Coca-Cola

Let's begin our series of Ad-Wednesdays by talking about Coca-Cola, arguably THE largest and most successful brand in world. (Coca-Cola is consistantly ranked number one in terms of "brand power" by Interbrand every year. And after spending an entire semester researching Coca-Cola brand identity and globalization I would likely agree, although there are several other monster brands out there).



This photo is taken out of my window. Coca-Cola awning. Coca-Cola umbrellas. Coca-Cola chairs. Coca-Cola sign. Coca-Cola everything. This restaurant is considered "posh" here, where the cool cats come to dine, to see and be seen.

Coca-Cola is highly visible here. Coca-Cola has many large and prominent advertising spaces throughout the city. Just about every place that sells beverages, sells Coke.

What do people call "soda" or "pop" here? Coca. You want a glass of cola? Oh, you mean you want a Coca? It doesn't matter whether you will be getting Sprite, Pepsi, Pomelo, whatever, you will be ordering a coca. I think of this phenomenon similar to the "oh, I need a Kleenex" or "I have to Xerox this report" phenomenon in the US. When a brand name becomes a substitute for the actual product (respectively a tissue and paper copy from the examples above), that is when they have achieved far more success than any other competitor in their market-share.

Coca-Cola is big. Bigger than you can imagine.