Business Engineering and Management

Marketing
Coca Cola
Case study

The use in marketing of a different color combination than usual for an international brand, in a
national event, in an unknown city on a small market, would have repercussions towards that brand?

The Regional Marketing Director Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) at Coca Cola must respond to a
recent email received from the local team in Romania: during one of the games to be played at home
by the Universitatea Craiova (a team from the first Romanian Football League, team sponsored by
Coca Cola) are considering the replacement in the communication activities of the traditional red and
white colors of Coca Cola with the blue and white colors of the Universitatea Craiova Team .

The key reason behind this initiative refers to the colors of the Dinamo Bucharest team, the visiting
team - traditional enemy, which are also the colors of the Coca Cola brand - red and white. While this
would be a singular event taking place in a virtually unknown Romanian city, Regional Marketing
Director is aware that this would be a major deviation from years of strong corporate policies
designed to build a "property" for the colors white and red. , to ensure consistency for an
international brand present in more than 100 countries around the world.

Moreover, the rapid development of social media complicates the situation because people tend to
quickly share the interesting things they see and there is a high probability that they will also consider
this initiative interesting.

The email Regional Marketing Director had to reply:

Good morning,
I am writing to you about the sponsorship program we have with the Universitatea Craiova Football
Club - the iconic Romanian football club for the southwestern region of the country, the region where
our competitors hold the leading position.
We are in the first year of the project and the "Match" for the supporters of the Universitatea Craiova
is approaching: they will be the hosts in the match with Dinamo Bucharest - the traditional enemy, a
club that inspires the most passionate reactions for Craiova fans. It is the match that must be won
every season, everyone feeling that if this match is won, other negative results become less
important. It's kind of Liverpool versus Manchester United in the UK, Athletic Bilbao versus Real
Madrid in Spain or FC Utrecht versus Ajax Amsterdam in the Netherlands. In the attached documents
we gathered some information to support those mentioned (Annex 1: Dinamo Bucharest; Annex 2:
Universitatea Craiova; Annex 3: Press articles;).
The match is a great opportunity for us to connect with Craiova fans (we are based on a stadium full
of 30,000 fans) and we plan to get maximum results from this action.
We plan a complete below-the-line (BTL) program for the day of the match, which includes sampling,
to put the product in the hands of the consumer.
And now we come to the main challenge we face and the reason why I am writing to you: as you
probably remember, the colors of the Universitatea Craiova are Blue & White, while the colors of
Dinamo Bucharest are Red & White (surprise, surprise - the colors of our brand) . This means that on
the day of the big local event, the local community will be dressed in blue & white while our team will
wear the traditional uniform in the ugliest colors on the day of the match.
I can already imagine how our colleagues will look and feel in the middle of the crowd gathered
around Ion Oblemenco Stadium and I can see how the equity of our distant, cold brand is
strengthened with very little effort.
With these in mind, we thought we would positively surprise our fans and employees at the factory in
Craiova and adapt the colors of our brand by adopting for one day the colors of the host team. The
message we will send is very strong - we are here with you, we support and love the Universitatea
Craiova to such an extent that we cannot wear the colors of the Dinamo Bucharest team on the day of
the match - we want to be like you, in blue & white.
I am aware that this will be against the company's rules, which do not allow us to change traditional
colors - even if it were for one day, in a small local community and the benefits are very clear.
I hope you can see the clear benefits of this action and help us make it happen.
As you think about our proposal, please remember the main reason we started this sponsorship
program - the goal of connecting with the local community in an effort to change the brand equity
strong, but distant and cold. The region is important and we have a smaller market share in this
region than our competitors even if we have one of the main factories in the city.
The sponsorship of the National Football Team helps us to build the other values of the brand, but it
does not help us with the problems specific to Oltenia (see annexes 4 and 5 for more information
about the region).
The entire Coca Cola team in Romania believes in the positive results of this initiative which can be
used as a study for other countries where our company does not have a second local brand in its
portfolio.
That's about all I wanted to tell you, I'm looking forward for your answer.

Reading the email once again Regional Mk Director was thinking about the last actions in Romania
that led to this unexpected request from the local team. Coca Cola was successfully launched in
Romania in 1998 and managed to quickly become a national market leader. It is very interesting that
the only region in which it is not the market leader is the South-West (also known as Oltenia - with
the main city of Craiova) - the very region where the Coca Cola factory is located. Leaders are two
local Romanian brands with an old history on the market.
A year ago, the company decided to focus on Oltenia and gain market leadership. As a marketing
research conducted in the region showed that the brand is perceived by consumers as having a very
high quality, but it is distant, even arrogant decision was to design and implement a series of
marketing activities, involving brand and consumers in order to get closer to them. One of the main
decisions taken was to support the football team Universitatea Craiova - the pride of all the people
from Oltenia and one of the most beloved symbols.

He recalled how, in order to get the management's approval for the partnership, the local team
organized a trip to Craiova - a trip that included participating in a football match at the local stadium.
Everyone was impressed by the passion of the fans and so the project was approved.
Thinking about all this, Regional Mk Director took another look at the attached documents and felt
sympathy for the local team. And after all, why not? As the local Marketing Director said in his e-mail:
some lessons could come out of this - things that other markets would have to learn from.

Question:

Would you the replacement the red and white colors of Coca Cola with the blue and white colors of
the Universitatea Craiova Team?
Motivate your decision.

Yes, I would replace the colors of the Coca Cola brand,because this is not something permanent,it’s
about just in the day of the match.Also,this decision would not influence the Coca Cola’s logo on the
international level,the colours being changed just on the days of the match,just in Craiova,Oltenia.
The main benefit of this change is that Coca Cola can drastically increase its popularity with this
gesture, because the only region where it is not the market leader is Oltenia,so this marketing offer
could be a smart move for the company.
One more thing is that changing the colours could lead to multiple shares on mass media,this change
being a new and interesting one.And besides the appeareance of the brand,there could exists some
people that are intrigued with the gesture ,because the team of Cola-Cola wear red-white clothes
while solding the blue-white bottles,which can become a discussed subject.