrates into the heart of every American.
The third stage of globalization: As we all know, World War II laid coca-cola in the world's leading position, this is because before World War II, Coca-Cola has become a part of the United States in the hearts of Americans, Coca-Cola took the opportunity of World War II to strongly bind the symbol of "America" with Coca-Cola itself, so that the world mentioned the United States, thinking of The Star-Spangled Banner, Uncle Sam at the same time, think of Coca-Cola. In the end, Coca-Cola used the U.S. globalization strategy to blossom around the world. Interestingly, it was precisely because of this way of binding the United States that Pepsi Became the Leading Carbonated Beverage in the Soviet Union.
In China's consumer goods are in the ascendant today, more and more Internet red goods emerge, they are like the late 19th century, the beginning of the 20th century street red brand Coca-Cola, how to evolve from commodities to irrational consumer brands is the proposition they face, dismantling Coca-Cola more than a hundred years of marketing process will undoubtedly bring inspiration.
<h2>First, Coca-Cola Cold Start: Based in Atlanta</h2>
<h3>"Addictive" Coca-Cola</h3>
According to the official records of Coca-Cola, in May 1886, John Pemberton of Georgia, USA, inadvertently mixed coca and cola fruit with sucrose when formulating a medicine to cure headaches, and obtained a caramel-colored liquid, which he sent to a neighboring pharmacy, and after adding soda, he produced the Coca-Cola that became famous in the world.
In fact, the birth of Coca-Cola was much more complicated.
Mark Pendgrast mentioned in the Coca-Cola biography that John Pemberton was an addict who was originally a soldier in the American Civil War, and after being wounded in the Civil War, he used morphine to relieve his wounds, and continued to use morphine for analgesia after retiring from the army. In the 19th century, various secret medicines and special drugs in the United States were prevalent, and merchants and pharmacists added various alcohols and drugs to secret medicines, claiming that they could treat various diseases, and Pemberton, as an inventor and pharmacist, had invented the "Prescription No. 47-11" for the treatment of rheumatism, triple liver pills, ginger oil water, lemon citrus elixir and other secret medicines and drinks whose names had long been forgotten, some of which contained not only morphine, but also cocaine and marijuana. Coca-Cola is also one of them. Interestingly, around the same time as Coca-Cola was born, Pemberton miraculously quit morphine, most likely because of Coca-Cola.
Pemberton as inventor and pharmacist
Coca-Cola was originally called CocaKola, which was later changed to Coca-Cola for uniformity, and Coca and Kola are derived from his two important ingredients, coca and cola.
Coca contains cocaine, and more than 2,000 years ago, South American Incas found that chewing a small clump of coca leaves can achieve the effect of refreshing the mind, suppressing appetite and enhancing libido. Later, after it spread to Europe, coca was advertised as a panacea for all diseases, and in the mid-18th century, a Bordeaux wine with coca leaf, Mariani, was popular throughout Europe and the United States, and celebrities and heads of government such as the pope, the Queen of England, the President of the United States, and the great inventor Edison were loyal fans of this wine.
Pemberton added coca to the Marianni and developed a cottage version, French coca. Originating in Ghana, West Africa, cola fruit is used in a similar way to coca, and is also a refreshing, stamina and aphrodisiac due to its caffeine. Studies have shown that the combination of caffeine and cocaine can also enhance the effects of cocaine. However, it did not take long for The City of Atlanta, where Coca-Cola was located, to pass a prohibition ordinance and would be enforced in 7 months, pemberton had to revise the recipe of Coca-Cola, replacing alcohol with sugar and soda, which became the most original version of Coca-Cola in the official record, a bottle of caffeine and cocaine in addition to soda and sugar, not so much a drink, but more accurately a bottle of "addiction".
It's not so much a drink as it is an "addiction"
In fact, modern scientific research shows that sugar is also an addictive substance. The bubble-rich soda is a powerful stimulus at the moment of entry, providing a very similar drinking experience to alcohol, making Coca-Cola the best alternative to alcohol during prohibition.
Coca-Cola enthusiast and investment guru Warren Buffett has always been fond of the business of making addictive products, and the Coca-Cola he has invested in, Xishi candy, products including Oreo, fun and toto Heinfell contain a lot of addictive sugar. He also commented on the tobacco business: "Tell you why I like the tobacco industry? It only costs 1 cent to manufacture, and it can sell for 1 US dollar. Smokers are addictive and have a very strong brand loyalty. "Whether it's Coca-Cola that contains cocaine, or Coca-Cola that later got rid of cocaine and reduced its caffeine use, it's an excellent business in itself, and even just needs to issue free drinking coupons to harvest a group of frequent consumers." However, Coca-Cola's early marketing was much more complicated than that.
<h3>"Street Red Product" Coca-Cola</h3>
Coca-Cola was born in the 1880s and 1890s, is also a golden age of advertising of various secret medicines and health care products, because there is no relevant system restrictions, these companies can unscrupulously put all kinds of advertising, in the same period of Coca-Cola's advent, the head of the enterprise's annual advertising costs are more than 100,000 US dollars, pharmacist Pemberton also recognizes the model of advertising to promote sales, he once said " If I have 25,000 US dollars, I am willing to spend 24,000 to advertise for Coca-Cola, Use the remaining $1,000 to produce." Due to limited funds, Coca-Cola's first year of advertising costs only $150, but the advertising cost at that time was very cheap, with huge tarpaulin slogans costing $1 each, tram slogans a little more than 1 penny, three posters for 1 cent, and only $1 printing 1,000 tasting vouchers.
Coke
Dominating Coca-Cola's early marketing was Frank Robinson. If Pemberton is Coca-Cola's product manager, then Frank Robinson is Coca-Cola's CMO, head of marketing brands, he took the name "Coca-Cola", he wrote spencer's Coca-Cola logo, manufactured Coca-Cola products, planned Coca-Cola advertising materials, and was responsible for Coca-Cola's overall marketing efforts.
Robinson's marketing strategy is simple and effective: use a variety of print advertisements to split the mind, let as many people know the name of Coca-Cola; cooperate with terminal sales channels such as pharmacies and cold drink stores to make it easy for consumers to obtain Coca-Cola; through free drinks, reduce the consumption threshold, and rely on the addiction of the product itself to form repeated purchases.
Coca-Cola's first advertisement appeared in the Atlanta Daily on March 29, 1886, and like many new products, the advertisement highlighted The characteristics of Coca-Cola: "Coca-Cola, delicious!" relaxed! Wake up! refresh oneself! Coca-Cola combines wonderful coca leaves with the famous coca fruit! Various cold drinks cabinets are available for sale. "Robinson's ads are not only concise and eye-catching, but also save the cost of buying pages to advertise. In order to make Coca-Cola more exposed, Robinson also borrowed secret medicines and health care products to invest most of the advertising budget in posters, road signs, calendars, restaurant dishes, thermometers, alarm clocks, pencils, student bookmarks and glass plates in cold drink cabinets and other daily necessities, remembering Coca-Cola while consumers repeatedly used it.
Then Coca-Cola began to post "sell Coca-Cola, 5 cents a cup" advertisement in front of pharmacies, cold drink shops, streets and cars, etc. In order to better attract consumers, Robinson ingeniously designed a handwritten logo. On June 16, 1887, the logo was first advertised in newspapers and continues to be used to this day, the one we see on every bottle of Coca-Cola.
