In order to answer the in part one raised question, namely “How Does Coca-Cola Use

Storytelling in its Content Marketing Strategy to Emotionally Connect with its Users?”, this

second part will analyze the company’s strategy based on the revealed theoretical background

in part one.

The Coca-Cola Company (hereafter called Coca-Cola) is often taken as best practice example

of focusing on storytelling in its current online marketing activities

(Pulizzi,2012; Gioglio, 2015; Rose, 2012; Savut, 2013). In 2012, the company published its

Content2020 strategy and re-launched its company website, from a corporate website

towards a digital magazine, called ‘Coca-Cola Journey’ (The Coca-Cola Company, 2015).

Image 1: Screenshot of Corporate Website (left - adapted from Assurance Advertising, 2012)

vs. Screenshot of New Launched Digital Magazine (right – The Coca-Cola Company, 2015)

Shortly after the relaunch, Coca-Cola released two YouTube videos explaining the new

strategy behind the name ‘Content2020’. In several ‘chapters’, the videos explain the ideas

behind the launch of this new Content2020 strategy, its path to realization and the matrix the

company is focusing by involving in content marketing (Forward’s Marketing Channel, 2012).

These two releases and the company’s website (The Coca-Cola Company,2015), will be the

basis for the following analysis.

Admittedly, one can believe in the success of the relaunch or not, as it can be dared to say that

it might be rather subjective to define success in this context – even if Joe Pulizzi(2012), one

of the content marketing gurus of today, says so. Nevertheless, based on the outlined

theoretical concepts in part one, it will now be analyzed which keystones are implemented in

the Coca-Cola Content2020 strategy.

What Are the Keystones of Coca-Cola’s New Content2020 Strategy to

Emotionally Bond with its Consumers?

Firstly, when observing Coca-Cola’s new re-launched website (The Coca-Cola Company,2015),

it becomes more than clear that focusing on content by telling compelling stories is the key

pillar in the Content2020 strategy. Actually, this new ‘digital magazine’ does not mainly focus

on only providing company information or stakeholder relevant articles in a prominent way,

but is rather offering various interesting articles. Being in line with revealed research, brand-

related as well as unrelated stories are published on a continuous basis. As Brown (2013)

reveals it too, the essence of this relaunch was to believe that “best content is social at the

core, digital by design, and emotional” (p.1). This finding is strengthened by the impressive

speech of Ashley Callahan Coca-Cola’s manager of digital communications and social media.

At the BlogWell conference in 2013, she highly emphasized the brand’s current focus: “Great

content was the driver behind this” (03:15) and “We [Coca-Cola] wanted this to be a dynamic

magazine, a hub for our company content” (SocialMedia.org, 2014, 02:33).

Forming the second keystone, the published stories told on the ‘Coca-Cola Journey’ website

(The Coca-Cola Company, 2015) are not only compelling by its nature, but they aim to be

shared by the users. In contrast to the past where storytelling was performed in a one-way

direction, it becomes clear that the company focuses on creating dynamic stories that are free

to evolve during time. One proof for this is the integration of different social media icons in

each content that allow users to share the stories on various platforms. In the first explanatory

video, the company gives the reason for emphasizing on this. The company shows that the

content should be ‘liquid’, as the overall goal is “to create ideas so contagious they cannot be

controlled” (Forward’s Marketing Channel, 2012, 0:32). Moreover, articles and stories on the

website are created in such way that they often link to other stories. As one explanatory video

highlights, provoking conversations among users through storytelling is important as well

(Forward’s Marketing Channel, 2012). We can note that the keywords here are engagement,

multifacetedeness, spreadability. Coca-Cola uses the so-called water cooler test for all ideas

before new content is published: “Does it answer the “Why should I care” test? Does it

surprise you? Is it compelling with universal appeal? Is it being measured systematically?”

These questions are raised when ideas come up in order to provide compelling content, all

aiming at being interesting and narrative stories (SocialMedia.org, 2014, 04:52).

The third keystone of Coca-Cola’s content marketing strategy is the offering of stories that are

categorized in different topics such as history, brands, sustainability or music, for instance

(The Coca-Cola Company, 2015). Furthermore, it is remarkable that the mixture of categories

seems to follow a certain structure. Actually, this observation is backed by the company’s

representative statement by Callahan. In her speech in 2013, she outlines different metrics

that revealed the three most interesting content areas: Food, company history and jobs. As a

consequence, Coca-Cola is steadily aware of the current booming topics and thereafter

continuously providing compelling, emotional and share-worthy content in these areas (being

in line with the first two keystones) (SocialMedia.org, 2014).

