Boaz Solomon
ENG 0701-009
Professor Monster
11 October 2022
Evaluating the Evolution of Coca-Cola Marketing
Advertising is a huge industry and is becoming an integral part of today’s business success. Ads are all over us, on televisions, magazines, billboards, newspapers, online, on radios, and even in movies and TV shows. It cannot be escaped. Currently, so many adverts run both online and in broadcasting corporations and one may not realize how many they have seen in a day. However, underneath the advertising is creativity. Creativity is what makes an advertisement create an impact and hence increase brand awareness and consumption. Advertising creativity is a significant and intricate aspect of the creation of an advertisement process and how the end product will appear. Creativity in advertising has also evolved to suit the trends and therefore appeal to the intended audience. This essay will evaluate how creativity in advertising has evolved over time and in the Coca Cola brand that has been running for over a century.
Coca-Cola, a soft drink and beverage company was established more than a century ago by John Doc Pemberton, a pharmacist. In the beginning, Coca-Cola was a soft drink but slowly evolved to become a soft drink. Pemberton studies and investigations revealed that cola leaves and Kola nuts were good for your health. As such, in 1885, he added the mixture in a nerve tonic and a migraine reliever that was then called “French Wine Coca”. During the prohibition period, he decided to make a drink that did not contain wine (Neagoe).
During the winter and spring of the same year, following he mixed up his novel mixture which included coca, kola, nutmeg, and vanilla, amongst other ingredients and it was sent for assessment. It was then called: “intellectual beverage and Temperance Drink, however, his business partner decided to name it Coca-Cola, and they began selling a glass of the new drink at five cents a glass. The drink was advertised to bring an appeal of a delicious, refreshing, exhilarating, and invigorating drink that people would want to try out. Their first ad appeared in an Atlanta Journal (Neagoe).
The company was later sold to a new investor in 1888, the owner tried to devise new means to make the business expand. He began sending coupons to individuals that purchased the drink. This encouraged them to come back for more and more. In 1893, it was officially registered as a trademark and after two years it began getting advertised as a soft beverage instead of medicine. With different changes to the bottle and the company trademarks and advertisements, coca cola brand grew very fast to become one of the largest beverage companies in the world (Neagoe). Advertising Creativity in Coca Cola For Coca-Cola to be successful, it had to fulfill the creative conditions of advertising such as impact, quality, style, and relevance. The idea behind Coca cola advertisements from the past has been unique and relevant to the trends that make the products appealing and acceptable to the target audience. The Coca-Cola elements of the advertisement such as the headlines, the slogans, and the logo have had a great impact on the brand and drew a huge number.
Coca-Cola’s advertising campaign from the 1930s to the 1960s shaped the contemporary culture of the Christmas Icon that was appealing to the kids. At that time, Santa Claus was given his current public image following the sweetened soda maker’s advertising campaign. During this period, the coca cola company brought out an experimental product with the packaging concept in the form of a six-pack box that held six glasses of Coca-Cola.
In the 1930s the company had its target market being the working-class individuals who took the soft drink as a refreshment during breaks. This made the product every man’s drink. In the mid-20th century, the soda fountain was disappearing from commercial areas and bottled drinks were increasing in momentum among most people. This played a huge part in giving a huge brand awareness. Another aspect was ringing on board the aspect of a float where there were scoops of ice cream floating on pints of coke which was a game changer in the fast-food culture. Moreover, the slogan “Things get better with coke,” was also used to keep the soft drink that was becoming popular, to fit in any event, show, sport, and part of life.
From the 70s coke shifted its advertisements to include the oppressed races in their consumer target market. They also advertised coke being mixed with different types of alcohol. In the 80s, Coca-Cola, now popularly known as coke made worldwide expansion making it a global brand. The empire had taken over the planet by the late 80s and hugely affected TV advertisements that were used as clickbait for audiences.
In the late 20th century, Coca-Cola set up an ad of a polar bear watching northern lights on the arctic ice caps. This is one of the most well-received adverts. Recently, Coca-Cola has shifted its strategy to resemble that of a gorilla marketing skill sharing happiness across the world with the coke brand. The brand has had different advertisements over the years that moved with the current trends whose evolution has positively impacted the business. Coca-cola has one of the most successful marketing campaigns in history.
The 21st century has been characterized greatly by attempting different aspects in their advertising covering social issues and attempting to be creative enough to grab people’s attention and make the people stick with them. The most popular ads are done online and this decade different advertisements are coming up all over social media spaces that fit in with the trend (Neagoe). The bottom line is that the evolution of coca cola advertisements to fit the trends have played a huge part in their successes in the beverage industry. Coca-Cola adverts are multi-sensory, exciting, and easy to understand and even printed ads can be easily understood and the audience can relate to them easily. They are simple and appeal to the emotions and recognition of the brand. However, nowadays, most adverts are digital although looking back to the impact of the ads over the years an individual can get inspired and evaluate where they are in terms of creativity not that it is good but as an approach to grow creativity and inventiveness.
Works Cited
“The Evolution of Advertising & How Personalization Improved Over Time.” Instapage – The World’s Most Advanced Landing Page Platform, 7 Nov. 2021, instapage.com/blog/advertising-evolution-how-personalization-has-improved-over-time4.
“The Evolution of Coca-Cola’s Marketing Campaigns.” Marketing Edge Magazine, 7 Jan. 2021, marketingedge.com.ng/the-evolution-of-coca-colas-marketing-campaigns/.
Neagoe, Alexandra D. “Coca Cola Ads and the Evolution of Creativity in Advertising.” Medium,
29 Sept. 2022, medium.com/swlh/coca-cola-ads-and-theevolution-of-creativity-in-advertising-b0655b3da780.
“The Evolution of Advertising & How Personalization Improved Over Time.” Instapage – The World’s Most Advanced Landing Page Platform, 7 Nov. 2021, instapage.com/blog/advertising-evolution-how-personalization-has-improved-over-time4.
“The Evolution of Coca-Cola’s Marketing Campaigns.” Marketing Edge Magazine, 7 Jan. 2021, marketingedge.com.ng/the-evolution-of-coca-colas-marketing-campaigns/.
Neagoe, Alexandra D. “Coca Cola Ads and the Evolution of Creativity in Advertising.” Medium,
29 Sept. 2022, medium.com/swlh/coca-cola-ads-and-theevolution-of-creativity-in-advertising-b0655b3da780.