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The Coca-Cola Company is an international manufacturer, marketer, and seller of soft beverages and syrups based in Atlanta, US. Founded in 1886, the company has since expanded to cover more than 200 countries and given rise to brands such as Diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Powerade, and others. Coca-Cola is a household name and a highly recognizable product with as many as 5.7 billion beverages being served across the world on a daily basis. It is argued that the Coca-Cola company owes it success not only to the quality of its products but also to wise and thoughtful marketing decisions (Kolk, 2016). The case of Coca Cola might be somewhat comparable to that of KFC. Coca Cola produces fast moving consumer goods whose success also largely depends on striking a chord with people’s eating habits. Interestingly enough, recently, the Coca Cola company underwent a massive rebranding during which it took an unexpected direction. While modern marketing practices focus on diversity and customization, the Atlanta-based company chose standardization, or how it calls it itself, “one brand.”
In 2016, the “One Brand” strategy brought together four products variants – Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero and Coca-Cola Life – under the Coca-Cola master brand. Previously, all these variants were branded as separate products, which according to the Coca Cola Company, lacked integrity and consistency. The strategy was kickstarted in Australia with the global TV spot “Anthem” which showed the many moments and situations that could become even better with Coca Cola. Scenes included ice-skating, going on a first date, kissing someone for the first time, and other heart-warming memories and associations. On top of showing customers how Coca Cola soft drinks could be a perfect addition to pleasant moments in their lives, the company also made the campaign interactive. Internet users were encouraged to share their own stories as well as create gifs from original videos, which was made possible on the company’s official website.
The idea behind the campaign was that the product had a customizable nature despite tasting and looking the same across the world. The slogan behind the strategy was “Taste the Feeling,” which appealed to the emotional aspect of consumption that was as important as the quality of the product itself (Hahn, Scherer, Basso, & dos Santos, 2016). Echeverria, VP of global creative, connections, and digitals stated that “the universal moments and storytelling depicted in the campaign were created to resonate with our consumers globally.” Besides the emotional part, the campaign bore a deeper meaning: it highlighted the equality of all people. The Coca Cola company made it its mission to give all customers equal access to their products and services regardless of their places of residence.
One may ask as to what exactly brought the Coca Cola Company to changing its course in such a radical manner. According to Tish Condeno, marketing director of Coca-Cola Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei, the main reason behind the standardization strategy was the strife for a uniform identity (“Coca-Cola goes back to basics as “One Brand” strategy hits SG and MY,” 2017). Condeno stated that over the years, the Coca Cola Company has created many different designs. While they definitely had a marketing and aesthetic value, in the end, they made the company “drift away” from its core essence. One example that Condeno provided is that the company was close to breaking the association between its products and the color red. Standardization was found to be the solution to the shrinking product awareness and disintegrated identity.
Interestingly enough, standardization had not only something to do with design and brand awareness. Echeverria, VP of global creative, made a statement about Coca Cola’s global health mission. At present, more people than ever are growing aware of the impact that their eating habits have on their health. The Coca Cola Company has already made some efforts to meet consumers’ concerned about their health halfway with the introduction of such products as Coca Cola Zero. Standardization is to take these efforts to the next level: the uniform design will mean that the nutrition value information will be given in the same way across the board. This will help consumers locate it with more ease and learn essential facts about the product before making a choice.
The question arises as to what advantages global standardization brings companies, especially given that even now, this move is seen as somewhat risky. According to Rao-Nicholson and Chan (2017) in the case of the Coca Cola Company and others, a standardization marketing strategy may yield the following positive results:
- homogenization of needs and preferences. If consumers show similar needs and preferences, companies have better chances to enter untapped foreign markets and create a global brand (Garg, Chhikara, Panda, & Kataria, 2018);
- the intensification of consumers’ mobility. If a product is standardized across the board, consumers expect its availability regardless of where they are (Ericson & Starc, 2016). For example, a US traveler with a preference for soft drinks, and namely, Coca Cola, may go abroad and still find the selected product in store. Moreover, he or she will enjoy the same taste properties that they have gotten used to in their country of residence;
- cost efficiency. As much as localization strategies may make sense and contribute to the company’s overall success, it comes as no surprise that they are quite costly. Understanding the peculiarities of working with each country and striking a chord with its inhabitants’ tastes and preferences are challenging tasks that require both time and financial resources. By standardizing its products, the Coca Cola company is able to allocate its efforts and invest in other business aspects. As a result, the US corporation may as well end up with better quality products sold and distributed at lower prices;
- technological feasibility. If products vary from country to country, it means that manufacturing processes have to be adapted to meet each product’s specifications (Shenkar, Luo, & Chi, 2014). As one may readily imagine, this leads to a high diversity of standards, which makes the whole situation quite difficult to manage. Basically, a company that localizes products would have to develop unique quality assurance processes for each region. This does not happen when products are standardized: the Coca Cola Company may be sure that its drinks are manufactured in identical ways in the US, Turkey, China, and other countries.
References
Coca-Cola goes back to basics as “One Brand” strategy hits SG and MY. (2017). Web.
Ericson, K. M. M., & Starc, A. (2016). How product standardization affects choice: Evidence from the Massachusetts Health Insurance Exchange. Journal of Health Economics, 50, 71-85.
Garg, R. E., Chhikara, R. E., Panda, T. K. E., & Kataria, A. E. (2018). Driving customer appeal through the use of emotional branding. Business Science Reference/IGI Global.
Hahn, I. S., Scherer, F. L., Basso, K., & dos Santos, M. B. (2016). Consumer trust in and emotional response to advertisements on social media and their influence on brand evaluation. Brazilian Business Review, 13(4), 49-71.
Shenkar, O., Luo, Y., & Chi, T. (2014). International business. Abingdon-on-Thames, UK: Routledge.
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