# Why does Coca Cola advertise? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 24, 2006, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-coca-cola-advertise/381670 "2006-11-24T19:32:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-coca-cola-advertise/381670/21 "2006-11-26T06:09:02Z")
There is an old (surely apocryphal) story from too many motivational advertising sales seminars that concerns the protagonist sitting next to, and recognizing, a member of the Wrigley family on a long airplane flight. Protagonist asks the Mr. Wrigley why the company continues to advertise, since the whole world knows Wrigley gum. Mr. Wrigley answers: “For the same reason the pilot doesn’t shut off the engines once we get up in the air.” It may be an inexact analogy, but it works surprisingly well on clients in certain situations. (Yes, I’ve used it in a previous life as a radio ad salesman.) ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-coca-cola-advertise/381670/22 "2006-11-26T07:58:37Z")
The ads for Coke in Australia around this time of year invariably tend to be of the “If you drink Coke, lots of hot random bikini babes will come up to you and your mates at the beach and you can all go surfing/have a barbeque/go for a drive in your 1950’s Holden”. I’m only aware of the Coke/Christmas thing through my readings of the history of Coke and their ad campaigns in the northern hemisphere. ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-coca-cola-advertise/381670/23 "2006-11-26T14:13:07Z")
The Coca-Cola company doesn’t make or ship a drop of the stuff. All that is done by your local bottler. The Coca-Cola company’s entire charge is to develop and market the brand. That should give you some clue as to the importance of advertising. Coca-Cola is not a soft drink company, it is a company that markets a soft drink. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-coca-cola-advertise/381670/24 "2006-11-26T14:29:36Z")
[QUOTE=Happy Wanderer] The Coca-Cola company doesn’t make or ship a drop of the stuff. All that is done by your local bottler. The Coca-Cola company’s entire charge is to develop and market the brand. That should give you some clue as to the importance of advertising. Coca-Cola is not a soft drink company, it is a company that markets a soft drink. [/QUOTE] Not quite true. The Coca-Cola Company makes the syrup, which they ship to bottlers or fountain vendors who then procede to mix it. However, it seems likely that they spend far more on advertising than they do on syrup production, and of course they’re also a holding company for a vast number of other products. So the foremost competency of the Coca-Cola Company, [like Nike](http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39276), is marketing and advertising. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-coca-cola-advertise/381670/25 "2006-11-26T14:36:06Z")
[QUOTE=Happy Wanderer] The Coca-Cola company doesn’t make or ship a drop of the stuff. All that is done by your local bottler. The Coca-Cola company’s entire charge is to develop and market the brand. That should give you some clue as to the importance of advertising. Coca-Cola is not a soft drink company, it is a company that markets a soft drink. [/QUOTE] Hence the company advertises because that is about all it _can_ do, outside of licensing. I’ve heard it said that some advertising is purely gratuitous. And aren’t some companies very successful without advertsing? Maybe I need to watch more TV. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-coca-cola-advertise/381670/26 "2006-11-26T17:44:26Z")
Joe Blow would normally drink 5 CocaCola products a week. But he’s sitting down watching The Big Game of The Week and sees an ad for Coke, walks into the kitchen and gets one. (I am amazed by the number of people who behave just like this. People see the ad, they go get the product. Now.) Add all the Joe Blows in the world drinking 6 Cokes per/interval instead of 5 and Coke’s sales go up 20%. Coke managers and stock holders are thrilled. Note that this example has _nothing_ to do with the existence of Pepsi. Coke could be a monopoly and would still need to advertize to increase consumption of its products. ---
**Author:** ![Muriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Muriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muriel)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-coca-cola-advertise/381670/27 "2006-11-26T19:59:04Z")
Advertising is set up to appeal to you emotionally. For instance the Cheerio ads. Kids love them they are finger food and relatively good for you. But what we get is the “Dad” explaining to the son or daughter about his cholesterol. You have the cute kid talking in baby talk “what’s that t’ump, t’ump, t’ump.” And of course the wife thinks “Gee if I bought Cheerios not only would I help my husband lower his cholesterol but he’d be magically transformed into a caring man who has deep conversations for his family. Gee Cheerios are more than a food. They are love.” Men don’t care about Cheerios. Coke advertising because it’s not enough to keep what you have they want ALL of Pepsi’s market as well. For instance I like Egg Nog but only drink it at Christmas time, cause I associate it with Christmas. Someone see Coke and associates it and says “Pepsi and Christmas isn’t like what I had at Christmas.” Plus there’s the old saying “Out of sight, out of mind.” ---
