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April 03, 2006

Will You Buy More?

So we had this pretty serious discussion the other day about Coke and their advertising.  If you weren't aware, last year Coke Classic sales dropped 2%.  For a company that has $4.8 billion in revenue due to its soda, well, that 2% is pretty substantial.  What's a monster company to do when sales dip like that?  Usually they relate it to whatever marketing was there to begin with and hire some fresh blood.

Coke That's exactly what Coke did last year when they hired Wieden & Kennedy.  Good move, if you ask me.  If you haven't seen any of the spots yet, you can see some of them on the Coke web site.  And the new Coke Float spot... mmm-mmm-good.

Good ads aside, here's what I started to wonder.  Is a new ad campaign really going to make people buy Coke again (if they're currently not doing so)?

I understand that a company the size of Coke has to do brand maintenance and keep things fresh on consumer's minds, but will this campaign really increase sales?  Will it convince people to stop buying bottled water and energy drinks?  Will it just simply remind people that it's still available?  Most importantly, how will you be able to determine whether it's the new ads that spurred more sales or if it's just a natural buying pattern?

All good questions and ones that haunt us advertising folk in our dreams.

USAToday.com reports that the new Coke campaign is tracking favorably with consumers.  It's good to know that it's beginning to resonate.  But what the article fails to mention, and maybe because Coke doesn't know yet, is how sales are doing because of the campaign.  Time will tell, hopefully.

It'd be interesting to know if Pepsi's sales are down, too, because I haven't seen a full-fledged Pepsi (not Diet) ad in a long time.  If they're down at the same rate as Coke's, and Pepsi is spending less, what does that mean?

Posted by SethyG on April 03, 2006 at 03:48 PM | Permalink
Categories: Advertising , Brave New Marketing , Opinion , Pop Culture

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Comments

Definitely agree it’d be interesting to see Pepsi’s numbers. I wonder how much of these factors influenced Coke’s drop:

- Gatorade/Powerade sales.

- Bottled/flavored-water craze (including Dasanti)

- Growth of specialty sodas (Jones etc.)

– Iced Tea sales (Snapple)

- Did they have any significant drop-off in distribution to major fast-food restaurants?


Looking at the bigger picture, I think people have always been Coke or Pepsi drinkers, and that crowd might not ever change their habits regardless of the ads they see.

Posted by:makethelogobigger | April 03, 2006 at 05:19 PM

what was that horrible "brown&bubbly" business Pepsi was into? was that real pepsi or diet?
Pepsi's advertisign will never come close to the historic nature of Coke. Nor will it ever feel as cool as Coke. Pepsi feels like the geek who keeps trying new haircuts to be cool and everyone is really laughing behind his back.

I wonder too, what advertising will do if people don't want to drink Coke. However, then I thought about PBR. It was a dead brand until the hispter crew decided drinking it becuase it was so unpopular and anti-establishment. Granted, Coke will never be anti-establishment,, but if some culture or group of people latched on, it may make a resurgence. OR, maybe it goes the way of Chuck Taylors. Cool sneaker that only skaters and outsiders used to wear. Then GQ started pairing them with "business casual" suits and khaki's....then Butler, Shine and Stern made them cool and artsy again.... Could Coke do the same thing?

Posted by:crazyvirgo | April 03, 2006 at 06:40 PM

While I enjoy great advertising as much as the next AC listener, I can't think of a bigger waste of cash than another big Coke campaign. It not that I don't believe in the power of advertising, I do, I simply think that this isn't an advertising problem. Coke doesn't need to build a brand they just need to deal with new realities (new competition, changing habits etc).
What if they freed the people at WK to think of solving the problem, instead of solving the problem with commercials or even advertising? What if WK approached it as a distribution problem? That would be really cool and I bet we see Coke in places and ways that we never thought of - and it might even get us to buy 2% more.

Posted by:Jeff Lang | April 03, 2006 at 08:02 PM

How are sales doing because of the campaign? Consider this prediction by the Maneuver Marketing Comminiqué last December:

http://twoscenarios.typepad.com/maneuver_marketing_commun/2005/12/mark_fenske_to_.html

Most acidic quote: "First, Mark [Fenske] will craft ads that will be creatively brilliant and will win at least two Lions at the '07 Cannes. Second, Weiden will siphon huge amounts of cash from Coke shareholders over the next 12 months. Third, Coke's market share erosion will accelerate as will their year over year marketing spend. Fourth, [Mary] Minnick will depart Coke for personal reasons and then write a book about branding. Mark Fenske will write the forward to Minnick's book."

I know you guys like Fenske. I also know you like American Idol: just pretend this came from Simon.

Posted by:G.B. Veerman | April 04, 2006 at 10:04 AM

Coke Float spot, definitely my favorite. Now I want to buy a Coke and try it!

Posted by:Brooke Goetz | April 05, 2006 at 08:56 AM

It's time to go out and buy some coke in glass bottles again. Good for little backyard get-togethers. Goes well with paper lanterns and camembert.

Posted by:olivier blanchard | April 10, 2006 at 02:27 AM

Just got back from a speech by Brian Collins about the meaning of design in our big bad world of advertising. And one of the comments above nailed it, just as he did in his speech. Its not a linear advertising model any more. It takes problem solving a different kind. Maybe it is distribution. Maybe its packaging. Something other than a new TV spot, thats for sure. I thought the new work was dazzling, but the disconnect was immediate. I went to the Coke website to see what kind of flash component WK came up with to support the campaign, and all I got was corporate Coke. It's time to really think different.

Posted by:Josh | April 17, 2006 at 10:26 PM

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