Coca-Cola has frequently spoken about its mission to transform its marketing function, as digital and “experiences” become more important for connecting with consumers.
It’s a journey that is already driving “more impact and less waste”, according to the chief financial officer of the soft drinks giant, which owns brands include Sprite, Innocent and, of course, Coca-Cola itself.
“In a system the size of ours, over time, it’s natural that you build up pockets of inefficiency, blind spots,” CFO John Murphy told investors at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) conference today (17 February).
While marketing transformations can sometimes be costly processes, the CFO heaped praise on CMO Manolo Arroyo for the work, which he said has been both effective and efficient.
“I think the work that Manolo and his team have been doing to reinvent the way we do marketing, but doing it with a keen eye to the dollar value that we need and the dollar value that it creates, has been super impactful,” Murphy said.
Henrique Braun, who will take over as CEO of Coca-Cola next month, also pointed to the impact of the marketing transformation. In particular, he highlighted how the process would enable Coca-Cola to be much more personalised in how it approaches the upcoming Fifa World Cup.
Three things make Coca-Cola better at marketing than anyone
Braun said that Coca-Cola, which is a leading sponsor of the competition, will run the “biggest-ever” campaign around the World Cup, and that its enhanced capabilities would allow it to reach consumers in new ways during the campaign.
Coca-Cola will combine scale with “hyper-personalised engagement”, meaning it will be able to connect with consumers in different ways according to their “desires”, Braun said.
In the past, Coca-Cola would run global campaigns and allow local markets to “plug in”. This time, thanks to its process of transformation, the brand can harness insight to personalise from city to city.
Braun teased some of the brand’s plans around the World Cup, which range from Fifa Panini football card activity to an AI-powered Jose Mourinho.
The 4Is
Every marketer is familiar with the 4Ps, but speaking at the CAGNY Conference, Coca-Cola’s incoming CEO introduced a new acronymic term: the 4Is.
These reflect the business’s ambition to become more consumer centric, Braun said, stating that the concept is something investors will “hear a lot about”. The 4Is stand for: insights, innovation, intimacy and integration.
The company has now got the ability to access deeper insights, and to generate these into “scalable platforms”, he said. Innovation has been an area Coca-Cola has improved, but where it must be “more agile”, he said.
On intimacy, he said it was important to work at the point of sale to reach consumers at the right time, with the right package.
It’s very important here to keep in mind that what we’re doing with digital, it’s not reimagining everything that we do, but actually amplifying what we do.
Henrique Braun, Coca-Cola Company
Finally, on integration, Braun said this was about bringing together every stage of the business’s journey to make its sales “a 360 [degree] platform that goes from engagement all the way to transactions”.
As well as introducing this framework for thinking about consumer-centricity, Braun also reflected on the role that digital capabilities will have for Coca-Cola’s future.
Digital will be placed “in every connection” the business has, he stated.
“It’s very important here to keep in mind that what we’re doing with digital, it’s not reimagining everything that we do, but actually amplifying what we do best with an opportunity to go with more agility and more scale moving forward,” he said.