BRAND IMAGING: Coca-Cola: The Good ol' American beverage

Since it is almost the holiday season, I'd like to taker a break from the financial jargon and depressing crisis that have dominated my last two blog posts. Instead, I would like to touch upon something a little bit...merrier. THAT'S RIGHT!!!!!!!!!! - I'm talking about those Santa Claus printed soda cases that Coca-Cola puts out every year!



HOWEVER: I found this a little puzzling:

• "Most people can agree on what Santa Claus looks like -- jolly, with a red suit and a white beard. But he did not always look that way, and Coca Cola advertising actually helped shape this modern-day image of Santa."
• Through the centuries, Santa Claus has been depicted as everything from a tall gaunt man to an elf. He has worn a bishop's robe and a Norse huntsman's animal skin. The modern-day Santa Claus is a combination of a number of the stories from a variety of countries.
• 2006 marked the 75th anniversary of the famous

  Coca-Cola Santa Claus. Starting in 1931, magazine ads for Coca-Cola featured St. Nick as a kind, jolly man in a red suit. Because magazines were so widely viewed, and because this image of Santa appeared for more than three decades, the image of Santa most people have today is largely based on our advertising.

Now...Let's take a look at some of Coca-Cola's Santa artwork throughout the years (in no specific order)

Now to put my little Santa rant in perspective...
For about the past 80 years, Coca-Cola has used "their" image of Santa Claus as a marketing tool for selling their product during the Holidays. What really stands out to me is that they have been using the same pictures of Santa in their ads for the past 80 years. By the same pictures, I mean that they have used the same style of painting, features, characteristics, expressions, and overall tone. To be straightforward, it looks old. But old is not necessarily a bad thing. In this sense, old is traditional and Coca-Cola's intended bland image, CLASSIC. Coca-Cola is all about being the soft drink beverage that your grandparents, and their grandparents used to order for a nickel down at the drug store after playing stick-ball, going to school, or doing whatever ever else those crazy seniors used to do back in the day.

Even to this day, cases and bottles of Coca-Cola are printed with the word "Classic" on the top in bold script. The idea here is that Coca-Cola is a classic American company, built by American people some one hundred and fifty years ago, yet is not going to change what it originally set out to sell, refreshments for the people. "Classic" is an image within itself which promotes brand recognition, consistency, trust, and quality.

In addition to the classic Santa Claus ads that reinforce Coke's classic image, who can forget about those cute cuddly, coke drinkin' polar bears? Talk about a classic image that Coca-Cola has branded themselves to. If you were to be given "places you would find a polar bear" on Family Feud, chances are "in a Coca-Cola commercial" would be the #1 answer above "the north pole.

In 2008, Coca-Cola stared a PR campaign to save the polar bears called the Polar Bear Support Fund. The goal of this campaign was to reduce the human involvement in global climate change and help support polar bears because of their litterally, melting environments. Coca-Cola teamed up with the WWF (World Wildlife Foundation) to take part in this cause. This is definitely an effective PR plan because after seeing those commercials with the cute polar bears, who wouldn't want to save them after hearing about their environmental dilemma?

Corperate Crisis - The Belgium Incident

On June 13, 1999, the Coca-Cola Company recalled over 15 million containers of the soft drink after the Belgian Health Ministry announced a ban on Coca-Cola's drinks, which were suspected of making over 100 school children ill in the preceding six days. This problem shook the entire country of Belgium not only because there was suspect that the product made school children sick, but especially because the Coca-Cola Company was a trusted corporation. As a result, The Coca-Cola Company, in cooperation with the Belgian Health Ministry, recalled its products from Belgian stores.

Coca-Cola made a great effort to eradicate the problems in production that caused this crisis. The company quickly identified the two specific production and distribution problems that were linked to the sickness in the school children. The two problems that were identified by Coca-Cola were:

(1) ‘‘Off-quality’’ carbon dioxide that affected the taste and odor of some bottled drinks.

(2) An offensive odor on the outside of some canned drinks. The odor appeared to intensify when the cans were stored in vending-machines.

