Slide 1 – Coca cola on Facebook

Slide 2- The Coco-Cola Company (TCCC)

 World’s most popular branded soft drink.
 Invented by a John Pemberton, a Georgia pharmacist in 1886.
 Product line includes carbonated and non-carbonated beverages, bottled water, and
juice.
 Besides Diet and flavored versions of coke and TCCC manufactures well-known soft
drink brands like Minute Maid, Fanta, Sprite, bottled water brands like Dasani,
Aquarius, Ciel, and coffee brands like Costa and Georgia.

Slide 3- Coke’s history on Facebook:

 2007- FB launches brand fan pages

 Aug 2008-Dusty Sorg and Michael Jedrzejewski created a brand page foe coco-cola
despite there were already 150 such pages built by fans.
 They borrowed company’s name, logo and imagery without permission.
 On this page, questions were debated, polls were conducted, there is video sharing, a
fan photo page etc.
 Nov 2008- Within 3 months, the page had 1.2 million followers.
 Dec 2008- Facebook notifies Donnelly, the director of World-wide interactive
marketing of TCCC that the site was in violation of their terms of service. Individuals
unaffiliated with the brand could not host a brand’s page.
 2011- Coke has 20 million followers and competes with Starbucks as the highest
rated fan page

Slide 4- Available options and Risks associated

Options:
 Shut the page down

 Take control of the page as owner of the Coca-Cola copyright

 Negotiate a transfer of the page with the current owners

 Consent to have an unaffiliated third party host run a page in the name of TCCC,
optionally make it an “official page” in its own name and hope to migrate fans to
there.

Rapid growth of fanbase on the page was due to the fact that Sorg and Michael were very
active and expressive.. it was more a technically sophisticated site than most of the fan
productions. Italy, Chile, France had more fans on this site than the US.

Risks involved

 Firstly, it would be undesirable for TCCC to stop a fan page with so many followers.

 However, consenting on having Dusty and Michael run the page is risky since TCCC
then no longer controls the message that is marketed through this page. An
independently run page might damage Coca-Cola’s marketing strategy.
  Straight takeover of the page can be viewed by the fan base as an invasion of their
community by a domineering marketer.

 Negotiating a transfer with the current owners seems like a good option, but it is
possible that (at the expected growth rate) the page will soon be so large that it does
not fit with TCCC’s aim to be able to communicate with the customers individually
instead of mostly broadcasting communication one-way.
 The advantage of the situation now is that there is already a substantial marketing
value without TCCC having to invest a single dollar. A disadvantage is that it might
cause TCCC to lose some control over their own marketing and thus not being able to
effectively follow their own marketing strategy

 We propose a combination of the creation of new official Coca-Cola pages on

Facebook based on followers’ geographical locations and taking over control of
Dusty’s and Michael’s page. Naturally, taking control on a friendly base through
negotiating with the currents owners is highly preferred over taking control by using
the copyright. TCCC could use the current popular page to refer followers to their
new pages or even integrate the new pages in an overlapping page (the idea here is
that there is only one “official Coca-Cola page, but that a follower is automatically
sent to a local Coca-Cola page based on his location when clicking on this official
page). In this way, there is a globally scaled page, but Coca-Cola will still be able to
communicate with individual customers through the local pages.

Slide 6-

Paid media
Owned Media
Earned media
Shared media

Slide 7- Diet coke and Mentos:

 In 2006, Voltz and Grobe posted a video on their website Erpybird.com showing
geysers made by dropping mentos candy into bottles of Diet Coke. Within 9 days of
posting the video, it has been viewed 2 million times.

 Mentos was quick to respond and contacted the duo that same week offering to
sponsor the Eepybird antics.

 Mentos received an estimated of $10 million worth of publicity as a result.

 After Donnelly joined TCCC, he formed a partnership with Voltz and Grobe.

 He started the second instalment in the geyser series called “The Extreme Diet Coke
and Mentos Experiments: The Domino Effect.”

 Guinness world records were set by activating hundreds of geysers and sales of coco-
cola and mentos scaled up by 15% and 25% respectively compared to the previous
years.
 Slide 8- Difference between the two instances:

 If we compare this situation with the Diet Coke and Mentos video, it shows apparent
similarities.
 However, a difference is still that the Diet Coke and Mentos video was based on a
single hype providing a marketing opportunity with limited sustainability.
 The video could function as a publicity stunt with much attention during a short
period of time, where a Facebook page could form the basis long-term customer
communication platform.
 The Diet Coke and Mentos video demanded a quick response to gain maximum
publicity, while the Facebook matter demands an approach that sustains TCCC’s
long-term marketing strategy.

Coke’s Social Media Strategy:

 User-Generated Content Drives Sales through Viral Videos

 Coke transforms website to allow fans to connect with their brand by uploading their
own Coke-related content.
 Official Coke FB page created and ran by fans: creates online community

Starbuck’s Social Media Strategy:

 Launched MyStarbucksIdea.com in 2008 - Site drew in 7,500 ideas from customers

for improvement -Implemented 100 including free wifi, splash stoppers, & more
 2009 January -Starbucks launches FB fan page -By June, 3 million followers -Driven
by special offers, discounts, & coupons
 2010 Onwards -Starbucks continues to use page for promotions -Utilizes promotions
couples with new product launches

Showcasing digital Presence:

Coco- Cola –
 FB Page created by: fans (Sorj & Jedrzejewski)
 Goal: to share interest, connect, and engage the brand with its followers.
Starbucks –
 Page created and controlled by: Starbucks Coffee Co.
 Goal: to promote awareness and drive sales through exclusive promotional offers for
all followers