The verdict is in. Marketing folks all know by now that top of the list reigns COKE.
My first wage (selling Vietnamese worthless currency in Subic Bay on my way to the US a few days after the war had ended) was spent on Coke, from a vending machine. I remembered til this day the taste, slightly burning but thirst-satisfying.
A few days before that, when we first landed on the Bay, a priest and a nun, one with a sandwich, the other with a coke, welcomed us to safety.
No wonder the brand sticks.
It was there, welcoming survivors.
(The priest by the way stood not on the beach, but by the water, waiting).
I am aware of controversies surrounding water plants in India to supply for Coca Cola plants.
But as a brand, it has so far stood the test of time.
Heinz pickles and ketchup should have come close. Hershey chocolate also. (in time of uncertainty as we are currently in, consumers cling to brand steady)
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/07/top_brands/source/1.htm
But beverages like Coke is hard to beat.
It engages all your senses: taste, touch, smell, visual and even auditory (as you pop open the can, you hear that sizzling sound).
Branding is emotional, even primal.
Anybody can put sugar and water together in a can, and slap a logo on it.
But somehow, one strand at a time, Coke manages to stand tall. It made a mistake with New Coke. But then, out of crisis, we got Coke Classic.
Coke doesn’t stray and respond hastily to tyranny of the moment.
It is rooted in Atlanta, home also to CNN and CDC.
Between those two, no virus can escape undetected and unannounced.
Google is working frantically on Google ME. It will be a personal branding engine. Can you imagine near 7 billion people trying to get online, and get in line for their 15-minute of digital fame. We will need millions of server farms to accommodate these digital passports.
Personal branding will be to the next generation what reputation and trust were to our village elders.
Except, in this global village, the branding bar is set really high, thanks to COKE. Eagles’ latest CD tried to imitate Coke wavy graphic.
And I can’t remember the time without a can of Diet Coke next to me. That was before the mobile phone took over that sacred spot. Speaking of which, Apple however “hot” couldn’t even make the top 10 list . Something can’t be “coked up” overnight.
Thang Nguyen 555 