The Marked marketer

Mozartisssssssmmmmmmmmmmmm

2008-02-01T13:29:00.000+05:30

Writng this one after a long time.Drew inspiration after my visit to Salsburg(Austria).Apart from its picturesque beauty,the city is also famous for two other reasons.....

(i) The famous movie 'Sound of Music' was shot here .

(ii) and one of the famous Music composers of all times Wolfgang Mozart belongs to Salsburg.

Its simply amazing how the town is completely obsessed with Mozart,every direction you turn your head to you cant help noticing how Mozart over the ages has transformed into a cult Brand ambassador.

Salzburg stores are stuffed with Mozart souvenirs — from musical boxes and T shirts to the famous Mozart Kugel chocolates. Everyone wants to take a little bit of Mozart home with them.I couldn't help myself and bought a box of Mozart Kugel chocolates for folks back home.

2007-06-04T16:15:00.000+05:30

RETAILING entails not just selling, but rather the art of selling with the right ingredients that include merchandise, store design, sales people, product line and display. Yes! All these elements together complete the look of a store and grant a customer the end satisfaction.

When you are into the business of selling brands like Reebok,Nike,Adidas and the likes, emphasis is laid on the display of the products. Every market you go to there are similar brands in a department store, similar merchandise, but what really differentiates one store from the other is the visual display.

Earlier, it was a big contrast to shop abroad and shop in India, but over the last five years or so the country has seen a remarkable change in retail, not just the sales, but in the entire visual display of stores. During a recent visit to the CP market one could notice a significant change in the visual display of the stores, be it specialty or department. The first sensory perception gets into action when the eyes catch and convey the message to the brain – that this is the store that needs to be dropped into. Here most of the stores have display windows, some have it openback, where one can sneak a peek into much of the store, while some have a closed back, in which the store is not visible from outside except from the main door area, and some stores have a windowless window whereby the entire merchandise is on the shelves and can be seen from outside, having no display in the window area.

Most Reebok stores have an LED illuminated sportsbar (illuminated table) and the plasma screen lure one into the tech savvy world of Reebok. The concept of this sportsbar is absolutely practical, and does justice to the product line, displaying the sole of the shoe along with the head view . The feet of the table have small balls in them illuminated in white colour, and around the table the LEDs run in blue colour shouting the currently running campaigns of Reebok all over the world. Being an electronics engineer by training I realized that these LEDs are economical too.The LEDs, low in consumption do not need more than 0.1 watt to operate, enjoy a long life of up to 100,000 hours, and are of high luminous efficiency. They are also low heat emitting, environment protecting, unlike fluorescents with mercury, and are great for decorative yet functional displays. The concept of the sportsbar is the signature focal point at the entrance façade for most Reebok stores. The open back-windows on either side of the clean front form the primary display and the secondary display window. The primary window carries the Paris Trainer campaign. This window has the graphic as the backdrop and Reebok Pump Paris trainer line of shoes for display. The secondary window has the latest collection of shoes along with apparel on the nesting tables .

The windows are tastefully done, serving as a teaser to the wider display area. The windows, which were being changed once a month, will now undergo the exercise every fortnight, keeping in mind the new product line and campaigns.

Once inside, the rubber wood shade wooden flooring and the interiors of the store clearly convey the concept of the universal appeal. It's a truly international shopping experience.

The product display is on the lines of a contemporary art gallery with a high tech sporty feel to it. Multipurpose fixtures with slatwalls in pine complement the gray which is the logo colour and steel edging in the fixtures.

The wall spaces have been optimally used with multiple options of front facing, side hanging and for stackables. The fixtures accommodate 80 per cent of hanging and 20 per cent of stackables. These fixtures are made of board in pine, acrylic with steel edging.

The nesting tables and the T-rectangular fixtures are placed at least 5-6 feet away from the wall cases giving enough space to the consumer to walk around the table. An interesting semicircular table going into a curve is placed at the centre of the store as the focal point that has merchandise related to golfwear and fitness accessories.

The menswear display on the left and the womenswear on the right have a colour story of only 2-3 colours which help the consumer make an easy choice with the coordinates, making the display look absolutely clean.

