3 ms·

Exactly. Advertising is an arms race. Coca Cola doesn't spend billions on ads because nobody had heard of Coke. They do it to suppress the more innovative compe

Exactly. Advertising is an arms race. Coca Cola doesn't spend billions on ads because nobody had heard of Coke. They do it to suppress the more innovative competition.

trystero 4y ago
...which is an argument against advertisement.
radicaldreamer 4y ago
It's to remind people to buy a coke, it feeds the craving. Same thing for McDonalds and Starbucks advertising.
- wpietri 4y ago
  Right, yes, I believe we're saying the same thing. If Coca Cola doesn't remind people to buy their product, they might buy some other product.
- andrewinardeer 4y ago
  And to make people feel good about their purchase. BMW doesn't really need to advertise as their new cars are only affordable for a small subset of the population. They advertise to re-enforce to their customers they made a great decision parting with their money.
WalterBright 4y ago
Coca Cola did innovate - "New Coke". It was a disaster. People like the old Coke formula much better. Some things really don't need innovation.
- derefr 4y ago
  And interesting point I learned from a documentary recently, that I rarely see mentioned: New Coke failed mainly in the American South, among people who considered Coke to be a wholesome and traditional part of their lifestyle — kind of like sweet tea. But it failed so hard there, with people there getting so angry, that the media capitalized on that failure, running constant articles about it, giving an impression that New Coke was just failing in general. New Coke was actually decently successful in the rest of the world; and especially in younger, more urban markets — i.e. the markets Pepsi is more popular in. New Coke did exactly what it was designed to do: steal market share from Pepsi. Coke's mistake was never really in launching New Coke. Their mistake was in removing the "old" Coke at the same time. If New Coke was positioned differently — not as a replacement for Coke, but just as a "kind" of Coke (like Coke Zero is a "kind of" Coke), they would have cleaned up.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]

Exactly. Advertising is an arms race. Coca Cola doesn't spend billions on ads because nobody had heard of Coke. They do it to suppress the more innovative competition.

trystero 4y ago

...which is an argument against advertisement.

radicaldreamer 4y ago

It's to remind people to buy a coke, it feeds the craving. Same thing for McDonalds and Starbucks advertising.

wpietri 4y ago
Right, yes, I believe we're saying the same thing. If Coca Cola doesn't remind people to buy their product, they might buy some other product.
andrewinardeer 4y ago
And to make people feel good about their purchase. BMW doesn't really need to advertise as their new cars are only affordable for a small subset of the population. They advertise to re-enforce to their customers they made a great decision parting with their money.

WalterBright 4y ago

Coca Cola did innovate - "New Coke". It was a disaster. People like the old Coke formula much better. Some things really don't need innovation.

derefr 4y ago
And interesting point I learned from a documentary recently, that I rarely see mentioned: New Coke failed mainly in the American South, among people who considered Coke to be a wholesome and traditional part of their lifestyle — kind of like sweet tea. But it failed so hard there, with people there getting so angry, that the media capitalized on that failure, running constant articles about it, giving an impression that New Coke was just failing in general. New Coke was actually decently successful in the rest of the world; and especially in younger, more urban markets — i.e. the markets Pepsi is more popular in. New Coke did exactly what it was designed to do: steal market share from Pepsi. Coke's mistake was never really in launching New Coke. Their mistake was in removing the "old" Coke at the same time. If New Coke was positioned differently — not as a replacement for Coke, but just as a "kind" of Coke (like Coke Zero is a "kind of" Coke), they would have cleaned up.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]