Understanding Coca-Cola Advertising Campaigns

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UNDERSTANDING COCA-COLA ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS:

A STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF THE ‘SHARE A COKE’ CAMPAIGN

Thesis

Tatiana Fetisova

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts

Communication and Mass Media

State University of New York in Prague

Empire State College

2015

Reader: Professor Silvia Chelala

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank the University of New York in Prague and the Empire State College for the opportunity to study in a stimulating learning environment. I would also like to thank my professors and most of all my advisor, Todd Nesbitt, from the Communication and Mass Media Department and William Cohn for the knowledge that I gained throughout the years of studying in the university. Moreover, I would like to express my gratitude to my mentor, Silvia Chelala, for all the suggestions and feedbacks that enabled me to complete this research thesis. In addition, I am eternally indebted to my family and friends, who were always willing and available to provide the necessary supports during the good and the not so good times irrespective of the distance while I was studying and during the entire duration of completing this research thesis. Thank you all.

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Table of contents Acknowledgement………………………...…………………………………………...... ii Table of Contents……...……….………………………………...……………………...iii Tables, Figures, Illustrations and Appendix A……………...…………………….…….iv Abstract……………………………...………………………………………………..….v

Chapter 1: Introduction 1.0 Introduction ...... 6 1.1 Aims of the Research ...... 7 1.2 Objectives and Research Questions ...... 7 1.3 Introduction to Advertising and Brand ...... 7 1.4 Coca-Cola and Advertising: Radio, Television, the Internet and the PrintMedia .... 14

Chapter 2: Research Methodology 2.0 Research Method ...... 20 2.1 Research Approach and Strategy ...... 21 2.2 Required Researh Data and Sources ...... 23 2.3 Method of Research Data Collection ...... 24 2.4 Primary Researh Data - Questionnaires Survey ...... 25 2.5 Secondary Research Data - Literature Review ...... 26 2.6 Researh Sampling Strategy ...... 27 2.7 Ethical Considerations ...... 29

Chapter 3: The 'Share a Coke' Campaign: The Analysis 3.0 The 'Share a Coke' Campaign: The Literature Review Analysis ...... 31 3.0.1 'Share a Coke': The Integrated Brand Promotional Tools Analysis ...... 31 3.0.2 'Share a Coke': The Advertising Campaign Analysis ...... 38 3.1 The 'Share a Coke' Campaign: The Questionnaires Survey Analysis ...... 41 3.2 The 'Share a Coke' Campaign: The Semiotic Analysis ...... 43

Chapter 4: Conclusions 4.0 Conclusions ...... 45 Appendix A: Questionnaire for participants of the survey ...... 47 Works Cited ...... 49 Bibliography ...... 53

Tables, Figures and Illustrations

Figure 1: The link between theory and data ...... 22 Figure 2: Types of research data ...... 25 Figure 3: Samples of Share a Coke Adverts...... 43 Figure 4: Virtual Share a Coke with Tatiana ...... 46

Abstract This research thesis seeks to investigate, analyze the phenomenon success of the “Share a Coke” campaign across the world. Identifying the role of the appropriate advertising media as well as the influence of the brand recognition in making the campaign successful. To achieve the aim and objective of the research, the researcher embarked on a systematic qualitative research based investigation and analysis of the research data to arrive at a conclusion that is valid and reliable. The first part of the investigation focuses on advertising, identifying its complex nature as well as the media for presenting it to the consumers.

Brand, it meaning in the context of Coca-Cola and the different aspects of brand marketing were also investigated and identified. All these investigation were carried out through a comprehensive and expansive library search. Using all the tools of qualitative and quantitative social research by applying the mixed method approach. The secondary research data collected and used were mainly collected from textbooks, academic journals and other secondary research data sources like the Website of Coca-Cola Company. Apart from the secondary research data, a questionnaire survey was conducted to sample the opinion of some of the target consumers of the campaign.

All the different research data collected were then analyzed using the multiple approaches that include literature review analysis, quantitative analysis of the survey questionnaires and a semiotic analysis of samples “Share a Coke” campaign advertisements. The research concluded that the success of the campaign was based on the effective use of nontraditional and traditional media in an integrated manner that communicated the message to the target consumer in the most effective way possible.

Chapter 1

Introduction

1.0 Introduction

There is perhaps no other brand known across the world more than the Coca-Cola brand, from the dense jungle of the Amazon in Brazil to the Australian outback, from Cairo, Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa there is only one brand whose presence and appeal cut across culture and religion and that brand is Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola did not become a worldwide brand by remaining in the obscurity of its humble beginning. Neither did the brand transmit itself into the nooks and crannies of the world by any magical or mystical act. The Coca-

Cola brand was the product of decades of excellent advertising campaigns in different languages and different medium.

In this research, the catalyst behind the growth of the Coca-Cola brand from its origin to all the different continents of the world that is, advertising campaigns will be investigated and analyzed. The research is a qualitative research that examines the strategies behind one of the many successful advertising campaigns that are behind the Coca-Cola brand. To understand the advertising campaigns carried out over the years by Coca-Cola, the researcher focuses on one focal advertising campaign called the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign. The analysis of the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign will be preceded by a step-by-step methodology of investigation of different aspects of the advertising campaign. The research starts with a clearly articulated research methodology. This thesis will then look at advertising in the global perspective to enable the research look at what advertising is in the global context.

The detailed examination of the Coca-Cola ‘Share a Coke’ campaign the focus of the main part of the research. This research will be brought to a close by the drawing up of reliable and valid conclusions on the research topic.

1.1 Aims of the Research

The aim of the research is the understanding of the essential role of the appropriate advertising campaign in the success of the Coca-Cola brand using the ‘Share a Coke’ advertising campaign as the focal campaign.

1.2 Objectives and Research Questions

The central objective of this research is the understanding essential role of advertising in the creation of the success of the Coca-Cola brand. The research questions that will make the understanding of the essential role of advertising campaigns in the Coca-Cola brand are:

i. What is the role of advertising in Coca-Cola brand recognition across the world?

ii. Why is advertising important in brand loyalty?

iii. What is the strategy behind the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign?

1.3 Introduction to Advertising and brand

When the term advertising is mentioned in any situation, there is a tendency for the average individual to assume advertising as a means of persuading the consumer to buyer a product or an idea. The assumption while correct does not present the entirety of the meaning of advertising. Advertising is at the core of this research, and as such, the concept of advertising will be explored in detail. In this introductory chapter however, the discussion is limited to presenting the foundations for the detailed examination of the concept later in the research.

In light of the above statement, advertising is more than the presentation of products or ideas in a way that persuades. Advertising plays essential role in all aspect of life today, from marketing, communication, economic to sociocultural roles. All these different roles of advertising will be examined in due course, but for now, what is advertising in its entirety?

The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) provided a rich and complete explanation of what advertising is as it relates to the focus of this research. The AANA

(2012) describes advertising as:

“advertising means any material which is published or broadcast using any medium or any activity which is undertaken by, or on behalf of an advertiser, and over which the advertiser has a reasonable degree of control, and that draws the attention of the public in a manner calculated to promote or oppose directly or indirectly a product, services, person, organization or line of conduct” (cited in Moriarty et al., 2015, p.4).

The AANA description of what constitutes advertising, it is clear that it is a far more than what an average person ordinarily would have considered as advertising. Advertising is not only about promoting a product or ideas, it can and sometimes is about discouraging the attraction to certain products and ideas. The anti-smoking advertisement on television, radio and in print around the world is a good example of advertising to discourage the interest in certain products. What about ideas, there is no better time in the history of the world than the present to identify how advertising is been used to discourage certain harmful ideas.

