OUGD401 - Research into Branding of Coca Cola

After reading various academic texts and formulating my essay I was aware of the various methods companies apply when creating an image for their brand such as the use of archetypal characters and visual semiotics. 

I began by conducting research into Sprite the brand. These were my findings:

‘Founded in 1961, (Sprite) is the world’s leading lemon-lime flavoured soda, and the third best-selling soft drink brand worldwide. Sprite is sold in more than 190 countries and is number 98 on the Forbes World’s most valuable brands list.’ It is also estimated to be worth $6.2 billion dollars. 

To say that sprite is such a huge and influential brand I was surprised to see hardly any women in their advertisements.  

I looked into the current branding and packaging for sprite and found that this too was very male orientated, using an electric blue and green colour scheme for their packaging design, bold vector drawings on the side of their cans and posters, and featuring young skater boys and  basketball players in their advertisements.

I only found one image of a woman in their advertisements. I myself am not a fan of sprite and began to wonder if this masculine advertising and colour scheme had been anything to do with it as I otherwise I like lemon / lime flavoured drinks. 

I would never pick sprite from a fridge if I had the choice of schwepps, San pellegrino or Fentimans. 

Many of CocaCola's advertisements are very feminine particularly diet coke, often finding new ways to engage a female target audience such as make the can more aesthetic by releasing special editions by famous fashion designers etc.

So it was strange to see that sprite had taken such a different route. 

I understand that perhaps they want to create different personalities/ lifestyles for each product: Coke being more romantic and Spright more energetic and lively, however this doesn’t mean that girls can’t be a feature. 

I researched into the effect branding and advertising has on women and these are some of the statistics I found: 

‘Fifty-two percent of the more than 600 women surveyed online nationally said they have bought a product because they liked how the ad for it portrayed women, and 71% of those surveyed said they believe brands should be held responsible for using their ads to promote positive messages to women and girls.’ 

(Wallace, K. (2015). Femvertising: Ads targeting women do plenty for brands.)

Therefore it is surprising that many ads don’t feature women more positively considering that women control a whopping 85% of all consumer spending.

(http://she-conomy.com/facts-on-women)

Next I looked into how women were portrayed in the coca cola advertisements.  

Although in all of the cases l looked at the women were the stereotypical,  young,
beautiful and skinny, fun loving character, they aren’t overly airbrushed and are
captured having fun and laughing . 

This creates a lifestyle that women want to be  part of: having fun in the sun with their friends. 

To me this is a very appealing style of advertising and it does make me want to buy a CocaCola, even through I know this is not what I would look like drinking it. It inspires a new, positive attitude that seems like it could be possible.  All the advertisements are very romanticised with the same warm glow across all of the photographs.  

The slogan used is ‘taste the feeling’ and from the advertisements you can decipher just what that feeling is. 

I researched into the facts and meanings behind the campaign:

‘The adverts offer intimate glimpses into stories, feelings and moments people share while enjoying Coca-Cola.

The campaign’s lead spot, “Anthem” features a series of vignettes that
capture life’s everyday moments – such as ice-skating and hanging out with friends, a first date, a first kiss, and a first love – all linked by Coca-Cola with the new tagline, “Taste the Feeling.”

“Taste the Feeling” is anchored in more than 100 images shot by fashion
photographers Guy Aroch and Nacho Ricci. The photos, which will be featured in print, outdoor, in-store and digital advertising. Each shot combines familiar Coca-Cola icons, like the contour glass bottle and red disk, with elements of both intimacy and mystery. Coca-Cola is central to each moment; without it, there is no story. Images are cropped in a way that closes in on the Coca-Cola bottle, while still telling a personal story. The images show a diverse cross-section of people from around the world enjoying “their” Coca-Cola in simple, everyday moments.

(Coca Cola Taste The Feeling, Macleod, 2016) 

This is the feel that I want to portray in my advertisements for Sprite.