Was Coke right in sharing ownership of its brand?
Coca-Cola is one of the world’s biggest and most well-recognized brands. It makes me wonder how many billions – or perhaps even trillions – of dollars the company has spent to get there. That’s why it was particularly refreshing to read a recent story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the way the company reacted to the success of a Coca-Cola Facebook page that the company did not create.
The page was actually created last year by a pair of 29-year-old Coke fiends in Los Angeles. Dusty Sorg and Michael Jedrzejewski created the page for no other reason than they were passionate about the beverage. It turned out to be a very popular page. Within a few weeks of its inception, it had hit 75,000 fans. After the first million fans, the Facebook administrators contacted Coca-Cola to see if it wanted to take over management of the page.
Fortunately, Coke’s director of worldwide interactive marketing declined. His thinking was that if the company took the page over, it would be seen as an intrusion and it would lose some of its grass-roots appeal and credibility.
Instead, the company rolled out the red carpet for the page’s creators and invited them to headquarters for a sit-down. Ultimately, the decision was made to take a collaborative approach to managing the page between Sorg, Jedrzejewski and a small group of Coca-Cola employees. Today the site has 3,365,220 fans and is the second most popular page on Facebook page right behind Barrack Obama’s.
Coca-Cola superfans given the red carpet treatment
In today’s world, a company cannot maintain complete control over its brand no matter how hard it tries or how much money it spends. Brands are being discussed, debated and mutated all across the Internet. And, while companies can’t control their brands, there is still a lot that can be done to influence the discussion. At the end of the day, the key is to for a company to become a legitimate part of the community having the discussion. Relinquishing complete control of your brand can do wonders for your company’s image.
Some smart executives at Coca-Cola were well aware of this fact when they addressed this particular situation. This type of thinking may well help Coke become the choice of a new generation.
Good post. Makes us want to start a Facebook about the 2nd best PR blog in the world (koifishcommunications.com/blog). Yes, the best PR blog is still http://www.ltpublicrelations.com/blog
Check it out!!
Which PR blog is the best is the subject of much debate. According to a recent PR Week competition, Down The Avenue has the best PR blog. The controversial 2005 Business Blog Awards competition determined that Media Guerrilla was the best PR blog (beating out Steve Rubel and Jeremy Pepper). You also lay claim to the title. So let the battle begin.
I’ll just watch the brawl ringside from my undisputed* #2 position.
As far as the KoiFish fan site, feel free to start your own. Or just join this one http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Lake-Oswego-OR/KoiFish-Communications/69531286648?ref=ts
* I should really say nearly undisputed. According to my mom, KoiFish is the best PR blog in the universe.
[...] Branding Coke Embraces Fan Facebook Page Shares Ownership of Posted by root 3 days ago (http://koifishcommunications.com) Coke exchanges control of its brand for credibility with fans on facebook page i 39 ll just watch the brawl ringside from my undisputed 2 position koifish blog move to wordpress the good the bad and the ugly 9 comment s powered by wordpress designed by sw Discuss | Bury | News | Branding Coke Embraces Fan Facebook Page Shares Ownership of [...]
I love it! I am currently running couple Facebook Fanpages and I know the ownership of the pages are going to be an issue once I get more fans. This is a good new from a company who understands the brand!
Interesting post. I can identify with this. I started a Facebook Group for a horse breed, because the breed registry didn’t have one. I guess it is the same thing. Thanks for sharing.
[...] rich, BUT they are not created by the brand, but rather the brands community. A good example is for Coca-Cola Embraces Fans’ Facebook Page. However according to Randall, “Companies generally do not like the idea of their brand sharing [...]
[...] Coke – Empowering Evangelism [...]
viral marketing is the best but you have to think of a great idea that goes viral`;-