Fourth, it is interesting to notice that the majority of the stories talk about personal and

emotional stories about real lives. Be it brand-related or non-related content, all stories

try to emotionally bond with its readers in order to strengthen its relationship. For instance,

in the topic ‘culture’, users come across a love story of two persons both working in the Coca-

Cola Company and today happily married with two kids (The Coca-Cola Company, 2015). This

example does not only agree with the above-stated fact that emotions are key in content

marketing, but also shows that the company focuses on the emotion that trigger most

interactions, the feeling of joy (Eyl, 2014).

The fifth keystone that can be revealed in this analysis is connected to the latter keystone. It is

the company’s intercultural awareness in creating its content for the website. When

skimming through the articles, stories featuring people from different parts of the world catch

the reader’s attention. Coca-Cola clearly focuses on showing stories from all over the world,

regardless the country from which the website is visited from (The Coca-Cola Company,

2015). It is also worth to mention that the website is all in English and is internationally

focused (SocialMedia.org, 2014). Another good example of this is the installation of the Coca-

Cola Small World Machines in 2013. The idea was to provide interactive Coke dispensers that

had real-time cameras installed where people could see each other. The dispensers were

located in areas of conflict of India and Pakistan, aiming to unite people living in conflict. It

was one of the most successful campaigns for the company so far (Savut, 2013). Once again,

all these stories are shareable, compelling and evoke emotions.

 Sixth, Coca-Cola allows users to directly interact with the brand and with other

users. Actually, at the bottom of the front page, users are encouraged to upload their

“moments of happiness”. The uploaded pictures and videos show impressions of life, what

people make smile, in short, the “source of your happiness” (The Coca-Cola Company, 2015).

Content may be brand-related or not. In the uploading template, users are asked to describe

the picture and tell the story behind it. Giving users the possibility to directly share their own

moments seems to be in line with the previous cornerstones, especially the second and fifth

ones. Indeed, this is also in line with the above-mentioned theoretical findings that

consumers should be integrated in creating stories in order to establish an emotional

connection to the brand (Escalas, 2004 in Gensler et al., 2013). The research of fanpageKarma

concerning the importance of triggering interactions through emotions and joy further

supports this keystone’s relevance (Eyl, 2014).

What Coca-Cola’s Content2020 Revealed: The Seven Keystones in Content

Marketing

All in all, the above-conducted analysis of Coca-Cola’s Content2020 strategy brought into

focus that its practical implementation is based on key principles of the revealed theoretical

concepts. Bearing in mind these above-mentioned concepts of content marketing, storytelling

and emotions in marketing and the revealed impact shown by different research, the analysis

of the company’s strategy leads to list seven imperative must-dos in storytelling, which

simultaneously answer the initial question of how Coca-Cola uses content marketing to

emotionally connect with its users.

By acknowledging today’s importance of storytelling, companies are advised to implement

these in order to succeed in emotionally connecting with customers:

 Recognize storytelling as the heart of marketing!

 Create liquid, compelling and share-worthy stories!

 Know which topics are most powerful!

 Tell real stories!

 Use culturally relevant content to connect people!

 Give users the possibility to contribute to the stories!

Nevertheless, even if these seven keystones of content marketing seem to be the formula for

recipe when it comes to emotionally bond with its users online, they have to be critically

considered. First and foremost, it has to be emphasized that the previous analysis is based on

a digital magazine website and keystones might not always be transferrable to other online

marketing activities. Secondly, as already mentioned, the notion of good content is subjective

and it can hardly be defined. Thirdly, when engaging in online marketing and consequently in

content marketing, marketers have to be cautious about what happens on other online

platforms, especially social media, concerning the target group’s interests. Lastly, being online

always means to face the lack of control of its content. Marketers have to be aware of this risk

and accordingly create their content and steadily observe the way of the content in its best

way.

Concerning further research, even if we have shown that the Coca-Cola Company is in fact

heavily using content marketing in its Content2020 strategy in order to emotionally connect

to customers, the previous analysis was only based on this single case. Due to the lack of

generalizability, it might be interesting to investigate in various other online marketing

strategies in order to draw deeper insights from an effective comparison.