After the investigation of the recalled product and due to Coca-Cola's commitment to its consumers, "on 22 June 1999, the Belgian Health Ministry lifted its ban on CCC trade-mark products (except for those products sold in vending-machines, pending further review) on the condition that CCC and CCE use fresh basic materials, conduct a thorough cleansing of the plants, enhance current safety measures, as well as take other steps." Ivester followed up this progress with a company statement:

"We respect the Ministry’s obligation to the people in these times of deep sensitivity to public health issues. Nothing is more important than protecting the public’s health, and we have worked very closely and intensively with the Ministry, providing significant amounts of information confirming complete confidence in the safety of our products and packages. He announced: We let down the people of Belgium, and we’re sorry for that, but now we’re committed to do what it takes to earn their complete trust again"

The only thing that I was taken back on was the fact that it took Coca-Cola one full week to make their initial public statement. During the company's silence it is no doubt that rumors had run rampant about the quality and safety of Coca-Cola beverages; not only in Belgium, but also around the world. The Coca-Cola chairman and CEO, Doug Ivester, responded with the company's first public statements addressing the production and distribution problems and offering the company's apology to those affected and the people of Belgium.

"The Coca-Cola Company’s highest priority is the quality of our products. For 113 years our success has been based on the trust that consumers have in that quality. That trust is

sacred to us. I want to reassure our consumers, customers, and government officials in Europe that The Coca-Cola Company is taking all necessary steps to ensure that all our products meet the highest quality standards. Nothing less is acceptable to us and we will not rest until we ensure that this job is complete. We deeply regret any problems encountered by our European consumers in the past few days"

If I were in charge of Coca-Cola's PR department I would make sure that the company was always on its toes just in case an event like this was to occur. That way, if a crisis like this was occur the public statement would be made without delay. It is very important that a company takes the blame for any situation and/or crisis it is responsible for and to address the issue quickly. In Coca-Cola's case, the PR team was slow to respond to this issue; which may have played against their favor. The cooperation and efforts that the Coca Cola company made after the fact to rebuild their image and to show dedication the people of Belgium and the world were sincere, which is why the Belgian Health Ministry re-instituted Coca-Cola into the country again.

source: http://www.fh-fulda.de/fileadmin/Fachbereich_SW/Downloads/Profs/Wolf/Studies/belgians/belgians_crisis_management.pdf

Investor Relations

The Coca-Cola Investor Relations information and Annual Report can be found here.

Coca-Cola Annual Report:

The Coca-Cola annual report incorporates a mixture of both straightforward marketing and economical information regarding the past performance, current performance and predicted performance of the company. There is no "slick-marketing" techniques being carried out in the 2008 Annual Report, but rather an attractive angle on the performance of the company in which the company boasts its success. The Annual Report uses many graphics and images and puts impressive figures in bold, large font. It is beneficial for a company such as Coca-Cola to boast its success to investors considering the main goal of these reports is to give investors confidence and a reason to put money into the company. Coca-Cola posted their annual SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) 10-K (annual) filing in addition to a personable description of the Coca-Cola company of the year 2008; its goals it had set, achieved, and is making. To me, the goal of the Coca-Cola annual report was to tell a little about its impact on the world in 2008. The annual report gives Coca-Cola the ability to reach out to its consumers, investors, and employees in an honest and straight-forward fashion. Sure the report contains figures, but it also contains a little perspective from within the inner workings of the company to see the direction in which the company plans to take in the future.

Letter from the CEO:
The messages that the CEO and President of Coca-Cola are sending to investors are that Coca-Cola is a company of a long standing reputation of impressive growth and prospering business. The CEO and President address the problem of the economic crisis in 2008 and assure investors that Coca-Cola is not only still performing above expectation, but also expanding.

The tone of this letter is assuring, confident, and sincere. It was definitely constructed to be an instrument of confidence. Although the letter boasts Coca-Cola's success since its incorporation, It does not brag; it only states its achievements. It is definitely a credible publication that is glowing yet humble; there is always work to be done (which is the feeling I get when I read the annual report). Coca-Cola is one of the top trademarks in the world for a reason, and that reason is because Coca-Cola strives for better even when they have the best. Investors should be confident and assured when reading this letter based on the Company's performance and its bold intentions for the future.

Most Recent News Release

The latest news release relating to the company's earnings is written in a reader-friendly language which promotes all those who are interested in the company's business, including, but not limited to investors, consumers, employees; a chance to be able to track Coca-Cola's performance. An interesting note to ad about the involvement of those who are interested in the business of Coca-Cola is that the Coca-Cola Enterprise is making their quarterly conference call with the cheif executives a live podcast online for anyone with an internet connection to tune into. This makes people interested in becoming involved with the company thus creating more investors which ultimately increases stock value. Very nice PR Coke, very nice...