Both the womenswear and menswear have a headless mannequin displaying the merchandise next to these shelves, showing the related merchandise and the wearability, giving a complete look to the consumers.

In most stores the cash counters are located at the centre line near to the wall case fixture, having all impulse items next to it which includes socks and caps. The cash counter is illuminated with a translucent acrylic case.

Walking towards the rear of the store are the fitness accessories like yoga mats, duffel bags, sports bags and water bottles.

The store has one trial room with silver laminate and is absolutely on clean lines, no images or graphics, just one mirror and fixture to hang clothes.

The back wall is the complete shoe wall. It also has a reflective steel panel and panels in metallic blue breaking the monotony of the entire shoe wall. The entire wall is divided into independent panels of different categories of shoes, with effective and clean signages, rendering decision-making easy for customers.

Fluorescent blue lights illuminate the stair case, and the boundary has both white fluorescents with halogens as spotlights directly on the merchandise.

The focussed interiors and window display of this Reebok store thus herald the beginning of worldclass visual merchandising in India, endorsing the global youth through music, technology and sports.

2007-06-04T15:40:00.001+05:30

My Summers Experience............

Just had my summer internship with Reebok. Personally speaking it was an outstanding experience.Now with some exposure to the world of retail, I would be able to share what I learnt a little something about VM i.e. Visual Merchandising.

2007-06-04T14:13:00.000+05:30

Brand Wars : Its out there on the Billboards !!

Rivalry and competition between brands catering to the same set of consumers has been happening since time immemorial. We've see it happen before, the first of this kind came up in the 1980s, and that too between HP and Modi Xerox. It was only a decade later that cola companies - Coke and Pepsi - took the cue to come up with some witty ads battling each other out on the streets (read billboards!). For a quick recall: Pepsi's response to Coke's "Eat Cricket, Sleep Cricket, Drink Cricket" ad was an ad showing two former cricketers eating bats and sleeping with stumps! Then we even had a name for it –it was christened as the “Cola wars”... And now it's back again - only this time it's another product, an altogether different segment and between more than two players !

Three airline majors - Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airways and Go Air - are fighting it out with their advertising. It all started with Jet putting up a billboard in Mumbai, saying "We've changed". Kingfisher responded by putting up another billboard atop it, saying, "We made them change". A few days later, GoAir came up with one of its own (and at the same spot), saying, "We've not changed. We're still the smartest way to fly."

And that's not all. As if working on the series, Jet came up with another billboard which said, "Fly to New York daily". Kingfisher countered it with "They've flown to New York from here."

What we are seeing could be the result of Jet buying Sahara and Kingfisher responding to it aggressively. Healthy competition is one thing but this is a scathing attack,a serious case of mud slinging (read hitting below the belt) .However unfair it may seem on the face but still the fact of the matter is that its fun to watch the brands fight it out inside the ring and outside too ;-)

P.S : This story was making rounds that the Go Air Billboard was never really put up,and that the print ad being circulated on the web was actually made using photoshop,it even seems so after looking at the Go Air billboard(clearly theres a change in the shading).

2007-04-06T23:37:00.000+05:30

The Hutch Pink Story ......

It doesn't matter if you are Black or white,but it surely matters if you are Orange or Pink,the same is evident with Hutch's re-branded look. Sure, the company decided to re-brand its product, get rid of the brand name Orange, as it is called in Mumbai, and bring it under the same umbrella as the other 12 circles in the country. But why pink in particular?

Designed by Ogilvy and Mather (O&M) in collaboration with London-based corporate identity firm Wolff Olins, the new colours will reflect the cohesive face of the new Hutch. So why pink and blue? Colour experts said both pink and blue are new-age colours, increasingly being used in new media such as the internet and TV.

