Coca-Cola: Connecting with Consumers

Have you got any examples from Coca-Cola, maybe from some of the smaller brands in the portfolio, where they really connected with consumers in a certain way that was unique or really able to connect with a certain group of potential customers?

When you think about some of the smaller brands that are maybe born, initially, functionally, it could be anything from a cold-pressed juice or a coconut water or whatever it may be. But often, they are a smaller cohort, initially. Probably an emerging trend, even. In those brands, you have to really recognize that you have got to be extremely meaningful and important to that small cohort, because they become your advocates. They’re influencers, typically, because they tend to be early adopters and they’ll bring others along with them. If you pick your trends right, those trends will grow. No one was drinking kombucha five years ago. I don’t know about you, but I drink one a day; I love kombucha. If you pick your trends right, you will end up having a core base of consumers that are influencers that advocate for you and that can bring others along.

Sometimes you can find influencers with big voices; celebrity voices, even. Or you can find influencers with a strong following. Now, more than ever, social media enables you to do these things that, 15 years ago, we weren’t able to do. This would have been a lot more manual. We would have to physically go to where the influencers are. We’d have to go to the studios and show off there, or whatever the occasion was. Now you can do that physically and digitally and it’s a lot easier to do. There, you are going to really get very tight on who you serve, where they are, how they spend their time. Who’s important in that community? Who’s the spokesperson for them? How can you connect with them in really meaningful ways?

They will hold you to the test, because they will hold to authenticity and accountability and they will look for transparency. It’s great, because they will ensure that your actions are, indeed, louder than your words.

How do you think about communication in those moments, when you have to connect to those customers, with your shared values? How do you think about messaging and communication?

It comes back to, what do you want to stand for. You’ve got to be really clear on that. Then your messaging is a function of that. Then the channels that you are going to choose to use are, obviously, a function of where the consumers are and how it matches the message that you want to have. That’s an unbelievable tapestry of things that need to come together, correctly. What will you see is, the brands that do that well are very, very clear in who they are, who they are talking to. Then the rest is, actually – this is a total overstatement – not easy, but so much more to work with, if that’s right. You’re giving your agencies a better chance of success. You’re giving your money a better chance of landing well, if you know, out of the gate, who you are, what you stand for, who you’re trying to attract, what behavior change you are trying to impact with this message.

Then, what’s the best format for that message? Not every message needs to be told in a film. Some need to be told in print. Some need to be told by others. Some can be told through PR. There are so many formats, today, and so many channels that we have access to. Choosing those well, it’s a gift that we have so many options. It’s no longer just, TV, radio, print at home. That’s not the world we live in, anymore. But not every message is right for every medium either. It all comes back to, is the message right for the brand? If that’s correct, then we can take it to, what’s the right medium for the message?

That’s also a pretty difficult decision, today, when you have so many different channels, so many different opportunities. Take coconut water, for example, at Coca-Cola. How did they really choose the channel and leverage that channel for their consumers?