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MARK1115: Strategic Brand Management Individual Essay KH Phairor

Course School/Level Assessment Weight Submission Deadline

BU/UG 40.00% 05/03/2012

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Hai Chung Li 000324862-3 BA Hons Marketing (3rd Year) Strategic Brand Management

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The use of semiotics to convey the meaning and the effectiveness of Coca Cola brand

The brand chosen for this essay will looking at how Coca-Cola use semiotics to express the meaning of the brand and study the effectiveness of their approach Firstly by definition, brand is defined cited by Ward et al (1999) as a distinctive identity that differentiates a relevant, enduring and credible promise of value associated with a product, service or organisation and indicates the source of that promise (Chernatony et al. 2011, p.166). However, one of the problems companies face is finding ways to make customer realise and remember the brand. Other elements that contribute to this are whether the brand communicates a correct image of what the brand stands was intended to initially project. Other consideration to bear in mind is that brands deliver a variety of benefits, which for ease can be classified as satisfying buyers rational and emotional needs. They do this through their functional and emotional values which enable a welcomed and unique promise to be made (Chernatony and Malcom2003, p.26). So the main concentration of this essay will study how Coca-Cola did communicate the benefits of their products. There are suggestions that a successful brand is an identifiable product, service, person or place, augmented in such a way that the buyer or user perceives relevant, unique added values which match their needs most closely. Furthermore, its success results from being able to sustain these added values in the face of competition (Chernatony and Malcom 2003, p.320). It is important to understand that brands can develop different relationships with customers (Chernatony and Malcom 2003, p.32). The strength of these relationships will very much depend on many factors such as the design of the logo, the message and also the selection of communication channels. One golden rule for marketers is to not make assumptions that the meaning of shapes and colours are interpreted the same by all consumers around the world. One way to avoid this mistake is to understand the difference in cultural interpretation of signs and colours. For example, taking the colour red, in China, it is seen as a lucky colour but in UK, it is used on warning road signs as a warning of danger. From the example, one would question is red a correct colour to use on the logo? However it is important to understand the meaning of colour can be changed when used in conjunction with shapes and words. One of the ways to overcome any misunderstanding and to eliminate any assumptions is to apply semiotics which is defined as the scientific study of signs. It helps clarify how consumers learn meanings associated with products and brands (Chernatony and McDonald 2003, p.145). Through the use of semiotics in helping market and consumer research, it helps marketers to understand how their brand are being encoded and decoded by the consumers. This can include advertisement, design and packaging (Chernatony and McDonald 2003, p.145). Semiotics can also help us to understand any cultural myths behind successful brands? This myth is often associated to powerful brands and semioticians have derived a two stage method to position a Hai Chung Li 000324862-3 BA Hons Marketing (3rd Year) Strategic Brand Management

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brand. The first step involves defining the attributes of the brand and at the same time specifying the opposite attribute. The second step is to define another set of attributes and see where the brand is positioned in conjunction to the two pairs of attributes. According to Quelch and Harding (1996), they suggested further strategies brand owners can use to defend themselves against own labels. These strategies will involve reinforcing their brands positioning but will need companies to invest consistently to maintain a competitive edge. This can be seen in Coca-Cola brand development strategies. According Chernatony and McDonald (2003), they explain that the success of Coca-Cola is partly to do with clear positioning. Coca-Cola have positioned its brand to be refreshing, fun-type drink, target at teenagers and backed by a tradition of quality and continual consumer communication(Chernatony and McDonald 2003, p.26). Generally for brands are successful when developed with a clear statement of intent about the products or services purpose, the specific group the brand is targeted at and a commitment to equipping the brand with the right types of resources to achieve the stated purpose. (Chernatony and McDonald 2003, p.25-26). Coca-Cola have develops ways to make a clear statement about their product through the development of their logo, package designs and advertisements. Coca-Cola realised that to establish a strong market presence, it concentrated on developing a logo and unique packaging for its product which will helped consumers to recognise the product as a unique and established brand. This will help to creates product differentiation from other soft drink competitors and becoming legally registered brand. Other benefits of having a unique logo helps to enhance the brand image as it acts as sensory stimuli to the individuals. As studies have shown a common order of acknowledgement of the brain will be first, the shape, followed by the colour and lastly the language content. Coca-Cola have included semiotics along each stage of the development of their logo, this can be evidently seen in their increment changes to improve market awareness the since their first advertisement launch back in 1895. Over the recent years, the Coca-Cola logo is more standardised, when people from around the world come across white writing against a red coloured background on a soft drinks can / bottle can, will naturally associate the drink that is related to Coca-Cola. It is important for marketers to understand that colour trigger very specific responses in the central nervous system and celebral cortex. Once they affect the celebral cortex, colours can activate thoughts, memories, and particular modes of perceptions. The arousal prompts an increase in consumers ability to process information. (Gobe 2001). Therefore in the context of Coca-Cola, its red background creates an emotional effect and provides consumers a better memory recall of the brand. As stated colour is a sensation and not a substance (Fredman 1947), products that manage to convey this sensation in its package and logo will become the most appealing compared to other competitors which is true in the case of Coca-Cola. The first Coca-Cola packaging dates back to 1899 which was started by Joseph A. Biedenharn, a Mississippi shop owner. Through the increased demand, he started to bottle coke in a common glass bottle known as a Hutchinson. However the straight sided bottle was very common and can be easily be mixed up with other copycat brands and it became very hard for people to spontaneously identify Coca-Cola. It was not until 1916, a new bottle designed famed for its contour shape was designed by the Root Glass Company of Terre Haute. According to the Coca- Cola website, the Hai Chung Li 000324862-3 BA Hons Marketing (3rd Year) Strategic Brand Management

