Diet Coke case study

Repositioning a brand as gender neutral

Reference Code: CSCM0075

Publication Date: 09/05

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WHAT IS THIS REPORT ABOUT?

This report forms part of Datamonitor's case studies series, which explores business practices
across a variety of disciplines and business sectors. The series covers a range of markets
including food and drink, retail, banking and insurance, pharmaceuticals and software.

Each case study provides a concise evaluation of a company that stands out in some area of
its strategic operations, highlighting the ways in which the company has become one of the
best in its field or how it deals with different problems encountered within that sector.

Who is the target reader?

This case study is designed for industry executives, consultants, analysts and researchers,
providing them with a useful benchmarking tool and offering a blueprint for potential
improvements.

It provides valuable insight into the methods used by important industry players that give them
a competitive edge, allowing the reader to capitalize on the knowledge of experienced
companies when, for example, entering a new niche or market.

Report content

The report is divided into three main parts Introduction, Case Study and Conclusion
followed by Research Methodology and Related Research sections:

Introduction: provides historical background on the company and explains how the
company has responded to a particular business challenge.

Case study: provides the main body of text, detailing the company's approach to a
particular challenge; for example, superior customer relationship management, use of
technology, sales and marketing techniques, etc.

Conclusion: highlights the main findings of the report, summarizing the key
strategies the company has employed.

Research Methodology: details when research was carried out and the approach
used in writing the report.

Related Research: lists a number of reports on a similar theme to the case study,
which may assist the reader in further research.

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Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT DATAMONITOR 2

WHAT IS THIS REPORT ABOUT? 3

Who is the target reader? 3

INTRODUCTION 6

Widening a brand's appeal 6

CASE STUDY 7

Targeting men 7

Creating a UK campaign 8

Diet Coke global advertising 9

CONCLUSIONS 10

Male, female marketing 10

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 11

Research Methodology 11

RELATED RESEARCH 12

Gender Marketing Strategies in Food and Drinks 12

The Future of Snacking & Beverage Occasions 12

Young Adults' Lifestyles & Social Trends 12

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Table of Contents

Global Consumer Trends 12

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Diet Coke Tort marketing campaign 8

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Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Widening a brand's appeal

A company which has a brand which is not intentionally gender-specific but which has
a predominately male or female audience may want to neutralize the brand in order
to make it appeal to a wider audience. The main issues for a marketer intending to do
this are:

How to make men or women buy a brand with a strong male or female profile

How to aggressively market to men or women, to raise their interest in the

product, without alienating the core male or female audience.

This case study focuses on Diet Coke's global marketing campaigns, particularly in
the UK, which since its launch in the 1980s right up to 2005 were focused on
appealing to the female audience. It provides a good example of a brand that has
repositioned itself in order to appeal to men as well as women.

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Case Study

CASE STUDY

Targeting men

Coca-Colas Diet Coke brand was launched globally in the US and UK markets in
1982. It trades under the Coca-Cola Light brand in the Spanish market since its
launch in 1984 and the French market since 1988.

In the UK, its most iconic advertising was rolled out some 15 years ago, and featured
a group of female office workers meeting for a regular break at 11.30am to drink Diet
Coke and gawp at a builder. The campaign summed up its UK stance on who it was
targeting women. Since then, the brands strategy has sought to tap into the focus
of that original ad, by continuing to position itself to women with a series of sexy, flirty
campaigns in the past few years. In France, the brand previously used supermodel
Linda Evangelista as a brand ambassador for a female target consumer.

In recent times, Coca-Cola has sought to combat consumers fears over the
healthiness of regular soft drinks by investing heavily in its sugar-free varieties. With
sales of Diet Coke now outstripping the regular variety in the UK, the company
needed to address its targeting, and broaden its appeal to include male consumers.
In short, it needed to make the brand unisex a bold move for a brand with a
heritage of targeted communications towards women.

Whilst men had bought into and consumed the brand before, it was still seen as a
very female one. Coca-Cola, it is estimated, has spent 100 million over the past 15
years on advertising the Diet Coke brand to women. Interestingly, the brands
affiliation to women is largely a UK phenomenon, perhaps due to its Diet branding - it
is also known as Diet Coke in Australia and Canada; elsewhere in Europe it is known
as Coca-Cola Light. Even in the US, where it is branded Diet Coke, men have
traditionally drunk it without the reserve of their British counterparts, who have
traditionally had little affinity with diet products.

Research groups have shown them to be embarrassed about buying into such
brands. In terms of product, what was launched as a diet product is now the
mainstream choice for many consumers, showing that healthier products with lower
sugar content are relevant today, whatever the sex of the target audience. However,
reflecting the mainstream status that sugar-free products now have, Coca-Cola is

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Case Study

ditching the Diet tag across its portfolio of other brands in exchange for Z, standing
for zero added sugar.

