Brand Essay - Coca Cola

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Hai Chung Li 000324862-3

BA Hons Marketing (3rd Year) – Strategic Brand Management

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Course MARK1115: Strategic Brand Management Course School/Level BU/UG

Coursework Individual Essay Assessment Weight 40.00%

Tutor KH Phairor Submission Deadline 05/03/2012

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000324862 Hai Chung Li

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The use of semiotics to convey the meaning and the effectiveness

of Coca Cola brand

The brand chosen for this essay will looking at how Coca-Cola use semiotics to express the meaning

of the brand and study the effectiveness of their approach

Firstly by definition, brand is defined cited by Ward et al (1999) as “ a distinctive identity that

differentiates a relevant, enduring and credible promise of value associated with a product, service or

organisation and indicates the source of that promise” (Chernatony et al. 2011, p.166). However, one

of the problems companies face is finding ways to make customer realise and remember the brand.

Other elements that contribute to this are whether the brand communicates a correct image of what the

brand stands was intended to initially project.

Other consideration to bear in mind is that “brands deliver a variety of benefits, which for ease can be

classified as satisfying buyers‟ rational and emotional needs. They do this through their functional

and emotional values which enable a welcomed and unique promise to be made” (Chernatony and

Malcom2003, p.26). So the main concentration of this essay will study how Coca-Cola did

communicate the benefits of their products.

There are suggestions that “a successful brand is an identifiable product, service, person or place,

augmented in such a way that the buyer or user perceives relevant, unique added values which match

their needs most closely. Furthermore, its success results from being able to sustain these added

values in the face of competition” (Chernatony and Malcom 2003, p.320).

It is important to understand that “brands can develop different relationships with customers”

(Chernatony and Malcom 2003, p.32). The strength of these relationships will very much depend on

many factors such as the design of the logo, the message and also the selection of communication

channels.

One golden rule for marketers is to not make assumptions that the meaning of shapes and colours are

interpreted the same by all consumers around the world. One way to avoid this mistake is to

understand the difference in cultural interpretation of signs and colours. For example, taking the

colour red, in China, it is seen as a lucky colour but in UK, it is used on warning road signs as a

warning of danger. From the example, one would question is red a correct colour to use on the logo?

However it is important to understand the meaning of colour can be changed when used in

conjunction with shapes and words.

One of the ways to overcome any misunderstanding and to eliminate any assumptions is to apply

semiotics which is defined as “the scientific study of signs. It helps clarify how consumers learn

meanings associated with products and brands” (Chernatony and McDonald 2003, p.145). Through

the use of semiotics in helping market and consumer research, it helps marketers to understand how

their brand are being encoded and decoded by the consumers. This can include “advertisement,

design and packaging” (Chernatony and McDonald 2003, p.145).

Semiotics can also help us to understand any cultural myths behind successful brands? This myth is

often associated to powerful brands and semioticians have derived a two stage method to position a

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brand. The first step involves defining the attributes of the brand and at the same time specifying the

opposite attribute. The second step is to define another set of attributes and see where the brand is

positioned in conjunction to the two pairs of attributes.

According to Quelch and Harding (1996), they suggested further strategies brand owners can use to

defend themselves against own labels. These strategies will involve reinforcing their brands

positioning but will need companies to invest consistently to maintain a competitive edge. This can

be seen in Coca-Cola brand development strategies. According Chernatony and McDonald (2003),

they explain that the success of Coca-Cola is partly to do with clear positioning. Coca-Cola have

positioned its brand to be “refreshing, fun-type drink, target at teenagers and backed by a tradition of

quality and continual consumer communication”(Chernatony and McDonald 2003, p.26).

Generally for “brands are successful when developed with a clear statement of intent about the

product‟s or service‟s purpose, the specific group the brand is targeted at and a commitment to

equipping the brand with the right types of resources to achieve the stated purpose.” (Chernatony and

McDonald 2003, p.25-26). Coca-Cola have develops ways to make a clear statement about their

product through the development of their logo, package designs and advertisements.

Coca-Cola realised that to establish a strong market presence, it concentrated on developing a logo

and unique packaging for its product which will helped consumers to recognise the product as a

unique and established brand. This will help to creates product differentiation from other soft drink

competitors and becoming legally registered brand. Other benefits of having a unique logo helps to

enhance the brand image as it acts as sensory stimuli to the individuals. As studies have shown a

common order of acknowledgement of the brain will be first, the shape, followed by the colour and

lastly the language content.

Coca-Cola have included semiotics along each stage of the development of their logo, this can be

evidently seen in their increment changes to improve market awareness the since their first

advertisement launch back in 1895. Over the recent years, the Coca-Cola logo is more standardised,

when people from around the world come across white writing against a red coloured background on

a soft drinks can / bottle can, will naturally associate the drink that is related to Coca-Cola. It is

important for marketers to understand that “colour trigger very specific responses in the central

nervous system and celebral cortex. Once they affect the celebral cortex, colours can activate

thoughts, memories, and particular modes of perceptions. The arousal prompts an increase in

consumers‟ ability to process information.” (Gobe 2001). Therefore in the context of Coca-Cola, its

red background creates an emotional effect and provides consumers a better memory recall of the

brand.

