Assignment

Course: Seminar in Advertising

Brand: Coca-Cola

Priyanka Rajoria

Que1. Examine an ad for that brand. Is the ad effective? Why or Why not? (include picture and
hyperlink)

Ans. Coca-Cola ad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W5pqlbh5sQ

Coca-Cola lunched this ad under its ‘Taste the feeling’ campaign to combat the trend of declining soda
sales, following consumers' health concerns about sugary drinks. Ad is clearly targeted at the feelings
and emotions of the millennial generation. The ad was part of ‘Taste the feeling’ campaign which was
launched after nearly 7 years. I think the ad was very effective and it conveyed the message that any
Coca-Cola – is a simple pleasure that makes everyday moments more special. No moment of love, fun
and friendship is full without Coca Cola. The ad takes us through several scenes of friendship and love.
In the first scene a girl is skiing,
then some friends are having
fun together and later a guy and
girl are kissing in the library. The
ad is just made to affect your
feelings. The target audience
this ad is trying to connect with
is that of the young customers –
the millenials. The lifestyle it is
trying to promote is fun and hip.
The context in which this ad is
played is that of life in the
youth. The images in the ad are
picked from the regular life and represent the lifestyle of the millennial generation. The millennials are
all about working hard and partying harder. The ad tries to connect with its feelings and tries to reflect
the same passion that is found in the young generation. . Throughout the ad the label of Coca Cola
flashed several times. This is a strategy used to drive brand recognition and brand recall. The use of the
brand name also adds ethical appeal to the ad. Apart from it, the ad also uses pathos in plenty. All
throughout the ad a song plays in the background.

The text in the ad tries to strike a romantic connection with the young generation by connecting the
drink with everything that is special to the young generation’s heart. Music, fun, food and free time,
nothing is free without Coca Cola. The values it espouses are that of the modern generation. The ad tries
to relate with everything that reflects energy and madness.
The US culture values liberty and still believes in respecting others’ feelings and this ad resonates with
these cultural values. At first, the ad strikes connection with the youth, Secondly, it creates brand recall
successfully. Hence, it can be said that it is successful at creating the effect it intends to. The previous
seven year old 'Open Happiness' campaign focused only on the brand while the idea behind the 'Taste
the Feeling' was to shift the focus towards the product besides revealing both the functional and
emotional aspects of the Coca-Cola brand.

Que2. What is the story of the brand?; When was the brand established?

Ans. Coca-Cola is more than just a soft drink; this nineteenth-century-born soda has made its way from a
small-time soda fountain to becoming America’s most iconic refreshment. Coca-Cola, or Coke as we all
know it, has a long history: from its inception in 1886, Coca-Cola’s ever-changing story has passed
through many decades, adapting to the times of the roaring 1920s, the disco era of the 1970s, and
finally to technology-centered modern day. In 1886, Dr. John S. Pemberton, a pharmacist from Atlanta,
after returning from Civil War decided to make his own soda fountain syrup. He created the soft drink
Coca-Cola by combining soda water, lime, cinnamon, coca leaves, and Brazilian shrub weeds. The drink
was sampled by customers who agreed that it was something special. The drink was originally sold in
Atlanta in Jacob’s Pharmacy for five cents a glass as a soda fountain drink. The actual “Coca-Cola”
trademark was suggested by Pemberton’s partner and bookkeeper, Frank M. Robinson. Robinson
thought that a name with two C’s would look nice in advertising, and he penned the now-famous Coca-
Cola logo in his own handwriting.

During the first year, Coca-Cola was not as successful as Pemberton had hoped; despite advertising
campaigns in newspapers and coupons for free samples, only nine glasses of Coke were consumed each
day in 1888, just before his death, Pemberton sold Coca-Cola to Asa Chandler; Chandler, an avid
businessman who turned Coca-Cola into the internationally recognized brand it is today.

By 1892, Chandler’s talent for merchandising had boosted sales of Coca-Cola nearly tenfold. He soon
collaborated with his brother John S. Chandler, John Pemberton’s former partner Frank Robinson, and
two other associates to form a Georgia corporation called The Coca-Cola Company. In 1899 the Coca-
Cola Company signed its first agreement with an independent bottling company, which formed the basis
of a unique distribution system that now characterizes most of the American soft-drink industry. Ernest
Woodruff purchased the Coca-Cola Company in 1919 for $25 million. He turned the company over to his
son Robert Woodruff in 1923. The trademark “Coke,” first used in advertising in 1941, was registered in
1945. In 1946 the company purchased rights to Fanta, a soft drink previously developed in Germany. In
1982 the company introduced its low-calorie sugar-free soft drink Diet Coke (originally named Diet Coca-
Cola). New markets opened up for Coca-Cola in the early 1990s; the company began selling products in
East Germany in 1990 and in India in 1993. In 1992 the company introduced its first bottle made
partially from recycled plastic—a major innovation in the industry at the time. Today Coca-Cola’s reach
spreads far beyond Georgia and even the United States; the company has become one of the world’s
most recognizable corporations. The Coca-Cola brand is one of the five most recognized symbols in the
world. Currently, the Coca-Cola Company has nearly 500 brands in over 200 countries and territories.
Que3. Find an example of an old ad and describe the old ad techniques used (at least 20 years before)
(see Compare and Contrast link above)

Ans. Ad: Coca-Cola, 1971 - 'Hilltop'

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VM2eLhvsSM

In the past, jingles and slogans have been the primary marketing tool to appeal to the ear. This
advertising method has been used in The Coca-Cola ad hilltop ad was an advertising jingle that first took
America by storm in 1971. In the commercial, a camera pans across faces of all shapes, colors and
ethnicities, as they sing from a hilltop in Manziana, Italy, “I’d like to buy the world a Coke.” Coca-Cola
represented optimism, refreshment and that little moment of time that brings people together. It was a
heartwarming ad that appealed to the socially progressive values that were prevalent in the era. When
the ad was launched, it was a terrible time in culture and was extremely negative. There was violence
everywhere and this piece of film with bunch of these kids singing on a hilltop about sharing a Coke took
America by storm. The ad had shown people using the product while communicating a strong message.

