A

critical study of the evolving brand

strategy of Coca Cola over the years



Presented by:

Suruchu Jain (16P228)
Shweta Behera (16P225)
Gurleen Kaur (16P200)
Akshita Singal (16P183)
Nupur Suri (16P211)

Mukund Lahoty (16P209)
STUDY OF BRAND

STRATEGY OF COCA
COLA
A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Introduction
When people talk about brand, usually they're referring to the visual parts. They think
about their logo; the colours they use or their typefaces. But actually brand is so
much more than that. It's also how one sounds, and how the employees answer the
phone. It's what sort of experience one offers and how one relates to its customers.
Brand is company's personality.

Branding is what makes people choose one company over another. Even when the
products they offer are identical. Bottled still water is a great example of this. To look
at, to taste and its price, are often almost identical. So why does what's on the bottle
influence the buying decision we make? Put simply, it's because brands make us
feel something. We become attached to brands because of the way they make us
feel. Whether that's how they make us feel about ourselves, or the impression they
give of us to other people.

When it comes to attracting and keeping customers, it's obvious that brand is
important. But brand is more than just what you say your company is or how it
sounds or looks. And that is why proper brand strategy is important. Because brand
strategy is the plan to make sure customers perceive the brand in the right way.

In this project, we are trying to understand various brand strategies that Coca-Cola
has followed over years and what has been the result of implementing these
strategies.

Over the years, consumer taste, preference and lifestyles have changed, and with
that so has Coca‑Cola. Coca-Cola has tried to innovate to include a range of lower
and no sugar and calorie alternatives, each with their own identity. But recent
research has showed that not everyone understands the options available to them,
and the benefits of each drink, which is why they’re introducing a new “one brand”
strategy to help make choice easier and simpler.

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From May in Great Britain their four colas will be marketed under one brand –
Coca‑Cola – allowing Diet Coke, Coca‑Cola Zero Sugar and Coca‑Cola Life to
benefit from its widespread appeal. They’ll be promoting the different characteristics
of each variant, and giving black, silver and green greater presence in Coca‑Cola
advertising.

Objective of the project

• To analyse and understand the environment (external and internal) that has
contributed to the success of Brand Coca-Cola
• To understand and critically analyse the changes in the brand strategy of
Coca-Cola over the years
• To test the proof of concept and analyse success or failure for the latest
change in their brand strategy through primary and secondary research
(surveys, focussed group discussion, aided and unaided recall test)

Purpose of the study

• Gain an understanding of the basic dimensions of brands and brand
strategies
• Understand the importance of consumers’ perceptions/mindset in brand
management
• Gain insight into the interface of positioning and branding
• Understand the management of brands over time
• Understand and be able to name new products and brand extensions
• Discover how marketers develop tactics and strategies to position their brands
and appreciate how basic brand tactics and strategies are applied.

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Justification and Significance of the project

• To identify and understand the parameters that have contributed to the
success of Coke in India and to identify a future growth strategy for the brand
• To identify how Coca-Cola has managed to surpass competition and become
a leader in the market space
• To study the impact Coca-Cola’s branding strategy and its impact customer
acquisition

Outline and flow of project

• The project will cover all aspects and analysis of subject matter and would be
broken down into phases
• In the first stage we will look at compiling different brand messages that are
generated by Coke as a part of their marketing campaign across years and
geographies – these will be segregated into different timelines for different
countries to verify if there is a consistency across geographies and markets
• Further we would like to success and investigate the reasons behind success
of each iteration of Coke’s brand avatars.