The news release is believable because the quotes that are made are back by figures of the year's and quarter's earnings from around the world. I would assume that this would instill confidence in the investors based on the great performance Coca-Cola pulled out of the 2009 third quarter. There is no bad news within this news release because it deals mostly with financial performance. The CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises, John F. Brock, is quoted saying "“Year to date, we have achieved strong profit growth through successful execution of brand and marketplace initiatives and efficiency and effectiveness programs,” said John F. Brock, chairman and chief executive officer. “Going forward, we continue to develop solid business plans for 2010 that will enable us to increase the efficiency and synergy of our system and deliver consistent, balanced growth.” If I was an investor I would surely be confident in this company. I mean...let's be real it has it all, a world renown image, financial growth, and a CEO that won't settle for the best. Could an investor as for more?

Coca-Cola Community Relations - My Coke Rewards!

What Coca-Cola is doing for communities across the country is a continuous campaign that enables communities to become engaged in both the company and their respective communities.

Live Positively, Coca-Cola's Community Relations Website

What it is: My Coke Rewards for Schools.
• My Coke Rewards for Schools is a way for parents, friends, and others in the community to support local K-12 schools by donating My Coke Rewards points which can be earned from hundreds of participating Coca-Cola products. Schools can turn donated points into a variety of rewards that support students.
• The coke points can provide local schools with things like athletic equipment, books, classroom supplies and more.
• Schools must register to participate in the program, and any My Coke Rewards member can donate points to registered schools.
• People donate their My Coke Rewards points and empower students to do, learn and discover more every day.

Coca Cola’s focus:
• To provide children with opportunities in school by enabling their communities to literally cash in their cans.
• To better communities and schools where budgets may be tight
• Encourage brand recognition and reputation in communities
• To encourage community involvement and community building

How it relates to Coca-Cola's line of business:
• Part of Coca-Cola's mission statement is “To create value and make a difference.” & “Inspire creativity, passion, optimism and fun”
• Coca-Cola offers this program to any community that is willing to take the initiative. Coca-Cola offers the support and resources but leaves the initiative to the communities.
• For the company, it encourages product consumption.
• Coke Rewards motivates the consumption because of the return consumers and communities are able to benefit from.

How does the program enhance the company’s reputation?
• This program is on-going
• “Let's double up for schools: Help boost your school's balance. We'll match every point donated during October. Together, we can help schools get the equipment, supplies, and books they need even faster.” For every point that a consumer donates to their community, Coca-Cola matches their donation, thus doubling the donation the consumer submits to the My Coke Rewards website.

This is good community relations for Coca-Cola because it is on-going, enables people to become involved in both the Coca-Cola company and their communities, and the benefits that communities experience from this program are visible to both involved communities and those who are interested in participating. I believe that this is not only a great opportunity for communities to interact with Coca-Cola for educational rewards, but also for Coca-Cola to boost their reputation by branding their name on a community relations program. My Coke Rewards, in the most simple sense, enables schools to turn their cans into books, sports equipment, musical instruments, etc.

This public relations is also good because it is ongoing. People are able to participate at any given time and their is no restrictions on who can participate.

Other things that the Coca-Cola company could also do would be provide more community based scholarship funds through the usage of My Coke Rewards. For instance, if a college bound kid was in need of a scholarship perhaps My Coke Rewards could create an incentive program where the rewards points went towards a community based fund which allowed for more scholarships to be awarded in that particular community.

How it works!

"Environmental Justice: Coca-Cola in India" vs Coca-Cola

In 2003, Coca-Cola India was faced with allegations regarding the unsanitary production of beverages, unnecessary pollution, and physical abuse to unarmed protestors. During the time of allegations, Coca-Cola sales in India dropped 30-40%. Here are the specific allegations Coca-Cola was faced with...

Background information regarding the allegations against the Coca-Cola Enterprises in India (taken from a petition letter to Douglas Daft, the CEO of Coca-Cola):

(i) Allegation that Coca-Cola bottling plants in Plachimada[2] in
Kerala and Mehdiganj[3] in Uttar Pradesh pass on sludge as
fertilizer causing health and environmental damage.

