Yes we can: Coca-Cola seeks unity for sub brands

The Australian
February 3, 2017
LISA ALLEN
Senior writer Sydney

Coca-Cola’s head of design James Sommerville has hired five international design shops to devise the soft drink manufacturer’s new one-brand strategy to try to unite its growing sub brands.

“If you look at the recent history, we have been successful in creating some sub brands, Diet Coke, Coke Zero and Coke with stevia, and we wanted to unify our portfolio and create a framework that would allow us to unify in the future,” said the Atlanta-based Mr Sommerville, who flew into Sydney yesterday to unveil Coke’s new global branding strategy to Australians, in the first major brand overhaul in 130 years.

The Coca-Cola Company chose Australia as the third country after Britain and Mexico to launch the one-brand strategy, which uses Coke’s so-called rising disc to graphically unite the sub brands. New Zealand will follow after Australia. 

“The one-brand strategy allows us to introduce innovations in the future. We recognise that consumers are changing and we wanted to create an identity that allows us to innovate in the beverage space,” Mr Sommerville said.

He would not divulge the cost of the new global marketing strategy but he said five design shops collaborated including BVD from Stockholm, United in San Francisco, Tatil in Brazil and Hay in Madrid.

Mr Sommerville is a great believer in hiring multiple design shops that had not previously worked with Coca-Cola.

“We wanted fresh thinking. Collaboration is very helpful, to maintain the values as we move forward,’’ he said.

“The new strategy was driven from the top and with consultation from business units including Australia and New Zealand.

“Our brand has different levels of maturity. We wanted a system that reconnects back to our core equity of red, which allows markets to adapt and adopt this new system according to their needs.” 

Coca-Cola South Pacific marketing director Lisa Winn said the one-brand strategy, using the red so-called “rising disc” was piloted in Australia. She would not be drawn on whether the new strategy was devised to deal with the growing popularity of no sugar soft drinks.

“We know consumers want choice and we offer some fantastic low sugar products,’’ Ms Winn said.

“The new system is easy to navigate to see which ones they want today, whether it’s low sugar or Coke with stevia.”