Warc held the Measuring Advertising Performance conference yesterday, an opportunity for the participants to discuss and share their knowledge in the field. For Coca-Cola, and there is no surprise here, building customer loyalty is more important than short-term sales.
Silke Muenster, Coca-Cola’s director of knowledge and insights, revealed that Coca-Cola is measuring “brand love” to strengthen its long-term position on the market, a metric as important as market share for the soft-drinks giant. Building strong relationships with the customers coverts sooner or later into sales, and Coca-Cola applies this principle flawlessly. Never mind that Germans don’t express their love for Coca-Cola as easy as the Italians, the numbers fit the pattern.
So how does Coca-Cola build this “brand love” anyway? It’s not like people around the world love the drink because they tasted it once, to be frank, between Coca-Cola and Pepsi the taste difference is not that obvious for all. But Coca-Cola makes sure that the consumers treat its products as an integrated part of their lives. Product placement is vital: from fast food to restaurants and stores, Coca-Cola appears to have a monopoly. You cannot have a cheeseburger menu without a Coca-Cola signature drink, can you? While the choice of drinks at McDonald’s is limited, drink stores are a different story. And here comes Coca-Cola’s powerful marketing and advertising department.
Public Relations firms who have worked for Coca-Cola include Burson Marsteller, MSL Group, Ogilvy PR as well as Cohn & Wolfe.