Coca-Cola CEO speaks out

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a Marketing Society dinner in London, addressed by Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent, who gave all kinds of insights, which show how much the company’s thinking has changed:

• ‘The best ideas are outside of our company.’
• The focus used to be ‘creating positive consumer impressions’. Now it’s ‘creating positive consumer expressions’.
• Customisation is integral. Hence ‘World’s Cup’ instead of ‘World Cup’.
• 3 sustainability pillars – women, water, wellbeing.
• 4 global health commitments – low and no calorie versions available for all top 20 brands, calorie counts on front of all packs, support for healthy lifestyle programmes, no marketing to under 12s.
• ‘We can and must be part of the solution but not the only solution.’
• ‘A brand is a promise. A good brand is a promise kept.’
• ‘It’s all about making sure you have a choice.’
• Sedentary lifestyles are the third biggest killer in the world. ‘It is up to us to promote and encourage healthy lifestyles.’

He also gave some interesting statistics : 770,000 system employees, 550 brands, 3,000 products, 1.9 billion servings a day; 60-70% of shoppers are women, women in company leadership positions more than doubled to over 30%.

And finally, he hinted at a UK launch for Coca-Cola Life, which is now scheduled for September and could be even more significant than Coca-Cola Zero.