Coke’s Consumer Involvement – “Share a Coke” Campaign

Commenting on this blog: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/australians-getting-their-names-coke-bottles-and-cans-135519

“The soda brand has launched its “Share a Coke” summer campaign, in which 150 of the nation’s most popular names are printed on Coke bottles.”

I’ve always wondered how marketers would find a way to increase sales on product that’s already been in the market for so long and Coke’s initiative to commence personal name branding on its products stunned me. It’s simply amazing and clever. Although I don’t usually drink soda beverages, if my name was put on a coke bottle, I would definitely make a purchase and even buy it even if I didn’t already like coke before. This campaign’s change in the packaging turns the beverage into a whole new product for consumers, which differentiates Coke apart from all the other soda brands. The bottles can be used as personal gifts for those with the corresponding name on it, people can collect all the names, people can re-use the bottle and retain their name on it, and etc. Who would have thought that a single bottle of Coke can be bought as an actual presents before?

Coke’s “Share a Coke” campaign really showed me how market penetration worked. They increased sales  of the original product in the current market segments simply by just adding names onto it.  Making it personal to the consumers. Getting in-line with what a consumer would want: their name on a prestigious bottle. The market penetration concept seemed so  difficult to imagine. How could marketers increase sales to the exact same market segment with the exact same product without adding anything to the original product itself? Good examples were hard to find. The only answer I could think of was to increase sales by external influences ie. major increases in celebrity ads, sponsoring athletes, witty/unique ads, or even lowering price. However, without any of those, Coke has blown me away with just a simple change, which would have cost them little to implement too.

To add, Coke has designed a follow-up marketing program to make a video/song for each name on the bottle. How much more personal can they get? The only downside is that people won’t buy the product if their name is not on the bottle, which can be quite a lot of consumers considering only 150 names are being printed on the bottle. All in all, this campaign is both very effective and cost efficient, the best of both worlds. Cheers to Coke!