Coca Cola is one of the most recognizable and powerful brands in the world today. For more than 100 years, Coca Cola has been providing consumers with unique refreshing cola. The company started with it's flagship Coca Cola soda and has since diversified it's brand with they're acquisitions of products ranging from Vitamin Water, Sprite, and Minute Maid Lemonade. The Cola however, has become a historic and pop culture icon. It started as a popular soft drink but is now a powerful brand with it's logo on everything from lunch boxes to t-shirts. The success is directly correlated to Coca-Colas ingenious marketing which has found a way to resonate with consumers.
The commercial I looked at has since become a legend. The commercial starred a popular and famous football star "Mean Joe" Greene. Coca Cola launched the ad in 1979 in partnership with NFL team the Pittsburg Steelers. The commercial starts with Mean Joe limping to the locker room and a young fan approaching. The young boy says "I think you're the best ever". Mean Joe shrugs it off and still seems angry or depressed. The boy offers him his Coke to which Mean Joe seems perplexed and humbly denies. The boy insists and Joe drinks the coke after which he looks happy and refreshed and throws the boy his jersey. The slogan from the commercial is "Have a Coke and a smile" meaning cheer up and refresh yourself with a Coke.
In the textbook, it talks a lot about smart marketing and brand promotion. Attract customers by relating to their interests and leaving an impression on the audience to ultimately buy your product. The marketing in this commercial is very good for many reasons. They use a recognizable and likeable figure in "Mean Joe" Greene, a hugely popular football player at the time. They also appeal to audiences using the innocent young fan. The message of the commercial is very good as it says however bad of a day you are having, just refresh yourself with a Coke and smile. It also says Coke will give you a nice refreshing feeling that you can't help but smile at. The commercial is also very good because it tells a story of Mean Joe "down in the dumps" and upset and Coke is the cure as it makes him feel better. In conclusion the commercial was smart and effective because it used a recognizable spokesperson, told a short story to the audience, and had an easy to understand message, Coke is the antidote for a bad day.
Hey Matt,
ReplyDeleteI thought that this was a very intelligent look at Coke and I can plainly see that you put a lot of thought and care into writing your response. I agree with everything you said about Coke as a company and thought that you did a very good job thinking about how they grew and researching their general company info. As a kid growing up, I still heard about the mean Joe ad because it is so pivotal. He had developed such a reputation as a hardo football player that when he came running up with a Coke and there was a little kid standing there that stood in amazement at Mean Joe and when he said his name in recognition the football player glanced down at him and handed him a Coke. This was definitely a key moment for Coke because it said to the whole world that everybody loved it and it made them smile, even Mean Joe.