(ii) Allegation that excessive depletion of water table caused by
Coca-Cola bottling operations is resulting in drastically
reduced availability of water for irrigation purposes which is
devastating local communities.[3]

(iii) Allegation that security personnel at Coca-Cola plant at
Mehdiganj used excessive force against unarmed citizens
protesting the damage caused by the manufacturing unit.[4]

(iv) Allegation that Coca-Cola bottled water and drinks manufactured
in New Delhi and Mumbai contained pesticides when tested by
reputed NGO Center for Science and Environment.[1]

A video depicting Coca-Cola's abusive production and distribution practices.

In response, Coca-Cola published this news release, and posted it on their website to make their statement public. In this news release, Coca-Cola addressed the environmental allegations.

What gave Coca-Cola validity in the company's defense was that Coca-Cola took the initiative to get expert opinions in the matter of pollution control and production techniques from scientists and even invited the Indian central government to make a detailed investigation of Coca-Cola's impact on water sources and the environment.

Coca-Cola effectively used the news release to disarm its protestors and find their allegations groundless. It is easy to target a large corporation as a source for environmental problems. Coca-Cola utilized professional and expert observation to prove the allegations false. This could have been a potentially damaging set of allegations against Coca-Cola, and probably still had a negative impact on the company; however, the damage control that was done protected Coca-Cola from allegations that challenge the company's vision and mission. No matter how well Coca-Cola controlled this situation, it still does not stop the Indian people from having false preceptions of Coca-Cola products that are infact damaging to the company image and sales.

In this report, the damages Coca-Cola has faced are noted and there is a brief "fact vs. myth" section where Coca-Cola smashes the false preceptions the Indian people had at the time of the allegations in 2003.

Coca-Cola made the right steps to dispell the myths regarding its negative company image in India. Coca-Cola brought these allegations to experts and the Indian central government and published the findings publically in a news release type statement as well as detailed reports. This has protected and defended the company's image and has enabled the Coca-Cola company to prosper yet again in India after this damaging set of allegations from 2003-2005. More recently, Coca-Cola has been recieving awards in India based on their involvment in preserving the environment in India from public relation campaigns Coca-Cola has set forth.

Coca-Cola takes to Social Media

While perusing on my favorite and most frequented social media site, Facebook, I stumbled upon the Coca-Cola fan page on the Facebook server. Sporting the red curvaceous silhouettes of the classic Coke bottles, the fan site offers many contests and interactive applications for Facebookers to explore, including "spin the bottle" apps for Apple's iPhone and fan submitted photos and videos. Interactive games sprinkle the page with the intention of keeping visitors on the site; however what is most interesting about the fan page Coca-Cola has on Facebook is the banner it displays on the bottom...

This banner promotes environmental challenges that the Coca-Cola Bottling Company has to face, and effectively, Coca-Cola answers each one with a simple click on the respective problem a consumer wishes to learn more about. If this does not answer a customer's question or concern, Coca-Cola has added a link for questions, which is directed to the company's official company website. There is also a link to view a complete list of products Coca-Cola has to offer the world which informs and educates the consumer. This also increases product recognition for the consumer.

Lastly, Coca-Cola supplies a link to an unofficial news feed, which is very similar to a Twitter, that is filled with random facts, Coca-Cola event reminders, and trivia. This can be found under the link "Refreshing Feeds."

With over 3,709,195 fans on Facebook, Coca-Cola encourages you too to join the Coke-Fan base, write on the company's wall, upload fan videos and pictures, and learn about the company. Coca-Cola has definitely used this social media site to its capacity thus far, and this is evident by the 3,709,195 fans it has on the company's technological bandwagon. The only critique I have is if this fan site on Facebook is static, or is the layout and features constantly changing ensure a unique experience each time a fan logs on. If this page stays the same over an extended period of time, it may become dated and unattractive to fans/potential fans. The main purpose of a "fan site" is to hype up a product and news about a product. If the site stays the same it becomes dull and does not make people enthused.

Check out this funny video created by the Coca-cola Facebook fanpage creators!

Edit 10/3/2009: The Coca-Cola fanpage on Facebook is in fact a dynamic site offering recent company news and new promotions. The site remains interactive and is visually appealing. I have logged onto this site multiple times and have spent more than 5 minutes each time clicking around the page, reading and participating in several of the promotions out of interest and curiosity.