Blue is said to be the colour of success and prosperity as well as a colour that has a universal appeal. Global majors such as IBM and Microsoft as well as Infosys use blue in their logo. Blue also depicts a connection with the masses, a link Hutch cannot afford to weaken. The cool colour depicts freshness. Similarly, pink represents strength, and yet has a young and trendy feel. It is an emotional colour used mostly during festivities such as birthdays and Valentines Day, both aspects which are important for the telecom firm

Hutch decided to change colour for two reasons. First, because of the decision to re-brand Orange as Hutch, and with the colour being such an integral part of the brand name, a change was required. But even otherwise, with Hutch sharpening its peg and penetrating the rural market, it was time to refresh the brand , and the re-branding exercise was being discussed for six months or so prior to the actual execution of it.

The execution involved, on a purely communicative level, outdoor advertising, television, print media, and even signage - changing the signs on every Hutch shop across the country. Radio Mirchi blared out "It's pink!" instead of "It's hot!" for a while. As for internal changes, everything from the Web site to the letterhead to the CEO's visiting card, the uniforms and the interiors of the Hutch outlets were revamped and had to be changed to the new colour. But is the colour a little too loud for a brand that caters to a wide cross-section of people? Well, when the product was launched in the UK ten years ago with orange as the defining colour, it was very unusual for a public that was used to sober colours such as black, white, fawn, navy blue and so on, But it was a brave colour at the time, and similarly now. Pink is the new orange, really, and very few other companies would have the style and confidence to pull it off.

HUTCH: The Boy,The Pug and this Beautiful World !!

2007-02-05T22:31:00.000+05:30

The oldest memories of HUTCH in India are associated with the huge white billboards with a human head emerging from the bottom. This was gradually replaced by a full face (no celebrity, just a common face) with a bold ‘Hi’, with no indication of the brand or the company. It was simply amazing as to how the signages caught people’s attention and kept the audience guessing till finally HUTCH announced its arrival with ‘We are Hutch and we are in India’ message.

Infact, no other marketing initiative would have captured so much imagination among the Indian consumers than the HUTCH advertising campaigns inspite of a no-nonsense and uncluttered approach, very “uncharacteristic” of the Indian advertising industry.

Airtel over the years has roped in glamorous celebrities (the Shahrukh Khans ,the Sachins and the Rahmans of the world ),HUTCH on the other hand stuck to its basic branding principle i.e. in simpler words it trusted the pug(Chika) and the boy(his names Jairam ;-) ) to deliver the message (read create the magic) which probably no celebrity could do for them as well.

HUTCH has also had advertising campaigns with celebrities (Rahul Dravid and Irfan Khan) which have been memorable but none more remarkable as the ‘pug and the boy’ with a surprisingly simple, yet effective tagline - ‘Where you go, our network follows’ .

All of HUTCH’s memorable advertising campaigns (the TVCs primarily) are marked by strong visuals, creative work by the agency (O&M India ) and of course the “You and I, in this beautiful world..” theme (composed by Rupert Fernandes ).The theme emphasizes the network reach of HUTCH in the usual effortless yet effective manner. The men behind the campaign, V Mahesh and Rajiv Rao will be remembered not only for making the whole of India sing the advert jingle but also for making the pug one of the most sought-after pets in the country :-)

FYI the pug Chika is owned by a goan couple and has also starred in a couple of Bollywood movies ;-)

2007-01-28T17:19:00.000+05:30

Was surfing the net when i came across this advertising campaign for Accessorize (a ladies accessories store in Switzerland and U.K).This would qualify as a piece of Guerilla marketing (minimum costs for maximum impact). Though the effectiveness of the campaign cannot be guaged(as to how many people exposed to the ad actually go ahead and make a purchase), but it is something which is definitely hard to miss.

Created by Saatchi & Saatchi Simko, giant necklaces adorn the streets creating barriers across steps and between bollards, with appropriately scaled-up swing tags attached promoting the website details.

I checked up the Accessorize website too.Would say a good idea in theory, unfortunately let down by the very poor website. But it does at least give information on the six stores in Switzerland, and links to the UK site (click to open the link)which is far more impressive.

