I'm a Marketer.

Thanks to years of data analysis, I'm a pragmatic Marketer.

I take a deeply realistic view of an ecosystem - where most views are from reflections in rear-view mirrors rather than the windshield or the windows.

Something to push your thinking today. You are going to be critical. Please write and share reflections. Thank you.

The Coca-Cola Marketing Secret.

Coca-Cola makes good commercials, and, like most companies, every once in a while one of them breaks through the noise.

(Quick challenge: Is there a single Coca-Cola commercial you remember loving so much it is fresh in your mind? If you do, share it. If you don't, no worries; at the end of this email I've added a helpful link.)

Coca-Cola's Marketing ecosystem of people, agencies (and Professors at Marketing at some Universities), will tell you that there is a collection of holy brand attributes they've obsessively researched, efficiently executed and successfully drilled into humanity over a century. That is why people drink Coca-Cola.

Only negligibly true.

Most drink Coca-Cola because... It is everywhere.

Let me explain.

I've visited 60 countries thus far. In almost every country, you will find Coca-Cola billboards plastering the available universe with a singular goal: Reminding you that Coca-Cola exists.

This is especially true if you visit second or third world countries - you'll see Coca-Cola signs on all shops (90% of the real estate is the iconic Coca-Cola red and letter, 10% at the bottom is the shop's name).

The secret to Coca-Cola's success? It is there.

Simple. Effective. Awesome.

The magic supporting that? Distribution, not Marketing.

Yet, that is not the story that you'll get from the Marketing ecosystem of employees, agencies, Professors and Authors with marketing books to write.

That ecosystem has worked very, very, hard, millions and millions of dollars worth to define the brand values/ethos/execution that is the Coca-Cola way....

To refresh the world.
To inspire moments of optimism and happiness.
To create value and make a difference.

(Pause right there for a moment, and consider this with an open mind: WTH does that mean anyway? Let this roll around your mind: A bubbly brown drink - which I am drinking as I write this - is inspiring optimism and happiness in the world. I mean Really!?!)

Now, if not creating value and make a difference by refreshing the world, what is the reality as to why Coca-Cola has been successful?

It is Coca-Cola's aforementioned sales and distribution model. Quoting Marketing91 on Coca-Cola's competitive advantages:

(1) the pre-sale system, which separates the sales and delivery functions, permitting trucks to be loaded with the mix of products that retailers have previously ordered, thereby increasing both sales and distribution efficiency,

(2) the conventional truck route system, in which the person in charge of the delivery makes immediate sales from inventory available on the truck,

(3) a hybrid distribution system, where the same truck carries product available for immediate sale and product previously ordered through the pre-sale system,

(4) the telemarketing system, which could be combined with pre-sales visits, and

(5) sales through third-party wholesalers of the products.

Most definitely the least-sexy five bullets you've read in your life.

Still, these are the reasons why Coca-Cola is so successful, to the tune of billions and billions of dollars worth of success - every bit of which they deserve.

In the bubble that is Marketing, it is much easier for the company ecosystem of employees, agencies and partners to buy/sell refresh the world and inspire moments of optimism and happiness. It is so much easier to praise then ethnographic research, follow me homes, deep psychological analysis of unspoken behavior motivating rationale (it is a thing!), and 1,400 pages of depth cog sci insights mapping for the phrase make a difference.

The Problem/Implication.

At a great deal of expense in time and money, hundreds of employees - internal and agency - chase these brand values, audience ethnography, sentiment mapping, segmentation modeling and a whole lot more.

All of which in the end is only understood by people inside the company who came up with this self-reflective mirage.

Think of every facet of what it takes to do Marketing, think of every type of Marketing that Coca-Cola and you and I do at our companies. Would it all be the same (time, effort, expense) if we acknowledge that it is Distribution and not Marketing that is the core competitive advantage?

Would we in Marketing acknowledge that? Would you in your company when you come to this realization?

Look... I'm not saying that Marketing does not work or is not necessary. I've proven using data the precise incremental value delivered by Marketing.

I'm also not saying Marketing's budget needs to be smaller. (If the data says it should be smaller, so be it.)

The number of people and budget can stay the same. Let's make the result of both of those a lot more... Purposeful.

As Marketers, let's not invest time, effort, expense in researching, creating and executing self-reflective mirages whose only purpose is to fuel our fantasies or win a Cannes Lion.

Marketing is still of value, find it's best purpose for your company. Spend the Marketing budget on that.

Sometimes that means no advertising and only promotions. So be it. Embrace reality.

Coca-Cola is all of us.

