How Koo beat Coke: building a brand narrative versus traditional advertising
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Date
2015
Authors
Irwin, Ronald
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State
Abstract
The 2011 annual top brand survey, conducted by Sunday Times in South Africa,
provided a representative cross-section of 33 brands from various categories
in the general consumer space, and 13 in the business landscape. The overall
favourite brand in South Africa in that year was Koo, owned by Tiger Brands in
South Africa. This brand, which has a relatively small advertising budget, was
a surprise winner in the category that had been dominated by brands such as
Coca‑Cola and KFC. These brands spent far more on advertising to a lesser effect
than Koo, a significantly smaller company. Koo had in fact spent R12 million on
advertising versus Coke’s R193 million, yet Koo’s final ranking was the highest
of all brands surveyed. The brand’s relatively simple outdoor marketing as well
as the Mama Koo Radio Hour, a daily radio show featuring the various dishes
homemakers can cook using Koo products, helped bring the brand to all South
Africans and eclipsed its larger American-based rivals. This article considers the
Koo example as illustrative of the power of simple, traditional advertising in the
multi-modal context.
Description
Keywords
Sunday Times, Koo, Coca‑Cola, Advertising, Marketing, Brands, Multi-modal context, Top brand survey
Citation
Irwin, R. ( 2015 ). How Koo beat Coke: building a brand narrative versus traditional advertising. Communitas, 20, 104-122.