Money isn't Everything

2007-01-26T15:36:00.000+05:30

Australian Red Cross worked with M&C Saatchi Direct, Sydney to catch the attention of students in 2006 with the ‘Blood Box’, a point-of-sale campaign with donation boxes and posters. The Blood Box campaign won two Bronze Lions at the Cannes International Advertising Festival in 2006, one for the blood box and one for the poster. In the brief provided for the festival, M&C Saatchi explained that Red Cross Australia had asked them to find a way to increase the number of students donating blood in Australia. Most charities ask for money. While a large number of young people want to help worthy causes, they simply don’t have enough money to help everyone. M&C Saatchi chose to highlight to these people that they could still do a world of good without giving money.

In Australia, a donation box is a typical means that charities ask for money. M&C Saatchi simply chose to put a twist on this by producing actual donation boxes, not containing money, but containing blood. After all, money isn’t everything !!

Wrigley' s Creating Magic with Coffee Cups

2007-01-21T18:56:00.000+05:30

They say "Nothing works better than an ad in your face"...........This LITERALLY(notice Capital ) was the case with the Wrigley's Extra White teeth Whitening Chewing Gum BTL Ad campaign.The BTL involved the development of a round sticker.These cute but scary stickers from Wrigley's chewing gum are placed at the base of Starbucks disposable coffee cups. The beauty of their effect is that they can only be seen when the coffee drinker is swigging away at full sip.

What did it result in ??........Well It resulted in a lot of Surprised faces ,Stolen Cups,amused passers by plus an increased sales during the promotion.

The BTL campaign was not just limited to the Wrigley's chewing gum.In the west where plastic surgery is fast becoming the norm,a similar advertising campaign for Canadian surgery (‘Toronto Plastic Surgery’) was done which made use of Coffee cups for their promotion campaign . Ad agency DDB Canada dreamt up this clever idea – allowing consumers to test-drive a new nose shape while drinking their coffee.

Interesting...... something as cheap as disposable coffee cups can be creatively used to such an extent .Clearly there is more to the campaign than Advertising alone,the experience would surely leave an everlasting impression .....Now that is what you call 'WOW' effect !!

Peep Hole Advertsising

2007-01-20T14:35:00.000+05:30

Is getting an Instant customer recall a problem ?? So, how do you get your message across and get people talking about your product?

Well, you needn't get those really big billboards or high tech signages to get the consumer's attention. You need innovative ideas that may be low-tech but still ticks. Just like Papa John's Pizza's ads.

Created by Saatchi & Saatchi, Peru, this clever, yet simple idea in promoting Papa John's Pizza won gold at the recent Cannes International advertising awards in the Lions direct category.

It happens sometimes, you want to order some pizza or Chinese food but you can't remember the delivery number or at times you can't even remember the name of the restaurant or the pizza place.

A similar clever door-to-door marketing campaign for Otto, a huge mail-order company in Germany was launched. A sticker featuring model Eva Padberg, Otto's catalogue and the order number, was attached to the spyhole of thousands of houses around Germany.

Although a pizza guy eternally present at your eyehole peeper is quite creepy,(it is as if you have a stalker or something), but people wouldn't mind the sight of a beautiful model ;-) .

Its Nice, amusing,short - elements of a brilliant ad and youv'e got to admit that it works too. Nice work!

The latest in the world of pop-up retail .............

2007-01-19T19:53:00.000+05:30

Now when Retail is coming up in a big way in India. Retailing in the west and other developed parts of the world seems to be leaps and bounds ahead not only in terms of size of retail outlets and distribution capacities but also in terms of innovation and out of the box thinking, rather ‘Out with the Box’ thinking ;-) Don't get what i am saying....Read on.........

From Singapore comes the Venue VBOX, a portable store in a shipping container, which can be set-up temporarily. Any place. Any time. The VBOX enables a brand or company to follow an event they wish to align their brand with, or pop up where consumers least expect it. Tag along with a photography exhibition or set up shop temporarily at a large sporting event. Brands can even showcase items that consumers may not otherwise be able to purchase elsewhere: just fill the VBOX with one-offs or special editions and you'll pull in consumers with the prospect that they'll able to purchase something unique.

