Coca-Cola Increased Marketing Spend to create Brand Value amid price hikes

Global brands spend millions of dollars creating brand awareness for products and boost consumer confidence, but what they get out from this expenditure can make or break them as a company. Smaller companies should take heed to create brand value and boost brand equity.

The power of brand value lies with how you present yourself

Your brand values control how customers perceive your brand. With so many brands available in the market, it’s hard to get your consumers’ attention. They no longer gravitate towards just any brand, even if it provides good services or products. They prefer brands that reflect their values and beliefs. You can create brand value and a powerful bond with your customers by attracting the right audience that resonates with you.

Your brand is more than the products or services that you sell. It is what you stand for. Your company logo, products or services, website, or marketing campaigns may change with time, but your brand value must always remain the same.

Consumers are constantly looking for connections with brands, hence, it’s good for companies to offer consumers something that they can relate to. This goes beyond an attractive website or a beautiful logo. Although the external elements of your brand like your name and your voice can help to create brand awareness, it is your brand value that will deliver real engagement and help you create powerful bonds with your target audience.

In this article, we will explore Coca-Cola brand value and the importance of creating your own brand value.

What is Brand Value and Brand Equity?

Brand value is the monetary worth of your brand, if you were to sell it. If your company were to merge or be bought out by another business, and they wanted to use your name, logo, and brand identity to sell products or services, your brand value would be the amount they would pay you for that right.

Brand equity is a set of assets or liabilities in the form of brand visibility, associations and customer loyalty that add or subtract from the value of a current or potential product or service driven by the brand. It is a key construct in the management of not only marketing but also business strategy.

How to create brand value?

It takes years to create and build brand value. It needs to be deliberate, consistent and sacred to the core of your business.

Most small businesses have a bunch of marketing tactics they perform and believe it's a marketing strategy that'll create brand value. But it's not. Building brand value requires discipline and a focus on understand the why behind it.

Here are a few things to do to get going...

Perform a marketing assessment every year. During the brand strategy, review the following:

1. Ensure that your business is still aligned with the same values, products/services, mission, positioning and messaging.
2. Determine if your target audience has changed or still the same. Is your brand still relevant to their wants and needs.
3. Has the Customer Value Journey changed? Explore where to make adjustments to your marketing efforts to better connect with them.

Enjoy the process of increasing your brand value and boosting consumer confidence with your brand.

The following information has been sourced by: Marketing Dive

Dive Brief:

• The Coca-Cola Company saw net revenues grow 12% to $11.3 billion in Q302-240-3879, per its latest earnings report. The company’s new marketing model is focused on adding and retaining consumers through experiences that link consumption with consumer passions like music and gaming, per an earnings call.
• The Global Magic Weekends campaign, in partnership with more than 20 food service aggregators, helped drive 3.5x redemption levels for Coca-Cola combo meals compared to pre-campaign levels, chairman and CEO James Quincey said on the call. The company also launched digital-first brand campaigns for Smartwater and Vitaminwater that are delivering strong results, he added.
• Despite economic pressures on consumer spending, continued recovery in away-from-home channels like travel and theme parks helped drive the company’s revenue growth. The company increased consumer and customer-facing spending to create more value for brands even as prices increased, CFO John Murphy explained on the call.

Dive Insight:

Coca-Cola topped analyst expectations for its quarterly revenue due to pricing increases and growth in global sales volume, while also working to create value for brands and justify new price points with an increased investment in marketing. The company increased its full year organic revenue guidance as it expects to be able to weather continued economic pressures and a coming recession.

“We expect the consumer environment to be more challenging, and we are preparing accordingly, stepping up our investments, sharpening our resource allocation capabilities and tapping into data to better reach our consumers,” CEO Quincey said on the earnings call.

The company is leveraging strategic experimentation and scale to create global brand campaigns to expand its consumer base by connecting consumption to consumer passions. For example, the music-focused Coke Studio effort that first launched in Pakistan has now evolved into a digital-first, always-on music platform that spotlights breakthrough talent and leverages QR codes. Coca-Cola recently promoted Coke Summer Music events with an AR activation on Snapchat, while its Sprite brand previously launched a unified global music program.

Similarly, the Global Magic Weekends campaign, which engages consumers around gaming and music, is seeing promising results, both in redemption levels of Coca-Cola combo meals and a 50% lift in outlets with Coca-Cola Zero Sugar availability. Activating around culture continues to be an imperative for marketers — especially CPG ones — seeking to engage with younger consumers that are difficult to reach through traditional ad channels.

In kind, the company has already seen strong results with digital-first brand campaigns for its Smartwater and Vitaminwater brands. Smartwater utilized snackable video content on social platforms with celebrity influencer Zendaya, while Vitaminwater partnered with musician Lil Nas X on TikTok — efforts the company hopes will generate excitement for its brands and recruit younger drinkers.

Along with its water brands, Coca-Cola has seen promising early results from product innovations including Fanta Dragon Fruit Zero Sugar, Minute Maid Aguas Frescas and Coke Starlight — the first offering from its experimental Coca-Cola Creations platform. The company is also seeing its flavored alcohol beverage business grow as it gains direct-to-consumer market share; it now reaches more than 6 million consumers via digital channels.

Contact Beholder to talk about improving your brand value.

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