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Research Objective
• To analyse and understand the reasons that has contributed to the success of
Brand Coca-Cola
• To test the proof of concept and analyse success or failure for the latest
change in their brand strategy

Research Design
The project involves analysis of factors which has contributed to the success of
Coca-Cola and to understand their brand strategy over years. The research part is to
test the proof of concept and see whether a customer knows and understands their
latest brand strategy as can be depicted through advertisements of Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola has recently adopted a “providing healthy” brand strategy. The research
focuses on knowing if people have really understood this strategy. The research tool
consists of 7 research questions and 1 demographic question. The research was
conducted among an audience ranging from 15 to 35 years of age through a survey
tool. The questionnaire consists of an open ended question which basically tries to
gauge the unaided perception of a customer towards Coca-Cola.

Research Methodology
Data Type
• Primary Data
• Secondary Data
Sample Size: > 60
• Demographics: < 35 Years in Age
• Rationale: These are the people most likely to use Coca-Cola products
Sampling: Random
• Rationale: To avoid biases of any sort
Methods of Data Collection
• Survey via web based questionnaire
• Published Reports of Assocham, Npci, Rbi

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Data Collection and Analysis

A market research was conducted on people from various age groups belonging to
different parts of India. Through this survey, we test the proof of concept and see
whether a customer knows and understands their latest brand strategy as can be
depicted through advertisements of Coca-Cola. Following is the demographics and
distribution of customers that were targeted in the survey:

Fig: Age Group Report

As mentioned earlier, Coca-Cola has been trying to position itself as a healthier

company and so has been coming out with products like Coke Zero, Vio, Zico etc.
Coca-Cola has been pushing this strategy through its various ads. But the customer
has not been able to get the message and hence the consumption of these products
has been low as can be seen from the results.

Fig: Age Group Report

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We asked the audience to rate some statements regarding Coca-Cola on a scale of

1 to 5, where 1 was Strongly Disagree and 5 was Strongly Agree. The results are as
follows:

Fig: Age Group Report

45% of consumers disagree that they can associate Coca-Cola with healthiness.
38% customers think that all products of Coca-Cola products have high sugar
content even after Coca-Cola having products like Coke Zero and Diet Coke.

The open ended question which asked people that what would they associate Coca-
Cola brand with. Maximum answers were related to people associating Coca-Cola
with “Happiness”. Interesting thing to note here is “Open Happiness” was the brand
strategy of Coca-Cola few years back. But people still associate the same strategy
with Coca-Cola till now.

Our results show that Coca-Cola has not been able to successfully position its new
brand strategy of being a healthier option amongst its target group.

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Coca-Cola 1886 To 2016 – How The Brand Continues To

Evolve In Its Marketing Communications

Change is accepted and specially when it is from a brand like Coca-Cola that which
boasts of rich heritage and not to mention it is followed by more than billions around
the world then it is bound to create curiosity amongst its fans and followers. Coca-
Cola, in 2012 announced the change in its much celebrated philosophy and branding
and tagline from “Open Happiness” to “Taste the Feeling”

“Open Happiness” the philosophy that was coined seven years ago and gave the
universe some really serious, heart-warming and cheerful campaigns under it – all
thanks to the ever evolving and dynamic social media. The rationale behind this as
given by the Global Chief Marketing Officer, that the previous communication
became a little too preachy and tutoring whereas the new communication and
philosophy is built on the core values of Coca-Cola that being humbleness and
simplicity.

Historically, Coca-Cola has been an ever evolving brand relevant to the audience,
culture and time in terms of content and context. Coca-Cola has been crafting
different communications for different geographies at the same time.

The Coke Journey

Change in Identity

Coke is the only brand that took the rather bold step to change the name to a
moniker that was fairly colloquial amongst its followers. How the identity changed
over years also illustrated below :

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1887-1960

1969 – 2007

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2011-2016

Change in Packaging

Apart from the logo but the bottle that has contained this magical potion has also
undergone several changes over the years. Popularly, we know that the Coca-Cola
Company questioned bottle manufacturers for submissions of designs for a bottle for
Coca-Cola that was very distinctive such that it could be recognized by a feel in the
dark or identified lying broken on the ground. In 1915, the quest ended and the
distinctively shaped bottle design was patented.