The increasing insecurity across the globe from Islamic fundamentalist who are recruiting dissatisfied youngsters across the Western world to the idea of an eternal reward based on the mass killing of innocent people is an idea that is harmful to society that advertising is yet again used to discourage. There are advertisements on television, cinemas, radio, and popular magazine that are have advisement that is being used as educate the youth against these harmful ideas. The two examples of how advertising is being used to discourage the interest in harmful product and idea is also an indication of the sociocultural role of advertising. Similarly, advertising is present as the tool of marketing products and ideas that are of benefit to the consumers and society as a whole. This marketing aspect of advertising is what the central idea of this research is focused on.

How did Coca-Cola able to use advertising effectively to the level that its brand is known across the world. The achievement of Coca-Cola is possible because the company was able to utilize the advertising tool available in not only its sociocultural and marketing role as already seen above. The company has been able to take advantage of the communication role of advertising and its economic role. This introductory examination of advertising will not be complete without looking at how the four identified roles of advertising that is, the marketing, the communication, the economic and the sociocultural role and its relation to

Coca-Cola.

Advertising plays a marketing role when it presents the required products or ideas to the target market. This is taken into consideration by Coca-Cola advertising campaigns through the identification of the specific target market that would be interested in drinking Coca-

Cola. The company uses the marketing mix to make their products available in the places where young people frequented presenting advertising with young people looking happy and in celebrative and active mood. Places such as sporting arenas, cinemas, universities and colleges campuses.

The company provides its products at prices within the affordability level of the average teenager. The Coca-Cola Company understands of the effectiveness of the marketing role in reaching its target customers through the clever presentation of its brand to the customer through the deployment of all the four Ps’ of marketing mix. The communication role of advertising and its use by Coca-Cola brand success include the use of the right communication tools to present its brand in the best light. Moriarty et al (2015) explained that advertiser’s communication “informs consumers and transforms a product by creating an image that goes beyond straightforward facts” (p.6). The Coca-Coca brand is seen around the world more than just as what it actually is that is, a soft drink.

There are millions of different brands of soft drinks available around the world, but none is recognized in the same way as Coca-Cola. A classic example is the transformation of Coca-

Cola is the transformation of Coca-Cola as the drink of Santa Claus the Christmas number one image across the world. The bright red clothing of Santa Claus was a branding done by the Coca-Cola Company. Today, the Christmas season is associated with Coca-Cola advertising campaigns that are inspiring to consumer across the world. The company was able to transform it brand from an ordinary soft drink to the brand that is recognized as distinctive with celebrations such as the Christmas celebration.

The economic role of advertising is that of a facilitator of the exchange of for particular brand. Advertising tends to flourish in societies that are economically buoyant, where supply seems to exceed demand (Moriarty et al., 2015 p.7). Advertising in different economic environment is an indication of the understanding of the environment. Coca-Coca brand is not advertised in the same way in the Western world as it is advertised in the third world countries. The company has being able to adapt its advertising practices in such an environmental economic conscious way that it can the same Coca-Cola brand in New York,

U.S and Libreville, the Congo.

This understanding of economic situation and advertising place in it is a part of what makes the Coca-Cola brand a global brand. The final role of advertising that the Coca-Cola brand is using to its advantage is the sociocultural role of advertising. The Coca-Cola Company targets certain segment of the society based on the sociocultural understanding of the society.

What exactly is the Coca-Cola brand that makes its some appealing to many? What is the relationship between brand and advertising of the products? This is examined in the next section by looking at brand.

The brand of any organization Coca-Cola inclusive is a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies company’s product as distinct from those of other companies

(Pride & Ferrell, 2013 p.283). Coca-Cola Company’s name and the company’s term such as

Coke are part of the brand of the company. The Coca-Cola brand includes the logo of the company’s products, the colour or colours that are associated with a specific product such as the bright red colour of Coca-Cola label. The signature like manner in which the Coca-

Cola name is written on its packaging is part of the company’s brand.

The part of the brand that is not just a symbol or term that can be spoken is referred to as the brand name (Pride & Ferrell, 2013 p.283). The brand names of the company’s product are as important as the brand symbols. The brand name enables companies to advertise their products on the radio where the advertising does not include images of the product but just sounds that is spoken part of the brand that is, the brand name. The necessities of the many differentiating symbols, names and terms attached to a product through branding are not just for the benefits of the company that owns the right to the trademark.

It is also means through which consumers differentiate the product of one company from another, Coca-Cola brand can be differentiated from Pepsi Cola by all the different aspects of brand already mentioned. The consumer is able to distinguish between Coca-Cola and

Pepsi upon sighting the two products. Brand enables the customer to differentiate between the two products though both share similar physical characteristics and perhaps sold at similar price. The importance of brand to the advertising of a product is numerous. The central importance of brand in advertising of product however can be summed up as follows,

“a brand makes value visible: value in the product or service and value in the corporation”

(Everhard cited in Davis, 2005 p.32). The value of the brand such as Coca-Cola is made visible through advertising.

The value of the company behind the brand is also projected to the world through advertising.

Without the advertising to project the brand to different target markets, the brand may be valuable and indispensable, but will not amount to much if the consumers are not aware of it. The role of advertising in branding is thus, presenting the brand to the customers. Brand through the medium of advertising creates relationships, relationships between the company that owns the brand, the consumers that are loyal to the brand and the brand because it help the brand to stand differentiated from the other brands in the markets (Davis, 2005 p.32).

Another important part of brand that is receive limited attention in association with advertising in ensuring that companies behind the brands avoid any perception of misconduct. Davis (2005) explains how brand and advertising forces the company to conduct its affairs with optimum integrity using the example of Enron in 2001. The failure of the leadership of the company affected the Enron brand that it became impossible for the company to continue as a going concern (p.32). Companies such as Coca-Cola supports thousands of jobs across the world, produces many products that are unconnected with the

Coke brand.

Any misconduct on the part of the company that may damage the star brand of the company can drag the whole organization down that it will become impossible for it to continue as a going concern. This means other products in its line will also be discontinued or sold off.

Companies irrespective of the sector or market they operate, guide their brand jealously because of the possibility that any serious damage to the brand due to misconduct can destroy the whole organization. There several aspects of brand that relates to the people and society where the brand is recognized and accepted. The brand is presented through advertising in such a way that it aligns perfectly with the culture of the society in which it is being presented.

Advertising often appeals to what is lacking in society in countries where family is part of one’s identity, advertising of brands in this type of society focuses less on the family (de

Mooij, 2014 p.1). This situation is reversed when the brand is being advertised in societies where family coherence is lacking, that is, the advertising of brand in this type of society focuses more on featuring happy families in brands advertising (de Mooij, 2014 p.1). Brands functions as a means of communicating with society.

This is the reason why the concept of personality branding which is the presentation of human being as a brand with attributes such as seriousness, warmth, imagination, sincerity

(de Mooij, 2014 p.29). This is evidenced in the branding of Coca-Cola as a brand with the warm, friendly and hardworking image of Santa Claus. The adoration of the image and personality of Santa Claus is transfer unto the Coca-Cola brand because of the continuous advertising of Coca-Cola using Santa Claus. This is the same communication role that leads to the advertising of brands with sports personalities and celebrities.

The intension of the brand advertisers is to transfer the personality that the public sees and love about the athlete or celebrity is transferred to the brand. The communicating of brand to the public in this manner creates iconic or myth brands. According to Douglas Holt, icon or myth brands are powerful brands such as Marlboro, Nike, Coca-Cola and Mountain Dew,

(cited in de Mooij, 2014 p.30). Iconic or myth brands derive their value from how well they are transmitted to the society. In the next section, the researcher examines Coca Cola’s brands advertising media.