Sell Coca-Cola for 5 cents a cup
However, the best effect is the free drink coupon, the earliest Pemberton thought that the way to give away drinks is to waste money, but Robinson quickly proved that consumers will become repeat customers because of the addictive nature of Coca-Cola after using the free drink coupons. So Coca-Cola increased its efforts to deliver free drink coupons, even using the Atlanta Metropolitan Address Book to mail the free drink coupons to potential consumers, or entrust traveling salesmen to deliver them.
The implementation of Prohibition boosted the rapid development of Coca-Cola and French coca liquor, before Prohibition people stepped up the stockpile of alcohol, after Prohibition, Coca-Cola, which improved on the basis of coca wine, became the best substitute for coca wine, and sales continued to increase, and in the summer of 1887, sales could reach 25,000 cups per month. Although within a few months, the prohibition movement was voted to stop, but Coca-Cola had already gained a foothold. According to the current Internet celebrity products, Coca-Cola's brand elements have spread throughout The streets, trams, buildings, and newspapers in Atlanta, becoming "street red goods".
"Street Red Goods" all over the streets
Before Pemberton died of cancer in 1888, he had sold Coca-Cola to merchant Kanderler for a super low price of $2300. Candler solved the coca-Cola property problem, founded the Coca-Cola Company, owned a legal trademark, and eliminated cocaine from the formula.
In this process, The positioning of Coca-Cola is also changing, because consumers are disgusted with the positioning of drugs, and under the leadership of Robinson, Coca-Cola began to transition from drugs to more accepted and promising beverages. Robinson adjusted the slogan to "Coca-Cola, delicious and refreshing!" But the process is gradual, for a long time, Coca-Cola on the one hand emphasized the "delicious and refreshing" characteristics of the drink, but also in the emphasis on "relieving mental and physical fatigue, treating headaches" pharmaceutical properties.
It seems that from the beginning, the mixture of drugs and beverages was destined to be the initial understanding of Coca-Cola by the vast majority of people, and began to taste like a very good medicine, but as the number of drinks increased, it became more and more addictive. With this unique product attribute, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Coca-Cola entered more cities in the United States, attracting people with free drinks and boosting Coca-Cola's growth with advertising bombardment. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Coca-Cola used about 30 forms of advertising each year, distributing more than 1 million copies of advertising materials, and in 1900, Coca-Cola spent nearly $85,000 on advertising. By 1912, that number had climbed to more than $1 million. In 1913, Coca-Cola distributed more than 100 million pieces of advertising materials, including thermometers, cardboard clip art, metal billboards (50,000 copies each), Japanese fans and calendars (1 million copies each), cold drink cabinet trays (2 million pieces), cardboard matchboxes (10 million boxes), notepads (20 million copies), baseball cards (25 million copies), and countless cardboard and metal cardboard logos. This year alone is enough to meet the needs of all men, women and children living in the continental United States since 1650. Coca-Cola has permeated every aspect of American life.
In 1917, Coca-Cola changed its slogan to "Three million bottles of Coca-Cola sold every day", began to attract consumers' attention with specific numbers, and 8 years later, it was replaced by "six million bottles of Coca-Cola sold every day". This shows the influence of Coca-Cola at that time.
Six million bottles of Coca-Cola are sold every day
What supports The growth of Coca-Cola is not only the addictive formula, the placement of advertisements, but also the bottle model that was not valued by Kandler.
<h3>Bottled Coca-Cola</h3>
As mentioned earlier, Coca-Cola, the quantifier we use is "cup", which is because at the beginning of Coca-Cola's listing, only syrup was produced, and the syrup was directly sent to various pharmacies and cold drink shops for sale, and merchants added soda water and ice cubes to the cup to make Coca-Cola finished products. When Coca-Cola enters a new city, they first make an agreement with the local pharmacist and beverage shop owner, and then transport Coca-Cola syrup and banners with Coca-Cola logos, leaflets and other promotional materials to the local area, because Atlanta is an important hub for Transportation in the United States, and the process has been smooth for a while. However, with the increase of sales, the environment of different cities is very different, the operation methods of each business are completely different, adding too much or too little soda will affect the taste, and no ice cubes or freezers will also affect the experience of the entrance moment. The bottling authorization system can solve this problem very well.
Turn non-standardized cups into standardized bottles
Coca-Cola only needs to build a factory to produce syrup, send the syrup to the bottling plants around the world, the bottling factory in accordance with the corresponding operating rules, add a dose of soda water can quickly make a consistent taste of Coca-Cola, and later Coca-Cola will update the syrup into powder, further reducing transportation costs.
Turning non-standardized cups into standardized bottles is a milestone step in The development of Coca-Cola, standardization means replicability, and almost the same Coca-Cola can be produced in every corner of the world as long as there are Coca-Cola bottling plants, which has become the basis for Coca-Cola's global popularity.
Coca-Cola bottling plant
Because Coca-Cola does not build its own bottling plant, but adopts the "ecological" model that is very popular today, cooperating with local manufacturers to benefit them, in fact, not only bottles, bottle caps, machines, trucks are locally sourced, locally operated, and the employees hired are naturally local. It can be said that where Coca-Cola builds factories, it can drive the economic development of the entire region, which can naturally be welcomed by the local government and local people. For Coca-Cola, reducing the number of production links means throwing many unstable factors, including material rises, to partners, and Coca-Cola only needs to focus on the most important and most profitable syrup production, so Coca-Cola has maintained a super high profit margin.
In addition, because of the unique design of the Coca-Cola curved bottle, the bottle itself has also become part of the Coca-Cola brand. A 1949 survey showed that more than 99 percent of Americans could recognize Coca-Cola by the shape of the package alone. The Coca-Cola arc bottle is equivalent to the Coca-Cola.
The bottle itself also became part of the Coca-Cola brand
At this point, Coca-Cola's business model has basically formed, large-scale advertising has brought maximum exposure and attracted people to buy for Coca-Cola, the mysterious formula has made everyone who has tasted Coca-Cola addicted, and the bottled authorization system has made Coca-Cola have unlimited replication capabilities, only need a very low cost, Coca-Cola can take root in every corner of the world. This classic business model has also been in operation to this day.
<h2>Second, Coca-Cola brand strategy: become a source of happiness</h2>
<h3>Legendary recipe story</h3>
In 1919, Kandler's son sold Coca-Cola's recipe, trademarks, and brand assets to an investment consortium headed by banker Ernest Woodruff for $25 million. The balance sheet shows that the total value of Coca-Cola real estate, buildings, machinery and equipment at that time was less than $2 million.
Among the Coca-Cola brand assets, the most legendary is the mysterious recipe that has been kept as a top secret of Coca-Cola. Beginning in 1925, his son Robert Woodruff, who is also the true founder of the Coca-Cola empire, stored the world's only recipe in the safe of the Sun Trust Bank, which was put away for 86 years, until 2011, it was transferred to a 3-meter-high safe at the Coca-Cola Global Headquarters Museum in Atlanta, USA, and those who came to the museum were first monitored by 16 high-definition cameras covering 360 degrees, and detailed information such as height, gender, skin color, and dress was recorded. It is possible to approach safe.
Today, there are only three people in the world who really have the mysterious formula, their identities are absolutely confidential, and they will never leak a third of their hands to others, and Coca-Cola strictly requires that these three people cannot appear at the same time and in the same place, and cannot take the same car, train, or plane to prevent terrible accidents from happening and leading to the loss of top-secret information.
While Coca-Cola strives to give the recipe a mystic, it's not hard to make a bottle of carbonated drink that tastes similar to Coca-Cola's.
From the time Coca-Cola left Atlanta, Coca-Cola's counterfeiters have emerged in an endless stream, and they can produce different doses, different uses, and different flavors of "Coca-Cola.". Coca-Cola has used legal prosecution and even threatening letters to warn to restrict counterfeiting, but to this day, "Coke" still exists in every Coca-Cola market in the world, the most famous of which is naturally the blue Pepsi.