The VBOX comes self-contained and equipped with an iMac and iPod HiFi. It's entirely ready to go; all that needs to be done is fill it with enticing products. To date the VBOX has housed collections by some of the fashion world’s most prestigious names: RAF SIMONS (Prada Group) and limited PUMA designer co-labs by Alexander McQueen, Christy Turlington, Mihara Yasuhiro as well as CDs, magazines/books and Motorola phones. Japanese clothing brand UNIQLO used container stores for its recent launch in the United States .

Whether the VBOX is placed in a remote village in Spain, on a beach in California or on the ski slopes of Canada or may be on a road side lawn in a manhattan suburb it's a refreshing way to inject fun and excitement into a brand and win over a swag full of new consumers.

PASSOUT ADVERTISING : ADVERTISING AFTER DARK

2007-01-19T00:11:00.000+05:30

Had wanted to write about this interesting Ad that i had come across on the net. The Australian company Passout Marketing is using nightclub hand stamps for advertising.

Inked on the hands and wrists of nightclub patrons, passout stamps are used as proof that someone has paid admission, is of legal drinking age, or can gain re-entrance to a club.

Passout Marketing deemed this space too good to go unbranded, and has started working with venue owners and advertisers to stamp marketing messages on club hoppers. As they put it, Passout Marketing allows companies to "get their brand name right onto the skin of their target market". Passout Marketing owns the rights to use the pass-out stamps of a majority of Australian nightspots, giving them exposure to thousands of men and women aged 18-32 every week. They currently cover over 2,500,00 people each year, and venues are given a cut of ad revenues. The idea is spreading: The Cool Hunter ( recently featured stamp advertising in India, which was limited to a (very sensible) 'don't drink and drive' campaign. This fantastic ad to discourage drink driving is a case in point. Used by the Hotel Marriott in India for patrons of its popular nightclub Enigma, this ‘personal stamp ad’ listing the phone number of the local cab company proved to be so effective the idea is now being taken up by the Mumbai police and is being adopted by other clubs.

COCA COLA FOLK LORE

2007-01-04T18:25:00.000+05:30

Most people can agree on what Santa Claus looks like -- jolly, with a red suit and a white beard. But he did not always look that way, and Coca-Cola advertising actually helped shape this modern-day image of Santa.2006 marks the 75th anniversary of the famous Coca-Cola Santa Claus. Starting in 1931, magazine ads for Coca-Cola featured St. Nick as a kind, jolly man in a red suit. Because magazines were so widely viewed, and because this image of Santa appeared for more than three decades, the image of Santa most people have today is largely based on the advertising by Coke. Before the 1931 introduction of the Coca-Cola Santa Claus created by artist Haddon Sundblom, the image of Santa ranged from big to small and fat to tall. Santa even appeared as an elf and looked a bit spooky. Through the centuries, Santa Claus has been depicted as everything from a tall gaunt man to an elf. He has worn a bishop's robe and a Norse huntsman's animal skin. The modern-day Santa Claus is a combination of a number of the stories from a variety of countries. The Civil War cartoonist Thomas Nast drew Santa Claus for Harper's Weekly in 1862; Santa was shown as a small elf-like figure who supported the Union. Nast continued to draw Santa for 30 years and along the way changed the color of his coat from tan to the now traditional red.

Though some people believe the Coca-Cola Santa wears red because that is the Coke® color, the red suit comes from Nast’s interpretation of St. Nick.The Coca-Cola Company began its Christmas advertising in the 1920s with shopping-related ads in magazines like The Saturday Evening Post. The first Santa ads used a strict-looking Claus, in the vein of Thomas Nast. At this time, many people thought of Coca-Cola as a drink only for warm weather. The Coca-Cola Company began a campaign to remind people that Coca-Cola was a great choice in any month. This began with the 1922 slogan "Thirst Knows No Season," and continued with a campaign connecting a true icon of winter -- Santa Claus -- with the beverage. From 1931 to 1964, Coca-Cola advertising showed Santa delivering (and playing!) with toys, pausing to read a letter and enjoy a Coke, playing with children who stayed up to greet him and raiding the refrigerators at a number of homes. The original oil paintings Sundblom created were adapted for Coca-Cola advertising in magazines, store displays, billboards, posters, calendars and even plush dolls. Many of those items today are popular collectibles.The Coca-Cola Santa made its debut in 1931 in The Saturday Evening Post and appeared regularly in that magazine, as well as Ladies Home Journal, National Geographic, The New Yorker and others. The instantly popular ad campaign appeared each season, reflecting the times. One ad even featured Santa in a rocket!Sundblom continued to create new visions of Santa Claus through 1964. For decades after, Coca-Cola advertising has featured Santa’s image based on Sundblom’s original works.These original paintings by Haddon Sundblom are some of the most prized pieces in the art collection of the Company’s Archives Department, and have been on exhibit around the world, including at the Louvre in Paris.