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Change in Popular Culture

Not only its own assets, but Coca-Cola is also one brand that should be given the
credit of changing a cultural icon that exists even today. Coke was ‘the’ brand that
inculcated and portrayed Santa Claus image in all red which till date it is celebrated.
The Christmas ads from the brand that was released in 1921 and the one released in
1951 clearly depict the power of change driven by advertising.

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Change in Visual Content

Coca-Cola did not just change how TV spots were dealt with and made but over the
years, it has changed and revolutionized the very format of visual content and
communication and how it is delivered. Back in 1950 during Thanksgiving when
Coke started with TV commercials. During the 1960s it served as a lifestyle to the
youth. Since 1971, they started exploring long format content which touched the
hearts of the generation.

Change from a Brand in Sports to Fan of Sports

Coke started with showcasing the moments of achievement in 1932 Olympics

through its advertisements. While Coca-Cola always had a topical flavor of various
sports played across continents in its advertisements, in 1976, it created history by
associating with Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The brand
also released an unofficial theme song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup that celebrated

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the spirit of the game and became a global hit. Coke is a classic case for any brand
on how to best associate with sports.

As quoted by Noble Prize winner, Dr. Albert von Szent-Gyorgy, “Creativity is about
seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.”

Coca-Cola has been immensely creative in its marketing tactics over the years.
Whether it is inventing automatic fountain dispensers, opening happiness through
experiential marketing in a socially-connected world or serving micro content to the
smart digital natives.

2017 – Coca Cola revamps variants' packaging with uniform visual

iconography

Coca Cola rolled out its One Brand strategy in 2017 in India, where its different
variants - Coca-Cola Original Taste, Coca-Cola No Sugar and Coca-Cola Light Taste
No Sugar - will have the same values and visual iconography.

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All three products have the legendary red packaging and iconography with a dash of
colour to highlight the different options. It will be 90 per cent Coca-Cola and 10 per
cent variant.

This idea extends the very equity as well as the iconic appeal of Coca-Cola brands
to all its variants –

One Brand.

One set of Product Benefits.

One set of Brand Values.

One Consumer Promise

This move, although nothing revolutionary, but can be seen as a way to shift the
brand love back to the Coca-Cola Company.

This move shows a clear switch to focus on brand iconicism instead of just the brand
promise. For Eg: In the earlier Coca-Cola Zero, there was a lot of emphasis on the
word Zero along with its large font size. It is the brands way to communicate directly
to the consumers about the promise of offering zero calories. The usage of black
colour instead of red was a conscious move by the company to play down its iconic
brand image and focus on its product offering.

A focus on uniform brand image is also in line with the current trends the businesses
along with others, is trying to form their strong digital presence. For brands that are
spread widely across the globe, it is important to have a similar presence across all
its social media pages so there is no dilution of equity.

This move is likely to increase the global equity and the iconic appeal of the brand as
it is the same image that will be repeated and recognized in the exact same manner
across all the shelves of the globe.

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Bibliography:

• https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/food/diet-coke-
coke-zero-cans-bottles-to-now-have-coca-colas-trademark-red-
packaging/articleshow/61349087.cms
• https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/11/22/the-narrative-structure-coca-cola-
is-using-to-domi.aspx
• https://www.beveragedaily.com/Article/2017/11/21/Coca-Cola-on-North-
America-It-s-a-big-business-with-big-opportunity
• https://www.professionalplanner.com.au/featured-posts/2017/11/13/one-
brand-or-sub-brands-which-sells-best-59618/
• http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/taste-the-feeling-launch
• http://ir.nmu.org.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/2027/COCA-
COLA_%20A%20POWERFUL%20BRAND%20-
%20AN%20EFFECTIVE%20MARKETING%20STRATEGY.pdf;jsessionid=DA
81AB3B1AE22D17EEA86F31E03FA3DB?sequence=1

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