<h3>Rely on "tearing" the upper Pepsi</h3>
In 1894, Caleb Bradham, a pharmacist in North Carolina, invented a cola drink containing pepsin and sold it as a tonic to alleviate symptoms of dyspepsia. People initially only knew it was Bradham's drink. In 1898, Bradham renamed it Pepsi-Cola and began rubbing the heat of Coca-Cola. However, due to the company's operating problems, it experienced two consecutive bankruptcies in 30 years, until the 1930s, when New York businessman Gu Si bought Pepsi. Guss, who ran a candy store and a soda cold drink shop, saw the huge influence of Coca-Cola, and originally hoped to cooperate with Coca-Cola in depth, but Coca-Cola refused Gus's invitation to cooperate with a lower discount, and an angry Guth ordered all its stores to withdraw from Coca-Cola and never enter again. He then acquired Pepsi Cola, which was once again bankrupt, and he led the deletion of the pepsin component and modified the formula as much as possible to imitate Coca-Cola. So The century-old feud between Coca-Cola and Pepsi officially began.
Rub the Pepsi of Coca-Cola's heat
Gusi deliberately avoided the identity of Pepsi as a substitute for Coca-Cola in the early days, due to the lack of clear positioning, consumers were unwilling to pay for a bottle of Coke with the same price and similar taste but not Coca-Cola, and the business was also imaginably bleak, and Gus was even ready to sell to Coca-Cola for $50,000. After being rejected by Coca-Cola again, Gu Si had a flash of inspiration and found that the cost of selling 12 ounces was not much different from 6 ounces, in 1934, Pepsi Began to sell 12 ounces of cola in the old beer bottle canned at a price of 5 cents, and at the same time launched a "spend the same money, enjoy double Coke" advertising slogan, equivalent to a 50% discount price quickly sold nationwide, this year, Pepsi also began to make a profit, have to sigh, Coke is really a good business.
In the face of the menacing Pepsi, Coca-Cola took up the legal weapon and took Pepsi To court for trademark infringement, a lawsuit that lasted for several years, and finally calmed the storm in 1942 through out-of-court mediation. Coca-Cola lost the patent right to "Coke", and all carbonated soft drinks containing sepia containing decameron can be named after the word "Cola", and Pepsi Cola chose the red, white and blue logo to distinguish Coca-Cola.
Pepsi chose the red, white and blue logo
Someone once asked me, how to let consumers know a product in the shortest time? The answer I gave was two words "tearing". Creating controversy with market leaders in this field can not only create topics, attract media attention, form multiple communications, but also cleverly establish associations with market leaders in the minds of consumers.
In 2012, Jingdong vigorously promoted the major appliance project, Liu Qiangdong in his personal Weibo as a media platform, released 5 Microblogs directly challenged Gome, Suning, that night Suning Tesco executive vice president Li Bin followed up, comprehensive promotion, and then Gome, Tmall joined the battlefield, set off a climax of the price war. Not only the various media accounts, technology media, and financial media on weibo, but also traditional media represented by CCTV and Central Radio and Television have also joined the report, and the news of the price war has rapidly infiltrated into third- and fourth-tier cities, and in some areas that require high-intensity, large-budget advertising to be affected, JD.com, Suning, Gome and other platforms have received great attention. On August 15, 2012, Suning, Gome and JD.com, which clearly participated in the price war, increased their traffic significantly compared with the same period on the 14th, and the Jingdong Baidu Index ushered in a peak, more than 5 times the usual. Xiaomi mobile phones are also well versed in this way, and have repeatedly created disputes with Apple mobile phones and Huawei mobile phones, quickly forming popularity.
On August 15, 2012, the JD Baidu Index ushered in a peak
The same is true of the red and blue Coke experience, the court debate has gained media attention, and the media has influenced creators such as writers and cartoonists, whose powerful creative ability has made Pepsi's insignificant advertising budget have a huge impact. Pepsi Used a patented mechanical device to write Pepsi's report in the sky inspired a cartoonist who used a cartoon of "Coca-Cola's Anti-Aircraft Gun Attempts to Shoot Pepsi's Empty Chinese Words" that gave Pepsi a strong association with Coca-Cola. Two counterculture writers, Alan Kent and Austin Krumm, used "Do You Know John Pearson?" The tune of "Pepsi Is Good" was written as a brisk advertising song:
Pepsi is good, Pepsi tastes really good, twelve ounces is not a lot. The same is the five-component double, Pepsi real benefits. Five points and five minutes jingle, Pepsi drip incense.
Pepsi Made the Song into a 30-second radio commercial, and after getting good results on the radio, it was adapted into an orchestral record, which sold 1 million copies. After that, the song was adapted into a march, a waltz, a rumba, and a country song, which was repeatedly disseminated, and once received the evaluation of "disaster on the American continent", just like the previous years of "The Most Dazzling Family Style", "Little Apple", "Wolf Disco". With the song's deep popularity, Americans remembered Pepsi and branded it with the label of 5 cents and 12 ounces.
Pepsi also tried to buy Popeye's patent rights, hoping to replace the "magic spinach" with "magic Pepsi" with "magic" After the defeat, Pepsi Cola created the comic strip Pepsi and Pete, which tells the story of two cops who defeat evil cops by drinking Pepsi.
All of Pepsi's ads were desperately trying to connect with Coca-Cola, and this strategy proved to be very effective, and by 1941, Pepsi's market share had risen to 14%.
However, the boss of the entire soft drink market is still Coca-Cola, which occupies 46% of the market. More media people commented: "Coca-Cola is the essence of the American soul symbol, is a real material, widely circulated and can continue to innovate the good companion of life." "This stems largely from Coca-Cola's successful brand strategy in the early 20th century, especially during the Great Depression in the United States.
<h3>Coca-Cola brand philosophy: the source of happiness</h3>
In 1923, Robert Woodruff succeeded his father as president of Coca-Cola, and under his administration, Coca-Cola experienced the Great Depression in the United States, World War II, and post-World War II globalization, and grew into one of the world's best-known brands.
Woodruff ran into a tricky question early in his tenure: Was Coca-Cola a healthy family drink, or a mild alternative to alcoholic beverages? More and more people are also beginning to pay attention to the side effects of long-term drinking of Coca-Cola that damage brain and digestive function, affect people's mental status and women's fertility.
Instead of defensive and reactive, Woodruff repositioned Coca-Cola:
Coca-Cola drinks don't have earth-shattering importance — it's just a very inconspicuous thing, just a little more relaxing and enjoyable in people's lives.
Coca-Cola advertiser Archie Lee interpreted Woodruff's philosophy as "enjoying the feeling of thirst at work or play," which gradually evolved into the famous phrase "The Pause That Refreshes."
"Enjoy a refreshing moment"
In the 1920s, with the economic recovery after World War I, the pace of work and life of Americans was accelerating, and the pressure was increasing, and many advertisers were willing to use intimidating marketing to create copywriting such as "not sleeping at 11 p.m. is chronic suicide" and "eating these foods is equivalent to eating poison" circulating in the circle of friends to attract consumers' attention by causing anxiety.
Coca-Cola's advertising is unusual, with positive, satisfied, good-looking young successful people enjoying Coca-Cola drinks, accompanied by as short text as possible, expressing the unique feeling that Coca-Cola can always appear in "cool and happy places" and "always feel pleasant".