1.4 Coca-Cola and Advertising: Radio, Television, the Internet and the Print Media

It is essential to make it clear that the researcher is not aware of any particular medium of advertising that can be considered best amongst the different media that Coca-Cola uses to advertise its iconic brand. The research into the advertising media used by Coco-Cola is mainly an investigation to identify the ways that these three selected media have been used by the Company in achieving its brand iconic status. According to Shimp and Andrews

(2013) the significance of an advertising medium depends on the circumstances confronting a brand at a particular time; consumer behaviour, the advertising objective, the target market towards which this objective is aimed, and the available budget (p.316). The claim by Shimp and Andrews above clearly indicates the multiplicity of the factors that are behind the decision that companies make in respect of the medium of advertising their brand, Coca-

Cola inclusive.

The advertising media of radio, television, the Internet and print were selected as they represented the core of the advertising media available to any organization irrespective of their business sector. These media of advertising were also selected because of the fact that an average organization uses majority of the four depending on the factors already enumerated by Shimp and Andrews above. The multinational corporations such as Coca-

Cola take advantage of all advertising media available. While all the four media of advertising brands listed are independently viable as a medium of adverting. There is interconnectivity between all the four due to the emergence of the Internet as a medium. The

Internet is able to prove access to the other three media. There are thousands of radio stations available online as Internet radios. The Internet provided access to television without actually using the television monitor, but through gadgets such as smartphone, tablet, and desktop PCs. The print medium is not immune to the increasing encroachment of the Internet either; newspapers and magazines today have digital versions.

Radio as a Medium of Advertising Coca-Cola Brand

According to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, (OAAA) (2015) “driven largely by the increase in the length of consumer commutes, the number of people listening to the radio has grown over the last decade” (para. 16). The focus of companies such as

Coca-Cola advertising their brands is to reach as many consumers as possible. With the increasing number of consumers listening to the radio, there are also an increasing number of organizations investing their advertising budgets in radio jingles to reach the consumers.

While the breakdown of the specific amount the Coca-Cola Company spent on advertising through the medium of radio is not available. The available figures show that the company spent $2.9 billion on advertising in 2010, up by 4.5 percent on the 2009 figure (McWilliams,

2011 para.2). The specific amount spent on other advertisements media were disclosed only to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (McWilliams, 2011, para. 2).

There are over 4,500 radio stations streaming content online through local websites, providing one-on-one connection with listeners (OAAA, 2015 para. 18). The Coca-Cola company relationship with radio as a medium of advertising its brands either as sponsor of popular shows or outright purchase of airtime go as far back as the 1930s and 1940s

(Bucherati, 2013 para. 3). The company has been using the radio as the medium of reaching its consumers for over 80 years. With the disclosure of the over, $2.9 billion advertising expenditure in 2010 and some of the money invested in radio advertising show that the company must be getting a good return on its investment in through the medium. There are several benefits to the company for advertising through the radio medium. Some of these benefits include the capability to target specific consumers, inexpensive in comparison to other traditional broadcast media, the frequency can be built quickly, and not seasonal listeners’ erosion (OAAA, 2015, para. 19).

Television as a Medium of Advertising Coca-Cola Brand

As was the case with radio advertising the Coca-Cola Company was among the first organizations to take advantage of the mass media as a venue for projecting the company’s brand to the world. The first television advertising by the company in the United States was broadcasted on Thanksgiving Day 1950 on the Edgar Bergen Charlie McCarthy television special (Ryan, 2012, para. 1). The company’s first broadcasted advertising on television in

England was after the Television Act of 1954 allowed the creation of Independent Television

Network because the BBC does not accept advertising (Ryan, 2012, para. 1). The Coca-Cola

Company’s quick understanding of the potential of television in the United States and its reaction to the changes in law in England shows the company long history of effective use of advertising of its brands on the television and taking full advantage of the benefits its brought its brands.

While the benefit of advertising its brands on television in the early days of the medium provided the company enormous benefits, the opportunities that television provides currently is almost limitless. The seemingly limitless of the benefits of advertising on television to companies such as the Coca-Cola Company can be summed up by two points.

“First, the diversity of communication possibilities allows for outstanding creative expression of a brand’s value…second, once this expressive presentation of a brand’s value is prepared, it can be disseminated to millions of consumers through multiple channels broadcast”(O’Guinn et al., 2015 p.271). Television advertising is an expensive investment depending on which of the four broadcast channels the company wishes to invest its limited advertising budget for the highest return in terms of exposure of the brand. There are four basic categories of television currently available for organizations such as the Coca-Cola

Company to invest their advertising budget. These are the network, cable, syndicated and the local television (O’Guinn et al., 2015 p.271).

The Internet as a Medium of Advertising Coca-Cola Brand

The enormous power of the Internet as a medium of advertising brands was briefly explained in the first part of this section of the research (Section 1.4, page 9 above). To appreciate the enormity of the capability of the internet, the first thing to consider is the fact that it is the only advertising medium among all the four examined in this section that has the capacity to swallow all the functions of the other three advertising media. Internet advertising started to gather influence in the 1990s, but today it is the fastest growing media segment in the world

(OAAA, 2015 para. 34). The most impressive aspect of the increasing influence of the

Internet as a medium of advertising is not limited to its growing influence but the fact that it is assuming the functions and roles of the other three. Some statistics on the Internet shed more lights on the phenomenon.

Nearly 100 million homes in the United States have internet access and over 90 percent of these household uses the broadband connection providing access to television streaming online (Apple TV for example), radio streaming online (over 4.500 in the U.S alone), online movies network such as Netflix, the most significant part of these data is that fact that the average household spends over 25 hours online per week (Magna Insights cited in OAAA,

2015, para. 34). The Coca-Cola Company as any interested advertiser will be interested in being able to keep its brand in front of these large numbers of consumers for 25 hours per week. There no available data on the amount of resources the Coca-Cola Company commits to Internet advertising. The company however have provided that it is using Internet advertising as a medium to reach the new generation of consumers. Especially through social media, which is another aspect of Internet medium that was not discussed. The other opportunity, which the company is taking advantage of, is mobile advertisement on smartphones.

The Print as a Medium of Advertising Coca-Cola Brand

The print medium is one of the main mediums of advertising brand to the general public.

The print medium however is also the medium facing the biggest threaten from the expansion in the digital medium. Despite the increasing difficulties faced by the print media, which include newspapers and magazines, it is still formidable as a brand-advertising medium. The enormity of the position of the print medium is made clearer when the consumer reach of the two principal media within the medium is objectively expressed. The newspaper for a start according to Shimp and Andrews (2013):

“Newspapers reach approximately 48 million U.S. households during the week and about 49 million on Sundays. For either print or online versions, 41 percent of all adults in the United States read a daily newspaper, and about 46 percent read a Sunday newspaper…Television and radio both surpass newspapers as medium that receive the greatest amount of advertising expenditures ”(p.316).

The Coca-Cola Company is aware of the amount of customers that its advertising can reach through newspapers medium, the reason the company is increasing its advertising budgets in the next three years from the $2.9 billion reported in 2010 (see page 10 above). The World

Street Journal (WSJ) (2014) reported, “Coca-Cola is increasing its advertising budget by $1 billion in the next three years; its budget was $3.3 billion in 2013” (cited in McQuilken, 2014 para. 2). The breakdown of the company’s advertising budget into is not available; it is however safe to assume that part of this huge budget will be invested in the print medium.

Newspapers remain one of the most expensive advertising medium with as much as $25 charge for every 1,000 people who might see an ad covering a half page of a newspaper

(OAAA, 2015, para.23). The medium would not have been able to maintain the high level of patronage it does without the advertisers been able to reach the core customers that the advertisers want to reach which means the newspaper is viable medium. The other principal print medium is the magazines.

Magazines are considered a mass medium that is; it reaches across all spectrum of society.

There are thousands of special interest magazines on thousands of different interests. This medium therefore presents companies such as Coca-Cola opportunities to reach specific customers through their lifestyle interests. There are sport magazines that cater for the needs of sport fans and within this segment of the magazine medium are also the sport specific magazines. American football magazines for the sport fans and ice hockey sport magazines that are focused on the need of the fans of that particular sport.

