research - brand personality - Coca Cola

fabrikbrands.com


When it comes to examples of brand personality, it’s hard to get more iconic than Coca-Cola. This soft-drink brand is the perfect combination of sincerity and excitement, funnelling the cheerful joy and honesty of sincerity through its social media campaigns and advertisements, such as the “Share a Coke” campaign.

In terms of excitement, Coca-Cola is often associated with young people and innovation. Think back to all the countless advertisements you’ve seen over the years, and the young faces that exist throughout them. Though it started as nothing but a failing brain tonic, when Coca-Cola sold to Asa Candler back in the 1800s, it started its path to success.

The reason why the change in ownership became so effective, was that Asa believed in creating a brand personality that conveyed sincerity through cheerful advertising, and excitement, through the promise of new, refreshing flavours. Combined with the brilliant red of the brand colours, Coca-Cola brand personality had everything it needed to stand out. – fabrikbrands.com / Harvey 2017

Giving consumers something to relate to that is vivid, alive, and more complete than what is portrayed by the core offering is the core element of brand personality (Upshaw, 1995). 

Therefore, having a strong, favourable brand personality does not only increase consumer preference and usage (Sirgy, 1982; Kim, 2000), but also results in favourable product evaluations (Wang & Yang, 2008) 

fosters feelings of comfort and confidence in the minds of consumers (Biel, 1993), improves levels of loyalty and trust (Fournier, 1994, 1998; Hess, Bauer, Kuester, & Huber, 2007; Brakus, Schmitt, & Zarantonello, 2009), creates brand equity (Keller, 1993), and serves as a basis for brand differentiation (Keller, 1993, 2003; Crask & Laskey, 1990; Plummer, 1984; Biel, 1993). 

Coca Cola has been the number-one fizzy drink brand for a long time and this dominance may well be driving respondents’ perceptions that it is the most competent of the three brands examined. 

Additionally, as compared to Pepsi and Solo, we see Coca Cola’s advertising and sales-promotion efforts as having a stronger and more consistent emphasis on excitement (e.g. portrayed as refreshing and cute in their animated advertisements). These efforts by Coca Cola may enable the brand to evoke a greater sense of excitement among consumers and explain why Pepsi has sought to imitate what Coca Cola has done. Liang 2011