Hey, what’s up guys? This is Brand Breakdown, and I’m your host, Matt Young. Brand Breakdown is a new show that we’re putting together here at Forward Vibe where we take a company and look at its history to paint a picture of how people perceive it today, both good and bad. If you want us to review your brand, drop a comment or email me at [email protected]. Now, the first brand we’re reviewing is Coca-Cola. It’s consistently rated as one of the most valuable brands in the world (currently sitting at 6 on the most valuable brands according to Forbes). It was founded in 1886, which is part of why so many people have memories of it all the way back to their childhood at family functions, school events, going over to your friend’s house, birthday parties, and so much more, but what did Coca-Cola do to integrate so deeply into not just American culture but the whole world? Everybody recognizes their logo with the cursive text, and the bright red color is meant to evoke feelings of energy, excitement, power, and passion, which are all feelings that the drink itself is also supposed to evoke since it was originally made with cocaine, hence the name Coca-Cola. Some ways they’ve aligned their brand with the very thought of happiness is by: * Becoming the first corporate sponsor of the Olympics in 1928 * Supplying cans to U.S. soldiers in WWII, which created a sense of freedom and patriotism * Handing out cans of Coke in 1991 when the Berlin Wall fell Of course, the journey to connect the Coca-Cola brand with happiness didn’t come without obstacles. In 1982, the Pepsi Challenge found that 58% of people preferred the taste of Pepsi to the taste of Coke in a blind taste test. Shortly after this, Pepsi beat out Coke in supermarket sales. Coca-Cola was slow to respond, but in 1985 made it even worse by releasing New Coke, a new formula for the Coca-Cola recipe. It received such negative press and market response (including lawsuits) that the company ultimately cut production of New Coke in 1986 and re-released Classic Coke. There are also health concerns if you’ve ever heard of the experiment of leaving a tooth sitting in Coca-Cola overnight and seeing how it stains and erodes the enamel. On top of that, one 12oz can of Coke has nearly twice the amount of sugar the World Health Organization says you should have in an entire day. In 2011, Coca-Cola put names on the labels of their bottles, which personalized the bottles as gifts for family and friends while making a game out of it to find your own name or the names of people that you like. In 2012, Coke ran a Super Bowl commercial featuring a polar bear fumbling to keep his coke bottle from dropping to the ground while knocking over every other polar bear around him. It was cute, heart-warming, and heavily focused on the actual Coca-Cola bottle. On top of these famous campaigns, Coca-Cola also runs Christmas commercials every year with Santa and the Coca-Cola truck. Many people don’t even consider it to be Christmas season until they see those commercials, and “the most wonderful time of the year” fits perfectly with the company that sold its product by saying, “Open happiness.” Super important to note is that Coca-Cola understands that the taste of their most popular product is only the foundation of their success. The true work comes from their branding. In their vision statement, what they want to see in the world is: “To craft the brands and choice of drinks that people love.”