Promotional advertising is a pivotal part of a consumer good product’s go to market strategy. In recent years, digital media has acquired a larger share of those budgets. Pepsi and Coca-Cola have both stepped up their online efforts to include social media.
The way in which each brand integrates social media efforts with promotional advertising and public relations say a lot about the personality of the company and its culture.
The Pepsi challenge
Of the two giant beverage brands, Pepsi is the one that seems to have had the greater identity transformation, although, seen side by side, they seem to have borrowed significantly from each other. Pepsi’s logo is perceived to have changed more dramatically over the years. Thanks to brand new, you can see how the earlier chart that was making the rounds spoke to perception.
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A group of people working together towards a common purpose can form a community. In some instances, we call it company, in others neighborhood, in yet others we call it agency. When the group is really cohesive around its common purpose, they think of themselves as a tribe.
Brands go way back with us. They are our shortcut to meaning, the symbols we use to trade experiences via emotional impact. Images can remind us of events we enjoyed. Think about the stickers with product or group logos many put on their laptop cases, for example. They signify to us and the world that we like or identify with a certain product, brand, band, and so on.
If narrative is the shortcut the brain uses to make sense of the world, symbols are a short hand for the way something feels. Go way back in your memory and you will know why you kept the stubs from that concert you went to with your first group of friends. It’s not just the photographs, but the objects themselves that remind you of the experience when something was unique.
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