The Coca-Cola Santa has had a powerful, enduring quality that continues to resonate today. It’s a common misconception that Santa wears a red coat because red is the color of Coca-Cola. In fact, Santa appeared in a red coat before artist Haddon Sundblom painted him for Coca-Cola advertising. People loved the Coca-Cola Santa images and paid such close attention to them, that when anything changed, they sent letters to The Coca-Cola Company. One year, Santa’s large belt was backwards (perhaps because artist Haddon Sundblom used himself as a model and painted by looking in a mirror).

Its simply amazing as to how a cola company can ingeniuosly use a mythical character to create Ads to promote a brand in such a strong way .

2006-12-29T12:53:00.000+05:30

MODERN AGE MANTRA : CO-OPERATE TO DOMINATE

Many marketing pundits have opined that the future of marketing rests in brand alliances: where alliances are forged only to maximise consumer preference and where both companies and/or brands see mutual benefits: where the threat is not competitive but instead from the consumer. In India, however, it has had a chequered history and the basic reason for that is our general distrust about anything that we believe will help both parties. But the paradigm of this alliance-building is changing for the better: it is helping companies maximise resources and is enabling them to build value across the consumer spectrum. I have always believed that varying companies have varying strengths. Like 3M is great at innovation, Sony is great at taking products to market. Today, the Koreans are teaching invaluable lessons in price optimisation, as are brands like Apple, which are exploding the domains of imagination. But somewhere down the line, all these companies understand the import and the purpose of doing this. It is not for survival alone that they strike alliances: it is also because they intrinsically believe that sometimes one plus one really is 11!

There are revenue alliances, which focus on the immediate and may have no long-term impact: such as the one that Star TV has created for KBC 2 between themselves and Airtel. This alliance is not only designed to be revenue-driven but Star will layer a lot of programming innovation: it will help people reach out and call the show in order to participate: it will throw up interesting data which will then have an impact on the understanding of the reach and power of television and such like.

But at the heart of it, what is this alliance? Nothing, except for strategic co-optetiton, something that global brands understood long ago, which is why in Europe you have a long-standing alliance between Nestle and Coca-Cola. I remember many years ago, there was an interesting alliance here between Bata and the then Reckit & Colman when Bata stores used to market Cherry Blossom: now, that made sense since Bata was effectively making the shoe-shopping experience convenient, given the fact that one did not have to hunt in another store for shoe polish.

If you look at the impending explosion of the retail scenario in India and what it will do to real estate pricing, co-optetiton will become a business imperative rather than just well-researched management intervention. It is this step that will help define which brands will compete for consumers and at all times, attempting to maximise the experience that consumers get. The importance of this management concept cannot be ignored by companies, big or small: be they ones operating within the domestic market or, for that matter, internationally. The time for this concept to be the strategic bedrock of many corporate moves has come. The sooner we embrace it, the better off we shall all be.

Yummy~~Stamps Never Tasted Better !!

2006-12-27T00:15:00.000+05:30

As part of their "Let Your Tongue Travel" campaign,Haagen-Dazs and the Austrian Postal Service had launched a series of ice-cream flavored stamps. These infuse flavors like Cookies & Cream, Macadamia Nut Brittle and Strawberry Cheesecake into the adhesive on the back. As you lick the stamp, you actually taste the flavor! Consumers get a book of stamps for every 10 scoops of ice cream purchased.