During this period, Coca-Cola will make a rural nostalgic style advertisement, with a freckled little boy leading the dog, holding Coca-Cola, standing next to the ancient fishing hole, with a vibrant country girl, is using a straw to suck Coca-Cola from the glass bottle very comfortably, cleverly establishing a connection with the field life that busy people yearn for. Coca-Cola will also portray advertisements for various office workers drinking Coca-Cola breaks, which is associated with "taking a break". Coca-Cola also hosts advertising competitions that capture a large number of creatives that emphasize Coca-Cola's selling points such as taste, purity, rejuvenation, pleasing, price, and enjoyment when thirsty.
Advertisement in rustic nostalgic style
Coca-Cola will put elaborate advertisements on the main roads of transportation in the United States, on iconic buildings such as Times Square in New York, and in newspapers and magazines such as Women's Family Magazine and Saturday Evening News, which are sought after by more and more consumers, and gradually people begin to recognize that "Coca-Cola can bring ease and pleasure".
In the 1930s, the United States entered the Great Depression, and in 1933, alcoholic beverages were finally legalized, and people could once again use alcohol to survive the hardships, and some media commented: "The abolition of Prohibition was a huge blow to The Coca-Cola Company. It was clear that the Coca-Cola Company was coming to an end. ”
However, Coca-Cola continued its growth trend through effective marketing.
First of all, Coca-Cola continued to deepen its "happy" brand image, and created the image of Santa Claus that is popular to this day.
Cold and refreshing Coca-Cola is a typical cyclical product, usually sold in the summer, and sales will directly decline in the winter. Coca-Cola has also placed ads, but the effect is mediocre. In 1931, Coca-Cola selected Santa Claus to help boost Coca-Cola sales, and in their view, Christmas was a key marketing node, not only the whole family would gather together, but also would share happiness with each other, which coincided with the brand symbol of "happiness" that Coca-Cola worked hard to build. So Coca-Cola signed with artist Haddon Sundblom in the hope that he would create an image of Santa Claus drinking Coke.
Although Christmas has a long history, Christmas dates back to the early 17th century, in order to celebrate the arrival of Snow, when people decorated their homes with evergreen plants, gradually forming a Christmas tree culture, when the main colors of Christmas were green and white, representing green plants and snow. Santa Claus at that time was also a tall, thin elf in a robe and animal skin.
Sambu found inspiration in the famous poem "Christmas Eve", which portrays Santa Claus as a warm and intimate figure of a hunk full of human brilliance. The earliest Sambu based on a salesman friend, after the death of this friend, Sambu looked in the mirror to create based on himself, so in the early Santa Claus image more or less have the shadow of Sambu. At the strong request of Coca-Cola, Sambu changed the image of the green robe and used the red and white logo color of Coca-Cola to design a red coat for Santa Claus for the first time.
Santa Claus and Coca-Cola
So the first image of Santa Claus was born in the Saturday Evening News, an old man in a red robe, a white beard, always smiling, he took off his hat with one hand, raised a cup of Coca-Cola in the other, and read the famous slogan: "The Pause That Refreshes" (Enjoy the cool moment)."
Santa Claus, dressed in red, raises a glass of Coca-Cola
Since then, Coca-Cola ads have appeared in Ladies Family Magazine, National Geographic, The New Yorker and other magazines and newspapers, all of which have been very popular, and sales have doubled several times during the Christmas season.
More advertising exposure has also made Santa Claus deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and red has replaced green as the main color of Christmas. And Coca-Cola did not protect the IP of Santa Claus in that year, which also allowed more brands, organizations, and individuals to join the creation of Santa Claus's surroundings, so that people now mention Christmas and think of Santa Claus who is always smiling, bearded, and red.
Second, Coca-Cola has seized the dividends of the rapid development of film and broadcasting.
Just as the pandemic of 2020 hit the offline industry and became an important development opportunity for online industries such as games, e-commerce, and online education, the Great Depression of the 1930s brought vitality to the U.S. film industry. As an advertiser, Coca-Cola has also become one of the beneficiaries of the development of the film industry. Coca-Cola sent a special photographer to Hollywood, designed the coca-Cola implantation link in the film with the film team, and also hired a special agent to distribute Coca-Cola in the movie studio - the main star two boxes a month, 5 boxes per day to all the on-site production staff, Coca-Cola also got a lot of exposure opportunities, consumers see that the stars are drinking Coca-Cola inside and outside the movie, and will also "subconsciously buy".
Coca-Cola also seized the dividends of radio broadcasting, investing a budget of $400,000 in radio broadcasting in 1930 alone, and in addition to advertising, they also sponsored the string orchestra performance program, which deeply attracted a generation of radio lovers.
Third, Coca-Cola began to carry out personalized marketing for different user groups.
For male users, Coca-Cola will cleverly use sexual attraction to make more revealing Coca-Cola girls pose in various sexy poses while drinking Coca-Cola, thus more effectively attracting the attention of male users.
For female users, especially housewives, Coca-Cola launched six bottles of Coca-Cola for family drinking, and sent special female employees to install Coca-Cola corkscrews door to door and distribute free vouchers for newly packaged beverages. For the first time, Coca-Cola also advertised food with Coca-Cola, portraying Coca-Cola as a "good partner for any food." In addition, Coca-Cola also invited Ida Allen, the host of the "Housewives Radio Club" program, to help bring goods, and Allen once suggested that all housewives who trusted her could use Coca-Cola as a drink to accompany each meal.
Six bottles of Coca-Cola for families
For children, Coca-Cola provides them with a variety of school cards, notepads, pencils, pencil knives and other stationery, as well as cardboard cutting toys such as miniature circuses, small towns, airports, and the Olympic Games with Coca-Cola elements. Coca-Cola even gave preschoolers free vouchers, making them obsessed with the taste of Coca-Cola at an early age.
After continuous large-scale advertising, by the end of the 1930s, Coca-Cola Air has become a national enterprise in the hearts of the American people, as mentioned above, Coca-Cola has become the essence of the American soul symbol, he has not only brought happiness to people, but also become a part of American culture. It is precisely because of this that the Legend of World War II and the globalization after World War II have been achieved.
<h2>Third, Coca-Cola's World War II legend</h2>
<h3>Coca-Cola globalization before World War II</h3>
Globalization was one of the goals of business expansion as early as Ernest Woodruff's acquisition of Coca-Cola, and in the last sentence of the Coca-Cola press conference in 1919: "The new management will expand the business more extensively than before... Not just in the United States, but also in other countries. By 1922, Coca-Cola had invested about $3 million to open bottle franchises throughout Europe, as well as a considerable number of cold drink cabinets with Coca-Cola brand elements, but traditional Europeans did not seem to be interested in the new things marked with conspicuous pomp and exaggeration, and Coca-Cola's sealed cork stoppers reacted with liquids, generating toxic substances, resulting in a sustained downturn in European business.
Coca-Cola's administrators realized that Coca-Cola was a completely new thing in Europe, and that it needed to be expanded in the same way as atLanta in 1885. However, due to the lack of sufficient funds, Coca-Cola has not found the role of alcohol substitutes in the "prohibition" period, and the expansion in Europe has not been smooth.
In addition, different languages and cultures have caused a lot of problems, and the generic slogan "Coca-Cola makes you recover" in the Netherlands means "wash your hands with Coca-Cola", and the company had to redesign the slogan.