Magazines are not providing opportunities for advertising brands through sports fans focused magazines only. There are gender segmented magazines such ‘Cosmopolitan magazine’ that millions of women across the globe read. The ‘GQ’ magazine is another gender specific magazine that focuses on issues that concerns men and is a usual leisure reading for millions of men across the world. Coca-Cola Company can and do produce adverts that are designed for these types of magazines with the aim of reaching the readers whether the ones for men, women or sport fans.

“There has been major development in recent years wherein marketers of specific brands are developing newsletters and magazines that focus on their brands and issues related to these brands and the interests of the brand purchasers” (Shimp & Andrews, 2013, p.327). There are several of these customized magazines produced by the Coca-Cola Company to reach specific consumers of its brands. The first of these customised Coca-Cola magazine was published in November 1926 and many more have being established since then including the Image. All these different magazines provided opportunities to reach consumers through their gender, sport interests or occupation.

Chapter 2

Research Methodology

2.0 Research Method

Research method is a set of techniques that are recognized by majority of social scientists as being appropriates for the creation, collection, coding, organisations and analysis of the research data (Perri & Bellamy, 2012, p.9). The choice of research method for this research was motivated by two reasons, first, the desire of the researcher to collect, organised and analysed the research data in such a way that the most reliable and valid findings are arrived at. Second, the appropriateness of the chosen method to the type of research design.

In this chapter of the research thesis, the researcher will identify the research approach and strategy and all aspects of the research methods that form the basis for the collection, organization and analysis of the research data. Wells et al., (2011) explains, “determining the appropriate research method relies on understanding two basic research criteria: validity and reliability” (p.185).

Of the several different methods available for this type of research, the two most popular are the qualitative and quantitative research methods. However, there is no specific research method that can be considered to be defect free or more accurate in its findings than the others available to the researcher. This is reason why the researcher decided to applying the mixed research method to this research. The mixed method involves combining or integrating of qualitative and quantitative research and data in the research (Creswell, 2014, p.14). This research method approach uses research tools from both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to answer the research questions (Collins, 2010, p.48). This method grant the researcher the opportunity of taking advantage of the benefits of qualitative and quantitative methods while at the same time removing the limitations thus enabling the researcher to arrive at the most reliable and valid conclusion possible.

2.1 Research Approach and Strategy

Research methods irrespective of whether it is qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods are often associated with two broad approaches that is, inductive and deductive (Wilson, 2010, p.7). The inductive research approach is more often associated with interpretive and qualitative research based on the ways of research data collection and analysis to arrive at the development of a theory (Gratton & Jones, 2004, p.27). Gratton and Jones (2004) argued further that deductive on the other hand is more generally associated with positivist and quantities research, which involves the development of an idea or hypothesis from an existing theory that can be tested through data collection (p.25).

Based on the arguments of Gratton and Jones above, the choice of approach to a research can be assumed to be linked to the researcher’s foundational philosophy. If the researcher therefore decided to conduct a research study through the qualitative research method the appropriate research approach should ordinarily be inductive approach. In the same light, if the researcher’s research was conducted on the basis of quantitative research method, then the approach should be the deductive approach. In this research however, the researcher is combining both the qualitative and quantitative research method. The challenge then is which of the two approaches is most appropriate to this unique research method?

The answer to this important question is provided by Gratton and Jones (2004) when they argued that inasmuch as it is important to be aware of these research traditions and approaches, it is important that a researcher is not too constraint by them. Rather, the researcher should choose the approach that best suits the objectives of the research (p.28).

The researcher’s choice of research approach to this research is the deductive research approach because it is the most appropriate in enabling the researcher to achieve the research objectives.

Deductive Research Approach

The deductive research approach is the approach that the researcher applies in answering the research questions of this research thesis. The deductive research approach is different from the inductive approach because it begins and applies well-known theory to the research unlike the inductive research approach, which involves the creation of the theory itself

(Wilson, 2010, p.7). In this research thesis, the research does not intend to create a new theory about the successes of Coca cola advertising campaigns, but rather to investigate the successes of the campaign using existing theories of advertisement in answering the research questions.

Figure 1: The link between theory and data adapted from Nestor and Schutt, 2014, p.28.

Nestor and Schutt (2014) explain inductive research approach is sampling the process of reasoning that proceeds from a general theory to particular data (p.30). The explanation of

Nestor and Schutt further establishes the process of deductive research approach as originating from established theory collecting data and drawing up conclusions based on the postulations of the existing theory and collected data (Figure 1). Cargan (2007) describes deductive research approach as general theoretical statements developed independently to the data collected…deductive theories are usually developed through the study of literature

(p.31). This research thesis will rely heavily on literatures in compliance with the requirement of the deductive research approach.

2.2 Required Research Data and Sources

Blaikie (2010) explains that “a critical stage in any research is the process of selecting the people, events or items from which or about which data will be collected” (p.23). As expected there are several information sources available to the researcher. The mixed method research application in this research thesis signals the necessities of sourcing research data from not just a single source, but multiple sources. There are certain research data that are synonymous with either the qualitative or the quantitative research method.

Apart from the indications of the research methods requirement of specific research data and their sources, the research approach adapted for this research also is an indicator of the inevitability of using literatures already in existence that is, secondary sources of research information. The qualitative research method on the other hand requires originally generated research data applying the appropriate techniques to source the data from the right sources.

Apart from these clear indicators of the sources of research data and their requirements,

Neelankavil (2007) postulates that “the critical factors in data source selection are cost, time

(how long it takes to obtain the information), and the appropriateness of the information to the current problem” (p.49).

The research data requirement and sources for this research thesis is informed by three critical factors. First, the research method choice that is the mixed method, second, the research approach that is, the deductive research approach and third, the desire of the researcher to eventually arrive at a valid and reliable conclusion. Based on the arguments above, this research thesis will require secondary research data that will be sourced from textbooks, academic journals and information available on the Coca-Cola Company website.

The research thesis will also require primary research data that will be sourced through the conduct of a simple questionnaire survey.

2.3 Method of Research Data Collection

There is various factors determining the particular data collection methods choice of any researcher, but the defining factors of the specificity of the research data collection method are the nature of what the researcher is interested in finding out, the particular characteristics of the research and the sources of the specific information required (Walliman, 2001, p.226).

The researcher interest is focused on finding out the role of advertising in the success story of Coca-Cola Company’s “share coke” campaign. The characteristics of the research include both the characteristics of the qualitative and quantitative research and hence the adoption of the mixed method research approach.

The sources of the information for a research topic such as this cut across the various sources of research information (Figure 2). In order to meet the information requirements of the mixed method research approach the researcher adopted the primary and secondary research data collection techniques – Primary research data method being the survey questionnaire technique and secondary research data method being literature review.

Figure 2: Types of research data adapted from Malhotra et al. 2006 as cited in Polonsky and Wallert, 2011, p.130.

2.4 Primary Research Data – Questionnaires Survey

Primary research data are originally collected by the researcher to provide information relevant to a specific research project (Hoyer & MacInnis, 2010, p.28). The description of the primary research data by Hoyer and MacInnis above is supported by the argument of

Bonita Kolb. Kolb (2008) describes primary research data as the data obtained by the researcher directly from the research participants (p.86, 87). In line with the above, the researcher will collect research data directly from sample of students at New York University in Prague in respect of the “share coke” campaign of the Coca-Cola Company. The tool or technique available to collect this primary research data from the identified sample of the population of Coca-Cola drinkers in Prague is the questionnaire survey (Figure 2).

Questionnaire Survey

The questionnaire survey is a quantitative primary data collection technique (Figure 2).