**Author:** ![freakstasy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@freakstasy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freakstasy)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-coca-cola-advertise/381670/28 "2006-11-27T03:57:08Z")
[QUOTE=msmith537] When was the last time you heard of [RC Cola](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.C._Cola)? [/QUOTE] Reminds me of an [article from The Onion](http://www.theonion.com/content/node/55142): > [@](#): > > According to RC Cola’s research, Coke spent $1.3 billion on international print, billboard, and TV ads in 2005 alone; Pepsi spent $1.1 billion on a multimedia ad-campaign blitz, including sponsorships and product placement; and RC Cola spent $29,000 on local shopping-circular ads in a total of 32 U.S. states. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-coca-cola-advertise/381670/29 "2006-11-27T15:00:25Z")
A Sales and Marketing Manager weighing in. Although my education was in engineering my experience is in business. Coca Cola would never consider this. Most customers are fickle things, and attention wanders. In an ongoing war, if one side pulls back, the other wins. Pepsi could come out with a great slogan or adversiting and people would switch. Hell, if Coke dropped it’s advertising to the level suggested in the OP, and I were the VP of marketing for Pepsi, I would triple my advertising budget and recarve the market share. An interesting fact of the cola wars is that a few years back (unfortuantely, I haven’t read anything recent) but Pepsi and Coke were neck and neck at supermarket sales, and the huge difference in market share came from fountain sales (restaurants, movie theators, sport events, etc.). Here’s an article quoted [here](http://www.xent.com/may98/0147.html), > [@](#): > > With its pugnacious lawsuit Thursday against Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo > \> Inc. is aiming to gain ground in the market for soft drinks dispensed at > \> fountains, the very heart of Coke’s U.S. strength and the major reason > \> for Pepsi’s weakness. > \> > \> Pepsi is accusing its bigger rival of trying to freeze it out of the > \> business of selling soda pop in restaurants and movie theaters served by > \> independent food distributors. Pepsi’s claim: As it has sought inroads > \> into the fountain business, Coke has used its huge market power to > \> threaten distributors with losing their Coke business if they supply > \> Pepsi. Pepsi says that 90 of the top 100 national restaurant chains and > \> other large fountain accounts receive their products from these > \> distributors, so Coke is violating antitrust law by blocking access to > \> the “distribution superhighway.” Coke says the charge has no merit. The problem would be two-fold. If Coke were to scale back advertising, then it would lose supermarket sales. However, the real killer would be if enough people started to ask for Pepsi, then establishments selling fountain drinks may switch. More likely would be that these establishments would recognize that it would be in their advantage to switch to the company providing more advertising. Once a few major chains were to switch, it could cause a major movement and Coca Cola could find themselves hopelessly behind. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-coca-cola-advertise/381670/30 "2006-11-27T15:24:31Z")
It can become a nasty downward spiral. For example, lowered demand & sales could cause supermarkets to give Coke less shelf space, which could cause lowered sales, which causes Safeway to give them less shelf space, and so forth. Until you get to RC. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-coca-cola-advertise/381670/31 "2006-11-27T15:51:29Z")
As one who lives in Atlanta I have to ask, what _is_ this Pepsi of which you speak? ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-coca-cola-advertise/381670/32 "2006-11-27T16:09:58Z")
Now that I’ve thought about it, would it be fair to say the purpose for Coke commercials is not to remind loyal Coke drinkers about their favorite beverage, but to remind occasional soda drinkers that they might like a Coke also? And that the purpose of all the signs and in store displays is to make sure all those people have no trouble finding it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-coca-cola-advertise/381670.md?page=1)