You've been nodding along as you've read the above paragraphs. You recognize that this is a broad problem with Marketing across companies. The larger the company, the more the mirrors.

The spark for this edition of TMAI is not Coca-Cola, it was an interview Pepsi's VP of Marketing gave to The Drum.

My trigger...

“They have this mindset of somebody who likes to live out loud – they're more likely to clap at the end of a movie, cheer out loud at a sporting event,” he explains. “We've gotten very deep with understanding our consumer, which has been one of the big unlocks of really being consumer-first and consumer grounded in everything we do....We want to really celebrate them and help them live their lives more unapologetically and feel these moments of unapologetic enjoyment with them.”

Wait. What?

I read it three times. All I could think was... Pepsi, Really!?!

And.. You... Now that you are a little wiser and can see through the fog... It is a deeply heartbreaking read... Right?

The staggering arrogance of brown bubbly water to ...help them live their lives more unapologetically and feel these moments of unapologetic enjoyment with them. #omg

Consider just how expensive it must have been to get very deep with understanding our consumer, which has been one of the big unlocks of really being consumer-first and consumer grounded in everything we do.

Meanwhile, here's their latest TV ad manifesting the above 79 words. Or this one from a few months ago (the comments are priceless).

There are hundreds upon hundreds of people working at Pepsi and its marketing agencies trying achieve goals that are solving for whatever the above 79 high and mighty words mean. It is not a stretch to imagine that all that time/effort/money will have a little connection to selling cases upon cases of brown bubbly water.

I am not saying that the 79 word powered outputs will or will not sell a lot of drinks.

As in the case of Coca-Cola above, the real secret to whatever success Pepsi has had in the brown bubbly water business only had marginal contributions from its marketing. As long as the real secret works, Pepsi will keep selling. If it does not, no more sales - despite all the manifestation of help them live their lives more unapologetically and feel these moments of unapologetic enjoyment.

The Coca-Cola - Pepsi Lessons for the Rest of Us.

Be like Coca-Cola.

Have a competitive product, and you know what... Build an incredible distribution strategy!

While you are at it... As the world evolves, have a smart mergers and acquisitions that keeps you relevant as your original brown bubbly water market erodes.

That is having a connection with reality.

I also personally recommend the following ten things you can do at your company to slay self-reflecting mirages:

1. Be brave, speak up. If your CMO is being served up words that are disconnected from reality, audience definitions no one outside your team will understand... Say something, do something.

2. Prove the non-value of b.s.

3. Culture in a large company can at times be oppressively heavy. Pick a smaller chunk of the strategy and prove that piece works, or highlight that it does not. Slowly you'll chip away at the self-reflective mirages.

4. Bust out of the bubble. It never hurts to be informed by the success (and failures) of your competitors - big or small.

5. Be curious about why your company achieves success.

6. Expand your knowledge base. Every part of a company, not just Marketing, believes it is God's gift to the company, hence singularly responsible for all the success. You surely have a strategy team - a human - in your company. Reach out to her/him/them and see the world through their eyes (and work). In the process, see gaps in your knowledge about what drives success.

7. Try something new to rejuvenate your old success.

8. Experiment. Take some of your budget and go against the grain. Try new tricks. Intent is one I'm very excited about, try that one against the one powered by your self-reflective mirage. Try the other world I'm immersed in, Machine Learning Marketing. They require such news ways of winning, such a real ability to deliver relevance; it might move your company beyond fluffy what do they really mean sentences.

9. Look for patterns in data/behavior/outcomes, highlight them.

10. Use data to defeat self-reflective mirages! Create Global Scorecards with Success KPIs. Segment actual sales by every attribute you know. Invest in a statistical model that'll identify percentage of overall sales attributable to Marketing. Do experiments that isolate the impact of different Marketing strategies. These patterns will highlight what fails consistently and what succeeds consistently. In that story... exists reality - which might change your Marketing's value.

Oh, and buy billboards. Put one word on it: Coca Cola. Kidding. Put your company's name on it (on a red background! :)).

Bottom-line: If you want your Marketing to have a real impact on business results, live in the real world. When you live there, constantly seek a connection with reality - don't get too caught up in inspire moments of optimism and happiness or live their lives more unapologetically.

You have one life. Have a real impact.

-Avinash.

PS: Bonus lesson: Learn to recognize and avoid self-appointed guardians of Brand Actualization Strategies.

PPS: As promised.. Here are the best Coca Cola ads. How many do you remember/love?

PPPS: Not a lot of views, but I like this Pepsi Ad.