Coca-Cola's expansion in other countries in the Americas was also not smooth, and Coca-Cola rented a plane in Cuba to write a Coca-Cola slogan "Tome Coca-Cola" in the air, but because the wind blew the words out, the people who saw it mistakenly thought that "Teme Coca-Cola "Afraid of Coca-Cola". Therefore, the way the plane hangs advertisements in the air is completely abandoned by Coca-Cola, and it is interesting that Coca-Cola's fierce rival, Pepsi Cola, has gained great attention in the early stage with this delivery method, and has quickly grown into a strong competitor of Coca-Cola. There are also cultural problems in Cuba, with an advertisement for Coca-Cola showing a bullfight, but because bullfighting is banned in Cuba, the ad has caused a lot of controversy.
Overall, before World War II, compared to Coca-Cola's success in the United States, outside the United States, Coca-Cola struggled until the outbreak of World War II.
<h3>World War II strategy, linking the United States</h3>
As the saying goes, "the sky is not as good as the location, the location is not as good as the people", but the truth is that most great companies have met the sky to achieve their greatness. For example, in recent years, Huawei, although it is excellent in technology, is also more distinctive because it has become a pawn in the Sino-US game.
The same is true of Coca-Cola, if there is no World War II, there is no United States into the game, Coca-Cola will not become the blood of American soldiers, will not become the "global code" in wartime, and there will be no global popularity after World War II.
Shortly after Pearl Harbor, the United States began sending troops around the world, totaling 16 million passengers. The already patriotic Woodruff keenly seized a godsend and issued a special order that went down in history: "No matter where our army is, and no matter how much the company costs, we will guarantee that each soldier can buy a bottle of Coca-Cola for only 5 cents." ”
Through lobbying, the U.S. military and Congress eventually decided to send Coca-Cola to the front line as a munitions like chocolate, chewing gum and cigarettes, while also exempting the sugar quota limit, while its competitor Pepsi Had to buy sugar at a high price and even desperately smuggled sugar from Mexico.
Coca-Cola that became a munitions
Due to the problem of transportation of military supplies, the way of direct export of coca-Cola that was originally bottled changed to export concentrate, the way of local factory canning, so where the US military is stationed, Coca-Cola will build a bottling factory in the local area, large-scale production of Coca-Cola, after World War II, the US military withdrew, but these factories have been retained, becoming Coca-Cola's local production base. Not only that, because of the influence of the US military, under the demonstration of the American soldiers, drinking Coca-Cola will often get the local pursuit, and the Coca-Cola produced by the local bottling factory will continue to spread to various local places in various ways, and gradually become popular. Taking Iceland as an example, the originally unknown Coca-Cola because of the construction of the US air base, because of the admiration of the Icelandic Prime Minister, Coca-Cola has been recognized by the entire Icelandic civilian population, by the beginning of the 21st century, Coca-Cola in Iceland per capita annual consumption reached 446 bottles, more than any country in the world, including the United States mainland.
According to the data, Coca-Cola established 64 bottling plants during World War II and sold more than 10 billion bottles of Coca-Cola.
More significant than sales, coca-cola forged a stronger emotional connection with the American people through World War II.
<h3>Build emotional dependence</h3>
I've talked to a lot of people about "Why do companies invest so much real money in branding?" The answers were surprisingly similar: building trust and lowering the threshold of consumer perception.
In my opinion, brand building should be divided into three stages: the awareness building stage, the trust building stage, and the emotional dependence stage.
In the stage of popularity construction, the core to solve the problem from obscurity to being known. The commonly used method is to let consumers gradually understand the existence of this product through the repeated exposure of core elements such as brand name, logo, slogan and product style, and the "splitting the mind" often mentioned in brand marketing is this stage. Because it is from scratch, simple, direct, controversial advertising is often easy for people to quickly generate memories. For example, "this year's festival does not receive gifts, and only collects brain platinum", "Hengyuanxiang, sheep and sheep", "Platinum Jue Travel Shooting!" Shoot wherever you want! "Find a job!" Directly follow! The owner talks! "Before you travel, go to the ant honeycomb first!" ”......
In the stage of building trust, many target consumer groups have a certain understanding of the brand, therefore, on the one hand, it is necessary to continue to consolidate this cognition, continue to maintain the intensity of advertising, social psychology research shows that human beings will have a special preference for things they are familiar with, and the degree of liking will increase with the frequency of occurrence, social psychology calls this phenomenon "exposure effect", also known as the law of familiarity. On the other hand, it will hire a spokesperson to build trust in the brand through the endorsement of the spokesperson's trust.
In the stage of emotional construction, the brand needs to reach a closer relationship with the user, like a friend, as if it were a relative, a simple brand exposure and the trust endorsement of the spokesperson cannot achieve this goal, and it is also necessary for the brand owner to communicate with their users more deeply and establish a relationship similar to the above friends and relatives. At this stage, of course, it requires the right marketing strategy, large-scale advertising costs, and the care of historical opportunities.
Coca-Cola's brand building process in the U.S. market also conforms to these three stages, and at the end of the 19th century, Coca-Cola was born, mainly through the "refreshing! Wake up! refresh oneself! "Featuring both wonderful coca leaves and famous coca nuts!" "And other product features attract the attention of consumers.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Coca-Cola used large-scale advertising, personalized marketing and reshaping Santa Claus IP to further enhance its popularity, build trust with consumers, and let more and more people buy Coca-Cola.
The outbreak of World War II seemed to open up the second vein of Coca-Cola's governor, and truly established an emotional link between Coca-Cola and the American people.
Coca-Cola in the caffeine, soda can refresh the mind, sugar can not only quickly replenish energy, but also quickly bring happiness to the drinker, as a drink, Coca-Cola has no side effects, can be bottle after bottle of continuous drinking. Coupled with the fact that there were no competitors, drinking Coca-Cola soon became a common hobby within the U.S. military.
During World War II, drinking Coca-Cola became a common hobby within the U.S. military
One soldier once wrote in a letter to his family, "If someone asks us what the purpose of the fight is, I think nearly half of us would say it was to be able to buy another Coke." Another soldier wrote, "For me, suffering is for two equally important things: first, to enable our people to enjoy the benefits of the state without worry; and second, to drink Coke as happily as ever." ”
Soldier with Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola became a Christmas gift to the U.S. military and also a military merit badge, and Robert Scott, a pilot who was awarded the honorary title of "Ace Pilot" for shooting down 5 Japanese fighters, explained that his motivation for "shooting down the first Japanese aircraft" stemmed from the idea of "America, Democracy, Coca-Cola". At the same time that he won the honorary title of "Ace Pilot", he also received a bottle of Coca-Cola as a reward. However, he felt that the bottle of Coca-Cola was too precious, and he did not want to drink it, and gave it to a surgeon who had operated on him when he was seriously injured.
A corporal named George Brennan wrote to his former owner, who worked for the Coca-Cola Company, saying that the experience of the war had given him a whole new understanding of the drink: "In the life of an ordinary civilian, if there is enough Coca-Cola, you are sure that everything is very good, and it is okay to be a little more or less, nothing more." But it's only when you've experienced a severe shortage of Coca-Cola or if you've even suffered the misfortune of not having Coca-Cola that you really understand what Coca-Cola really means to us Americans. ”
Coca-Cola, which is welcomed by the whole army
Coca-Cola was not only popular with soldiers and junior officers, but also World War II stars such as Douglas MacArthur, Omar Bradley, george Patton and other World War II stars were also fans of Coca-Cola. The general's favorite coca-cola was European Allied commander-in-chief Dwight Eisenhower, who in June 1943, while inspecting the Allied forces' presence in North Africa, sent a telegram detailing the need for "3 million bottles of Coca-Cola (filled) and a complete set of equipment (including bottling, bottle washing, and bottle-sealing equipment) that could produce 60 million bottles a month." Before the equipment arrives, 10 machines that can work alone are sent in different places, and these machines require a daily output of 20,000 bottles. In addition, enough syrup and a corresponding number of caps will be sent to produce 6 million bottles of Coke." Six months later, a number of Coca-Cola production lines were erected in North Africa. The following year, the Allies completed the famous Normandy landings in Operation D-Day (abbreviated for the day the operation began), and Coca-Cola entered Western Europe with Allied forces. In the battle across the Rhine, American troops even used Coca-Cola as a code name.
