Coca Cola, number one brand in the world!

Coca Cola is reportedly the most valuable brand. Just the brand Coca Cola was valued at $67Billion in 2006. Coca Cola’s website states “The product that has given the world its best-known taste was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886. Dr. John Stith Pemberton, a local pharmacist, produced the syrup for Coca-Cola®, and carried a jug of the new product down the street to Jacobs' Pharmacy, where it was sampled, pronounced "excellent" and placed on sale for five cents a glass as a soda fountain drink.”

That is how it all began. But there were so many products which started during this time or maybe earlier. What did Coke do right that it landed and managed to hold on to that coveted No.1 brand of the world status for so so many years? I stumbled upon so many startling facts. Presenting some facts which created the folklore of Coca Cola.

1)   Santa Claus:

Starting in 1931, magazine ads for Coca-Cola featured St. Nick as a kind, jolly man in a red suit. Because magazines were so widely viewed, and because this image of Santa appeared for more than three decades, the image of Santa most people have today is largely based on Coca Cola’s advertising. Before the 1931 introduction of the Coca-Cola Santa Claus created by artist Haddon Sundblom, the image of Santa ranged from big to small and fat to tall. Santa even appeared as an elf and looked a bit spooky. 

Why personal branding matters?

The word 'brand' no longer carries its old world charm. It is used often casually at the drop of a hat, as if it were a proposition in the long-winding sentence of our lives. However, we are not blaming anyone. Aren't we living in an over-marketed world, littered with brands seeping inside every fabric of our lives? If this sounds cynical and depressing, it simply means that, you have to wake up to the new reality we are living in. Wait, this reality is not about adjusting our fragmented lives in a commoditized world. This is entirely different. This new reality is all about an invisible, yet powerful seismic shift that has occurred in the last decade. This paradigm shift has thrown to the winds, whatever we knew and read about Branding. Let us understand this paradigm shift using a simple metaphor. Let us go back to the days when we learnt about Astronomy in geography classes.

Let us rewind back to those days when we sat in little creaky chairs, with trepidation and awe, wearing those boxed 3-D glasses, to witness a simulated reality of the solar system. The panaromic image of the blazing sun at the center of the Solar system, with the celestial objects orbiting around the Sun remains etched since our childhood memory. Not so long ago, brands occupied the centre of our lives. Our lives revolved around them. We were so enamored by their style, elegance and we would do almost anything to rub off the magic of brands in our mundane lives. It helped that brands were few and they often carried an aura of exclusiveness. Several successful brands which were built in the twentieth century were tall monoliths, revered like demi-gods, by faithful followers.

As the clichéd line goes, times change. Technology began to shake the foundations of these monoliths, as they razed down the artificial barriers to information. With information out in the open, brands could no longer afford to repose in ivory towers, disconnected from the users. They could no longer occupy the centre of the universe.