3.let us turn our attention to the market
presence. Let me start with some general
data about Coca – Cola. At the beginning of
2020 the company’s revenue share in
North America was established at 32%.
And this is a tangible and of course a
remarkable result. However, I would like to
take a closer look at intangible value of the
company which is actually the value of the
brand itself. In 2019 Forbes ranks Coca
Cola at the sixth place of the World’s Most
Valuable Brands, whereas its biggest
competitor Pepsi takes only the 29th place.
So why exactly there is such a big gap
between these two and how Coca Cola
managed to create such a powerful brand?
To understand the meaning thus the value
of Coca Cola brand we need to discuss its
history and social links. During the World
War II Coca-Cola was supplied to the
American troops abroad. This allowed the
company to become a symbol of American
patriotism. When the Berlin Wall fell in
1989, Coca-Cola employees handed out
free cans. The current Deputy Editor of the
Economist Tom Standage once said
‘Drinking Coca-Cola became a symbol of
freedom’.
Nowadays Coca Cola is sold in over 200
countries, which in fact sums up to almost
the whole world. However, for around 60
years, Coca-Cola wasn’t sold for example in
Burma, due to US trade sanctions. When
the company finally entered the country in
2012, people saw it as a symbol of positive
political changes in the future. This is
exactly what the value of Coca Cola brand
means. As Jakub mentioned before, “well
made” brand is not only about well-
designed logo, well written slogan etc. It is
all about selling the idea behind it, creating
the feeling the consumer should feel about
the brand.
And this is exactly what Coca Cola is good
at. For instance there were multiple blind
tests done, during which participants were
given Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Most
participants, taste-wise, chose Pepsi over
Coca Cola However, when asked whether
they generally prefer Coca-Cola or Pepsi,
most of them chose Coca-Cola due to
higher familiarity and connection to the
brand.
4. This leads me to the next point which is
collective awareness. first of all, it was
the first of its kind, so it had a big lead in
the awareness of consumers. Later on,
when Pepsi was threatening to catch up, it
changed its image. It even created a
different bottle – just so Pepsi will have to
stick to the boring plain one.
It emerges that we choose products based
on how high we rank them in our