Coca-Cola established an emotional connection with U.S. soldiers
Coca-Cola's emotional connection with the Generals of World War II continued into World War II. At the end of World War II, these famous generals not only became heroes of the United States, but also became the pillars of the United States, and there is evidence that with the support and planning of the Coca-Cola Company, Eisenhower was elected president of the United States, and after that, Eisenhower also became the top spokesperson of Coca-Cola. Once, Woodruff saw Eisenhower drinking Coca-Cola with a straw in a photo and angrily rebuked him because only women drank Coke at the time, and men were blowing on bottles. Eisenhower defended himself: "If I blow on the bottle, I'll finish it in a matter of seconds." But with straws, I can walk a lot and talk a lot more so photographers and journalists can capture more footage of me drinking Coca-Cola. ”
In fact, Eisenhower's relationship with Coca-Cola didn't stop there, all the bottling plants in South America were owned by Eisenhower and his son.
Coca-Cola's influence in the World War II Army was also transmitted to the rear in various ways, and in their correspondence, Coca-Cola was a word that appeared very frequently, he represented the desire for victory, the thought of his hometown and his family, and every veteran who returned home carried Coca-Cola, he was a symbol of victory. A 1948 poll of veterans in the Journal of the American Veterans Association showed that 63.67 percent listed Coca-Cola as their preferred soft drink.
Coca-Cola is associated with victory and joy
Coca-Cola also spares no effort to amplify this emotional link through various advertisements, linking Coca-Cola with victory and joy.
Unpublished historical sources from the Coca-Cola Company suggest that World War II "made friends with 11 million American soldiers and turned them into Customers of Coca-Cola." In addition, the company also carried out overseas sampling experiments and market expansion work. Without this plan, it would have taken 25 years and millions of dollars in investment."
This victory can also be measured by business data, in the third year after World War II, in 1948, Coca-Cola's total profit from sales reached $1.26 billion, while Pepsi's was only $25 million; compared with the net profit after tax, the gap between the two is even more obvious, Coca-Cola's net profit after tax is $35.6 million, while Pepsi Is a very small amount, only $3.2 million.
<h2>Fourth, the red and blue war and best-selling worldwide</h2>
<h3>PR first, advertising second</h3>
After the end of World War II, the world entered a bipolar pattern of hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union. Because of Coca-Cola's close relationship with the United States, Coke also became part of the game of two hegemons, the red Coca-Cola and the blue flag of the United States came together, and the blue Pepsi and the red flag of the Soviet Union came together.
The Soviet Union was also the first to accept Coca-Cola, which is still attributed to Eisenhower. After World War II, in the negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union to divide Germany, under the recommendation of Eisenhower, Zhukov of the Soviet Union tasted Coca-Cola and deeply liked the drink. But Zhukov believes that Coca-Cola bears the American symbol, and at his request, with President Truman's permission, Coca-Cola produced a batch of colorless Cokes with a white lid and a Soviet red star.
In fact, not only Eisenhower and Truman, But Coca-Cola has always maintained a good relationship with the President of the United States, Kennedy, Carter, and Clinton have all said that they are Coca-Cola fans and often drink Coca-Cola in front of the camera.
Clinton is also a Coca-Cola fan
Of course, this close relationship is the result of Coca-Cola's deliberate management, which is not only reflected in the aforementioned Eisenhower, but also jimmy Carter, who had fought with Coca-Cola but eventually helped Coca-Cola market the world. At the beginning of Carter's campaign for governor, Coca-Cola supported his competitors, and Carter also publicly declared that he would severely punish the Coca-Cola Company, but as Carter won the campaign, Coca-Cola began to turn to support Carter, and in the process of Carter's presidential campaign, Coca-Cola's media advisers helped him create a new campaign image, reversing the original low public support, when Carter became president, he immediately expelled Pepsi from the White House and replaced it naturally with Coca-Cola, at the same time, He also invited many of Coca-Cola's personnel to key government positions. With President Carter's help, Coca-Cola also obtained licenses for markets such as Portugal, Egypt, Yemen, Sudan and even Cuba.
Positioning author Al Rees once wrote a book called "PR First Advertising Second", proposing that in the process of marketing, public relations should first be carried out to shape the brand, and then advertising exposure to remind consumers.
The process of Coca-Cola's global marketing is also in line with this theory, public relations first, with the strong strength of the United States, first knock on the local market through the high-level, and then use a wide range of advertising exposure to let consumers buy repeatedly.
It was also because of this strategy that Coca-Cola lost the market of the Soviet camp countries, but Pepsi took advantage of the void and obtained concessions in Romania, the Soviet Union and other places. And when the Soviet Union collapsed, the Soviet bloc declined, and the United States began to infiltrate its influence into these areas, everyone from local officials to civilians believed that Coca-Cola was a symbol of a new life, and it would bring jobs and colorful lives to ordinary people. At historical moments such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, There is also a figure of Coca-Cola.
However, the real focus of the red and blue Coke dispute is the American market, after the Second World War era, globalization is actually Americanization, only successful in the American market, can become a truly global product. The U.S. market is the main battleground.
<h3>Pepsi's counterattack</h3>
After the end of World War II, production in the United States began to resume, young people began to start families, have children, according to statistics, from 1946 to 1964, the New Population of the United States exceeded 78 million, they are also known as "baby boomers". Children and young people have always been the main consumers of carbonated drinks, and have also become the focus of the battle between Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
During this period, the far-flung Coca-Cola mainly adopted a defensive strategy, striving to define categories, making full use of the opportunities brought by the rise of television media, and striving to reach all user groups. Laggard Pepsi took a radical approach, defining baby boomers and finding a living space from Coca-Cola's shadow, a strategy that continues to this day.
Pepsi's change began in 1950, when Coca-Cola jumped ship to Pepsi's Steele became president. Previously, because Pepsi has been using a multi-price low cost-effective strategy, coupled with a stronger sweetness, it will often be labeled as poor, in some parts of the United States, white people will call Pepsi Coke, so some Americans in order to avoid the label of poor, will choose to pour Pepsi into the cup and pretend to drink Coca-Cola.
Steele first lowered the sugar content on the product side, making it taste close to Coca-Cola.
On the marketing side, Pepsi Tried to label it a "slimming drink," and they repeatedly broadcast "Pepsi With Weight-Conscious Modern People" on live television. "Because as long as you drink Pepsi, you can still be refreshed even if you don't eat anything else, and you can reduce your calorie intake."
Pepsi also redesigned the bottle into a shape with many swirl patterns, and they invited the new American elegant diva Faye Emerson to wear a dress with a deep V-neckline, leaned over the iced Pepsi bottle, and hosted the 15-minute Pepsi show, which attracted many slim socialites to drink the drink.
Pepsi Tried to label itself a "slimming drink."
Pepsi Has even ventured into the monopoly field of the Coca-Cola Company. Pepsi has spent $30,000 to install Pepsi vending machines at the exit of 600 Fox Movie Theaters on the West Coast.
The aggressive Pepsi strategy proved to be very effective, and in less than 5 years, Coca-Cola's worldwide lead dropped from 5:1 to 3:1, while Pepsi's domestic market share rose from 21% to 35%, and even in Atlanta, where everyone liked Coca-Cola, Pepsi's sales increased by 30% in one year.
