Hashtag #shareacoke

 

Coca cola

 

 

We all loved when we found our names printed on a Coca-Cola can or bottle on the shelves at the grocery store.  According to some customer reviews  seeing your name on a big brand such as Coca Cola, makes it more personal. “Share a coke” campaign  first started in Australia in 2011.  After the great success in the Australian market, the campaign expanded on another 80 countries around the world.  In 2014 the “Share a Coke” campaign was introduced in the US market. This campaign boosted the sales in U.S. by 2%. This raise on sales hadn’t happened in a decade for Coca-Cola.  The Coke bottles had common names such as Jessica, Matt, Alisha and more, some buzz words such as friends, BFF and more.  For those who had a name that was not really common like mine, Coca-Cola would let people print their personalized “Share a Coke” bottles in some designated kiosks.  Also you could go online on the Coca-Cola website and create your own virtual bottle and share it on social networks. A lot of pictures with the personalized Coke bottles were shared on the social networks using the hashtag #shareacoke.

Coke

 

 

In the US, the company printed bottles with the 250 most common names. In UK  the company printed bottles with 1000 most common names.  I was kind of surprised by this fact. Since US is a bigger country than UK one would think the number of names chosen to be printed would be higher. The personalized bottles were introduced in the US market in June 2014.  They were sold on the grocery stores and vending machines.  Lately, you barely see those personalized Coke bottles or cans on the shelves anymore.  Coke is switching back to its standard labels in US.  This campaign was only  a temporary campaign.

What played a major role in this global success?

Coca-Cola made a temporary change in their production line globally, by customizing its product.  I think what played a major role in this campaign was the supply chain management. Making a change like this on the bottles and cans, especially when this change is applied to the global markets, supply chain is definitely a major part of this success.  According to a representative of Coca Cola, the “Share a Coke” campaign was a great success thanks to the supply chain flexibility.  The suppliers had to change their processes to meet the companies demand and the whole innovation demands that expanded globally.  Through this example the supply chain management can be seen as a profit driver instead of just thinking about it as a cost center.

 

This campaign was only temporary.  Do you think next year Coca Cola is coming up with the same campaign or something else “more attractive” to increase the sales?

What do you think are some other factors that played a major role in the switch of the product line?

 

 

http://www.foodmag.com.au/news/share-a-coke-campaign-success-thanks-to-supply-cha

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/cocacola-share-a-coke-campaign-boosts-us-sales-for-first-time-in-a-decade-9759739.html

http://online.wsj.com/articles/share-a-coke-credited-with-a-pop-in-sales-1411661519

16 thoughts on “Hashtag #shareacoke

  1. Hey awesome article, I noticed these cokes awhile ago and thought it was a great idea to personalize something so original that their customers love. I recently bought a coke can with a name on it that said “mom” and gave it to my mother haha. I believe this new marketing campaign was a great way to get their brand name spread across a much wider area. That could possibly be why they added more names to the UK sales rather than the 250 names the United States received. For next year, I could see coke doing something more creative, building off this personalized idea that attracts their customers. Hey, if I saw a coke bottle with my name on it, I would buy it. But unfortunately I haven’t seen one yet, so keep an eye out for me!

  2. Great article. I think that Coca Cola really took advantage of sharing and caring as an experience on its way to becoming a global success. With names or buzz words, there was a personalized quality to it even though they probably printed the same word over a thousand times. By just giving it to someone you know because their name was on it, you share a moment with that person that you appreciate them enough to care to buy a bottle. It kind of reminds me of the ALS ice bucket challenge in the way that there was a lot of pass along value to it.

  3. Coca Cola is a well known brand. By tapping into the younger generation and promoting the use of social media, all the consumers became the marketers. Although this type of marketing was temporary it allowed for sales to boom quickly and for the brand to leave a lasting impression on all consumers. Temporarily changing supply chain management can cost ample amounts of time, money and resources. However, Coca Cola knew that with this boom in sales and recognition would be well worth it. Think about companies who switch over to create specific products for Holidays, or specific events i.e the Olympics.

  4. Nice article! It was a great idea for Coca Cola to bring their campaign to the US. When I would walk around Target or other grocery stores over the summer, I would see lots of people searching their names in huge bins of Cokes. I’ll admit, I try searching too but my name is uncommon too. I think people like to see their name on products especially if its on the most known brand in the world. I believe we are not seeing these bottles on the shelf anymore since Christmas is right around the corner. They typically bring out their classic polar bear cans and bottles for the holidays.

  5. I really enjoyed this post! I had this was an excellent campaign done by Coke and from a marketing perspective, I think they’re a company to look out for. I am very interested to see what they do next. I completely agree that the share a coke campaign personalized their product to the consumer and I believe people just bought the bottle because it had their name on it. It was an excellent strategy to get people excited about their product again. Since it was such a big hit and consumers loved it so much, it wouldn’t surprise me if Coke brought this back again next year or at some point in the future.