5 Lessons from Coca Cola’s Content Marketing

Strategy
Jeff Bullas
Coca Cola has been part of popular culture for over 100 years and has been
called a “Vision Brand“.
Its marketing and communication is purposeful and connects with its audience in
a way that makes it stand out from its competitors.
Its mission is not about selling products but to create significant positive change
in the world that makes the world a better place.

Coca Cola’s mission statement

 To refresh the world

 To inspire moments of optimism and happiness
 To create value and make a difference
 Recently they have realised that their marketing strategy that has worked well for
them for decades needed to evolve and as such they are moving from “Creative
Excellence” to “Content Excellence”
Creative excellence has always been at the heart of Coca Cola’s advertising and
they have decided that content is now the key to marketing in the 21st century on
a social web.

Content for Coca Cola is is now the “Matter” and “Substance” of “Brand
Engagement”

So what can we learn from Coca Cola’s new marketing strategy?

Lesson 1: Create Liquid Content

The purpose of content excellence is to create “Ideas” so contagious that they

cannot be controlled this is what is called “liquid content”.
On a social web people can easily share ideas, videos and photos on social
networks such Facebook.

So create content that begs to be shared whether that be an image, a video or an

article.

Lesson 2: Ensure your Content is Linked

The next part of the equation is to ensure that these ideas create content that is
innately relevant to

 The business objectives of your company

 The brand
 Your customer interests
This is “Linked” content…. Content that is relevant and connected to the
companies goals and brand.
Ensure that the content communicates your message that is congruent with your
mission and values.

Lesson 3: Create Conversations

Coca Cola has realised that the consumer creates more stories and ideas than
they do so the goal is provoke conversations and then “Act” and “React” to those
conversations 365 days of the year.
The new “Distribution Technologies” of Twitter, YouTube and Facebook provide
greater connectivity and consumer empowerment than ever before.

Don’t just publish but interact with your audience and tribe.

Lesson 4. Move onto Dynamic Story Telling

 On traditional media in the past, story telling was static and a one way street.
Television and newspapers shouted at you with no means of interaction.1
Coca Cola has come the realisation that to grow their business on the social web
they need to move on from “One Way Story Telling” to “Dynamic Story Telling”
This means you need to allow the story to evolve as you interact and converse
with your customers. You need to converse with your customers in many media
formats and social networks.

Storytelling has moved on from static and synchronous to multifaceted, engaged

and spreadable.

Lesson 5: Be Brave and Creative with Your

Content Creation

Part of the new Coca Cola content strategy is applying a 70/20/10 Investment
principle to creating “Liquid content“.
 70% of your content should be low risk. It pays the rent and is your bread and butter
marketing (should be easy to do and only consumes 50% of your time)
 20% of your content creation should innovate off what works.
 10% of your content marketing is high risk ideas that will be tomorrows 70% or 20%….
be prepared to fail
This provides a blueprint regarding moving on from just developing white papers,
to trying some content that is more visual, courageous and engaging in web
world that has embraced multimedia and interactive content.

The 30 Second TV Ad is no Longer King

Coca Cola has come to the conclusion that the world has moved on from the 30
second TV ad. So has the the Old Spice brand and many other businesses who
are embracing social media as part of their marketing strategy.1
We need to move towards a genuine consumer collaboration model that builds
buzz and adopts a more iterative approach to content creation.

Learning how to fuel the conversations, act and interact has never been
more important.

Consumers ideas, creativity and conversations have been set free with the
evolution of social networks, learning to leverage and wrangle those
conversations to increase your brand visibility is now a vital part of your
marketing.
What is 'Brand Equity'
Brand equity refers to a value premium that a company generates from a
product with a recognizable name, when compared to a generic equivalent.
Companies can create brand equity for their products by making them
memorable, easily recognizable, and superior in quality and reliability.
Mass marketing campaignsalso help to create brand equity.

BREAKING DOWN 'Brand Equity'

Brand equity has three basic components: consumer perception, negative or
positive effects, and the resulting value. First and foremost, brand equity is
built by consumer perception, which includes both knowledge and experience
with a brand and its products. The perception that a consumer segment holds
about a brand directly results in either positive or negative effects. If the brand
equity is positive, the organization, its products and its financials can benefit.
If the brand equity is negative, the opposite is true.

