With 117,000,000 Google results using the search word “coke”, the Coca-Cola company is a prime example of shining web content delivered via search engine marketing. For over a century, Coca-Cola has led many successful marketing campaigns boasting exceptional content using both traditional and non-traditional media. This great grandfather of a company has evolved its marketing strategy to include various social networking sites to include an online newsletter, The Optimist, and their blog, Unbottled, which positions the company as an activist in environmentalism, humanitarianism, and thought leadership to name a few. Then there’s the Food & Recipes page with recipes such as “Coke Fried Chicken” and “Cherry Coke Pie”...hmmm, interesting… (Coca Cola, 2014)
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| Cherry Coke Pie (a la mode) |
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| Picture from Coca-Cola's RAIN campaign website to replenish water in Africa |
Coca-Cola has multiple social networking sites to include
YouTube, Instagram, Flickr, LinkedIn, and Google+. On it’s Facebook site,
Coca-Cola has over 94 million likes. On Twitter, Coca-Cola has over 2.8 million
followers (to include Mark Schaefer) and 125 thousand tweets, posted several
times a week. On their YouTube site, Coca-Cola publishes weekly content that
reaches their global target market with a focus on enjoying life’s best moments.
Over all social media sites, content is family-and-friends-in-social-setting-focused
with a few strategically placed posts that touch on activism (social and
community responsibility) and what’s trending at that moment. While Coca-Cola
is a global brand, it has managed to connect to people on a local level.
Coca-Cola has been able to create content that connects to its buyer personas
while communicating value touching on all of Scott’s (2013) Elements of a
Buyer-Centric Website: Buyer Preferred Media and Learning Styles, Site
Personality, Interactive Content Tools, Feedback Loop Availability,
Customer-to-Customer Interaction, Current Content, Social Media Share Buttons,
and Pass-Along Value Content that Could Go Viral. Examples of recent social
media campaigns that have gone viral are Share a Coke (personalized coke’s), Unlock the 007 In You (over 11M views), and Diet Coke-Taylor Swift kittens (3.5M views). 
On his topic, “Carve Out Your Own Search Engine Real
Estate”, Scott (2013) states, “if you want to be found on the web, you need a
unique identity for yourself, your product, and your company to stand out from
the crowd and rise to prominence on search engines.” He was clearly referencing
the example of Coca-Cola! As previously mentioned on Google, Coca-Cola appears
first when searching for the word “coke” and has over 117M hits. This is the
same on Bing and Yahoo with over 8M hits. For the term “cola”, Coca-Cola
appears as #6 on the first page of the search while its top competitor, Pepsi,
doesn’t appear until page 4 (this holds true on all 3 search engines mentioned
above). Some marketers think Coke could
do better in SEO for other key terms that are relevant to the brand. Bryson
Meunier (2012) from Mobile SEO Insights states that out of key six words for the
product: soda, cola, beverages, soft drinks, soda pop, and sodas, Coca Cola is
only ranked for the keywords “cola” (#7) and “soft drinks” (#3). While this
article is from 2012, it is not entirely inaccurate even today. When I searched
for “soda” for instance, Coca-Cola did not appear (granted I gave up the search
after page 20) but neither did Pepsi or any other major competitor of the
brand. For the keyword “cola” however, Coca-Cola has moved up one spot since
2012, from #7 to #6. I think for a brand that is synonymous with an entire
product class, I’m not sure if this particular perceived weakness is really an
opportunity for the brand or not. When people order a “coke” from a restaurant
and the waiter asks, “is Pepsi okay?” and the person replies without
hesitation, “sure”...that’s an indication that any cola flavored carbonated
beverage (red canned generic included) could be referred to as a “coke”. With
this amount of market leadership I’m not convinced the missing SEO keywords are
a true weakness especially when their competitors do not lead in these same keywords
either. But Meunier (2012) has a good argument; those keywords are searched
annually over 5 million times globally with 3 million alone occurring on Google
US. Who would have thought?
What do you think about Coca-Cola’s lack of SEO in certain
keywords that would describe their product? Do you see this as a weakness?
References:
Coca-Cola Official Website. (2014). Retrieved from http://us.coca-cola.com/home/
Meunier, Bryson. (2012, March 1). Yes, People Search For Cola Online. But Coca Cola Wouldn't Know It. Retrieved from http://www.brysonmeunier.com/yes-people-search-for-cola-online-but-coca-cola-wouldnt-know-it/
Scott, D.M. (2013). The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, & Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons
Hi Kimberly-
ReplyDeleteGreat example this week. Coca-Cola is truly a brand with great web content and creative campaigning! I loved their ‘Share a Coke’ campaign though I never found Kara.
