This document analyzes Coca Cola's "Share a Coke" marketing campaign. The campaign allowed customers to have their names printed on Coke bottles and cans. This led to a boost in Coke sales in the US for the first time in ten years. The author was interested in this topic because they enjoyed searching for their name on bottles over the summer. A YouTube video provided valuable secondary information by interviewing customers and showing how widely the campaign was marketed globally. The "Share a Coke" campaign related to the author's marketing module by empowering customers and increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty through personalized bottles. It demonstrated how Coke solved the problem of declining sales through creative marketing.

1. Current Events Analysis
Maranda Thibodeau
Intro to Marketing MKT-113
Southern New Hampshire University
Professor David Thrope
November 12, 2014

2. Share a Coke
What is your topic?
The topic I chose was Coca Cola and their “Share a Coke” marketing strategy they
currently have in place. Coca Cola’s “Share a Coke” method has made sales boost extremely
high for the first time in ten years right here in the U.S. The main point of this marketing
campaign was to allow customers have their own name on their can or bottle. Many customers
have gone onto the Coca Cola website just to select their own names, and Coca Cola actually
sent out their names on bottles not too long after. You could also put your name on a virtual can,
and it will be shared across social media websites. Coca Cola needed to do something to boom
their product, because the company has noticed a slight decrease caused by people eating
healthier, particularly in the summer time.
What interested you most about the topic from a marketing perspective?
I chose this topic because I myself am a fan of this marketing strategy. Over the summer,
my friends and I would constantly search for our names while buying one. What impressed me
the most about it was the displays in the stores and how neat they kept the pile of sodas, making
it easy to find your name. At first, they only came out with the 250 most popular names, so my
name was not going to be in there. I searched for a good two weeks then I found out that on their
website you could suggest a name. After doing that I saw my name within a few weeks. Coca
Cola was attracting recent customers, and even customers that do not drink coke just to see their
name on the bottles. All through my Facebook I would see family members and friends taking
photos with the Coke bottles and their names in it. Coke found a creative way to have free
advertising. I found out about “Share a Coke” through Facebook.

3. What secondary sources were used to complete your analysis?
My secondary source used to complete my analysis was a great video I found on
YouTube and thought it talked the most about my topic and brought in useful facts. The video
interviews random customers who bought a “Share a Coke” with their names on it, and just
videotaped their reactions. The video also shows how much this product is marketed around the
world. “Share a Coke” was all over social media, in huge cities where you can type your name in
the website and it will light up, and on transportation systems. This product is shown
everywhere! I found this video very useful to get my point across about how this is a huge
marketing technique, and that it is free advertising for Coke.
In what way(s) does this topic relate to your assigned module marketing?
This topic relates to my assigned module marketing because the title in Chapter 14 is
“Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Empowerment”. Coca Cola definitely satisfies customers
especially with “Share a Coke” because now they have their names on the bottle, and most likely
will never throw out that bottle. They also already satisfied customers even before “Share a
Coke”; they just used it to increase the sales. Getting new customers was what they were after
and they easily succeeded with their plan. Loyalty plays a role in my topic because most of the
customers buying “Share a Coke” was already a Coca Cola customer. Also for the customers
who did not like coke might now be loyal customers. Empowerment is the most important
technique in this topic because its letting your customer control the marketing activities, and
strategies. That is exactly what “Share a Coke” is doing; their main point was to get their
customers involved. Coca Cola recently hosted an event with an estimate of over 350,000

4. customers attending. At this event, they had Coke machines that actually let you type your name
in, and it printed with your name on the bottle. As I mentioned before, allowing the customers to
choose their own name online, increased sales tremendously. Customers may not be as willing to
buy a coke with a name that is not theirs. This video is important to my topic because it shows
everyone what “Share a Coke” is really doing.
How does this marketing topic link to at least two out of these three course
competencies (Problem Solving; Global Orientation; Legal and Ethical Issues)?
My marketing topic links to problem solving, and global orientation out of the three
competencies. Problem solving because Coca Cola needed to find a marketing strategy to boost
sales and gain more customers. Coke had not experienced a boost in sales in a decade until this
summer hit with “Share a Coke.” Global orientation plays a role in my topic because “Share a
Coke” is popular all around the world; also, they host different events around the world for their
products. Coca Cola is sold all around the world, but it is most popular here in the U.S.

5. Sources
 <https://www.google.com/search?q=share a
coke&biw=1252&bih=581&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=zENIVMePObT
_sASRhILwDA&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ>.
 "Share a Coke - Thank You." YouTube. YouTube. Web. 5 Nov. 2014.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l0cCyElfgg>.
 The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media. Web. 5 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/cocacola-share-a-coke-campaign-
boosts-us-sales-for-first-time-in-a-decade-9759739.html>.