Questionnaire survey is written in many different ways, to be used in many different situations and with many different data-gathering media (Brace, 2013, p.1). Brace (2013) explain further, “the questionnaire is the medium of communication between the researcher and the subject, albeit sometimes administered on the researcher’s behalf by an interviewer”

(p.4). The questionnaire survey will be the main primary quantitative data collection technique that will be deployed for this research. There are different types of questionnaire surveys. The main types include the self-administer questionnaire survey that is, the questionnaire will be completed by the participants in the survey. Another is the researcher- administer survey and the name indicated, this type of survey questionnaire involves the researcher asking the participants the questions and filling their responses into the pre- designed questionnaires. The last type is the web based survey questionnaire, which is, sent through the Internet to participants (Mitchell & Jolley, 2013, p.286, 289).

2.5 Secondary Research Data – Literature Review

The secondary research data is a direct opposite of the already explained primary research data. It is the data that is already in existence, as the information had been previously gathered for some other purpose, and not for this specific research thesis (Wiid & Diggines,

2009, p.71). There are different types of secondary research data; the type determines the technique of collection and the manner in which it is used. There are two basic groups of secondary research data, which are the internal and the external group (Figure 2). In this research thesis, the two groups of secondary research data will be collected and applied throughout the entire thesis.

The internal sources of secondary research data are company records in the case the records of Coca-Cola Company, which this researcher will access mainly through the organization’s official webpage. The external sources are but not limited to libraries, chambers of commerce and industries, government bodies, marketing research enterprises and business sector associations (Wiid & Diggines, 2009, p.34). The search of these identifies difference sources of secondary research data, their evaluation and selection of the appropriate ones for this research is carried out through secondary research data collection technique referred to as literature review.

Literature Review

Literature review is a ‘systematic, explicit, and reproducible method for identifying, evaluating, and synthesising the existing body of completed and recorded works of other researchers, scholars, and practitioners (Fink, 2005 cited in Booth, Papaionnou, & Sutton,

2012, p.1, 2). The role of literature review in this research thesis is that of the backbone to the entire research, by this the researcher meant that the concepts and theories that have been postulated by other researchers will form part of every section of this research.

There literature review therefore contains accounts of existing advertising and research theories and concepts that can be used to generate or to structure this research idea and its findings based on the works of previous researchers (Barrett, 2006, p.31). Hart (1998) explains the meaning of literature review and its relation with this research thesis in a more simply term as “the selection of available documents…on the topic…written from a particular standpoint to fulfil certain aims or express certain views on the nature of the topic and how it is to be investigated, and the effective evaluation of these documents in relation to the research being proposed” (cited in Booth, Papaioannou & Sutton, 2012, p.2). The literature review’s role is identified more clearly in the secondary research data that are obtained from the sources listed in Figure 2 above.

2.6 Research Sampling Strategy

The primary research data collection technique of questionnaires survey requires well- articulated strategy on how to go about the gathering of the requirement information. The significance of sampling strategy was explained by Gray (2014) who explains “that sampling strategy should not be considered merely as an afterthought, but should be planned as an integral part of the overall research design” (p.59). The sampling strategy for this research is centred on three main factors:

i. The size of the sample

ii. The composition of the sample

iii. And how the sample will be chosen (Gray, 2014, p.59).

The Size of the Sample

The population is a group of individuals the researcher seeks to learn about in respect of the success of the Coca-Cola Company “share coke” advertising campaign (McBride, 2010, p.114). The population of this group of individuals who are directly concerned with the

“share coke” campaign is the entire Czech Republic. It is impossible for the researcher to collected research data from each and every one in a country of approximately 10.56 million people (Czech Statistical Office, 2012, para.14). The subset of the population is the most appropriate option in sampling the opinion of the population. The sample of a population is the group of individuals chosen from the population to represent it in a research study

(McBride, 2010, p.114). How then can the best sample size be determined for the research?

Patton (2002) argues, “there no rules for sample size in qualitative inquiry” since the sample size is dependent on a number of factors such as what the researcher want to know and what the level of credibility, that is validity and reliability of research (cited in Teddlie &

Tashakkori, 2009, p.183). The sample size of the questionnaires survey is 20 undergraduate students.

The Composition of the Sample

There are difference types of samples that identify the characteristics of the sample and their relevance to the research study. Example of sample composition and their relevance of the characteristics can be considered significant in research study such as research study about the life expectancy of smokers. The sample for this type of research study can only be individuals that are established smokers. In the same manner, the composition of the sample in this research is critical. It is critical to increase the degree of the internal and external validity as noted above. The research study sample therefore will consist of 20 university undergraduate students at New York University in Prague. The 20 respondents shall be made up of 10 females and 10 males selected based on the ‘typical-case sampling selection’. The typical-case sampling selection is when the researcher selects typical or average respondents

(Burke & Christensen, 2014, p.270) that fall within the categories of students that are consumers of entire spectrum of media that advertises the products of Coca-Cola Company products.

How the Sample was chosen

Based on the arguments above, the researcher will select respondents for the questionnaire survey based on a technique known as ‘quota sample’. Quota sample is a “sample chosen from the population such that available individuals are chosen with equivalent proportions of individuals for specific characteristics in the population and sample” (McBride, 2010, p.122). This technique of sampling was chosen as explained above because of the difficulty in sampling the entire population in Czech Republic. Another reason for the choice of this sampling technique is because of the language barrier between the researcher, the language of the research and the general population in the country. The quota sampling technique is part of non-random sampling technique referred to as convenience sampling. Burke and

Christensen (2014) explains, convenience sampling as sampling undertaken by researchers in situation when people who are available, volunteers, or can be easily recruited in the sample (p.263). This type of sampling can result in lowering the degree of internal and external validity. It is because of this limitation that Burke and Christensen (2014) argued that it is important to describe the characteristics of the people participating in the research study (p.261).

2.7 Ethical Considerations

Every research irrespective of whether it is a quantitative, qualitative or mixed method is confronted essentially with the same ethical issues (Andrews & Halcomb, 2009, p.58). There are two dimensions of the ethics that are often referred to in this type of research, that is, the procedural ethics and the ethics in practice (Guillemin & Gillam, 2004 cited in Thomas,

2009, p.61). The procedural ethics are the ethical issues that are mandated by the institutional review boards so as to ensure that the researcher’s study procedures adequately take into consideration the issues of informed consent, confidentiality, right to privacy, deception, and protection of respondents from any harm (Thomas, 2009, p.61).

Thomas (2009) also postulates that situational or ethics in practice involves the concerns surrounding the unpredictable, often subtle, but yet ethically important issues that arise during the conduct of research study (p.61). This second dimension of ethics in research is mainly about the stereotyping of group of people on the basis of their ethnicity, race, sexual orientation or disability. In this research, the researcher has considered every ethical issue raised both by the procedural and situational ethical dimensions. Due to the nature of the research approach method, which includes the deployment of questionnaires survey, the researcher will be in contact with individuals in seeking their opinion.

This means the procedural ethical issues of informed consent will be dealt with by informing the respondents and first secure their consent before the questionnaires survey is despatched to them. The issue of confidentiality will be dealt with by ensuring that all questionnaire survey responses remain confidential. The issue of right to privacy is dealt with by ensuring that respondents’ response and the manner in which these responses are used are anonymous and cannot be traced back to the respondents in any way or form. In addition, the respondents will be adequately informed of their right to withdraw their responses irrespective of the stage of the research if they so wish.

The issue of deception is dealt with by full disclosure of the purpose of the survey as an academic purpose only that will remain anonymous. The protection of respondents from any form of harm is dealt with by ensuring that the respondents are only approached for their participation within the university campus. The research in addition does not require any physical testing or consumption of any kind and as such the respondents are secured from any form of harm. Any subtle unexpected ethical issues that may arise during the course of the conduct of the research shall be dealt with in a professional manner to ensure the protection of the respondents from situational ethical issues.

