Wild Card Paper:

 Coca-Cola's Success Explained: 

Coca-Cola as we all know was first created as a temperance drink to assist patients with pain. Coca-Cola has been around since the 19th century and is still extremely popular here today. How can something created so long ago still have the popularity and momentum that Coca-Cola does? The answer is simple their marketing team knows what they're doing and knows how to market to different demographics. When I say extremely popular this company was ranked third in most valuable brands coming in just behind Apple and Google. Coca-Cola is constantly coming out with new ways to market their products for example there's actually a Coke world in Atlanta Georgia. I actually had the chance to visit coke world while I was in Georgia last summer, they take you through multiple steps you get to learn about the history of the company and you even get to try cokes from around the world. This was one of the coolest parts of the tour for me because there was multiple stands that had all the Coke flavors and different products for each country and you got to try them even though some of them were disgusting. Of course it doesn't stop there everybody knows the infamous polar bears for their commercials or the fact that Santa basically is the spokes person for Coca-Cola around Christmas season. I have also recently visited Disney World and at their location in Disney Springs they have a mini Coca-Cola store. That had all the knickknacks and and clothing branded with the infamous logo. But this is where their branding really comes into play in this small store there's actually a section where you can meet the Coca-Cola polar bear and take a picture with him.  

Recently there was an article released about Coca-Cola's three keys to success on social media written by Sean Cole at Econsultancy.com. He marked these three keys as consumers as creators, takeovers, and focusing on emotions like nostalgia. Their consumers as creators tactic is a great way to get customers involved in the products. For example, for this year's world kindness day Instagram artist sent in their artwork that was focused around coke to the company and then they were posted to their social media. By allowing the public to get involved in marketing strategies like these you will see interest in the company and in products increase. Here are a few of those artists works that were chosen by the company. 

The 'Share a Coke With' branding technique came on the scene in 2014 and is still around today. When they first came out with this idea I remember going to multiple places to try to find my name on a Coke bottle I'm sure this was the case with many other people as well. Which shows personalization of products can draw in a whole new range of customers. They've even started putting the share a coke on their cans of 24 packs. However, these cokes don't have peoples names specifically but things like all star or winner are placed on the cans. You can also search on their website to see if your name is on a Coke bottle before you go adventuring to find your name.

Takeovers was the second key to success listed in this article. Their most recent and famous take over was teaming up with the Netflix original Stranger Things on their new season release. The third season of the show is based in the 80's so Coca-Cola decided to bring back the "New Coke" that was originally released in 1985. This takeover was also paired with nostalgia because for people that were around when the original "New Coke" came out they would get to try something that was popular from their past. Their marketing for Stranger Things was broadcasted across all their social media pages like Instagram just like they did for their World Kindness Day campaign. Coke also did a Stranger Things arcade where fans could come and find the upside down which is a famous place in the TV series if you're not familiar with it. They also had props from the series like the Scoops Ahoy ice cream van with the MindFlayer coming out of it. They were also giving out limited edition coke cans and T-shirts to the fans I came to the arcade. Fans showed their enthusiasm from the set up on their social media accounts furthermore boosting Coke's ideas to the internet.  

The best time of the year for Coke is of course a Christmas time as I mentioned earlier the infamous  Santa Claus is portrayed in multiple commercials and ads for the company. I remember watching the snow globe ad multiple times a day where he was shaking the snow globe and bringing people together with of course Coke bottles in their hand. Along with their Santa clause ads they have the polar bear families who build snowmen that look like polar bears and their noses are a coke cap. Something that I wasn't aware of that apparently is very popular is the Coca-Cola Christmas delivery trucks. Which I'm guessing the reason I'm not aware is because this is famous particularly in the United Kingdom where these famously lit trucks drive around UK cities. This year the Christmas Coke trucks will be offering samples of their new limited edition cinnamon sugar free cokes. 

These examples and so many more are the reasons that a drink created in the 19th-century is still very popular in today's world. By allowing customers to be involved in their social media, popular takeovers like Stranger Things and their branding for the Rio Olympics they are constantly coming up with new things to keep their name in the conversation. You also can't forget about their nostalgia and Christmas marketing techniques that everybody knows and loves. All in all other companies should definitely take notes from the marketing and social media aspect of the Coca-Cola industry.