Coca-Cola has also established itself on Youtube , offering over 70 uploaded videos and commericals from around the world promoting the Coca-Cola company and its various products. However; I was a bit suprised to see that the Coca-Cola channel on Youtube only had 193 subscribers. Coca Cola's youtube channel was also difficult to find. I searched "Coca Cola" in the Youtube search box, yet the official Youtube Channel did not come up first. Instead I found user submitted videos ranging from people's video blogs to user submitted Super Bowl commericials. I didn't find the official channel until I manually entered the URL www.youtube.com/cocacola. In my opinion, the Coca-Cola youtube page could be publicized a bit more. Youtube is a great forum for the Company to get messages and videos out to the public, but in my opinion, this medium is being neglected by Coca-Cola. For example, Coca-Cola is a HUGE WELL-KNOWN company, yet its featured video has only 338 views and was uploaded to YouTube over 2 months ago. To put this in perspective, I uploaded a personal video of myself singing mediocre cover songs and I have over 33,000 views, and compared to Coca-Cola, I am a nobody. Youtube is a medium that should be stressed more for Coke's public relations effort considering it is free to use and attracts roughly 1.2 billion people a day! C'mon Coke!


Coca-Cola's Youtube airs videos from around the world.

Corperate Public Relations & Coca-Cola: An Introduction

This blog is an analysis of the corporate public relations initiatives of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. The analysis is intended to explore both the effective and ineffective corporate campaigns the Coca-Cola Company has explored, experimented with and executed; while analyzing the effects these various campaigns have had on the company, employees, consumers, and environment.

The Coca-Cola company's complete mission statement can be viewed HERE. Quite simply, the mission statement is:
"To refresh the world...To inspire moments of optimism and happiness... and to create value and make a difference." (taken from the Official Coca-Cola site)

This mission clearly described a company that is dedicated to the well-being of its consumers, employees, and environment. This mission statement seems to holds Coca-Cola to a very high standard, yet seems vague when it is first read. After reading Coca-Cola's mission statement, I was intrigue as to what makes a good/effective mission statement. I found my answer here. A mission statement translates a company's goals to the world and how it wants to make a difference. A unique feature of the Coca-Cola website is that it breaks down the mission statement and describes each part very descriptively and even gives examples of the initiatives the company takes to ensure the mission statement is fulfilled. The breakdown of the company's mission, goals and vision are found in easy bullet form here. This format to describe the company's vision makes it easy to inform and educate the public about the direction in which the company does and directs its business and defines its involvement in the environment (meaning the national/international community as well as the actual natural environment).

This blog will evaluate Coca-Cola's public relations efforts and compare that to interpretations of the company's mission statement.

One interesting thing about Coca-Cola's mission statement is that it emphasizes looking towards the future in order to foresee changes in trends, styles, and needs of the consumers. This is called Coca-Cola's "20/20 Vision." As a public relations practitioner it is imperative to look to the future and predict changes a company must make to adapt to a changing world. If changes were not observed and PR research was not done to develop changes in PR campaigns, a company's outreach to consumers, employees, environment would become ineffective or not to its potential. This is why the stress Coca-cola puts on its "20/20 Vision" is a essential component to its PR effort.

Concerns that the public relations department of the Coca-Cola Company may face can be separated into two categories: the environment and human health concerns relating to the consumption of the product. In order to counter these problems and stay committed to the Company's mission statement, Coca-Cola must execute effective public relations campaigns addressing problems that face the company. This not only minimizes negative attitudes towards the company based on environmental and health concerns, but also boosts the company's reputation because the company is taking initiative to address the negative aspects and problems the company may produce.

As a merchandiser for Coca-Cola for the past two summers, I have become intrigued by the Coca-Cola bottling company's effort to strive for quality control, product recognition, and consumor relations which is why I chose to evaluate Coca-Cola's public relations effort.

As arguably the number one trademark in the entire world, Coca-Cola's beverages and products are spread throughout every continent in an effort to "refresh the world." The Coca-Cola Company's international business example is very attractive to a student such as myself considering I am a public relations and Spanish double-major with an aspiration to contribute to the global economy and to apply my career skills to the international forum.