Coke,
which is currently under attack by the LGBT community for its support of the Sochi
Olympics and various health organizations for its role in the obesity crisis has
apparently decided the solution is to sell a high-end Coke vintage fashion
line.
According
to the company Coke branded merchandise generates more than $1 billion in
retail sales annually. And it is bought
mostly by consumers outside of the U.S.
With t-shirt prices from $35 - $50, and jackets costing $1,650 they
certainly are pricing these items as a luxury item. But to what end? (Heine, 2013)
In the
long run, Coke needs to sell more beverages to make money. Will branded clothing help? Or is it simply another distraction from
their core mission? What do you think?
3 comments:
I think is just a temporary solution to refresh the brand and cope with their recent difficulties. In my opinion, Coca Cola is too well-known brand for beverages to change their root, so it would be hard for the public to think the fashion line from Coca Cola. If I didn't read this article, I would think people with Coca-cola clothes is a worker for that company or I would assume that the people did it by themselves to create a new street fashion.
Also, I think this product have to work on general people, not only on the fans to make steady profits. People who like Coca Cola might buy one or two products for fun for the first few years (I think this is the reason why their result was good so far.) but they wouldn't buy it continuously to really wear it.
But still, I think this fits for the image of freedom, youth and creativity that Coca cola, the brand itself has. I'm just not sure about its durability of a successful result.
These kinds of marketing strategies just piss me off. As a person, who have an experience of working in fashion industry, I never spend money for logos to "show up". I know that the company, which wants me to advertise their clothes have to pay for me to wear it, and/or give it to me for free. To be a free advertising of any well-known company and also pay for it?? No way!
But I think I understand what they are coming from. Probably they try to bring the tradition of drinking Coke as something cool and fashionable, but it just won't work in America... The Coke-generation have grew up and their kids unlikely will consider anything they parents use as cool. This why Coke put their logo on the fashion line, american-style clothes, as an idol of the U.S., and clearly target on foreigners , who would appreciate everything related to "American Dream". I think it is a good way to promote their brand, but not to sell their product more. Not in the U.S., I think.
This strategy does seem like a distraction from their core mission. It seems like they are trying to attract a more high-end customer, by rebranding Coke as a premium product. In doing so, I believe they would be ignoring too many of their primary customers, namely young adults and middle-aged people. As for the clothing line: To me, the attractive part of Coke’s branding was always about its simplicity and iconic red color, but the clothing line doesn’t seem to reflect that. Most of the designs are very garish and loud – I can’t even imagine how anyone, especially here in the US, would be willing to wear some of it in public. I can understand the desire to shake things up – Coke’s sales are down because people are switching to healthier alternatives other than sodas. However, I think their money would be better spent to develop healthy products aimed at their core audience.
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