I did a couple searches including the ones you mention, and Coca Cola never actually appeared on the first page of results for the search term ‘soda’. It’s really hard to believe actually. But as you mention their competitor Pepsi was also not present. I think though their SEO in certain keywords may be lacking, their brand is still majorly recognizable. I just don’t think many people are going on the web to specifically search Coca Cola. You drink it, why do you need to view their website and read all about? I think people are satisfied after they drink the soda and aren't pushed or driven to then visit their website. It’s so readily available in stores, restaurants etc. that people don’t need to go searching for it. That’s why they have such awesome campaigns, to drive people to their social media platforms and website.
I was on their site earlier and discovered Coca-Cola’s ahh.com. Have you seen this yet? It looks like a bunch of apps and games and such. Who would have thought this existed?! http://www.ahh.com/?WT.mc_id=Ahh2013 With all that Coca-Cola does I definitely do not think a lack of SEO is a major weakness, I just don’t think people need to search for them because they are SO well known. People just cut to the chase and type in Coca-Cola.
I am that person at the restaurant who actually prefers Pepsi, so when they say coke only I just order a water. I would not say I am a loyal Pepsi drinker but I just prefer the taste! Okay, so that might make me a loyal Pepsi drinker… :)
Hi Kara,
DeleteDon't feel bad about being a loyal Pepsi drinker. I don't drink soda in general much less Coke or Coke products but I do have close friends and family that are loyal to the brand. I would agree that this perceived SEO weakness is kind of a non-issue compared to how well established and well known the brand is around the globe. For the term "soda" I noticed that "Soda Stream" was the first result that appeared. I think Soda Stream is more of an indirect competitor to Coca-Cola so I don’t think this presents much of a SEO threat to the brand. I did find this banned Superbowl Ad that received a lot of free buzz for the brand with over 5M views. Check it out at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68al-o2XSpE
Talk about good content! Nice post, Kimberly. This week group 5 focused on Klout scores, so I didn't dive into SEO as much as I think some of our class has this week. I have to agree with Kara. I don't think SEO (or lack of) hurts Coca-Cola, because if people are searching for it, it's easy enough to type in Coca-Cola. So at what point would a business realize that they are beyond needing to increase their SEO? I know in our organization we are constantly struggling to make sure we are utilizing SEO.
ReplyDeleteAs for my love for Coca-Cola, if it's not Coke Zero or Diet Coke, I'm not drinking it! Ok, on occasion I will opt for a Dr. Pepper since Dr. Pepper got its start here locally. But Pepsi...no...this is never an option! :)
Thanks Mandy! I do agree, simply type in "coke" and you've got all the Coca-Cola content you need...and some. Like I told Kara, I am not a coke drinker but still prefer the Coca-Cola brand over any other soft-drink beverages. It's an odd consumer relationship, maybe its the brand nostalgia or my visit to the Coca-Cola factory in Atlanta as a kid...there is just something that resonates in my brain that Coca-Cola is an awesome brand. So if I'm ever in the market for a soda- you know where my loyalty lies!
DeleteKimberly,
DeleteI am just testing my commenting, I posted a response to you and Mandy last night, but I do not see it showing up here today. I hope I did not lose it!
I apologize! I commented on your post last night, but it seems to not be showing up today, I do not know what happened! Great post, and Mandy I enjoyed reading your response, though I do have to respectfully disagree. SEM is less about allowing users to find your product when they are looking for it, but rather be the brand they find when they don't know what their looking for. In my opinion, the fact that Coca-Cola shows up high in the search when people search "Coca-Cola" is a given. Even if they did not show up as the first link, the user would probably scroll down to find their .com site, because they know what they are looking for. However, if I was in charge of Coke's SEO, I would do everything I could to make my website show up higher in the "cola" or "soda" searches. Those are the users that may not be thinking about my product specifically, but if I can get them to my website anyway, I am one step closer to my target audience.
DeleteThe other think I would consider is the return on investment, comparing improved web content to some of the great viral video examples Kimberly provided. I would assume the 007 video, for example, was quite a large investment of time, money, personal, and other valuable resources.
Now let's say Coca-Cola created a new page on their website about the history and other interesting information about cola (not their product, but the beverage category in general). If the content was strong, I would not be surprised if that page began populating higher and higher in search results for "cola." In my opinion, the viral video is expensive, does not have a longevity, and (although it may be good branding) has very little call to action. The new web page about cola, on the other hand, has a significantly lower cost associated, has the potential to impact the company much longer, and brings new users to your site and one step closer to any calls to action you put on the page.
