Branded Coke bottles, at a Tuskys supermarket outlet in Nairobi. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU
Global soft drinks manufacturer Coca- Cola has adopted an international marketing campaign by the company that involves printing people’s names on soda bottles to win customers.
Under the Share a Coke Kenya campaign, the soft drinks company selects popular Kenyan names and prints them on Coke soda bottles and cans. Some of the popular Kenyan names that have appeared on the Coke bottles so far include Jaymo, Odhis, Stevo, Sankale, Wanjala, Amin, Aarti, Wambui, Ken and Ben, among others.
As part of the branding and advertising, each bottle also comes with the ShareaCokeKE hashtag for customers to share on social media.
The company is banking on marketing strategy to drive sales especially among avid Internet users. Consumers of the drink are encouraged to take a picture of the personalised bottles, post them on social media with the hashtag or purchase the drink for a friend.
The Share a Coke campaign was first tried in Sydney in 2011, where there was a seven per cent increase in sales during the drive.
In the UK, a similar campaign was carried out in the summer of 2013 and 2014, which saw the drinks company sell over 150 million personalised bottles.
The campaign has been launched in over 70 countries, with the official Kenyan launch set to take place tomorrow. The company last month announced its plans to introduce the smallest take-away plastic bottle.
Competitor PepsiCo started local production in Kenya raising competition for soft drink consumers in the country.
Coca-Cola, which has for decades enjoyed a near-monopoly in the Kenyan soft drinks market, says the 350ml plastic bottles will be produced and distributed solely from its Kisumu bottling plant.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
