Darren Leon
Professor Melissa Berry
English 1
16 March 2015
Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” Campaign Widely recognized as one of the most common household names not only in America, but internationally, Coca-Cola’s historically famous, carbonated, caramel colored, sweet-tasting beverage Coke has imbedded itself in our global culture to the extent of even becoming a generic trademark. Due to increasing health concerns resulting from the American obesity epidemic and related health issues, Coke, along with its competitors, have seen a decline in soda consumption since 2003 (Suddath and Stanford 3). Coupled with a more saturated beverage market since the advent of sports drinks and increasingly popular bottled water, Coke’s market dominance has begun to slip in recent years. To combat this, Coca-Cola started a marketing campaign whereby they replaced their iconic Coke brand label with personalized names of the most common names found in the buyer’s country. Originating with the intention of revitalizing the Coke brand once again, the “Share a Coke” campaign utilized a unique combination of debranding, collectability, and social media in order to dramatically reverse Coke’s downswing in sales and popularity. Despite Coca-Cola’s claim about wanting to help curb soda consumption enjoyed by Americans (Ferdman 1), their “Share a Coke” campaign tactics are a harmless ploy designed with an entertaining and interactive spirit in mind. On the surface, the idea of taking a well-developed and time-tested brand name off of a product to increase sales may seem ludicrous to an untrained marketing expert. However, in order to make this campaign a success, in 2011 the Australian Coca-Cola marketing department realized they had to, “…both strengthen the brand’s bond with Australia’s young adults – and inspire shared moments of happiness in the real and virtual worlds…” (Moye 1). The goal of creating this “bond” was the biggest hurdle the marketing team had to cover. Through a creative one-of-a-kind solution known as debranding, Coca-Cola replaced their own brand label with potential consumer names. By doing so, Coca-Cola demonstrated their recognition of the classic Coke brand becoming stagnant and reaching the end of its longevity. The method used in this instance was a fun and artistic answer to the growing issue. It utilized Cokes already well known image to allow consumers to identify with the beverage on an intimate level by representing a friendly name on the surface instead of just a corporate brand. As a testament to the “Share a Coke” campaigns success, the personalized bottles of the rebranded beverage instantly became a collector’s item in the Coke memorabilia market. With such a long and rich history the Coke brand even has its own official collectors club entitled, “The Coca-Cola Collectors Club”. Many rare and iconic Coke memorabilia items are constantly being safeguarded and sought out by these collectors worldwide. Although the newly refashioned Coke bottles weren’t rare by any means, they had immediate value. The campaign turned the average everyday consumer into a potential Coke collector almost overnight. Some of the freshly minted bottles started fetching for over $70 dollars on the popular online auctioning website Ebay.com with an average of $7.64 per bottle within weeks of the campaigns beginning (Hsiao 1). While the collectability aspect of the “Share a Coke” products increased the sales of Coke, it never encouraged the overconsumption of the soda or need to collect them all. Even if you’re not a member of “The Coca-Cola Collectors Club”, the campaign allows anyone the opportunity to take part in finding unique pieces of Coke trophies for their own personal use or possibly profit. Obtaining your customized Coke bottle was an exciting experience to begin with, but how are you ultimately going to “Share a Coke”? Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are just a few of the biggest names in the current trend of online social