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contour carried a significant meaning that is associated to the curves and grooves of a cocoa bean (The Coca-Cola Company 2010) which is an ingredient used in coke. Despite many people who are not familiar with this fact, since it was Coca Cola who was the first to introduce such packaging into the market, today its one of the most recognised icons in the word even in the dark (The CocaCola Company 2010). From here it is clear semiotics have been applied to create powerful concept and provided Coca-Cola with a unique global identify, as the interpretation of the bottle shape is not affected by any language or colour barriers. It is also very hard for other soft drink companies to use the same bottle design as their product package as people will naturally assume it is Coca-Cola, instead of their own product. Coca-Cola gained secured the ownership rights to the unique bottle design by receiving two trademarks from the US Patent and Trademark Office between 1960 1977. Finally, the famous white wave introduced in 1969 which added more character to the logo. The white wave is termed as Dynamic Ribbon Device. This was to represent the bold, dramatic curve, reflecting the unique contour of the bottle (The Coca-Cola Company 2010). This helped people to clearly understand the connection between the contour bottle and Coca-Cola which can serve as a reminder to consumer minds. Despite the logo and packaging, Coca-Cola has used advertising to increase public awareness of the product. Coca-Cola wanted to embed itself in the public community by becoming part of the consumers daily lives. Since Coca-Cola is an American product, it aims to impose the American culture and values into the drinking experience of its consumers, as they want associates the feel good experience to what America represents a nation of many mixed culture and stands for unity. This is clearly shown in Coca-Colas advertising campaigns as it usually features a group of people rather than individuals to project an image of unity and drinking Coca-Cola makes the drinker feel they are part of a big global family who are also sharing the same experience and lifestyle, this in turn develops the social value of the brand. This is successfully achieved as when one talks about what is American culture? Coca-Cola will be one of the products that people will associate with America. Since Coca-Cola have been around for a long time, it is not only popular to the younger generation, it is also popular with the older generation as according to Fournier , he identified 15 different types of relationships between the consumer and brands. One of the type that Coca-Cola can be associated to will be childhood friendship which is very applicable to the older generation, they feel drinking Coca-Cola reminds them of their childhood which is related to the emotional values they have on the brand. According to Chernatony and McDonald (2003), they identified that Coca Colas original strategy was built on the three As: availability; acceptability and affordability. It is important to understand this strategy as this develops the functional value of the brand. This strategy was successfully executed as its product can be easily found in every shops and supermarkets across the world. CocaCola has strengthened this availability by making use of vending machines which gives them the ability to satisfy buyers to satisfy these rational and emotional needs (Chernatony and McDonald 2003, p.26). To conclude this essay, based on the study, it is clear that Coca-Cola have achieved global success through the careful use semiotics to help in the development of the brand. Their major breakthrough was the contoured shaped bottle which gave Coca-Cola its brand characteristics and unique packaging that is correctly associates it with Coca-Cola across the globe despite the cultural and languages differences. Hai Chung Li 000324862-3 BA Hons Marketing (3rd Year) Strategic Brand Management

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The also realised the importance of building brand values which contributed to the consumers choice of soft drink brands. There it is an important lesson for marketers to not lose sight of the fact that the final form of the brand is the mental evaluation held by the purchasers or users (Chernatony and McDonald 2003, p.24).

References:
A Discursive-Semiotic Approach to Translating Cultural Aspects in Persuasive Advertisements. 2012. A Discursive-Semiotic Approach to Translating Cultural Aspects in Persuasive Advertisements. [ONLINE] Available at: http://ilze.org/semio/019.htm. [Accessed 25 February 2012]. Chernatony. L and McDonald. M (2003) Creating powerful brands. 3rd ed. Burlington:Butterworthheinemann Chernatony.L, McDonald. M and Wallace. E (2011) Creating powerful brands. 4th ed. Burlington :Butterworth-heinemann Ltd Fournier, S., 1998. Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research. Journal of Consumer Research, 24, 343-373 Gobe, M. (2001) Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People, New York: Allworth Press Home of CocaCola UK : Diet Coke : Coke Zero - Coca-Cola GB. 2012. Home of CocaCola UK : Diet Coke : Coke Zero - Coca-Cola GB. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.coca-cola.co.uk. [Accessed 28 February 2012]. . 2012. Using Colour. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.darienps.org/teachers/icrowther/docs/color_theory.pdf. [Accessed 20 February 2012]

Hai Chung Li 000324862-3 BA Hons Marketing (3rd Year) Strategic Brand Management