An Ode to the Brand of Brands, the King of Cola: Coke

Posted on December 23, 2009 by Guest Blogger

   

Dear Coke:

I love you. You are an incredible product. You are the Babe Ruth of soft drinks, the proprietor of the word “cola,” and most of all, the brand of all brands. Your brand is not just bulletproof; it’s indestructible—even from self-inflicted damage.

Interbrand, the global branding giant, recently valued you at 63.3 billion dollars. We’re not talking stimulus money here, but that’s huge. Most brands would be happy with .3 billion dollars.

About a million times a day someone orders a Coke in a restaurant that serves the number two cola and is immediately given an apology, “I’m sorry, is Pepsi OK?” You have your closest competitor, a major brand in its own right, constantly admitting that they are not you. Have you ever heard somebody order a “Rum and Pepsi?” I haven’t.

You guys redesigned Santa Claus, for crying out loud.

   

Years ago, your name became slang for a dangerous drug. But who cares? Heck, you once had a bit of it in your formula, right? For some brands it would be a death sentence; for you, it’s a cool factoid of your heritage.

And that secret formula story is downright mythic. Created by Dr. Pemberton in 1886--only two people have it and each knows only half. One guy has it committed to memory and the other spent the last eight years in an undisclosed location with Dick Cheney shooting Pepsi cans off fence posts. Ok, that’s a stretch.

You are so beloved by your customers that you have survived 100 years of changing tastes, cultural upheaval, and most famously, shooting yourself in both feet by introducing New Coke and dumping your flagship product. Did customers go running to a competitor and tank your sales, as happened to Tropicana this year for nothing more than a package change? No, they simply demanded in various levels of outrage that you bring it back. And you did.

Now that’s brand LOYALTY.

(A brand tangent: Which was worse: Vista or New Coke? Hard to say, but Coke just said, “Oops, my bad!” and moved on. Microsoft refused to back down and helped Apple grow.)

Branding briefs have leaked out from Coca Cola’s global headquarters in Atlanta (the city where the very first Coke was sold) stating that Coke should be positioned as the essence of life, an indivisible part of living fabulously. (Current slogan: “Open Happiness”) Coke is a global symbol of America, the most exported element of our culture, a fixture in hundreds of countries around the world.

 

And yet… And yet, as a brand you are terrifically hard to learn from. Mere mortal brands must worry constantly about their customers’ changing tastes and fickle loyalties. Coke? Not so much. I’m not saying you don’t market your cans off, but you’re so ubiquitous, so everywhere and everything, that it’s pretty hard to emulate your success. Sometimes it seems like you can afford to sponsor every sporting event on earth. Where’s the lesson in that?

Here’s what marketers can take home along with an ice cold six pack of cola heaven:

Coke is remarkably consistent. They haven’t meaningfully changed their Coca Cola name or logo in well over 100 years. (The original design was handwritten by Dr. Pemberton’s bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, in 1886. You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.) They own the colors red and white and stick with them. (They recast Santa in their colors for a promotion in the 1930s that became the standard vision of the jolly old elf.) Coke owns and leverages the most famous package trademark ever—the Coke bottle. What does a Pepsi bottle look like?

Coke is a leader and acts like one. They execute a lot of marketing elements very well, from aggressive advertising and promotion, to highly effective distribution, to pairing themselves with other wholesome leading brands like McDonalds, NASCAR, American Idol and the Olympics. And Coke knows its brand story. Visit their web site and they’ll tell you. Click on a link and they’ll have their customers tell you. They keep their brand story alive and well and linked to American life in good times or bad. Coke keeps us going. It’s always the right time for a Coke.

      

Yes, Coke, I brand-love you. You have elevated your brand of sugar water to the status of cultural icon, yet I can fill up anytime I want for less than a buck. You are the amazing, infallible super-brand. In fact, you said it best with your slogan from many years ago, and it’s still true today: Coke is it.

—Dave Taylor, Taylor Brand Group

 

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The Title of Your Story

Posted on June 30, 2009 by Guest Blogger

What’s the first thing you think about when you’re naming a company or a product? Securing a domain? Avoiding trademark conflict? Sounding different from your competitors?

All are important concerns. But I contend that the first thing you should think about is this:

A name is the title of your story.

Yes, you’re naming your company or your product. But what you’re really doing is putting a title on the story you’re telling investors, shareholders, customers, and employees.

If you’re smart and lucky, the name you choose will be the title of a great story. A best-seller. A legend. A tale told around the campfire for generations.

If you’re haphazard or confused or pretentious or timid, your name will end up on the equivalent of the remainders table at your local bookstore: piles of copies at 70 percent off.

You can have a great story that nobody wants to read because the title is pedestrian or perplexing or pompous.

Or you can create demand for your story by giving it a title that tells just enough without giving away the plot.

So before you do any internal namestorming or hire a name developer, spend some time thinking about the story your company or product needs to tell.

Thinking about “story” requires a shift away from what you focus on day to day. Your elevator pitch and your PowerPoint presentation may tell your investors and shareholders and customers about your product’s new features or your market niche or your global strategy. They are not your story. They are bits of information.

Here's what Annette Simmons, author of The Story Factor, says about this:

"People don't want more information. They are up to their eyeballs in information. They want faith—faith in you, your goals, your success, in the story you tell. ... Once people make your story their story, you have tapped into the powerful force of faith."

And here's what the great Russian writer Anton Chekhov said:

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."

How do you find your story? By stripping away everything that isn’t story: your products, your process, your team of super-smart engineers. And by focusing instead on your master narrative.

Story is bigger than “who we are.” As the title of a story, Amazon doesn’t say “online seller of books, music, and everything else we can get our hands on.” On the top level of the story, it says “big, deep, and powerful.” On a less conscious level it says “amazing” (a close cognate), it says “on” (the final syllable), and it says “A to Z” (incorporated into the spelling). It even says “am” (first syllable), as in “I the customer am involved with this enterprise.”

Story is bigger that “what we do.” As the title of a story, Viagra doesn’t say “effective treatment for erectile disfunction.” It doesn’t say “sildenafil citranate.” It says “via—the way to get there”; it says “virile,” “vital,” “vitamin,” and “viva!”; it says “grow” (so close to “-gra”); it says “Niagara—ceaseless power”; it says “Agra—site of the Taj Mahal, that monument to love.” And it says “women will love it, too”—note the feminine “-a” ending.

Do you read all of those meanings into these names the first time you hear or read them—or even the twelfth? Of course you don’t. But because the meanings are so positive, their power accretes each time you hear the name or roll it around in your mouth. “Yes,” you think without quite knowing why. “I want some more of that.”

Can a strong name take the place of sound technology and a business plan and a smart management team and solid financing? Of course it can’t. But without a compelling story, you won’t engage your audience. And your name—the title of your story—is your first chance to do it.

—Nancy Friedman, Chief Wordworker at Wordworking
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