You all know the world-famous brand: Coca-Cola! Since its foundation in 1892, the American company has been able to forge an important place for itself in the soft drink industry, thanks to its flagship product, the “Coca-Cola” soda. Today present in more than 200 countries, the company is known for its popular marketing campaigns. In this article, we will take a look at how an old brand like Coca-Cola has adapted to the digital age and developed such an efficient digital marketing.
What was Coca-Cola before the digital era?
The brand has been able to establish itself with consumers very quickly thanks to the consistency of its brand image. A study shows that nearly 90% of the population recognizes the Coca-Cola logo with its bright red and iconic writing, representing impulse buying and passion.
During the mid-20th century, Coca-Cola became known for its popular Santa Claus marketing campaign. The advertisement was mainly published in magazines like the Saturday Evening Post or the New Yorker.
How does Coca-Cola develop its digital marketing?
Coca-Cola digital marketing strategies are mostly based on SEO, email marketing and content marketing. The content investment is divided in three: 70% into low risks, 20% into medium risks and 10% into high risks. The investments related to low risk are used for a large target audience. That means it’s concentrated to develop the brand positioning in order to increase the loyalty of the followers. The medium risk content is mainly addressed to a new audience. Finally, the goal of high risk content is to find future opportunities by analyzing success and demand data.
Most of the engagement marketing tactics, who are essential to build the brand awareness and the interest, have for target the younger generation. This is why the brand actively uses digital marketing especially social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or Snapchat. This allows them to share photos, videos, hashtags and even challenges like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. By doing so, Coca-Cola can develop their earned media because the fans will like, comment, share, etc. One of the most popular campaigns that Coca-Cola launched on social media was “Share a Coke”. As we can see, this campaign was a great success with more 330 million impressions on Twitter. Moreover, the Coca-Cola shows its engagement to its customers by staying connected with them. For example, it tries to respond to as many tweets about them as possible.
In conclusion, Coca-Cola has been able to adapt to the digital age thanks to its various digital marketing techniques that are customer oriented. Thus, the brand has been able to implement the three types of reach (paid media, owned media and earned media).
Sources:
Aquib Rahman (2022). Learning From Coca-Cola Digital Marketing Strategy, Shiksha online. Retrieved the 25 march 2023 on https://www.shiksha.com/online-courses/articles/coca-cola-digital-marketing-strategy/
Artash Arakelyan (2014). Coca-Cola Marketing Success In Just 16 Easy Steps That Every Company Can Make, Incredo. Retrieved the 25 march 2023 on https://www.incredo.co/blog/coca-cola-marketing-success-16-easy-steps/
Coca-Cola (2020). FAQ, Coca-Cola Suisse. Retrieved the 25 march 2023 on https://fr.coca-cola.ch/contact/questions/dans-combien-de-pays-la-marque-coca-cola-est-elle-vendue#:~:text=The%20Coca%E2%80%91Cola%20Company%20est,et%203’500%20boissons%20diff%C3%A9rentes.
Rahul Arun (2023). Coca-Cola Marketing Strategy 2023: A Case Study, Simplilearn. Retrieved the 25 march 2023 on https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/marketing-case-studies-tutorial/coca-cola-marketing-strategy#:~:text=It%20actively%20uses%20online%20digital,content%20marketing%2C%20and%20video%20marketing
Wikipédia (2023). The Coca-Cola Company, Wikipédia. Retrieved the 25 march 2023 on https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coca-Cola_Company
