#WBD Blog

Coca-Cola Brand Refresh

Building brand consistency over 140 years, the Coca-Cola red can and white lettering is one of the most recognised brands: identifiable across a room, in different languages.

Last month, Coca-Cola launched a refreshed global visual identity - not a reinvention, but a deliberate sharpening. The brief was to make every Coca-Cola execution look and feel unmistakably Coca-Cola, wherever in the world it appears.

Rather than introducing new elements, the refresh amplifies what already exists: the red and white palette, the script, the Dynamic Ribbon first introduced in 1969. On cans, the most visible change is the wordmark going vertical again: the horizontal orientation it replaced had been in place for close to ten years.

For Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, cans now have a black Dynamic Ribbon, bottles get a black cap rather than red, and the Zero Sugar wordmark moves from black to white with the variant name larger - giving it clearer visual separation from the core brand.

There are big, fabulous brands and there are cultural icons. Coca-Cola is perhaps the apotheosis of cultural touchstones, a brand that had lived in the world’s sub-conscious for what seems like forever. It is one of a handful of brands that come to mind as we listen to the soundtrack of the past 100 years. Brand building like this NEVER just happens, it is not the product of luck, or accident.

Anecdote: I once saw the legendary designer, Michael Peters, give a presentation. One of his opening slides was a red can of Coke. We were underwhelmed. He then pointed out that the instantly memorable logo script had been changed to read, Coca-Coca. No one, in a room of senior marketers and design experts had noticed. His point, the power of brand identity, of design, to worm into our memory and subconscious, to allow our S1 brain (not a term in common currency at the time) to short cut to oceans of mental availability. This level of memory only happens through decades of great marketing and investment.

This design refresh is part of that multi-factorial journey. @Coca-Cola is AMAZING at keeping its iconic identity fresh and modern. It updates it relatively regularly, but not so you would immediately notice. And that is where the genius and hard work come in. Tinker with an iconic brand at your peril but leave it untouched and your classic status will almost certainly start to impact your current relevance. This is another piece of grown-up brand marketing. It is brilliant not because it screams to be noticed, but because it just keeps the brand moving forward. It is #what brands do. Or should do. Coca Cola is an inspiration. We should all aspire to mirror this calm long-term approach. So, before you change your identity and packaging (again!) think about it... ... very hard!

Find out more: coca-colacompany.com