Coca-Cola and the Colombian Scandal

In his backyard in Atlanta, GA., a pharmacist John S. Pemberton, mixed some juices of plants and some nuts creating a sweet tasting brown syrup. That syrup mixed with soda fountain water, created the empire that is now Coca-Cola (Bovèe & Arens, 1986). Frank Robinson, Pemberton’s bookkeeper, scripted the font which “Coca-Cola” is written in, which was later they had trademarked (Bellis, 2006). He began selling it on May 8, 1886 in Jacob’s Pharmacy. As soon as the word got out about this new soda drink, the Atlanta Journal spread an ad calling it “Delicious and Refreshing.” That phrase was so popular that it actually was the slogan for the 1904 Coca-Cola advertisements (Bovèe & Arens, 1986).

In 1888, the rights of Coca Cola were bought for $2,300 by Asa G. Candler (Bovèe & Arens, 1986). Candler was an extremely aggressive advertiser, and for that fact alone Coca-Cola hit its most popular times raising its revenue by 4000% (Bellis, 2006). Unfortunately, Pemberton did not live to see his creation thrive (Bovèe & Arens, 1986). His methods consisted of offering thousands of coupons for complimentary coke to the public in order to “build brand preference and loyalty” (Bovèe & Arens, 1986, p.6). Candler supervised the opening of the first bottling plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1899. After 30 years, there were 1,000 plants, 95% of which were “locally owned and operated” (Bovèe & Arens, 1986, p.5). In 1916, they introduced a new contoured bottle. Its purpose was to differentiate between Coca-Cola and other soda products. It was later trademarked. Asa G. Candler died in 1929, and his family sold Coca-Cola for about $25 million (Bovèe & Arens, 1986).

Because of all the forceful advertising that Candler administered, Coca-Cola Co. was ranked 23rd among leading advertisers with about $282.2 million spent on advertising alone (Bovèe & Arens, 1986). McCann-Erickson Agency has worked with Coca-Cola on many advertisements (Bellis, 2006). Their philosophy was that Coke doesn’t change, but the society does, and Coca-Cola illustrated some very important examples that reinforced this attitude. For one, they were among the first people that discovered the benefits of merchandising early. They used many celebrities in their 1934 advertisements. Another example is the soldiers they incorporated in their ads after WW2 in 1947. A final example is the neon sign Coca-Cola put up when the Apollo astronauts landed back on earth (Bovèe & Arens, 1986). The most famous Coke ad is the one where they incorporated the song, which says “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. I’d like to buy the world a coke and keep it company.” It was aired for the first time in February 1971, and it was a disaster. It was later edited for $250,000, which was the most spent on an advertisement at that time, and was aired for the second time in July of 1971(Bellis, 2006). It was a hit. A re-make was in the works but when it aired again it was rejected by the public.

Over the course of its history, Coca-Cola, like any other multi-national corporation, has had its share of troubles. The first incident occurred in 1985, when Robert C. Goizuetta was chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola and Donald R. Keough was the President. They were over-looking the creation of a “New Coke.” The launch of the new product was on April 23rd of that year. The public hated it. They held protests completely rejecting “New Coke.” Due to the rebuff of the product, it was taken off the market on July 11 of that same year (Ross, 2005).