Appealing to nostalgia and staying true to the ideals of connectivity and unity, people were happy to
share stories about the campaign. Advertising surveys consistently identify it as one of the best
commercials of all time.

Que4. What is the current positioning of the brand?

Ans. Coca-Cola’s Positioning – Putting product over Brand. Coca Cola has strategically positioned itself
within the world soft drink market. The brand rooted in optimism, uplift and connection. Company
has reached for by millions around the world daily as a household staple -- and it's positioned in our
minds as the gold standard of soda. Company still sticks to so-called "one-brand" strategy introduced in
early 2016 under the "Taste the Feeling" campaign that plugs multiple Coke varieties, from regular Coke
to Coke Zero, in single ads.

The products are said to be bring joy. The products are associated with having a good time with friends
and family and enjoying everyday life. The products are also marketed as consistent and high quality.
The brand not only aims to create a more unified voice and point of view, but also put a little bit more
optimism out in the world, especially on the internet.

They use strategic positioning in order to have the same image all around the world, which is a success
because it is perceived today as a part of daily life everywhere. This perception of the brand by the
consumer leads to a high degree of loyalty and makes the purchasing decision more automatic. Coke
position itself as a brand about optimism, uplift and wants to bring people together in moments of
connection.

Que5. What ad techniques or verbal copy are used in the current ad? What copy appears on social
media? (Pollay's 42 Advertising Appeals) ; and
Ans. Well, Coke uses multiple advertising techniques for example in "Share a Coke" campaign ad the
brand connects with the consumer on a personal level. As it mainly target teens and millennials
personalization becomes very important for them. In
their recent super bowl ad “A Coke Is a Coke” brand is
preaching a message of university in diversity. The ad
features animation that leans heavily on shades of red,
white, brown, and black and shows people enjoying
Coca-Cola in various scenarios.

Coca-Cola has in-house social media team Social Center

that manages 10 of Coke’s largest brands in North
America. The brand has been heavily leveraging on Social
media platforms and generate massive amount of
content to post there. Coca-cola directly targets
consumer who are active on social media and engage
them by asking them to share photos and stories. The online results of campaign have been very
successful so far consumers have shared stories and photos using hashtag and brand have close to
25million followers.

Considering this, Brand had rebooted its Social Networks with Stream of Feel-Good Content with
hashtag ‘Refresh the feed.’ The brand now intends to share the simple, yet actionable, messages of
positivity to engage with their more than 8 million followers in the U.S. All the previous post of the
brand has been archived and any pervious creative that connects to the brand’s new social strategy may
resurface in the future.

Que6. Does the current brand use a consistent logo, colors or visual identity on web and social media?

Ans. Late last year on world

Kindness Day, Coca-Cola
relaunched all of its accounts
as part of social media
repositioning and wiped all of
the content from its Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram. The
launches the social media
revamp with
‘#Refreshthefeed’ and is
designed to present a more
cohesive voice and visual
language for Coca-Cola, which reaches 500,000 fans organically every day across its social platforms.
Content posted is in Coca-Cola’s color scheme of red, black and white to be especially on brand and
easily recognizable in crowded social feeds.
Point No. 7. Cite Sources:

Source:

Chai. 13, 2016. Digital Campaign Case Study: How Does Coca-Cola “Taste the Feeling”Make Every
Moment Special?. https://chunxuchai.wordpress.com/2016/12/13/digital-campaign-case-study-how-
does-coca-cola-taste-the-feelingmake-every-moment-special/

Will Heilpern and Will Heilpern. Jan. 19, 2016. Coca-Cola just launched a massive new ad campaign to
change the conversation around sugary drinks. Retrieved from. https://www.businessinsider.com/coca-
colas-taste-the-feeling-campaign-2016-1

Dale Buss. January 19, 2016. ‘Taste the Feeling’: In Major Shift, Coca-Cola Pivots From ‘Open Happiness’.
Retrieved from. https://www.brandchannel.com/2016/01/19/coca-cola-taste-the-feeling-011916/

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. The Coca-Cola Company. Retrieved from.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Coca-Cola-Company

EVAN TARVER. Oct 20, 2018. Why the 'Share a Coke' Campaign Is So Successful. Retrieved from.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/100715/what-makes-share-coke-campaign-so-
successful.asp

Jay Moye. Nov 13, 2018. #RefreshtheFeed: Coca-Cola Reboots Social Networks With
Stream of Feel-Good Content. Retrieved from. https://www.coca-
colacompany.com/stories/refreshthefeed-coca-cola-reboots-social-media-strategy-with-stream-of-
optimistic-content

Amma Marfo. November 20th, 2018. Coca-Cola’s Social Accounts Go Dark, to Bring Light to the Internet.
Retrieved from. https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2018/11/coca-colas-social-accounts-go-dark-to-
bring-light-to-the-internet/

The Power of Sounds in Advertising. Retrieved from.

https://sites.duke.edu/soundscapes/2015/11/24/the-power-of-sounds-in-advertising/