{"id":51095,"date":"2017-10-17T15:59:07","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T19:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandlink.com\/?p=51095"},"modified":"2018-02-14T18:37:15","modified_gmt":"2018-02-14T23:37:15","slug":"dear-coke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandlink.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/17\/dear-coke\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Coke"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

You introduced a new positioning earlier this year. In the words of your CMO: \u201cthe bigness of Coca-Cola resides in the fact that it’s a simple pleasure — so the humbler we are, the bigger we are. We’re going from ‘Open Happiness’ <\/em>to exploring the role Coca-Cola plays in happiness \u2013 \u2018Taste the Feeling\u2019<\/em>. We make simple, everyday moments more special.” I liked it a lot: you simply and honestly took the proposition down to earth, and crafted it to express and support a fact more than spinning it. Add the unpretentiously sophisticated visuals about \u2018refreshment\u2019 and ‘happiness’ and you got everything you need to say. And just as an aside, interesting similarities with Nutella’s spread the happy: <\/em>Coca-Cola is a not-good-for-you sugary drink and Nutella is a not-good-for-you chocolatey spread, but both are widely loved nevertheless. Spread the Happy<\/em> is a mix of Open Happiness<\/em> and Taste the Feeling<\/em> — I wonder when Ferrero will start thinking “Nutella is a simple pleasure, so the humbler we are, the bigger we are.” and evolve their positioning too. But I\u2019m digressing.<\/p>\n

Coke, you are a brown sugary drink, one that is liked because humans (such as myself) like cold sugary liquids. Nothing more, nothing less. And for a time span of at least my generation you had a conscience, and your message was tasteful: \u201cwhile I of course know I\u2019m bad for you, I propose myself as a young&happy break \u2013 and stop there.\u201d (sure, here and there you did show a burger or two, but you thread lightly on the issue.) But I guess that recently your people sat in a conference room and \u2026 let\u2019s see, what were the words used \u2026 oh yes: \u201c\u2026 need growth \u2026 broaden usage occasions … increase consumption \u2026 Refreshment positioning is not enough … extend brand equities …\u201d <\/em>You briefed an ad agency, and voila\u2019 \u2013 here\u2019s the new Coke-as-ideal-food-companion campaign.<\/p>\n

You are aware of your crass disregards for the social implications of your message, right? You are bad for people, and you know it; not as bad as cigarettes or McD (given your messaged \u2018refreshing pause\u2019 frequency), but still not good. Now you\u2019re not only telling me (and the marketplace, and all the young people in it) to drink you for refreshing fun, but also with my meals \u2013 basically, all day long. What happened to \u201cthe humbler we are, the bigger we are?\u201d I hate when people (and brands) don\u2019t walk the talk. Can\u2019t wait for your callous marketers to take advantage of the demise of orange juice and refreshingly tell me to have a Coke instead of the morning coffee, or maybe even a tasty 4pm Coke & Scones.<\/p>\n

Y\u2019know, Nutella overstepped its boundaries and paid a $3MM fine for doing so. What you are doing is not fine-able unfortunately, but \u2026 you lost me as a customer: I bought into your brand\u2019s promise, stance, character, and conscience, and now you\u2019re sacrificing all that for a few (or maybe a lot) more dollars.<\/p>\n

Goodbye Coke — it’s been fun while it lasted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You introduced a new positioning earlier this year. In the words of your CMO: \u201cthe bigness of Coca-Cola resides in the fact that it’s a simple pleasure — so the humbler we are, the bigger we are. We’re going from ‘Open Happiness’ to exploring the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-quernels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandlink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandlink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandlink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandlink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandlink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51095"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brandlink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51126,"href":"https:\/\/brandlink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51095\/revisions\/51126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandlink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandlink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandlink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandlink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}