  6. Great post! Since the campaign was so successful I believe it’s possible that Coca Cola would use the same marketing strategy in the future. Customization of products has been shown very often to be a successful factor in increasing demand. I believe more and more companies will be shifting their focus towards customization. As far as the amount of names chosen, I believe Coca Cola chose fewer names because it would save them money but also because the first 250 names accounted for most of the population of the US.

  7. Great article! I was also very intrigued when I saw that Coca Cola came up with this idea but at the same time upset because I too have a very uncommon name and so couldn’t find a bottle that was personalized for me. I think they would have more success if they expanded the list of names they had and put a little more marketing effort in with the greater list of names. They are a very creative company so I feel that they would have no problem coming up with a new idea for next year.

  8. Great Post! It was nice to see the campaign attract so much attention and success. I think next year they will do something a little different. I think it was brilliant how Coca Cola used this idea in conjunction with social media. Social media gives marketers a bigger arsenal to work with when marketing towards consumers.

  9. This was defiantly a great idea for Coke. I think their marketing should be very happy with themselves after this campaign. Even if people did not buy a coke, everyone talked about it. In both my marketing classes this year this was brought up and discussed, which is even more advertising for Coke. I think next year they will do something different in order to make consumers feel Coke is new and innovative instead of using the same marketing campaign for a second time.

  10. I definitely thought this was an awesome idea even though I never found my name and I don’t drink Coke. Their marketing strategy was extremely creative and intelligent to get people to “share a coke” and the hashtag on social media took it even further. I had no idea there were kiosks where people could go and get their name printed, or the website where you could create your own bottle and then share it on social media as well. Coke is always on top of their marketing game especially when it comes to social media. I think they will come up with something totally different that doesn’t have anything to do with people’s names on their bottles. I saw a commercial from Coke where they created a bottle that could only be opened by another bottle. The tops of the Coke bottles had a certain design where they could only be opened by another Coke bottle. This commercial was based on a college campus on freshman immersion day as a way for other freshman to bond or get to know other people, this was yet another brilliant idea.

  11. This is a very interesting article! I have noticed the Coca Cola bottles in stores and I have also noticed people on social media specifically seeking out these bottles to find their own names on them. I believe this is an extremely effective marketing idea but I have to question the operational effectiveness. I think that by Coca Cola having to print so many different names on so many different bottles and cans, they are significantly slowing down their processes and not utilizing maximum efficiency. Overall, very good article because it highlights something that most everyone has seen but either hasn’t talked about or brought up to light.

  12. Coke is one of the only brands that can execute such a radical design change like it’s nothing. I saw the custom bottles in Poland on vacation a year before the concept was rolled out in the US. In a way I feel like it sold more Coke because people pay attention to the packaging more in stores. It captured the market of people who otherwise would have glanced past coke, and it was a nice touch for people who would buy one anyway. The bottom line is that people who saw their name they would be more likely to purchase.

  13. I think Coca-Cola did very well in exploiting the personalized coca cola bottles and the #shareacoke hash-tag really took off in many markets. I believe that in a highly competitive market, consumers really do notice even the minor changes that happen in the players of such market. With the standard that Coca-cola have set in the past two years, I’m sure they will continue in the same way.

  14. Great Post! I think People around the world would like to have their names on their favorite drink. Personalized Coca Cola campaign should be expanded and lunched in more countries, Arab world for example. I think such a campaign will increase Coca Cola market shares. As I heard that this campaign has hit 70 countries so far, and the success could continue for more years.

  15. I really liked this post, Coca Cola is the most known brand for soft drinks, for them having to make a huge change to world cost them not as much as the revenue they got out of this unique idea, that non of the other soft drink brands ever thought of. Their marketing department brought up a creative strategy that can actually raise the brands revenue. A lot of customers actually care about the packaging rather than the product itself, therefore for Coke; it is a really smart step for them, as it paid off at the end in terms of attention and success.

  16. I personally love the “share a coke” campaign and am happy to see it continue into 2015. Also, my name is uncommon so I’ll be checking out the website and kiosk where you can get your own personalized.
    Last night I saw a Pepsi commercial where they are promoting a chance to win big concert tickets. Two friends getting a soda from a vending machine – one pepsi, one coke. The pepsi friend says, “all you get is your name on a bottle” and then the voice pops in to talk about how much better the pepsi opportunity to win. I was surprised to see that it took so long for a competitor to do something so direct and quite frankly, I thought it was lame. I think people LIKE their names on the bottles and that pepsi is going to need more than that.

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