Finally, these effects can turn into either tangible or intangible value. If the
effect is positive, tangible value is realized as increases in revenue or profits
and intangible value is realized as marketing as awareness or goodwill. If the
effects are negative, the tangible or intangible value is also negative. For
example, if consumers are willing to pay more for a generic product than for a
branded one, the brand is said to have negative brand equity. This might
happen if a company has a major product recall or causes a widely publicized
environmental disaster.

General Example of Brand Equity

A general example of a situation where brand equity is important is when a
company wants to expand its product line. If the brand's equity is positive, the
company can increase the likelihood that customers might buy its new product
by associating the new product with an existing, successful brand. For
example, if Campbell's releases a new soup, the company is likely to keep it
under the same brand name rather than inventing a new brand. The positive
associations customers already have with Campbell's make the new product
more enticing than if the soup has an unfamiliar brand name.

Specific Example of Brand Equity

Brand equity is a major indicator of company strength and performance,
specifically in the public markets. Often times companies in the same industry
or sector compete on brand equity. For example, an EquiTrend survey
conducted on July 14, 2016, found that The Home Depot was the number one
hardware company in terms of brand equity. Lowe's Companies, Inc. came in
second, with The Ace Hardware Corporation scoring below average.
A large component of brand equity in the hardware environment is consumer
perception of the strength of a company's ecommerce business. The Home
Depot is an industry leader in this category. It was also found that, in addition
to ecommerce, The Home Depot has the highest familiarity among
consumers, allowing it to further penetrate the industry and increase its brand
equity.

Consumer Behavior
Marketing Management Revision Article Series

Buyer’s needs, characteristics and decision making process interact with the stimuli created by the

environment and marketers and buying decisions are made by the buyers.

Hence marketers have to understand what happens in the buyer’s consciousness between the arrival of

outside stimuli and the buyer’s purchase decision.

_____________________________________________________________________

The field of consumer behavior studies how consumers (individuals and groups) select, buy, use, and dispose of

goods, services, ideas to satisfy their needs.

To understand the consumers in the target market, marketing managers rely on the 7 O’s framework of consumer

research.

7 Os: Occupants, Objects, Objectives, Organizations, Operations, Occasions, Outletss

Who constitutes the market? Occupants

What does the market buy? Objects

Why does the market buy? Objectives

Who participates in buying? Organizations

How does the market buy? Operations

When does the market buy? Occasions

Where does the market buy? Outlets

Buyer’s needs, characteristics and decision making process interact with the stimuli created by the environment

and marketers and buying decisions are made by the buyers.

Hence marketers have to understand what happens in the buyer’s consciousness between the arrival of outside

stimuli and the buyer’s purchase decision. They must answer two questions:

 How do the buyer’s characteristics – socio-cultural (sociological), personal, and psychological influence

buying behavior?

 How does the buyer make purchasing decisions?

Various sociological factors of importance

Cultural Factors
They have the broadest and deepest influence.
Culture
Culture is different for different societies. In the modern days, there are more common elements. Culture is the
most fundamental determinant of a person’s wants and behavior.

Subculture
Culture of a society is not uniform across all groups in the society. There can be subcultures with certain elements
differing from other groups’ cultural elements. Many subculture elements make up important market segments. In
a country like USA, that allows people from various countries to come and settle in it, subcultures arise due to the
original nationality, religion, racial group apart from the geographical subcultures and age group subcultures.

Social class
Sociology identified that social stratification is common among many societies. Social class is a type of
stratification. Social classes are relatively homogeneous and enduring divisions in a society, which are
hierarchically ordered and whose members share similar values, interests and behavior.

Social Factors
They include reference groups, family, and roles and statuses of a person.
Reference groups

Reference groups influence a person’s behavior directly or indirectly.

Groups having a direct influence on a person are called membership groups. People are influenced in the
consumption and purchase decisions by groups in which they are members like family, friend circle, neighbors,
co-workers, sports teams etc.
People are also influenced by groups to which they do not belong presently, but want to belong in course of time.
Such groups are called aspirational groups.

