The Other Player in This Game for Two

Correct me if I am wrong, but there are these brands that just go in couples. For example, when you think cereal you think Kellogg’s and you also think Kraft. As it comes to toothpaste it is Crest and Aquafresh (or maybe Colgate, depending whether you want the best “cavity fighter”, or you aim to “get and keep” your teeth white, or you want someone to care for the overall health of both your teeth and gums). But it is not cereal or toothpaste I want to focus on but sodas. And as you think pop there are two names that come to mind momentarily – Pepsi and Coke (I long deliberated which one to put first but for the purposes of this post, let us assume they go in this order). Or it might be just me making these strange associations, probably because of the tons of SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis we’ve been doing in school these days. Forgive me if that is the case.

Since in my last post I talked a lot about Pepsi quite successfully putting into action the innovations in the marketing field, I would know look at its archrival and see what they have been doing to keep their market-leader position. I am sad to admit this (as a Coke-for-life fan) but The Coca Cola Company has been falling a bit behind its competitor in following the marketing trends. Or at least it was like that before the new head of marketing, Mary Minnick, headed the company’s efforts to come back on track.

Minnick has been with the company since she earned her MBA degree in Duke University in 1983. In 1997 she was sent to Japan to run the company’s South Pacific group (including Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, and all of the Pacific Islands) because her visions of the way the Coke brand had to develop were quite too innovative and non-soda-centric to be well accepted by her diehard traditionalist colleagues in the U.S. There, “introducing as many as 100 new products a year, some with a life expectancy of just a few months” (Queen Of Pop; Meet Mary Minnick. She’s blunt. She’s impatient. And she’s putting the fizz back in tired Coke.) , despite the economic crisis that struck the entire region shortly after she took over, Minnick managed to position Coke’s products as market leaders in almost all key categories of the nonalcoholic-beverages market. There she hardened her belief that that it is “innovate (in order to meet consumers needs and to stay on top of the market trends) or die” and that the future market winners “will be the beverage companies that develop breakthrough products that, more often than not, cross over traditional beverage categories.” (Queen Of Pop; Meet Mary Minnick. She’s blunt. She’s impatient. And she’s putting the fizz back in tired Coke.) The ultimate goal is to anticipate future customer wants and needs and to produce products to satisfy them ahead of time.

When, after her doubtful indisputable success in Asia, Minnick was offered to become a head marketing in the headquarters of the Coca Cola Company. Since she moved back to the U.S. a lot of changes have taken place. The soft-drink manufacturer is moving away from its soda-centric strategy that was only reactive to the changes in the industry to a more proactive attitude. A lot of catch-up products were developed, including Tab Energy – the response to the call for energy drinks such as Red Bull in the market; the Godiva series under the license of the luxury chocolate manufacturer, to try and steal market share from Pepsi’s Frappuccino in a joint venture with Starbucks; Coke Zero – the male diet coke; and Gold Peak – a new bottled tea, are just to name a few.


Another major change was that the company changed its lead agency, Berlin Cameron & Partners, for Weiden & Kennedy, the creators of Nike’s brilliant “Just Do It campaign”. And the results are now obvious. After several years of mediocre, forgettable ads, the company has introduced the “Coke Side of Life” campaign earlier these year which reminded us of the times when Coke’s ads were synonymous of great ads. The campaign aims to rejuvenate Coke’s image and to make it the first, last, and only soda in consumers’ eyes and not just another beverage alternative. There are various variations on the theme including The Coca Cola - Dream Factory, The Coke Side of Life GTA Style, and World of Warcraft Coke Ad. It seems old-new formula to integrate the advertising message into some kind of advertainment is working well for now. The company also operates The World Coca Cola – a three-storey exhibition of Coke’s history from the creation of the brand to the present. In its gift shop the visitor can find Coke’s limited red Sega Game Gear, designed specifically for the Coca Cola Kid cartridge. This year the soda manufacturer has also entered into a contract with Smartphones Technologies to deliver make its branded content downloadable to cell phones. Coke’s fans will now have the opportunity to have the world-famous polar bears as a background on their phones or have it ring with one of Coke’s famous jingles.


As you can see the ever-lasting war is not over. On the contrary, we can say that it is entering into a new stage, where advertising and entertainment walk hand in hand for the ultimate satisfaction of the customers.