Creating a UK campaign

Coca-Cola is investing heavily in the Diet Coke brand across Europe and in the US,
but its strategy for its launch market, the UK, is interesting, as the cultural
environment has changed so much. It is also the brands biggest global market. In a
recent Marketing article, Coca-Cola claimed that the brands female-biased marketing
no longer reflected its true consumer demographic (Marketing, 12 January, 2005).
About 40% of Diet Coke drinkers are male. Coca-Cola said: The social and cultural
ways people want to be talked to have moved and added that the positioning was
less relevant now.

The new UK campaign, created by VCCP, Vizeum and Universal McCann, features
Tort, a tortoise who loves life, as a new brand icon. It is his job to get consumers
between 20-29 to reappraise the brand by delivering a sugar-free, great taste
message.

The campaign swum against the tide which traditionally sees soft drinks dominating
the media during the summer months, by relaunching Diet Coke in January 2005, just
in time to link its sugar-free credentials to consumers intent on keeping New Years
resolutions. As a character, Tort is loveable enough to attract female consumers, but
also a disruptive force capable of engaging men. Diet Cokes former flirty and sexy
persona has gone.

Figure 1: Diet Coke Tort marketing campaign

Source: forthosewholovelife.co.uk DATAMONITOR

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Case Study

The media strategy was designed to maximize Torts exposure over a wide range of
channels to both men and women. TV ads focused on the New Year, New Me
approach, targeting consumers already open to self-assessment. The brand also
bought into football programming for the first time, in a clear bid to target men.
Cinema ads also ran. Outdoor activity included the birth of Tort on a Piccadilly
Circus site over the New Year, as well as sampling activity in shopping centers, gyms
and train stations. Online ads showed Tort performing skateboard, breakdancing and
trampolining stunts, mirroring the TV, press and poster creative.

The campaign has had the result of attracting men to the brand, according to a study
in Campaign magazine (Campaign, March 4, 2005). Research showed that the
campaign was perceived as well integrated, with 84% of consumers believing it was
linked to, but different to, previous work. Creatively the campaign scored highly, with
80% claiming to have seen the ads.

Diet Coke global advertising

In France, the marketing and communication has moved on from Linda Evangelista to
emphasize Coca-Cola Lights taste and refreshment qualities. Its latest advertising for
the Light variant features a smart besuited man who skis his way effortlessly round
city streets, whilst an ad for Coca-Cola Light Lemon shows a vibrant carnival scene
as imagined by a hip, urban, man who is sipping his drink in a bar.

In Spain, Coca-Cola Light is marketed to a cosmopolitan audience of both men and

women without easy stereotypes. The light brand name was chosen over diet for
cultural reasons the word diet had little resonance with consumers. Recent TV ads
for the brand have featured a spoof of John Travoltas disco classic, Saturday Night
Fever. Coca-Cola Light also comes Caffeine-free and with Lemon.

In the US, since its launch in 1982, Diet Coke has been marketed as the choice of
sassy individuals of both sexes and ad campaigns are playful and flirty. In the most
recent campaign for the newly launched Lime variant, the brands effervescent and
refreshing qualities are highlighted - one execution features bubbles surrounding a
girl rollerblading, whilst another depicts a man imagining he is underwater, as the
bubbles from his Diet Coke transport him from the reality of his bus stop to a deep-
sea environment.

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Conclusions

CONCLUSIONS

Male, female marketing

Mens changing attitudes towards dieting and healthy eating means that products
such as Diet Coke can target men effectively through marketing campaigns which
aim to expose the fact that the drink is not only for weight conscious females.
Globally, Coca-Cola has successfully integrated men into advertising campaigns to
make it completely clear that this is not only a womans drink.

Consumer companies that have brands with a predominately male or female

audience may want to follow Diet Coke's lead in neutralizing a brand in order to
make it appeal to a wider audience. The main issues for a marketer intending to do
this are how to make men or women buy a brand with a strong male or female profile,
and how to aggressively market to men or women, and raise their interest in the
product, without alienating the core male or female audience.

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Research Methodology

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Methodology

This case study was derived from Datamonitor's study of gender marketing which
was carried out between May and July 2005. The hypotheses presented in this report
were supported by a series of interviews with industry executives, in addition to
secondary literature and in-house sources of information.

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Related Research

RELATED RESEARCH

Gender Marketing Strategies in Food and Drinks

This report reveals best practice innovation case-studies for targeting consumers and
the role gender takes in devising new product development. Published: July 2005

The Future of Snacking & Beverage Occasions

This report will deliver clearly identified and explained consumer needs and occasions
to target as future growth opportunities for snacks and beverage manufacturers.
Published: April 2005

Young Adults' Lifestyles & Social Trends

This report details the most important lifestyle and social trends affecting Young
Adults in the US and Europe, and makes recommendations on best practice in
marketing food, drink and personal care products to 18-24 year olds. Published: May
2005

Global Consumer Trends

Datamonitor has identified the 10 global consumer trends, and the five rules
governing these, that will determine the success of future product and marketing
innovation. This report provides the essential insight in order to be "on-trend" in the
future. Published: July 2004

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