Chapter 3

The ‘Share a Coke’ Campaign: The Analysis

3.0 The ‘Share a Coke’ Campaign: The Literature Review Analysis

The literature review of this research thesis provided the theoretical underpinning for the entire research. The theories and models identified in the conduct of research enable the research to identify the essential roles of advertising in creating the type of brand loyalty that

Coca-Cola intended to create through the launching of the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign using all the medium of advertising available in the world. However, in this literature review analysis of the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign. The researcher focuses on how Coca-Cola used

Advertising Campaign (AC) through the extensive deployment of Integrated Brand

Promotion (IBP) tools. In analysing the success of ‘Share a Coke’ campaign, the researcher started with analysing integrated brand promotion and its tools1 the company utilized before analysing the ‘Share a Coke’ advertising campaign.

3.0.1 ‘Share a Coke’: The Integrated Brand Promotional Tools Analysis

In this analysis the main literature reviewed was the latest collaboration work by Thomas

O’Guinn, Chris Allen, Richard Semenik, and Angeline Scheinbaum (2015) titled

Advertising and Integrated Brand Promotion, seventh edition. All the communications concerning ‘Share a Coke’ that was analysed meets the standard definition of advertising, that is, “the communication must be paid for…the communication must be delivered to an audience via mass media…the communication must be attempting persuasion” (O’Guinn et al., 2015, p.7). All selected integrated promotional tools that Coca-Cola used and analysed meet these standard definitions of what constitute advertisement. O’Guinn et al (2015) explained that “integrated brand promotion is the process of using a wide range of

1. The integrated brand promotion tools analyzed in this section are by no means an exhaustive list but focused on the main ones used by the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign.

promotional tools that work together to create widespread brand exposure” (p.8). The Coca-

Cola Company is aware that the current market is getting more and more competitive.

Despite the increasing competitiveness, the Company was determined to remain relevant to the customers whose consumption of the brand was saturating. It is the culmination of the competitiveness factors and well as the saturating market that informed the launching of the campaign to stimulate purchase again. The company after the initial launching of the ‘Share a Coke’ in Australia and its subsequent success went into a full drive to drive the promotion home in all corners of the world. The key success factor of the campaign was however the ability of the company to recognize the importance of adopting an ‘integrated’ approach to the campaign in a dynamic and integrated social media world. To do this, the Company deployed extensive integrated brand promotions tools, which include:

‘Share a Coke’ Success: The Mass Media Advertising Role

Coca-Cola’s decision to use the mass media which includes but not limited to television, radio, newspapers, magazines and billboard (these media were explained in detail in the introductory chapter of the research, see section 4.1, pages 4 to 14) is not of any surprise.

According to Schneider (2009),”the cost of creating a television ad can be several hundred thousand dollar, but that ad will be viewed by millions of people. Thus, the cost of advertising per view is very low” (p.179). While Coca-Cola’s decision may not be influenced by the cost implications, it does not hurt the company’s advertising budgeting to cut cost while reaching the largest available audience with their brand. The key motivating factor however is the integration that the Internet provides that an originally created advert for television can be adapted for online viewers, cable television, cinemas, as well as target audience on social media. The audience on social media perhaps the most coveted among the lot because of the media ability to provide limitless access to the demography the company is interested in reaching. Mainly the teenagers and young adults using the social

media and interested in ‘sharing’, from personal video to interesting adverts online. The success of the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign on the traditional media among young people was the catalyst for the advertisement going ‘viral’ on the social media. The Coca-Cola Company integration of the tradition media and the social media is one of the many reasons why the campaign succeeded. O’Guinn et al., (2015), “IBP is a process. It has to be. It is complicated and needs to be managed in an integrated fashion” (p.8). The level of Coca-Cola’s ability to management the complex process of integrating the different mass media went a long way in making the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign the most successful advertising campaign in the history of the company.

‘Share a Coke’ Success: The Point-of-Purchase Advertising Role

Ogden and Ogden (2004) explained that “point-of-purchase promotions have been found to have a significant influence on consumer shopping behaviour” (p.26). The point of purchase advertisement such as electronic display of the ‘Share a Coke’ commercial has the capacity to influence consumer to opt for the product. The fact that a consumer especially teenager went into the store to purchase any product and discover through point-of-purchase advertising that it is possible to have a Coca-Cola in his/her name can influence the search and eventual purchase of the product. The point-of-purchase is also executed in different way apart from the overtly open electronic display discussed above. According to Ogden and Ogden (2004), this could include shelf talkers, in-store couponing, counter units, shelf units, banners, in-store demos (both wet and dry), checkout messages, in-store radio and shopping carts” (p.26). Across the world the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign not be missed. If a consumer missed the mass media advertising, the point of purchase advertising is almost impossible to miss for even the most undiscerning consumer who walks into any local store reinforcing the message to the consumer.

‘Share a Coke’ Success: The Internet Advertising Role

Internet advertising in a broad sense involves the placement of brand and corporate promotion including the Web banner, buttons, links, and other devices used on Web pages, site-sponsorship, as well as cross-media promotion involving branding (Mangani, 2000, p.302). The Internet is the main driver of the success and the one integrating tool that provided the means of integrating the whole spectrum of integrated brand promotion tool.

The enormity of the power of the Internet as the vehicle for driving successful advertisement has not been fully articulated and may not be known for years to come. One thing that is known about the power of the Internet as an advertising tool is that is possibilities are limitless.

Mary Meeker and her team of researcher at Morgan Stanley claimed the internet captured an estimated 50 million users in five years following the first commercial advertisement in

1994. It took television thirteen years and radio thirty eight years to reach the same milestone

(as cited in Hyland, 2000, p.14). When this revelation is view from the perspective that there was no social media or the type of integration that existed currently in 2000, the enormity of the power of Internet advertising began to make some sense. The second characteristic of integrated brand promotion according to O’Guinn et al., (2015) it uses a wide range of promotional tools that have to be evaluated and scheduled based on the focused brand exposure (p.8). From the list of available and increasing tools for promotion of brands that

Internet advertising make available as explained by Mangani above. The most critical one for the success of ‘Share a Coke’ campaign was the cross-media, that is, integrated adverting possibilities on the Internet. The Coca-Cola Company website is a perennial advertisement tool in itself without mentioning social media, as well as video sharing site like YouTube that made ‘Share a Coke’ instant sensation.

‘Share a Coke’ Success: The Influence Marketing (Peer-to-Peer Persuasion) Role

One of the most powerful consumers buying behaviour influencer is the peer group influence. Hoyer and MacInnis (2010) explained that “a reference group is a set of people with whom individuals compare themselves for guidance in developing their own attitudes, knowledge, and/or behaviours” (p.392). Teenagers and young adults are arguably the most concerned group about trying to references others in the way they dress, talk and even walk.

These are the same demographics that Coca-Cola Company targets with the funky happy laughing peers in the ‘Share a Coke’ advertisements. When the campaign was gathering steam during the first weeks of launch. When a teenager finds a Coke bottle with his/her name on it, the peers too want the same thing. Thus sparking a search for your name on a

Coke bottle games. The campaign took advantage of this phenomenon to create bottles with inscription like friends, buddies and others that while not specifically identify any particular name, still have the same effect of encouraging teenagers who are unable to find their names to buy bottles of Coke with these neutral teems.

‘Share a Coke’ Success: The Social Networks/Blogs Role

The appealing feature of Social networking sites on the Internet as a promotional tool is the constantly increasing users. According to Trusov, Bucklin and Pauwels (2009) “Social networking sites are of the fastest growing areas of the Internet” (as cited in Boveda-Lambie

& Hair, 2012, p.215). The Social networks are the origin of the ‘share’ idea in the first place and as such not surprising it provided the most effective campaign advertising tool for the

‘Share a Coke’ campaign. The Social networks are also responsible for the proliferation of the campaign through ‘sharing’ of the advertisement on Facebook and others. Minazzi

(2015) argues that it generates free additional word-of-mouth, through actions such as providing the opportunity to “share” and “like” (p.115). It is not surprising that ‘Share a

Coke’ provide a virtual ‘Share a Coke’ on Facebook that can be customised.

