The “One Brand” Marketing Strategy
Brand marketing has always been one of the most significant marketing strategies used by companies. But although it may seem obvious at first that a company should have a recognizable brand, it is actually a bit more complicated than it appears on the surface. Brand marketing may have been at the strategic forefront for quite a while, but there are companies that have taken the idea of using their brand as their number one strategy to another level.
What is a Brand?
To fully understand how brand marketing in general works, it is first important to define exactly what a brand is. In the past, a brand was essentially putting a label on your company or products to make them easily identifiable. Take Apple, for example, whose name and logo are immediately recognizable as part of their brand. You do not need anything more than the infamous image of an apple with a bite taken out of it to know which products are created by the company.
Fast forward to today and branding is so much more than just a label that is synonymous with a company. A brand in the modern sense of the word may still stem from a label or logo, but it involves much more of what the company is actually about; what they stand for, what they do, and their overall reputation.
Due to the importance and depth of the modern-day “brand”, it takes time to build a reliable and effective brand marketing scheme. A company’s brand is so intertwined in everything that a company stands for, that it runs much deeper than simply slapping a logo on products. What does the logo mean? What does the brand suggest to customers and consumers when they see their label?
The “One Brand” Marketing Strategy
The world of marketing is highly competitive, so in order to stand out and become a serious contender companies need to have unique and highly innovative marketing strategies that capture target consumers and pull them in, thereby creating brand loyalty. Many large companies today offer several different trademarked products. They may be created by the same company, but they are not always associated with consumers as being a single brand.
Enter the One Brand Marketing Strategy
This was first innovated by Coca-Cola in 2016 as a way to consolidate its major products under one global strategy dubbed “Taste the Feeling”. The goal was to create a campaign that focused on getting consumers to relate to Coca-Cola on a more personal level.
The underlying tone of the campaign was the company saying that no matter what type of Coke you choose to drink, we are all united as people. They also re-imaged their products, focusing on the same infamously recognizable red disc, no matter if it was Coke, Diet Coke, or Coke Zero. By connecting on a personal level with the consumer and simultaneously grouping their products under one umbrella, Coca-Cola innovated a marketing strategy that emphasized unity and was recognizable worldwide.
Marcos de Quinto, Chief Marketing Officer at The Coca-Cola Company, described the approach as recognizing that “people want their Coca-Cola in different ways, but whichever one they want, they want a Coca-Cola brand with great taste and uplifting refreshment. Through the ’One Brand’ strategy we will move away from multiple brand campaigns, to one single iconic brand campaign that celebrates both the product and the brand.”
Now more than ever, branding (particularly successful branding) is essential to the recognizability and, ultimately, the success of a company. Without forward-thinking marketing strategies that go beyond just a recognizable logo, it is difficult to keep ahead of the game. We are exposed to thousands of advertising campaigns, everywhere we look there is a product being marketed.
A successful brand must connect on some level with the consumer, so that when they see the logo there is an immediate connection to the quality and narrative behind what they are buying. The “One Brand” strategy not only united different Coca-Cola Trademark products together, but it united the Coca-Cola brand with people on a global scale.
Want to revolutionize your branding strategy? Get in touch with the branding specialists at Rizzo Young Marketing LLC.