I was involved in an impromptu conversation this week about brand loyalty. Someone brought up Coca Cola and couldn’t understand why that brand has such a huge following. And not just a huge following but very passionate, too. The company has nearly 4-Million fans on Facebook!
Coca Cola has been in my life since childhood. The refreshing soft drink was often used as a reward to say “good job”. If we got good grades in school or did something extraordinary my mom would take my brother and me to McDonald’s to get us a “Coke” and French fries. Or she’d let us have a Coke with our dinner on special occasions. My teachers did it, too. I remember in 4th grade I won a contest in my classroom and the teacher walked me down to the teacher’s lounge and rewarded me with an ice-cold Coca Cola from the soda machine. I was on top of the world. You have to remember, school was much stricter back then – no students were allowed to have any kind of soft drink. Only milk and water were available in the lunchroom. But that day I was lucky enough to have a Coca-Cola.
I also remember saving my pennies and begging my mom to let me and my best friend ride our bikes up to the convenience store to buy a Coke. We were often told no, but when we did get a yes – it was cloud nine for us!
In high school, Coke was in the vending machines. And we drank a lot of it because it was finally available to us without our parent’s permission. Freedom to drink soft drinks. Freedom to have a Coke whenever we wanted. It was all good. Coke was also prominent at all the high school football games. Coca Cola was everywhere in my childhood.
And adding to those memories, how could we ever forget one of the most memorable commercials of our time. Who doesn’t think of Coca Cola whenever they hear “I’d like to teach the world to sing”?
That is why there is such brand loyalty for Coca Cola. I have an emotional connection with Coke. It’s part of my life, part of my history.
Over the years, I’ve drank them all – Coke, Tab, Diet Coke, Coke Zero and overseas – Coke Light.
My refrigerator today may be filled with Diet Dr. Pepper, but my heart is with Coca Cola.
