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Coke & Moet - Beverages for the Cool
January 12, 2009
Fine, I admit it – I watched the Golden Globes. To be clear, I really only tuned in for a couple minutes and that time was spent reflecting on how badly I wish I could be Brad Pitt. He has the two things in life that I want more than anything – the ability to grow a moustache, and the opportunity to be intimate with Angelina Jolie.
Aside from providing an opportunity to lament my facial hair handicap, the Golden Globes did actually provide a benefit by solidifying a customer experience best-practice that I’d been mulling over throughout the weekend. The best-practice is as follows: great marketers find a way to weave their brand into a story that reinforces their market position. There are two operative components to this sentence: “weave their brand into a story” and “reinforce their market position”. Let’s examine each.
This weekend I witnessed two great examples of beverage companies weaving their brand into a story. At the Golden Globes, you were hard pressed to see an image of a table full of celebrities that did not have a giant bottle of Moet on it. It’s impossible to draw a value comparison between the implied endorsement of Moet by Brad Pitt vs. a television commercial telling me that Moet is cool. The second example of a company weaving their brand into a story stems from my experience attending a Bob Sinclar (French DJ) ‘concert’ on Friday night. Coke sponsored the tour and took their sponsorship a step further than simply plastering the venue with logos. They hired extremely attractive waitresses to dress completely in red (well, at least the fabric that was on them was red) and walk around the venue with a tray full of red aluminum bottles of Coke. Party-goers were given the bottles of Coke for free and were invited to insert a free shot of their choice into the bottle and enjoy. The result was a room full of cool people walking around endorsing Coke’s brand. Rather than simply putting their brand on the wall, Coke managed to weave it into the experience (and I now realize that Coke and Amaretto is sweet).
In each of these examples, if “weaving their brand into a story” were the means employed, then “reinforcing their market position” would be the ends. Each of these examples were effective because they reinforced the desired market position of each brand. I now associate Moet with an elevated social position and the sought-after celebrity lifestyle. I now associate Coke with ‘cool people’ – anyone who knows Bob Sinclar inherently thinks they’re pretty cool. In addition to promotional initiatives, it’s prudent to examine each touch point within the customer experience and consider whether it’s reinforcing the desired market position of your brand.
I don’t know how much either of these promotions cost, so can’t evaluate a return on investment, but I felt like I should commend Moet and Coke on their intelligent use of marketing resources.
Paul Leishman
Consultant / Torque Customer Strategy