Family
Family members constitute the most influential primary reference group or membership group. Each person has a
family of orientation that consists of his parents, brothers and sisters. He has a family of procreation consisting of
spouse and children.
Statuses and roles
People choose products that communicate their status in society. Marketers have to aware of the status symbol
potential of products and brands. Each status has a role or group of activities to be performed. Persons have
multiples statuses in different groups to which they belong. Therefore the roles have some bearing on the
consumption and purchase decisions.

Personal factors of importance

Age and stage in the life cycle
Children consume baby food. Old people may eat special diets. People diagnosed with specific ailments avoid
certain food items. Hence it is easy to conclude thaat people buy different goods and services over their life time.
Occupation
Occupation determines the types of items people buy. Certain occupations demand simple living and certain
occupations demand display of wealth and prosperity.

Economic circumstances
People’s economic circumstances consist of their disposable or spendable income, assets, debts, and attitude
toward spending versus saving. Marketing of income-sensitive goods has to take into consideration the shifts in
personal income and savings habits.
Life style
A person’s life style is the person’s pattern of living in the world as expressed in activities, interests, and opinions.
People coming from the same subculture, social class, and occupation do lead quite different life styles.
The life style is reflected in the consumption patterns. different agencies and authors have identified differnet life
style categories. McCann Erickson London identifed among British, Avant-Gardians, Pontificators, Chamelons
and Sleepwalkers. The advertising agency, D'arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles identified five categories among
Russians, Kuptsi, Cossacks, Students, Business Executives, and Russian Souls.
Llifestyles among British people.
Avant-Gardians (interested in change)
Pontificators (traditionalists, very British)
Chamelons (follow the crowd)
Sleepwalkers (contented underachievers)

Psychological factors of importance

Personality and self concept
Personality denotes a person’s distinguishing psychological characteristics that lead to relatively consistent and
enduring responses to various stimuli.
Motivation
Motivation to purchase and consume an item is to be understood by marketers. Need sets up drive that seeks a
goal. Marketers want the goal a person desires has to be the product that they are offering. A drive is a strong
internal stimulus impelling action.
Perception
Perception is the process by which an individual selects, organizes, and interprets information inputs to create a
meaningful picture of the world.
Learning
Learning involves changes in an individual’s behavior arising from experience. Most human behavior is learned
Beliefs and attitudes
A belief is a descriptive thought a person holds about something.
An attitude is a person’s enduring favorable or unfavorable emotional feelings and action tendencies toward some
object or an idea.

THE BUYING PROCESS

Roles people play in buying process

In the buying decision a person can play any role in the list of roles given below.
Initiator
He may initiate the purchase by another person by explaining to him the needs served by a product.
Influencer
He may infuence another by suggesting which brand needs to be bought.

Decider
He is the decider to buy it.
Buyer
He is the actual buyer who goes into the market and buys.
User
He is the user of the product.

Example: A school teacher may suggest to a child that he needs to buy a computer. His classmates may tell him
that they own a particular brand of computer and they are very happy with its features. His father could be the
decider of the purchase. His mother may go to shop and buy the computer. The child is the user.

Buying behavior
Habitual buying behavior
In this buying situation, the purchaser is not involved in the product and there is not much risk and there is no
appreciable difference between various brands available. He buys the brand by habit.
Variety seeking buying behavior
In this buying situation also, the purchaser is not that much involved, but likes to try various brands
Complex buying behavior
In this buying situation, the buyer is very involved and spends some time to learn about various alternatives
available and buys the product/brand.
Less careful buying behavior with more chance of dissonance
In this buying situation, the differences between brands is not much and customer takes decisions quickly. But
there is a possibility that he may experience some disappointment and tries to justify his purchase decision

The stages of buying decision process

Problem recognition
A potential purchaser first recognizes a need for a product

Information search
He goes around searching for information the available alternatives

Evaluation of alternatives
He evaluates the alternatives

Purchase decision
He makes the purchase decision

Post purchase behavior

Post purchase satisfaction
The buyer's satisfaction is a function of the closeness between the buyer's product expectations and the product's
perceived performance.
Post purchase actions
If buyers are satisfied they may purchase again.
If they are dissatisfied, they may return the product. They will inform their friends not to buy.
Post purchase use and disposal
The marketer has to be monitor use of the product. If people bought the product but are not using it, sales will not
grow. If people are using the product for additional uses not anticipated by the marketer, the information is of
value in increasing sales.