1 What is Coca-Cola? In terms of Professor Ted Levitt’s famous question, “what business is it in”?

It was more than a cold Drink or Soft Drink.It started journey from being a tonic or syrup to The pause that refreshes or “The Real Thing” ) (It was thing which made other things better – (Things go better with coke) toA symbol of American Culture and a way of celebrating.

The product was for the people who wanted to have a flavored non alcoholic drink.

Currently in Indian context – “Thanda Matlab Coca Cola” - Which is a refreshing cool drink.

2. What was Coca-Cola’s brand building strategy? Where did Coke’s meanings come from? How did Coke’s meanings made connections to America and Christmas? Is this strategy replicable in today’s marketing environment?

Brand building Strategy -

Its pervasive distribution system - petrol pump, machines, "Within an arm's reach of desire"

Brand development strategy of Coca Cola stress on - Price, Value, Preference, Pervasive penetration.

Relating to the Culture and way of living. (Part of Americal life) Exploring unique opportunities – like War

The cocaine was derived from the coca leaf and the caffeine from kola nut, leading to the name Coca-Cola (the "K" in Kola wasreplaced with a "C" for marketing purposes)

Connection to America was through supporting army – Concept of what Cultural accomplishment delivered through artwork of Haddon sundblom. Which related

Santa (ever jolly man) dressed in coca cola red with coke cap. Relating to cultural of people is still working today. Affiliation to nation via army support or war situation may work for some product.

3. What was Pepsi’s meaning management game? Was it really a threat to Coke? How should Coke have responded to Pepsi’s meaning making advances?

Pepsi’s management game? They wanted to target new generation “Pepsi generation” The taste of their product was more appealing to certain segment of people. Yes it was a clear threat to coke.

Coke could have responded by brining a new products which were in direct competition to Pepsi (based on taste) giving more new meaning to it.

4. What do you make of Keough’s marketing insights (pages 8-10) and Goizueta’s famous speech as chairman (page 9)? What were there core assumptions and their mandates? Is this the stuff brand meaning makers made of?

Core assumption was that “ Coke is number one soft drink and it has to be number one in every way”You want to lead in all categories.Other assumption was it was a improved product – Best became more betterIn Goizueta’s speech he wanted to focus that customer is always right – things are moving towards what customers want. Mandate was that new product would we liked by customers.

5. What threats to the cultivation of brand meaning does the case reveal?

Threats

Organizations not aware of their actual brandequity Judging customer affiliation with brand by gross numbers Tampering with the most important Differentiator(in this case, the taste) Over-stressing on any particular promotion

6. Hindsight is indeed 20/20, but putting aside that bias, what major factors do you think caused the failure of New Coke?

Failure to recognize the brand loyalty Did not need to fix something as the taste of coca cola was what was preferred by the

consumers The brand of coca cola was more than just a cold drink, it refers to the sentiments

Marketing research ought to have factored inthe effect of discontinuation of old coke

7. Coca-Cola invested $4 million researching the reformulation question, yet they still got it very, very wrong. Keough claims that “all the time and money and skill poured into consumer research on the new Coke could not measure or reveals the deep and abiding emotional attachment to original Coca-cola felt by many6 people, the passion for original Coke… it is a wonderful American enigma, and you cannot measure it any more than you can measure love, pride, or patriotism.” Is Keogh right? If so, how can you manage it if you can’t measure it?

Yes it is true that affiliation to brand, abiding emotional attachment is difficult to measure but there are ways to do that

If question is formed like - How much you like or dislike rate on scale it revels the affiliation to large extant. A Comparative questions - How much better or worst (This kind of question helps)

Qualitative Analytics – which infers things from sentences of consumers – on interview, social media etc help to understand the sentiments.