The increasingly relevant impact that the social medias have on the customer behavior and their fundamental role as a marketing tool for companies is now apparent to everybody, especially for the students of this Digital Marketing course. However, there’s another e-marketing trend that is catching on lately and moves exactly in the opposite direction. In fact, not only do the companies influence their target consumers by social media campaigns, but it also works on the other way round.

The Surge Movement Fb campaign

 

Coca-Cola, the international giant of the beverage industry, has just announced that the production of its 90s high-caffeine drink Surge will start again after 12 years since it has been withdrawn from the market. Surge, launched on the market in 1997 with a massive $50 million marketing campaign, failed to defeat its direct competitor (Pepsi’s Mountain Dew) and in a few years it completely disappeared from the market. Nevertheless, the most loyal consumers have never given up: a Facebook group named “the Surge Movement” (https://www.facebook.com/surgemovement), which today proudly shows more than 144.000 likes, was founded in 2011 and in 2013 managed to crowdfund $3.800 with the aim of posting a billboard not far from Coca-Cola’s headquarters asking them to get the beloved drink back. What is really surprising is that not only Coca-Cola decided to satisfy the request of the fans, but it also pleased them citing the Surge Movement in its official press release, addressing them great part of the credit for the Surge comeback.

Surge case is not just an isolate and meaningless one, since the pressure exerted by the customers on the companies through the digital means boasts of other relevant successes. In Italy, for instance, Unilever has just became the protagonist of a very similar story. After three years from the creation of the Facebook page “give us the Winner Taco back” (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ridateci-il-Winner-Taco/204841769536569?fref=ts), which to date has more than 13.000 likes, Unilever has decided to please all the nostalgics reintroducing the very popular 90s ice cream to the market. 13 years had passed since the Winner Taco’s production was stopped and, again, Unilever paid much attention in flattering the fans with public recognition to their efforts in this glorious endeavor.

               Winner Taco is back in Italy

There’s one significant difference between these two instances: on the one hand Unilever evaluated that it worth it to spend millions on a national marketing campaign for the Winner Taco, on the other hand Coca-Cola is reaching the diehards in a more cost-effective way through a digital channel (Amazon). This could be an interesting example of how the Anderson’s Long Tail concept applies and how simple is it today to reach all the niches through the e-commerce.

It truly seems that a new digital trend is actually spreading in the marketing world and that the connections linking companies and customers are becoming everyday more tight. Quoting the words of Vitali, the Brand Building Manager Ice Cream at Unilever Italia, marketing managers “learned to listen and carefully analyze the messages that people, and especially the fans of our products can communicate through the internet channels. It’s the only way to understand the real market trends and respond correctly with products”.
So guys, internet has really given us the power!

Sources: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-15/how-a-facebook-group-convinced-coca-cola-to-re-release-surge
http://www.unilever.it/aboutus/newsemedia/comunicatistampa/ritrna-winner-taco.aspx