Coca-Cola Story – Marketing Strategy

Coca-Cola is everywhere.

In 1977, Coca-Cola had exited India (apparently because it refused to share it’s secret syrup recipe with the government) and a huge cola void was waiting to be filled. Thums Up was launched by the Chauhan brothers Ramesh and Prakash at this critical juncture.

It introduced a bold new flavour that had a slightly orangy base and more fizz than the competitors. With the help of some innovative advertising, it easily staved off the local competition and had a humongous market share of 36% (of all colas) in 1993, the year Coca-Cola re-entered India (Pepsi at that time commanded 26%).

Coca-Cola made a very attractive bid for Thums Up (Rs. 186 crore or $62 million back then) and bought the brand from the Chauhans. Here’s where the twist comes. Instead of treating it’s number one brand like a prized stallion, Coca-Cola desperately tried a variety of tactics to kill Thums Up to pave its own way back into the Indian market.

However, the brand had made such a place for itself among the minds of Indians that it simply refused to die. In fact, it still has a healthy share of 15% in the crowded aerated drinks market (42% in colas) and outsells both multinational giants. Coca cola discovered that stifling Thums Up was only giving a boost to Pepsi’s sales. Better sense prevailed later and Thums Up was revived again.

Had Coca-Cola done the right thing at the time by nurturing the Thums Up brand, it could well have driven out Pepsi from the Indian soft-drinks market. As of today, Pepsi has launched ‘Pepsi Atom’; with a spoof advertising strategy to piggyback on Thums Up. The packaging looks suspiciously similar to the homegrown brand.

The Coca-Cola Company also took advantage of their  well-established slogan “The pause that refreshes” by applying it to  Home Front workers, often Rosie the Riveter-style women whom they  encouraged to take a break from building planes and ships.

The idea  behind the ads, which was supported by a scientific research project  completed in 1941 by Coca-Cola executives, was that Home Front workers  and soldiers alike would work more efficiently if given a moment to  pause and refresh themselves with a Coke.

How Coco-Cola became THIS big as it is today ?

While the Coca-Cola Company was busy  boosting the morale of American fighting forces, they were  simultaneously laying the groundwork for becoming an international  symbol of refreshment and solidarity. Many of the bottling plants  established overseas during the war continued to operate as non-military  factories after the war’s end. Furthermore, GIs liberating towns  throughout Europe or working side-by-side with locals in the Philippines  felt pride in sharing their favorite drink with  their new-found friends.

They thereby created an enormous consumer base  throughout the world that would not have been possible without  Eisenhower and the Coca-Cola Company’s cooperation in working towards  bettering the morale of the American fighting man.

Here are another couple of very amazing facts:

India is the only country where Coca-Cola sells a cola brand that is not a variant of its own umbrella brand Coke.

Nowhere in the world is brand Coke the No. 3 cola except in India.
The iconic American brand is recognized instantly around the globe and sold in more than 200 countries. Additionally there are thousands of subsidiary beverages that you might have no idea are owned by Coke.
Despite three CEO changes since 2000, Coke has kept a firm lead in the U.S. carbonated drinks market, with 42.8% market share to Pepsi’s 31.1%.
Altogether 1.7 billion servings of Coke products are consumed every day.

1. 3.1% of all beverages consumed around the world are Coca-Cola products
Of the 55 billion servings of all kinds of beverages drunk each day (other than water), 1.7 billion are Coca-Cola trademarked/licensed drinks.

Source: Coca-Cola 2011 SEC Filings, Coca-Cola

2. Coke makes so many different beverages that if you drank one per day, it would take you over 9 years to try them all
Coca-Cola has a product portfolio of more than 3,500 beverages (and 500 brands), spanning from sodas to energy drinks to soy-based drinks.
Source: Coca-Cola

3. Coca-Cola’s $35.1 billion in revenue makes it the 84th largest economy in the world, just ahead of Costa Rica

Sources: Coca-Cola’s 2010 SEC Filings, CIA World Factbook

4. The Coca-Cola brand is worth an estimated $74 billion: more thanBudweiser, Pepsi, Starbucks and Red Bull combined

The Coca-Cola brand is worth $74 billion, while Budweiser, Pepsi, Starbucks, and Red Bull combined are worth about $50 billion, according to the BrandZ Top 100.

5. Although Coca-Cola revenue was 38% less than PepsiCo’s last year, Coke generated more in soft drink revenue — around $28 billion vs. $12 billion

Remember, Pepsi owns non-drink brands like Frito-Lays and Quaker Oats.
Source: Bloomberg

6. If every drop of Coke ever produced were put in 8-ounce bottles and laid end-to-end, they would reach the moon and back over 2,000 times

Source: Coca-Cola

7. If you stacked up Coke’s 2.8 million vending machines, they would take up 150.2 million cubic feet of space — the size of 4 Empire State Buildings

Sources: Financial Times, Nova Recycling

8. The red and white Coca-Cola logo is recognized by 94% of the world’s population

Coca-Cola has also reported that it’s name is the second-most understood term in the world, behind “okay.”

9. Coca-Cola sells more than 1000 kinds of juice drinks, including: Simply, Minute Maid, Fruitopia, Hi-C, Fuze and Odwalla

10. There are 33 non-alcoholic brands that generate over $1 billion in revenue.Coca-Cola owns a whopping 15 of them

11. Around the world, the average person consumes a Coke product every four days

12. Coca-Cola spends more money on advertising than Microsoft and Apple combined

Coca-Cola advertising budget (2010): $2.9 billion
Microsoft advertising budget (2010): $1.6 billion
Apple advertising budget (2010): $691 million

13. Americans ingest 1.7 million tons — or 10.8 pounds per person — of sugar each year from Coca-Cola alone

Americans drink an average of 399 servings of Coke products per year.  50% of these are Coke brands, and 63% of those are Coca-Cola Classic. That comes out to 125.7 Classic Coke servings per person.
With 39 grams of sugar per serving, that means the average American consumes 4.9 kilograms per year — or 10.8 pounds.
Multiply that by 307 million Americans and you get around 1.7 million tons of sugar

14. The average Mexican drinks more Coke products than the average American, British, Indian, and Chinese combined

Vendor selling Coca-Cola in the Stadia Azteca in Mexico City

On average, Mexicans drink 665 servings of Coke products each year.
Americans drink 399, British 202, Chinese 32, and Indian 9 — which comes out to 642 servings.
Source: Coca-Cola’s 2009 per capita consumption study

15. Coke uses 300,000 tons of aluminium for its cans every year just for its US operations. That’s equal to 17.4% of what the entire US aluminum industry produces