Coca-Cola Smart Products Action Guide

What is the most far-reaching marketing channel for a brand like Coca-Cola? Is it TV? Social media? Posters? Well it is none of the above. In fact, the answer stands to reason - It is the product itself. Every day, one billion contacts with the product take place without any media costs at all. Scholz & Volkmer have developed a guide for Coca-Cola, with tips and specific advice on how to use this potential efficiently and creatively.

It’s all about Smart Products – the digital extension of physical products. But not many of Coke’s classical marketing-oriented people know how this technology really works and the advertising opportunities it opens up. Therefore, top marketing staff in different countries received a smart Coke bottle with instructions for use. Scanning the bottle took them directly to the Smart Products Action Guide. It ran them through the most important know-how around this topic – specifically tailored to Coca-Cola.

When consumers scan a Coke bottle, what opens up to them and to the brand is a completely new kind of added value with endless possibilities. