Stuart Elliott: Coca-Cola -- Taste the Change

After seven years of using quotOpen happinessquot as the theme of campaigns for its flagship soft drink the CocaCola Company is switching to a new slogan quotTaste the feelingquot as well as broadening the ads to include all variants of the CocaCola trademark such as Diet Coke Coke Light Coke Zero and Coke Life Four agencies initially are working on the quotTaste the feelingquot campaign the company disclosed last week with six more to join in as the ads roll out globally this yearIf quotTaste the feelingquot sounds familiar it may be because it echoes a previous CocaCola slogan quotYou can39t beat the feelingquot from 1988 But when you39ve been selling sugar water for almost 130 years you39re likely to repeat a theme now and again For instance quottastequot was used in 1957 when the pitch was quotSign of good tastequot and quotLife tastes goodquot had a brief run as a slogan in 2001 The word quotrealquot was employed at least five times down through the decades as in quotIt39s the real thingquot 1969 and quotYou can39t beat the real thingquot 1990quotTaste the feelingquot also evokes an expression in vogue among younger consumers quotthe feelsquot as in something that elicits a wave of intense heartfelt emotion That39s acknowledged in the introduction to a website devoted to the campaign which begins quotCocaCola gives us all the feels How does it make you feelquotThe bad news is that of late CocaCola has been making fewer people feel as if they want to open happiness embrace the real thing or enjoy the pause that refreshes The Coke brand is struggling to connect with consumers who increasingly are turning away from carbonated sodas especially colas in favor of a multiplicity of other beverages from flavored waters to coffee to energy drinks As a result Coke the most popular soft drink in the United States and most other countries has been suffering declines in sales and market shareSo quotTaste the feelingquot will be focused more on the functional and emotional benefits of Coke the product The uncomplicated instances of delight derived from drinking an icy cold CocaCola By comparison quotOpen happinessquot evolved into something loftier concentrating on the positives of Coke the brand and celebrating its role as a social facilitator and a symbol of peace love friendship and brotherhood shades of Don Draper39s favorite spot quotI39d Like to Teach the World to Singquotamp8220We39ve found over time that the more we position Coke as an icon the smaller we becomequot said Marcos de Quinto the company39s new chief marketing officer quotThe bigness of CocaCola resides in the fact that it39s a simple pleasure so the humbler we are the bigger we arequotquotWe want to help remind people why they love the product as much as they love the brandquot he saidOr to explain what de Quinto meant in the parlance of Norma Desmond the largerthanlife star in the movie quotSunset Boulevardquot Coke is still big it39s the campaigns that got smallThat39s all well and good but I39m wondering if ads that play up what39s inside the bottle will overlook the specialness of the bottle and the other unique qualities and attributes of CocaCola that have contributed to its status as perhaps the world39s bestknown and mostliked brand People drink Coke I believe partly because it has portrayed itself as more important than PepsiCola or other soft drinks a thirstquencher yes but also an intrinsic element of American popular culture and a symbol of American lifeTo be sure CocaCola39s appeal stems from how it tastes and how it feels to drink one on a hot day But Coke is also the shape of the contour bottle the nostalgia invoked by a vintage ad or Coke machine the quotsharing is caringquot message of the quotMean Joe Greenequot Super Bowl commercial the prominent roles the brand has played in hit songs such as quotRum and CocaColaquot and movies like quotThe CocaCola Kidquot quotThe Gods Must Be Crazyquot and quotOne Two Threequot and the quotCocaCola Santaquot the version of St Nicholas by the artist Haddon Sundblom that has appeared in Coke ads since the 1930sThe first commercials in the quotTaste the feelingquot campaign indicate that at least initially the company and the agencies understand they must do more than peddle a product For instance in one spot when a young guy orders a CocaCola the man behind the counter lists some of its less tangible benefits quotto make you smile to break the ice to cool things down to refresh your memory to share to revive a spark or to say 39Today I39ll do it39 quotThe first commercials also address another need in life besides refreshment They are liberally peppered with sex In one a couple meets flirts gets busy and argues over many bottles of Coke with their breakup personified by a bottle shattering as it falls to the floor In the end a Coke helps bring them back togetherCocaCola is among the brands that plan to run commercials during Super Bowl 50 on Feb 7 Once again Coke will face off against Pepsi which is also sponsoring the halftime showWhich cola will taste the feeling of victory and which the feeling of defeat Stay tunedImage at top courtesy of Corbis The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageMyersBizNet management or associated bloggers

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Stuart Elliott: Coca-Cola -- Taste the Change

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