Now thats what i call a "WOW" effect,linking two completely separate entities 'STAMPS' and 'ICE CREAMS' and marketing the brand in an extraordinary way.Not only will this impact the consumers minds but will certainly leave behind happy consumers with a few sweetened taste buds !!

New Coke - A Lesson in Brand Loyalty

2006-12-26T23:52:00.000+05:30

In April 1985, the management of The Coca-Cola Company announced its decision to change the flavor of the company's flagship brand. This decision was made based on the fact that Pepsi consumer research discovered in blind taste tests that a majority of consumers preferred the taste of Pepsi to that of Coke. The "Pepsi Challenge" campaign made this public knowledge and Coke executives quickly moved to change America's top brand. New Coke came in a new can, with updated red and silver graphics replacing the traditional red and white look. Although taste tests of the New Coke had shown that majority of those tested preferred the new product, these tests could not gauge the emotional appeal of the "old" Coke. In other words, consumers want their cake and eat it too. When the taste change was announced, some consumers panicked, filling their basements with cases of Coke. A man in San Antonio, Texas, drove to a local bottler and bought $1,000 worth of Coca-Cola. Some people got depressed over the loss of their favorite soft drink. Suddenly everyone was talking about Coca-Cola, realizing what an important role it played in his or her life.Protest groups -- such as the Society for the Preservation of the Real Thing and Old Cola Drinkers of America (which claimed to have recruited 100,000 in a drive to bring back "old" Coke) -- popped up around the country. Songs were written to honor the old taste. Protesters at a Coca-Cola event in downtown Atlanta in May carried signs with "We want the real thing" and "Our children will never know refreshment."

A large public outcry ensued during the 79 days when old Coke was no longer on the shelves. Coca-Cola quickly reintroduced the "old" Coke when they realized market share was falling and christened it Classic Coke. Volume for the classic brand has risen 24 percent since 1984, making it the No. 1 soft drink in since 1987. Consumers became even more loyal to the brand after it was temporarily taken away from them.

Fanta ~~ The Origin of the Brand !!

2006-12-24T18:12:00.000+05:30

Fanta is a soft drink brand owned by The Coca-Cola Company. It is produced and distributed by The Coca-Cola Company's bottlers. Fanta was invented during World War II in Nazi Germany by the German Coca Cola (GmbH) bottling company. Due to restrictions on shipping between Nazi Germany and the United States during hostilities, the German bottling plant could no longer get Coca Cola syrup. The CEO of the plant, Max Keith, needed to do something to keep the plant in operation and came up with a fruit flavored drink made from whatever he could find. Using apple fiber left over from cider presses and whey, a byproduct from cheese manufacture, Fanta was created and became quite popular.

The name 'Fanta' came during an employee contest to name the new beverage. Keith told them to let their Fantasie (German for imagination) run wild. On hearing that, salesman Joe Knipp spontaneously arrived upon the name Fanta.

After

World War II, Fanta was introduced to the United States by Coca-Cola, and in 1960 they bought the trademark. Fanta Orange is the most popular Fanta flavor, available in 180 countries. In terms of volume, Brazil is the largest consumer of Fanta in the world. Fanta remains more popular in Europe and South America than in the United States.

There are over 70 flavors world-wide; however, most of them are only available by region in some countries. For example, in Romania (and some other countries), there is "Fanta Shokata" based on the traditional Romanian drink "Socată" made from elderflower. In Switzerland and previously the Netherlands the local fruit, blackcurrant is used to produce Fanta as well. Some identical flavors have different names in different markets, the classic orange, for example, was rebranded "Fanta Funky Orange" in 2003 for the Nordic countries and Belgium, while other countries retain the older "Fanta Orange" brand. As of the year 2005, the Fanta brand has been connected with the word Bambaacha (or Bamboocha), which is often seen in the Fanta commercials. TaB diet Cola was originally produced by the Fanta division of Coca-cola and was, at one time, available in a variety of non-cola flavors as well. Later in 2005, Fanta branched out into new Fanta zero varieties in Great Britain.