According to this Wall Street Journal article, Coca-Cola turned their decade-long sales slump around this summer. What did the trick? Was it some revolutionary new product? The fall of a competitor?

No. It was your name on a Coke bottle.

This summer, Coca-Cola started up their Share a Coke campaign that saw hundreds of names printed onto the labels of their soft drinks. They also included endearments such as “Friends”, “Family”, and “BFF”.

I’ll admit, I’ve searched around for my own name on a Coke bottle (I found my last name but not my first), which I think shows just how well Coke’s marketing campaign is working. I never buy soft drinks but finding a Coke with my last name on it meant that I spent $1.20 just so I could drink my own personal Coke. And apparently millions of other people were willing to spend money for a Coke with their name on it too. I think this was a great marketing scheme on Coke’s behalf and as Coke returns to their regular labelling this fall it will be interesting to see how their sales fare and whether the Share a Coke campaign will be back next summer.