By James Stewart
Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd ("CCA") has recently taken brand connectivity with consumers to a new level. Aficionados of Coca-Cola can now quite literally take "ownership" of their Coke by placing their name on it through Facebook or picking up their own personalised bottle through your local vendor.
The "Share a Coke" campaign runs from 1 October for three months as CCA drives a new marketing campaign to sell 268 million Cokes by Christmas! There are 150 names to brand your bottle, or otherwise pop into your local Westfield Coke Kiosk for a free personalisation.
The Share a Coke campaign is just another form of innovation that has made CCA one of Australia's most successful beverage producers.
I recently interviewed Terry Davis, CEO of CCA, at an American Chamber of Commerce in Australia event on the subject of innovation in business.
CCA has kept growing through one of the toughest retail periods in 20 years and, according to Terry, this growth is largely a reflection of "a culture of continuous innovation", with every one of the group's 5,000 Australian employees able to participate in CCA's annual "Innovation Awards".
Brands like Mother have been reinvented, Glaceau Vitaminwater created and Coke "re-named" (through personalisation) in a constant push by Coca-Cola in Australia to be different from competitors and create products which are relevant to its target market.
As Terry describes it, the catch phrase inside CCA is "aggressively plan, cautiously execute". The culture is to consider all ideas (no matter how "out there" they are) and then robustly test and review them, backing intuitive feel with proper market research.
The recent takeover of Fosters by SAB Miller is likely to free up some cash (up to $300m) for Terry to get the creative juices flowing even more.
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