<h3>The strategy of the leader</h3>
By the 1960s, PepsiCo had found the brand's post-attack code. Understanding this counterattack begins with Coca-Cola's continued dominance.
After World War II, Coca-Cola was like a grand master who firmly controlled the basic disk, with almost no flaws. That's because of the simple and clear business model, in the words of Coca-Cola's 80s CEO Guo Sida, Coca-Cola only needs to do three things: buyable, affordable, and like to drink.
Buy-to-buy refers to the construction of various sales channels, supermarkets, convenience stores, sports fields, factories, offices and various vending machines. Affordability refers to the price, Coca-Cola's price has been very stable, and later launched a variety of capacity packaging, suitable for different occasions. Drinking is not only the taste of Coca-Cola, but also refers to the Coca-Cola brand to bring people emotional feelings, such as joy, joy, excitement, good times and patriotism, so that consumers can further accept it.
Coca-Cola only needs to do three things: buy, afford, and enjoy drinking
This simple business model also allows Coca-Cola to have enough profits to support the trial and error in advertising, from its birth to the present, Coca-Cola has grasped the dividends brought by almost every media revolution, whether it is the aforementioned film, radio, or the rise of television, and we are experiencing the internet, mobile Internet wave.
In the 1950s, PepsiCo, under steele' leadership, made a rapid recovery. Coca-Cola has also grasped the dividends of the rise of television media, which has changed the leisure habits of Americans, people from the outdoors into the room, in groups gathered in front of the TV, rather than in public places, which although caused the decline in cold drink shop sales, but brought more exposure on the TV side. Coca-Cola also began to sponsor various programs founded by the TV station, and they also carried out in-depth cooperation with Disney, in addition to various Disney programs, they also sponsored the establishment of the Mickey Mouse Club.
Coca-Cola also began sponsoring various programs created by television stations
In order to reach all Americans as much as possible, Coca-Cola also hired Eddie Fisher, the most popular male singer in the United States in the 1950s, as the spokesperson, equivalent to Michael Jackson of that era, and between 1950 and 1956 alone, Fisher had nineteen solo singles in the top ten of the Us pop charts. Under Coca-Cola's sponsorship, Fisher released a solo album titled "The Coca-Cola Era," which praised Coca-Cola as a leader in the soft drink industry. His photograph was also made into a life-size cardboard poster and affixed to a Coca-Cola one-step skirt-shaped bottle to entice consumers to buy Coca-Cola.
In the 1950s, Eddie Fisher, the most popular male singer in the United States, became the spokesperson
In the 1960s, McCann Advertising created the famous slogan for Coca-Cola: "With Coca-Cola, you will do everything well." And the use of integrated marketing to strengthen the slogan in television, radio, offline advertising, print advertising, carpet marketing and various promotional activities to strengthen this slogan. They also refilled the Ode to Joy: "With Coca-Cola, the food is more delicious, the fun is more enjoyable, the heart is successful, and everything is as good as it should be." Let the slogan "be 'fashionable' enough to appeal to young adults without alienating consumers of other ages because they are 'outdated'."
These tactics also put Coca-Cola's sales in an advantageous position throughout the 1960s.
However, Pepsi still found a way to strike later.
<h3>Pepsi Cola, positioning the "new generation"</h3>
In his inaugural address in the 1960s, US President John F. Kennedy proposed the concept of a "new generation," referring to the "baby boomers" born after World War II. Pepsi found that even if it reached all Americans with its influence at that time, it was not enough for those Coca-Cola followers to buy Pepsi instead, and simply focused its limited resources on the "new generation". Using the pressure formula of junior high school physics to explain, the size of the pressure in addition to the pressure related, but also reduce or increase the surface area, the same reason, if the resources are limited, then focus on the user base, often can harvest miracles.
Pepsi is exactly like this, even if Coca-Cola's advertising is as close as possible to the "new generation", but because of its position as the leader, it still has to worry about more people, which has "with Coca-Cola, you will do everything as expected", emphasizing the product itself. And Pepsi Can be more radically positioned in the "Coke of Young People" and resonate with young people by showing the lifestyle of young people:
On the new live television scene, the short, quiet intervals were shattered by the loud noises of motorcycles turning or roller coasters driving to their highest points. After the brass horn sounded, Joan Summers' voice grew louder, calling on consumers to "Get moving!" Get moving! You are the Pepsi generation." Using innovative technology — hand-held cameras, enabling real-life California children instead of actors, and for the first time flying the blue skies with a helicopter carrying a Pepsi vending machine — the new ad finally effectively earned Pepsi a 1950s-born child and the "new generation" mentioned in Kennedy's inaugural address.
Since then, the two major Coke brands have formed their marketing styles, Coca-Cola focuses on products, highlighting Coca-Cola products themselves, Pepsi Cola pays attention to consumer groups, especially young users, this differentiated marketing method also allows Pepsi to find its own living space, in the following decades, Coca-Cola still maintains a lead, but Pepsi Is a force that cannot be ignored.
<h3>The "disobedience to run a score" in the 70s</h3>
In the 1970s, PepsiCo inadvertently discovered a more effective way to grab Market share from Coca-Cola.
I have always believed that the reason why Xiaomi mobile phones quickly left a cost-effective impression on the public, in addition to the early pricing is really low enough, more importantly, invented the "not to accept the running score", through running points, he will be complex, difficult to spread, extremely high cognitive threshold product performance, into a set of numbers at a glance, just need to look at the level of the numbers can judge which mobile phone performance is better. Later, Huawei mobile phones used DxOMARK scores to show their excellent camera performance is also an excellent way to build cognition.
In recent years, the "planting grass" model is the same reason, a hundred people have a hundred Hamlets in their hearts, it is difficult for ordinary people to judge whether a bottle of drink is good or not, then if there is a KOL through the exhaustive display, give a clear conclusion, it is recommended to buy or not recommended to buy, which will undoubtedly reduce the threshold for consumers to choose, which is also the reason why the "planting grass" and "evaluation" mode is in the B station and the little red book.
More than 40 years ago, PepsiCo discovered the miracle effect of this model. Pepsi accidentally discovered that Pepsi was better than Coca-Cola in the taste test of Cola, so from 1975, Dallas Television began to broadcast "Accept the Challenge of Pepsi". In the program, consumers use anonymous testing to select their preferred drinks, thus proving which drink is more popular, many original Coca-Cola consumers chose Pepsi in the test, with the broadcast of the show, Local Dallas consumers began to accept Pepsi, in just two years, Pepsi's market share in Dallas increased from 4% to 14%.
Pepsi, which has been wrestling with Coca-Cola
Pepsi then began to broadcast provocative advertisements on a larger scale in the United States, and by the late 1970s, Pepsi's market share had steadily increased, and in the summer of 1978, Nielsen market research data showed that Pepsi Cola's sales in supermarkets surpassed Coca-Cola.
The Big Macs began to feel fear, and they began to suspect that Coca-Cola's formula was really inferior to Pepsi, which led to a lesson worth tens of billions of dollars from the Coca-Cola crime we mentioned at the beginning - a large-scale change in the formula.
<h2>Fifth, the brand is the consensus</h2>
What exactly is a brand? Is it the name that comes to mind, the logo that is repeatedly deliberated on and designed, the slogan that is constantly changing, the characteristics of the product, or the so-called brand culture, the brand core... This is a problem that plagues all business owners and marketers.
I want to discuss this topic from another dimension: what do people need?
