Word: brandes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...brand brouhaha began back in 1980, when Goizueta and Keough were picked for Coca-Cola's top jobs. They were determined to reverse a disturbing trend. Over the previous decade, Pepsi had been steadily gaining on Coke. Using a brash advertising campaign built around the "Pepsi Challenge" slogan, the rival cola was becoming increasingly popular with younger drinkers, who seemed to prefer its sweetness to the crisper taste of Coke. The inroads were largest in supermarkets, where Pepsi in 1977 actually overtook Coke in sales. Because of its dominance in the fountain and vending-machine trade, however, Coke still holds...
Meanwhile, frantic efforts were being made to design a new can. Such a job normally takes at least 60 days, but time was now agonizingly short. Bill Schermerhorn, Coke's brand manager, made an urgent telephone call last Monday to Alvin Schechter, creative director of the Schechter Group, a Manhattan design firm. By 10 p.m. Tuesday, Schechter had completed the assignment. The red can features the traditional Coca-Cola script with the word "Classic" in black roman type...
Coke's 500 U.S. bottlers felt the wrath of consumers most directly. The bottlers, who are mainly independent businessmen, take syrup sold by the company, mix it with carbonated water, and ship the finished product to stores and other vendors. They are thus the brand's local distributors. Some recalled being stopped on the street in recent weeks by angry and argumentative Coke drinkers. "The consumer resented the fact that we put a flavor out there and said. 'This is what you're going to like,' " observed Frank Barren, corporate secretary of Rome Coca-Cola Bottling in Georgia...
...directly from a strategy that Coca-Cola has pursued in recent years. Since Goizueta's ascendancy to the top job, the company has been expanding in several directions. It acquired Columbia Pictures for more than $690 million in cash and stock in 1982, and has placed its once exclusive brand name on drinks ranging from cherry Coke to caffeine-free diet Coke. The addition of Coca-Cola Classic will bring the number of products bearing the Coke name to six, compared with the single Coke that Goizueta inherited. Pepsi, by contrast, has its name on five products...
Coke may emerge stronger than ever from this adventure. It now flanks Pepsi on two sides, much as a military force might surround an enemy. Says Alexander Kroll, president of the Young & Rubicam advertising agency: "It's the most unusual strategy for launching a flanker brand in history, and it may work." Some are sure it will. "They've backed into one of the most powerful strategic positions in the consumer marketplace," says Emanuel Goldman of Montgomery Securities in San Francisco. "After all, they can satisfy the die-hard Coke customers and the consumers who like the sweeter taste...