Do I think Coca-Cola is hurting from their lack of content-driven SEM/SEO? No, but I do think it has tremendous opportunity that is currently being ignored.
Hey Kimberly,
ReplyDeleteGreat post this week! I found your analysis of Coke’s use (or non-use) of thorough SEO intriguing. I find it somewhat surprising that there is such a high natural search result for Coke when indexing “soft drinks”, but not when indexing “soda”. It leaves me to wonder if this is not so much an SEO oversight by Coke, but rather a deliberate omission. Given the increased health consciousness of consumers, and the negative correlation that the word soda has nowadays with obesity, it could be that Coke simply wants to avoid associating their brand with the term. Of course this is pure speculation on my part, but I can’t really think of any other good reasons why “soda” wouldn’t bring up higher natural search results for Coke than “soft drinks”, which in my opinion is a term used by older generations.
As Kara and Mandy point out, Coca-Cola is such a recognizable, even iconic global brand, SEO may not even be a high priority to the company. One doesn’t need to go to a search engine to find Coke; it’s practically in your face, everywhere around the world. Coke’s signature red and white is a recognizable as McDonald’s “golden arches” and Nike’s “swoosh”; failing to crack the top three natural search results for the most relevant cola searches doesn’t mean Coke is an irrelevant brand. The Coke brand is so strong, and has such a loyal following that it practically sells itself despite its competition.
If anything, the failure to find Coke in some of these keyword searches should be seen by competitors as an opportunity. Certainly, the number two and three brands, Pepsi and RC Cola, could and should be making better inroads in its search engine marketing, but for smaller niche soda brands like Stewarts and Jones Soda, this is a golden opportunity to take advantage of Coke and Pepsi’s perceived weakness in SEO and really work the “long tail of search” by creating “separate search engine marketing programs for dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of specific search terms that people might actually search on” (Scott, 2013, p. 367). For instance, Stewarts has a dozen different flavors of craft fountain sodas that they can and should be maximizing for SEO. For Coke, content is simply a great tool to engage its consumers, not something that’s need to drive a search engine marketing campaign.
References:
Scott, D.M. (2013). The new rules of marketing and PR: How to use social media, blogs, news releases, online video, & viral marketing to reach buyers directly. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons
Mike, I think you are on to something. It crossed my mind that it could possibly be a deliberate move- I think it is highly possible they do want to be associated with the negative connotations that the term soda represents in a growing health-conscious market. The fact that Pepsi is also excluded from the search, seems to further support the theory. In Coca-Cola marketing, the word soft drink is used interchangeably with soda or pop. When I did a search for soft drink, Coca-Cola was the second result after a wikipedia result on the history and origin of the soft drink. That's a pretty impressive leap from 2012. I think this also affirms the deliberate choice to leave out the term soda from SEO.
ReplyDeleteI also would agree that for the smaller competitor brands, Coca-Cola's lack of emphasis on SEO presents an opportunity. Like you mentioned the Stewarts brand and their craft fountain soda flavors. I happened to look up "craft soda" and it looks like the company Cool Mountain is all over it! Stewarts needs to move in quick! ;-)
Kimberly,
ReplyDeleteMike had a great example in his post of REI and providing content that users genuinely want (How to Choose Hiking Boots) versus only focusing on promotional information. If you had to recommend some "helpful" web pages for Coca-Cola to implement a similar strategy, are there any themes or topics you can think of that might be successful?
Brian,
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! I think for starters Coca Cola could add some "helpful" topics about party planning or club scenes and maybe even position the soda as a non-alcoholic alternative beverage in these settings. Or they could go in a different direction and spotlight some of the events they sponsor such as the Super Bowl, American Idol, and/or FIFA World Cup...maybe doing a piece on some of the key players or artists. If they wanted to be really bold- they could potentially address the health concerns about consuming coke. For instance, if I google "is soda bad for you" all types of articles show up, many that reference Coke and Pepsi products. If Coca Cola addressed the issue head on, I think it would inadvertently drive traffic towards the brand rather than away from it based on a negative content published by outside sources.
As far as I know, Coke is one of the worst things one could drink to hydrate or “refresh” themselves. Nonetheless, it tastes good and it is fun to drink, so stressing moderation and positioning the product as a special occasion drink (similar to a beer after work or glass of wine with friends) might make more health sense as well for the brand.