A more recent problem that Cola endured was the allegations of labor abuse in one of their bottling factories in Colombia. Several union leaders were murdered by paramilitaries in Colombia, and the SINALTRAINAL union affirmed that these actions were followed through with the approval of Coke factory managers (Nova, 2004). Coke has continually denied all these allegations, and assured that their bottlers had nothing to do with these acts of violence (Nova, 2004). Furthermore, they mentioned the fact that they have incessantly tried to protect union members (Nova, 2004). The Worker Rights Consortium wanted to take action against Coca-Cola because of these alleged acts of union harassment and abuse (Nova, 2004). Their strong feelings ushered a lot of schools to go against Coke causing it to lose a large part of its collegiate market. Many schools including Rutgers University, University of Michigan, and SUNY Buffalo have stopped selling any Coca-Cola products on their campuses. The decisions to end all their contracts with Coca-Cola were based first and foremost on their belief of the accuracy of these allegations; along with numerous protests by students that have only become more intense as time progressed. Universities decided that could not deny their students something that they felt so passionately about. On May 6, 2005, a meeting was held between Coca-Cola and various school presidents and some students in Washington D.C. where they discussed this scandal. The Students against Sweatshops organization was not allowed to enter the premises, so they chose to stand and protest outside the building where the meeting was held. Unfortunately, in the eyes of the invitees, their concerns and expectations for that meeting were not met (“Tremendous victories,” 2005).

Coca-Cola faced a lot of scrutiny for these allegations despite that there has been no substantial proof to support them. As stated in CokeFacts.Org,

The U.S. and Colombian courts have thoroughly investigated accusations surrounding Coca-Cola’s business practices in Colombia. Two different judicial inquiries in Colombia – one in a Colombian Court and one by the Colombian Attorney General – found no evidence to support the allegations that bottler management conspired to intimidate trade unionists.

The fact that Coca-Cola held a meeting in hopes of attaining the gratification of a vast majority of its consumers, its collegiate market, gives a big inclination that they are free of any guilt. They also posted many specific pieces of information on their website as well as other Coke-affiliated sites like CokeFacts.Org. Some of this information includes that Coca-Cola has been a member of the Colombian community for over 70 years, and that about 31% of their employees are part of unions (“Colombia,” 2006). This strives to convey that the Coca-Cola bottling company in Colombia has no reason for any animosity towards unions, and therefore would not resort to any kind of violence. Small details, like these, help to exonerate Coca-Cola from the allegations that have pressed against them.

Objective: To rejuvenate the consumer market after the dismissal of the allegations in Colombia.

Target Market: The target market will be mainly consumer advertising on an International level. It will be product advertising since we are mainly dealing with selling Coca-Cola drinks.

Campaign Strategy: Coke is still “The Friendliest Drink on Earth.” – 1956 Slogan.

Campaign Proposal: To market Coke on an international level, gaining back any trust lost from the Colombia incident.

Advertising Ideas:

Slogan: “Coca-Cola.. The Same Great Taste.. In All Languages.”

Medium: For the medium, we should concentrate on television since it’s a sure way to get the message across internationally, and fast.

Time: An ideal time would be “prime time” television, around 6p.m.-9p.m.

Long Term Timetable: This campaign would last a period of at least 3-5 months. This is just a generalized number. It would depend on how long it takes for people’s animosity toward Coke during the Colombia incident to “cool.”

Research Budget: There is a possibility that a few surveys will be carried out, in several countries, to see which populations still hold animosity even after the dismissal of the charges, and how large those populations are. As well as which markets they control.

Advertising Budget: This will be a relatively expensive campaign since it will be carried out on an international level when it comes to the surveys as well as the airing of the advertisements. Prices of each ad will greatly vary from station to station, and from country to country.

Assessment Research Budget: The best way for assessment would probably the distribution of the survey, once more, after the run-time of the campaign.

Bellis, M. (2006). The History of Coca-Cola: John Pemberton. Retrieved February 8,2006, from http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/coca_cola.htm.

Bovee, C.L. & Arens, W.F. (1986). Contemporary Advertising (2nd Ed.). Homewood, IL:Irwin.(2005). Colombia key facts. Retrieved February 7, 2005, from http://www.cokefacts.org.

Nova, S. (2004). Dear colleagues. Retrieved May 20, 2004, from http://www.workersrights.org.

Ross, M.E. (2005). It seemed like a good idea at the time. Retrieved February 7, 2005, from http://www.msnbc.com.(2005).

Tremendous victories on campus- May 20, 2005 Newsletter. Retrieved May 20, 2005, from http://www.killercoke.org.