‘Share a Coke’ Success: The Events Sponsorship Role

Event sponsorship is one of the traditional promotion tools that ‘Share a Coke’ campaign used extensively to reach the targeted young adult demography. Donovan and Henley (2010) described event sponsorship as the payment for the right to associate the sponsor’s company name, products or services with the sponsored, the sponsored could be an individual, group of individuals or an organization (p.364). Coca-Cola Company sponsored different events on the Atlanta Emory Campus in celebration of the new students first day on campus. The event was highlighted with uplifting slogans like “a refreshing tradition”, and “unbottling a bright future (Preselac, 2014). The campaign also recently sponsored the Argentine’s blind

Soccer team and presented them with a “Share a Coke in Braille” limited edition personalized bottles (Staff, 2015). These are some of the events sponsorship that the campaign engages that keep the campaign alive among the target group.

‘Share a Coke’ Success: The Out-of-Home Media Advertising Role

The Coca-Cola Company knows the significance of constant presence of its brand in front of the consumer irrespective where the consumer is at any point in time, at home, at work or while transiting between the two locations. The media that ‘Share a Coke’ campaign used to reach consumers at home and at work have been analysed adequately above. However, there is a gap between when the consumer is home and when at work. That gap is filled with the out-of-home media. Kelly and Jugenheimer (2008), “outdoor media are typically bought on a monthly basis in terms of showings. A showing consists of a specific number of billboards that represent coverage percent of the market’s traffic” (p.154). This nature of the out-of- home media gives the advertisers the opportunity to plan the showings in such a way that it is only visible where the target customers are most available. The ‘Share a Coke’ campaign used the out-of-home media tool took advantage of two out of the three main out-of-home media.

These are the Transit advertising and Cinema advertisings. O’Guinn et al., (2015) explained that:

“transit advertising is a close cousin of billboard advertising, and in many instances it is used in tandem with billboards…Transit ads appear in many venues, including on book of buildings, in subway tunnels, throughout sport stadiums and taxis, buses, and trucks…Appears as signage on terminal and station platforms or actually envelop mass transit vehicles”(p.321).

‘Share a Coke’ campaign extensively used the whole spectrum of transit advertising as explained above. The subways around the world are filled with brightly attired young people with a bottle of coke and their names on them. Billboards and public transport buses are also envelope with the advertisement. Another new development in transit advertising that the company took advantage of is the digitalization of transit media. The platform of train stations, bus stops, airport terminals and taxis were used to show not just still pictures of the campaign, but also videos with sound.

This medium is most effective in targeting the working class who spends several minutes commuting between home and work. Another popular out-of-home media that the campaign used to the great extends was cinema advertising. Cinema advertising is the advertisement that is usually run before the beginning of movies in the cinema and sometimes at the end for those who sit through the end credits. O’Guinn (2015) postulates that studies shows that

63 percent of movie goers surveyed do not mind watching the advertisement before the start of the movie (p.322).

Cinema advertising is not however limited to the on screen advertisements, but also includes off screen advertisement such as the ‘Share a Coke’ advert on the side of the popcorn box and the cinema lobby adverts. All the movie cinemas around the world receive some sort of

‘Share a Coke’ campaign adverts either on-screen or off-screen adverts. The last out-of- home media is the aerial advertising, which “can involve airplanes pulling signs or banners, or skywriting” (O’Guinn, et al., 2015, p.322). The researcher did not find any indication of the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign ever using aerial advertisement.

3.0.2 ‘Share a Coke’: The Advertising Campaign Analysis

The whole idea of advertising is the concerned with Coca-Cola Company being able to persuade specific identified audience to consume more of its flagship brand Coca Cola. The promotional tools analysis above is only possible because of the vehicle of advertising campaign. What does advertising campaign means, who is the audience that the Coca-Cola

Company was trying to persuade and finally, where are these audiences located. These questions are answered in this section through the analysis of the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign.

According to O’Guinn et al., (2015) described advertising campaign as “a series of coordinated advertisements that communicate a reasonably cohesive and integrated theme about a brand” (p.9). There are three critical factors for the success of the campaign that can be deduced from the description of advertising campaign above. Firstly, effective persuasive communication that is integrated. The ‘Share a Coke’ campaign as already analysed above identified the vast number of integrated promotional tools that was used to communicate and persuade more people to drink Coca Cola.

Secondly, the persuasive message carried by the integrated promotional tools must be directed at a defined targeted audience or customers. The defined targeted customers that the

‘Share a Coke’ campaign were focusing the message of the brand on can be classified as the household consumers. There are several categories of consumers, which are also within the

Coca Cola target audience. Some of these include members of business organizations (the

product is sold in office eateries across the world and at other business events). Members of a trade channel (retail outlets such as Tesco, Asda, and Albert stores are all in this category) and government officials and employees (mainly for the same reasons as for business organizations). All the examples given here are target with different campaigns that are not the focus of this analysis. Household consumers’ category was the focus of the ‘Share a

Coke’ campaign. This the largest consumer category in the world. The large number meant more people can be influenced within this category for the benefit of the brand. O’Guinn et al., (2015) highlighted the significance of the household consumer category declaring:

“Household consumers are the most conspicuous audience in that most mass media advertising in directed at them…There are about 115 million households in the United States and approximately 316 million household consumers who spend trillion of dollars a year on retail goods and service” (p.12).

When these figures and extrapolated to the world, the enormity of the market becomes clearer. These is the reason when the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign targeted this category of consumers through the media that reaches them best, the mass media. The campaign targeted the specific audience that it wanted to reach with its persuasive messages using the appropriate media. It is no surprise then that the campaign succeed. Within the household consumer category is the highly profitable teenagers and young people who does not require parental input to make the type of buying decision required for other goods.

While effective integrated communication through the mass media and persuasive message through integrated brand promotional tools are an absolute necessity for the success of the

‘Share a Coke’ campaign. The two factors above will be completely useless and ineffective if the audience geography is wrong. This brings the analysis to the third of the key success factors, that is, global geographical coverage. The ‘Share a Coke’ campaign used effective integrated communication to persuade consumer around the world meaning global

geographical coverage. There are different geographical locations in advertising coverage and they are the local, regional, national, international and finally global advertising.

O’Guinn et al., (2015) postulates that audiences need to be broken down by geographical location because of cultural differences that often accompany geographical location, as only a limited number of advertisement can be effective for all consumers worldwide (p.13). This is so because culture is one of the most important influencer of consumer buying behaviour.

A simple example is the type of clothing that may be consider appropriate in say the United

State may be seen as offensive in the Middle East and as such the advert may not get the permission from the authorities to even air. The ‘Share a Coke’ campaign deployed a global advertisement campaign.

O’Guinn et al., (2015) described global advertising as “advertising that is used worldwide with only minor changes in the visual and message content” (p.13). The difference between the global and international advertising campaign is that while the global requires minor changes in the presentation. In the case of international advertising there are completely different adverts of the same brand in different nations adapting the message, content and visuals to match the local cultural requirements. The ‘Share a Coke’ campaign is a global advert with minor changes in its presentation. The campaign started in Australia, its global

‘citizenship’ was tested in Prague in the next section of the analysis.

3.1 The ‘Share a Coke’ Campaign: The Questionnaires Survey Analysis

The success of the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign was tested in Prague, the Czech Republic over a time period of two weeks using the primary research data collection technique of semi structured questionnaire survey2. The main intention of the survey was to gauge the popularity of the campaign among university students who fall within the primary targeted audience for the campaign around the world. Ten female and ten male students were selected randomly and the result of the survey indicated a highly popular campaign.

