Coke Getting Down And Personal By Christopher Robins

So a few weeks ago I was in my hometown of Cheltenham when I decided to make it a personal challenge of mine to find a coke with my name on it. After trawling along shelves and through bottles of coke, I finally found one...

So, after all the excitement and joy of finding the coke personal to me, it got me thinking about the notion behind it and how crafty the marketing strategy actually was. The ‘Share a Coke’ campaign was all about driving consumer engagement as the company looked to create intrigue around the brand.  The on-pack creative also featured the Twitter handle, #ShareACoke, which aimed to encourage consumers to tell their friends about their discovery online (see our original blog here). This is a fantastic example of ‘Frictionless Commerce’ which I mentioned in my blog last week. Coke has simply diversified its packaging to achieve consumer engagement and used social media site Twitter as a digital platform to achieve the stimulation of offline sales. The advancements in social media and technology have enabled businesses to find cheaper ways of promoting products through such methods. Therefore providing companies like Coca-Cola with more cost-effective strategies that will encourage greater rates of return.

If we can track back to April when we posted a blog on contemporary trends within marketing we can begin to understand the strategy in further detail. The blog talks about this perception of social engineering and the increasing amount of consumer empowerment and mass customisation. The campaign is a quirky example as Coca Cola have customised their products for the mass market, personalising them with the 150 most popular male and female names in the UK. But my name isn’t that popular I hear you say! Well don’t fear, you can visit the Share A Coke UK website or the Share A Coke Facebook app to create virtual cans with your name on the front. By generating this type of engagement, the product will create a fun and personalised experienced for its consumers; in turn helping drive quick sales with the potential for long-term consumer engagement for Coca Cola.  Caroline Cater, operational marketing director for Coca-Cola Enterprises, helps summarise by saying;

“This is the first time in our long history that we’ve ever replaced the iconic “Coca-Cola” script on pack and who better to celebrate with than the people who love our brands the most – our consumers. It’s fantastic that we can really personalise the product for them.”

Coca-Cola haven’t stop there, oh no! The global mega-brand is launching an experiential tour that will allow everyone to have a personalised bottle with their name on it, no matter how unusual. In the latest phase of the Share a Coke campaign, the brand will tour the country offering an on-site printing service through kiosks and vending machines offering a free personalised bottle of Coca-Cola, Coke Zero or Diet Coke. The tour is set to visit around 70 locations, including theme parks, cinemas and Tesco stores, over the summer.

Here at apt we see this as just another example of Coke engaging with its consumers and driving sales through social re-engineering. This notion is one of the hottest trends on planet marketing and it will be very interesting to see how, not just coke, but other brands adapt to the changes in consumer behaviour.