Coke Addicts
Friday, April 27th, 2007 by Mark | Posted in Advertising, Branding, Business, Entrepreneur, Management, Marketing, Unconventional Thinking | Comments
I drink, on average, eight a day– Diet Cokes, that is. Talk about a breakfast with voltage! Nothing comes close. I worship the gunk.
As do we all. Even Britney Spears has been rumored to drink 24 Cokes a day! We are not Americans. We are, technically speaking, “descendants of Pilgrims who are addicted to brown carbonated dish water with legal overdoses of sugar.” That’s our beloved Coca Cola. A nation of Coke addicts– that would be us.
In my life, no other company, not one, has remained as solid as Mt. Rushmore and so steadfastly successful. Oh sure, there was the new coke, old coke marketing idiocy, but the only ones who made a federal case out of that were the losers in the business schools who call themselves “professors”– a euphemism for “what the hell is going on?”
How has Coke made us not customers, but addicts? Otherwise disciplined people craving the stuff? Well actually, by practicing the oft discussed but rarely practiced, majesty of execution.
Sure, Coke, the national drug company, advertises and holds events and other junk to move the gunk, but mostly they do nothing but the really “hard stuff” that is at the core of every business:
1. Distribution: Coke is everywhere. That is no accident. Forget the advertising agency that dreams up stupid taglines. The wholesalers deserve more credit. Ever walk into a food store and want a Coke and walk away empty handed. No! That’s execution!
2. Ever have a bad Coke? A stale one? One that tastes somehow not like a Coke? No. Quality control is King and when you serve a billion a day and never screw one up. Wow!
3. The drug of choice is always, always cool. To rappers and hip hoppers and investment bankers and accountants. Yes, accountants, (actuaries are still stuck on milk, but who wants to satisfy actuaries?)
Coke is NOT a creature of marketing. It is a success story of execution. A national addiction. And when you need a drug, and it’s there, you are addicted for life! What a life. What a country.
Mark Stevens
CEO
Tell me what your success story of execution is.
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April 27th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
that college professor euphemism is golden! Love it!
My success story of execution is still being painted, and it’s going to be a masterpiece, undoubtedly.
I’d say the crux behind execution is the system that gets developed. I analogize it to software. You can have 2 pieces of software performing the exact same end result; however, one could totally suck and require user inputs, while one could be fully automated and require a one-click of a mouse. It is the system that dumbs it down to the click of a mouse that wins.
Similarly companies create their own systems. Our company sells business VoIP phone systems that are fully hosted and managed 24×7 by us in our secure facility. So what we had to do was develop the best system to sell these things, install them, and support them continuously for life. But there’s no rules….there’s nothing set. The system has to be created from scratch, so the idea is to not leave anything out. Not cut one frigging corner. Not make ANY assumptions, and attack problems with ferocity. By not cutting corners you have to develop something turn-key. What I feel, is that the system can’t just be the product itself or the marketing itself or the customer service, it has to all be networked together, integrated if you will. The idea is to develop a system that has a starting point of a perfect stranger who has never heard of your company and an ending point of a customer who has paid about 6 billing cycles and that they call into customer service during that period. Every step along the way from perfect stranger to recurring paying customer is the system I am talking about.
Just like software there could be MANY “sub-systems” that keep things organized. The key is to lower everything down to the lowest common denominator and keep the impact on the customer at the front of your mind no matter what aspect of the system you are developing. I’ve found another key is that this so called system is in constant evolution. The minute you stop tweaking your system, it will become obsolete and outdated, and someone else will develop a better one.
That to me is execution, it may not be a success story yet…but it will be! One amazing thing i’ve noticed is that a thought out system of execution that is all-inclusive and attacks problems head on, makes life SO much easier in the long run. The system generates its own momentum once it is pumping liek a well oiled machine, and allows creativity to blossom as a working system allows for time to think towards the future. A poor system means your’e always going to be servicing customers bogged down with unhappy clients and partners and dealing with overall negativity. This is a huge factor in long-term success. It never stops!
April 27th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Having worked with The Coca-Cola Company ( have you?) a number of years ago as well as Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc., you are right about distribution, but wrong about marketing. This category needs all the marketing muscle it can get. That is also because of where the stuff is distributed. But know this eschewer of marketing and advertising execution, it isn’t nearly as fruitless as you opine.
Did you ever work in an agency? Some do brilliant work that actually sells.
April 29th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Agencies have everything but businesspeople. And business ideas. And business sense. Other than that, they are great.
Mark Stevens
CEO
April 29th, 2007 at 10:34 am
Tom,
I know that personally I drink what I like to drink, or the closest thing that’s available. Coke or Pepsi, I have no preference, and most people I know don’t care either. If I’m shopping for groceries I’ll buy my favorite, regardless of price and promotions by the competitors. If I’m stopping at a C-store, I’ll get what I want again. If I’m in a venue of some sort that has only one brand I’ll take their version of my favorite flavor.
Do ads for Colas “actually sell” in your words? I am not talking about promotions- like $1 million bucks in the can, I’m talking about a stand alone ad. With the exception of the few home runs that everyone remembers I wonder truly what the ROI is for advertising in the cola industry.
Chris Kieff, Dir. Internet Marketing, MSCO