The first of course is objectively existent things, to eat when hungry, to drink water when thirsty, to dress when cold, to have a place to live, not only for man, but also for all animals on earth. But man is called a higher animal because he possesses an ability that is not found in ordinary animals, and the book A Brief History of Man boils it down to the ability to fictional stories.
The human brain gives humans this ability. The same lion, other animals can only express the message accurately in words: "Be careful! There are lions", and human language can convey some messages that things don't exist. For example, the same lion, humans can say: "The lion is the patron saint of our tribe." ”
It is this ability to fictionalize stories that allows humans to compile a variety of virtual stories, such as the stories of Pangu breaking new ground, Nuwa creating people, and the Yellow Emperor of Yandi, because of these stories, a large number of people who do not know each other have established relationships, and with the passage of time, many virtual stories have replaced the things themselves and become the consensus of this organization.
Therefore, to explain from the point of view of "A Brief History of Mankind", starting with the ability of human beings to have virtual stories,
Homo sapiens has always lived in a dual reality. On the one hand, we have objective realities like rivers, trees, and lions; on the other hand, we have imaginary realities like gods, nations, and corporations. As time passed, imaginary reality grew stronger; today, rivers, trees, and lions sometimes rely on the imaginary realities of gods, nations, and corporations to do their best and let them go.
It can be said that objective reality and fictional content constitute the DNA double helix structure of human social evolution, on the one hand, the development of objective reality enriches human imagination and promotes human beings to create richer content, on the other hand, the content gathers people with the same preferences to form a closely related organizational structure, collides with each other, rubs against each other, and further improves objective reality.
To understand the brand from this perspective, the brand is also composed of two parts: objective reality and fictional content. The product itself, the brand name, the brand logo, and the main tone of the brand are objective reality, and in the process of brand evolution, the various brand stories created by the brand owner or consumers form the fictitious content of the brand. Over time, the objective reality of the brand and the fictional content merge and are inseparable.
Coca-Cola is the best example, his name, logo at the beginning of his birth at the end of the 19th century was determined, his formula in the early 20th century after fine-tuning has not changed, has continued to the present, and Coca-Cola related fictional content has been enriched, from the initial refreshing drink (alcohol substitute) to the Great Depression of happiness symbols to World War II American symbols, during which also mixed with Santa Claus, country life, national idol endorsements and other marketing events, as well as consumers themselves in the purchase of Coca-Cola, In the process of drinking Coca-Cola, various stories are deduced, these fictional contents and the objective reality of Coca-Cola are integrated with each other, and after the accumulation of time, it has become a consensus of Coca-Cola consumers for Coca-Cola: this is Coca-Cola, a magical drink that brings harmony and friendship, singing and laughter.
I've always had the assumption that if Coca-Cola didn't make much noise, but quietly changed the recipe and gradually became recognized, maybe this change of recipe strategy would succeed.
However, the publicity to change the recipe, in fact, is extremely bad to undermine this consensus.
The decision to change the recipe was endorsed by Coca-Cola's greatest CEO, Woodruff, who later proved to be a great leader who made more people in more parts of the world a consumer of Coca-Cola. But they still ignore the group consensus behind Coca-Cola products.
From the objective facts, new Coke tastes better, and Pepsi's tests also prove it. But from the perspective of group consensus, changing the taste is to tear up the consensus, make the original group that was gathered together become fragmented, and re-establish the consensus, which will inevitably take a longer time and require the interpretation of virtual stories outside the product. This is something that the century-old Coca-Cola cannot afford. Therefore, changing back to the original taste and restoring consensus is the only solution.
In fact, Later Coca-Cola did the same, restored the recipe, and continued to sell Coca-Cola that tasted inferior to Pepsi, but it turned out that Coca-Cola was still the leader in the carbonated beverage industry, and no matter how various strategies Pepsi Used, it could only rank second, without any opportunity to challenge Coca-Cola.
This is the power of the brand, he originated from the product, but through the interpretation of people, beyond the product, become a group of faith.
The next story of Coca-Cola is basically to repeat what was said before, the product remains unchanged, the brand does not change, the business model does not change, and the change is for different user groups, different media forms, and different marketing methods are used to make the new generation of people also accept Coca-Cola, identify with Coca-Cola, and reach a consensus with Coca-Cola.
<h2>postscript</h2>
Looking back at Coca-Cola's development history, I believe that Coca-Cola's marketing success lies in:
Clear, simple, and profitable business model. For 130 years, Coca-Cola's business model has never changed, they produce concentrates at a very low cost, which later evolves into powders, canned coca-cola everywhere, and then sold all over the world, in this process, Coca-Cola only needs to control the cost of concentrate, in fact, the cost of the most important ingredient - sucrose. A simple, clear, and profitable business model has given Coca-Cola enough money to run marketing activities.
Good product. Water, which is originally a necessity for everyone, sugar, is also a necessity. Coca-Cola is essentially sugar water, in theory, it is suitable for everyone, in Buffett's words, Coca-Cola after drinking without boredom, can be drunk bottle after bottle. This determines that Coca-Cola's marketing has no ceiling, so that everyone accepts, makes everyone like, and makes everyone addicted is the ultimate goal of Coca-Cola marketing.
A "buy-to-buy" channel strategy. Under the first two conditions, Coca-Cola through the construction of various sales channels, in shopping malls, supermarkets, restaurants, convenience stores, hotels, movie theaters, stadiums, Tmall, JD.com, Amazon... Coca-Cola can be bought in every corner of the world. I split marketing into two processes, "impact" and "sales," which are interdependent, with influences being meant to drive sales, and sales allowing impact to generate value. Then, Coca-Cola's sales channels all over the world can maximize every penny spent in the process of Coca-Cola brand building. In fact, the ads we see at McDonald's and Unilever are also on the basis of extremely perfect channel construction, so that there is a better conversion, if there is no sales channel, it is doomed to waste a large part of the marketing costs.
PR and advertising in parallel with marketing strategies. Many people pay attention to Coca-Cola's large-scale advertising, often ignore Coca-Cola's public relations strategy, and after Woodruff took over, every large-scale marketing activity of Coca-Cola is public relations first, Coca-Cola first reached a good relationship with the top level and the public, and then relied on the powerful symbol of "The United States" to knock out the global market.
Coca-Cola's brand strategy does not focus on product characteristics, but focuses on creating an image. It turns out that product features can be caught up or surpassed, but the image doesn't. As a result, Coca-Cola created a brand image of "Moment of Refreshment" and associated it with happiness, health, energy, and friendliness, establishing an emotional connection with consumers. And this strategy has continued to this day, shaping the brand image, moving users, and establishing deep links.
Create group consensus. This is related to the fifth point, because the sales of long-term products and the shaping of long-term brand image have gradually formed a group consensus beyond the product layer, and Coca-Cola enthusiasts have formed a religious-like belief, which is the core force supporting the long-term popularity of Coca-Cola.
So, what can coca-cola's century-old marketing case inspire our new consumer brands today?
The first is the construction of sales channels, not limited to online or offline, as far as possible to cover more channels, the value of brand marketing will be further amplified.
The second is not to ignore the power of PR. I have always believed that in today's era of social media prevalence, the value of public relations is greater than the value of advertising, if you can create a good brand image through public relations, social media UGC and self-communication will bring double the effect with half the effort, to know that now the most competitive smart phone field, whether it is Xiaomi, Huawei, or OPPO, vivo, the cost in public relations is quite expensive.
The third is that ads should focus on internal communication, not displaying products. Product features will be copied and surpassed, and the brand image will be difficult to replace.
Fourth, as far as possible through operation, the formation of a unique fan culture. In the age of social media, it's not that hard.