The analysis of the first question of the survey shows that eight out over every ten (80%) female respondents and every male respondents (100%) answered the question of whether they have seen or heard a form of advertisement within the last six months in the affirmative.

The cumulative result of all respondents indicated a 90 percent popularity rate.

The majority of the respondents encountered the campaign on the mass medium of television

(70%), followed by outdoor billboard (20%). However, while majority indicated the television as the primary source of encountering the campaign, seven out of every ten of the respondents also indicated the Internet as the second source of encountering the campaign indicating the effectiveness of the two main mass media for the information dissemination.

When the media respondents considered the most influential in their decision to purchase a

Coca Cola. The television was indicated as primary influencer (42%), followed by the

Internet (32%) and the Outdoor billboard (26%). To measure the intensity of the campaign, the frequency of encountering the advertisement irrespective of media indicated that majority of respondent encounter the campaign several times daily (50%), followed by those who encountered the campaign at least once a month (25%). This is an indication of the

2. Please see attached appendices.

intensity of the campaign in a small market like Prague across all the mass media. In gauging the percentage of respondents that are motivated to search for their name or names of loved ones on the Coca Cola bottle when making a purchasing. The analysis shows an even split right down the middle with 50 percent motivated to search for their name or names of loved ones while the other 50 percent were not. The overwhelming majority of the respondents

(90%) indicated that the campaign has influenced them to increase their consumption of the product. With 45 percent strongly agreeing it influenced an increase in their consumption and another 45 percent simply agreeing. Only 10 percent disagrees that the campaign influenced their consumption in any way. This is the most significant indication of the success of the campaign so far. What do the respondents considered as the most appealing aspect of the “Share a Coke” campaign? A healthy 65 percent of the respondents indicated that the personalization of the Coca Cola bottle label with names as the most appealing.

This is followed by the friendly, joyful excitement expressed in the campaign adverts across all media. This indicated that the campaign was able to communicate effectively with the targeted consumers and achieved the goal of the campaign. When the opinion of the respondents were surveyed concerning what they consider the most important factor for the campaign’s success. The two top factors according to the respondents were the personalization of the Coca Cola brand (50%) and the social media factor (40%). Indicating twin powerful influences of social networks and personalization of products on young consumers. As the influences of social networks grows it is left for producers and marketers of consumers’ goods to take fully advantage of its potentials to the benefit of their products.

Finding a way to give consumers the opportunity to make an input in the goods they are interested in. This was the same idea that made Dell, a top selling desktop computer company, when it gave its customers the opportunity to design their own computers; personalization is the future.

3.2 The ‘Share a Coke’ Campaign: The Semiotic Analysis

In this chapter of the research thesis, the researcher approached the analysis from different perspective to try and draw meaning from the nonverbal communication expressed in the campaign. Chandler (2002) postulates that semiotics is simply the study of signs (p.1). If semiotics is the study of signs, then it is given that signs are studied to derive a meaning from their understanding. On the other hand, Danesi (2007) argued that “semiotics can be defined simply as the science of meaning” (p.11). In respect of this research thesis semiotic analysis. It is simply concerns analysing the sample “Share a Coke” campaign below in order to deduce an understanding the can explain its phenomenon success across the globe.

Figure 3: Samples of Share a Coke Adverts adapted from Coca-Cola Company, 2015.

The semiotic analysis of this research applied the Saussure semiotic analysis model. The model is made up of two parts, the ‘signifier’ and the ‘signified’. The signifier is the form the sign takes and the signified is the concept, which it refers (Chandler, 2002, p.18). The signifier in the three samples of “Share a Coke” advertisement above indicated the following:

The Signifier

1. A young man jumping and a hand showing a personalized bottle of Coke

2. A couple interlocking arms while each one of them is sipping from a personalized

can of Coke underwater.

3. A young beautiful smiling woman pointing to her personalized bottle of Coke.

4. The full red color of Coke irrespective of the background is prominent.

The Signified

1. The jumping young man expresses youth, health, strength and joyfulness. The hand

holding the personalized bottle of Coke expresses the cause of the young man’s

health, strength and joyfulness.

2. The couple expresses love, the interlocking arms indicated commitment, and the

sipping of personalized Coke indicates sharing and their being underwater express

the fact that their love knows no boundaries.

3. The young woman smile expresses happiness and pointing to the personalized bottle

of Coke expresses the fact that the Coke is responsible for her happiness.

4. The bold Coke red colour express love.

The semiotic analysis of the “Share a Coke” confirmed a reoccurring concept throughout this research. Youthfulness, high energy, joyfulness, love, sharing and of course love. From the various radio jingles, television and movie theatre videos to Internet and outdoor billboards. All these concepts were always in full display. Coca-Cola Company was able to project the universality of youth in their various activities while at the same time attaching the Coca Cola drink as an ever-constant partner in these activities. The Coca-Cola Company through the “Share a Coke” campaign was able to create what Mike Hall and Doug Maclay described as “involvement” and Ernest Dichter called “motivation” on two levels. The involvement or motivation simply stresses the important of symbol and metaphor in communication (as cited in Clifton, 2010, p.135). Clifton (2010) argued that a careful look at any selection of successful campaigns usually reveals that there is an element of persuasive communication that is not based just on information or salience (p.135, 136). The other element that is not information or salience is what the semiotic analysis of the advertisement above just about the “Share a Coke” campaign that made it so successful.

Chapter 4

Conclusions

4.0 Conclusions

The aim and objective of this research thesis was centred on investigating and understanding the how appropriate advertising decisions at the Coca-Cola Company helped create the bestselling and most effective beverage campaign in decades. The quest for this understanding led the researcher carried out a comprehensive and detailed investigation into what advertising and brand is all about. The investigation shows that advertising goes beyond jungles on radio or the television commercials that is part and particle of daily television viewing. The research shows that advertising plays several different roles in communicating the brand to the general public or the targeted consumer. Investigation reveals that some of the role of advertising is the communication role, the marketing role, the economic role and the sociocultural role. One of the reoccurring factors in the success of the campaign was the detailed use of the understanding of changing sociocultural influences in today’s society.

By changing sociocultural influences the researcher is talking about the social networks and their increasing influence on the marketing of goods and services to the millennials. The

Coca-Cola brand need little introduction to any demography in any location in the world.

However, the campaign was able to reintroduce the brand in a new never thought about way.

The branding of the Coca-Cola bottle label is consumer’s names. The campaign was able therefore to communicate with a generation of young people who spend most of their time on the Internet. The language of the campaign communicated the brand to the consumers in the language of the Internet such as “share” and the idea of personalization which goes beyond the physical to include the “Virtual Share a Coke Label”. The research investigated the media for dispatching the message of the campaign to the targeted consumer. The result

of an extensive investigation into advertising on radio, television, the Internet and the print media were all included in the research. Identifying the different degree of influences these media currently have and the possibilities of the future. The investigation applied both secondary and primary techniques of research data gathering to ensure that information and sourced from more than s single source or perspective. The multiple prong approach in the research data collection was extended also to the analysis of the research data, by using multiple analytical techniques. The campaign was first analysed using the literature review analysis to provide a theoretical underpinning for the analysis. Second, conduct a questionnaire survey of the target consumes of the product to sample the impact of the advertisement campaign on them. Finally, the semiotic analysis of the campaign to try and deduce meaning from the images and symbols of the campaign. The final result of these analysis shows that the campaign success can be narrowed down to Coca-Cola Company ability to understand the changes in society and using the knowledge to communicate the same message in a new way without neglecting the reliable traditional medium. Please ‘share a coke’ with me.

Figure 4: Virtual Share a Coke with Tatiana adapted from Coca-Cola Company, 2015.

Appendix A

Questionnaire for the participants of the survey:

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