As stated “colour is a sensation and not a substance” (Fredman 1947), products that manage to convey

this sensation in its package and logo will become the most appealing compared to other competitors

which is true in the case of Coca-Cola.

The first Coca-Cola packaging dates back to 1899 which was started by Joseph A. Biedenharn, a

Mississippi shop owner. Through the increased demand, he started to bottle coke in a common glass

bottle known as a “Hutchinson”. However the straight sided bottle was very common and can be

easily be mixed up with other „copycat‟ brands and it became very hard for people to spontaneously

identify Coca-Cola. It was not until 1916, a new bottle designed famed for its contour shape was

designed by the Root Glass Company of Terre Haute. According to the Coca- Cola website, the

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contour carried a significant meaning that is associated to “the curves and grooves of a cocoa bean”

(The Coca-Cola Company 2010) which is an ingredient used in coke. Despite many people who are

not familiar with this fact, since it was Coca Cola who was the first to introduce such packaging into

the market, “today its one of the most recognised icons in the word – even in the dark” (The Coca-

Cola Company 2010). From here it is clear semiotics have been applied to create powerful concept

and provided Coca-Cola with a unique global identify, as the interpretation of the bottle shape is not

affected by any language or colour barriers. It is also very hard for other soft drink companies to use

the same bottle design as their product package as people will naturally assume it is Coca-Cola,

instead of their own product. Coca-Cola gained secured the ownership rights to the unique bottle

design by receiving two trademarks from the US Patent and Trademark Office between 1960 – 1977.

Finally, the famous white wave introduced in 1969 which added more character to the logo. The

white „wave‟ is termed as „Dynamic Ribbon Device‟. This was to represent the “bold, dramatic

curve, reflecting the unique contour of the bottle” (The Coca-Cola Company 2010). This helped

people to clearly understand the connection between the contour bottle and Coca-Cola which can

serve as a reminder to consumer minds.

Despite the logo and packaging, Coca-Cola has used advertising to increase public awareness of the

product. Coca-Cola wanted to embed itself in the public community by becoming part of the

consumers‟ daily lives. Since Coca-Cola is an American product, it aims to impose the American

culture and values into the drinking experience of its consumers, as they want associates the feel good

experience to what America represents a nation of many mixed culture and stands for unity. This is

clearly shown in Coca-Cola‟s advertising campaigns as it usually features a group of people rather

than individuals to project an image of unity and drinking Coca-Cola makes the drinker feel they are

part of a big global family who are also sharing the same experience and lifestyle, this in turn

develops the social value of the brand. This is successfully achieved as when one talks about what is

American culture? Coca-Cola will be one of the products that people will associate with America.

Since Coca-Cola have been around for a long time, it is not only popular to the younger generation, it

is also popular with the older generation as according to Fournier , he identified 15 different types of

relationships between the consumer and brands. One of the type that Coca-Cola can be associated to

will be “childhood friendship” which is very applicable to the older generation, they feel drinking

Coca-Cola reminds them of their childhood which is related to the emotional values they have on the

brand.

According to Chernatony and McDonald (2003), they identified that Coca Cola‟s original strategy

was built on the three As: availability; acceptability and affordability. It is important to understand

this strategy as this develops the functional value of the brand. This strategy was successfully

executed as its product can be easily found in every shops and supermarkets across the world. Coca-

Cola has strengthened this availability by making use of vending machines which gives them the

ability to satisfy “buyers‟ to satisfy these rational and emotional needs” (Chernatony and McDonald

2003, p.26).

To conclude this essay, based on the study, it is clear that Coca-Cola have achieved global success

through the careful use semiotics to help in the development of the brand. Their major breakthrough

was the contoured shaped bottle which gave Coca-Cola its brand characteristics and unique packaging

that is correctly associates it with Coca-Cola across the globe despite the cultural and languages

differences.

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The also realised the importance of building brand values which contributed to the consumers‟ choice

of soft drink brands. There it is an important lesson for marketers to “not lose sight of the fact that the

final form of the brand is the mental evaluation held by the purchasers or users” (Chernatony and

McDonald 2003, p.24).

References:

A Discursive-Semiotic Approach to Translating Cultural Aspects in Persuasive Advertisements. 2012.

A Discursive-Semiotic Approach to Translating Cultural Aspects in Persuasive Advertisements.

[ONLINE] Available at: http://ilze.org/semio/019.htm. [Accessed 25 February 2012].

Chernatony. L and McDonald. M (2003) Creating powerful brands. 3rd

ed. Burlington:Butterworth-

heinemann

Chernatony.L, McDonald. M and Wallace. E (2011) Creating powerful brands. 4th ed. Burlington

:Butterworth-heinemann Ltd

Fournier, S., 1998. Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer

Research. Journal of Consumer Research, 24, 343-373

Gobe, M. (2001) Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People, New

York: Allworth Press

Home of Coca‑Cola UK : Diet Coke : Coke Zero - Coca-Cola GB. 2012. Home of Coca‑Cola UK :

Diet Coke : Coke Zero - Coca-Cola GB. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.coca-cola.co.uk.

[Accessed 28 February 2012].

. 2012. Using Colour. [ONLINE] Available at:

http://www.darienps.org/teachers/icrowther/docs/color_theory.pdf. [Accessed 20 February 2012]

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Brand Essay - Coca Cola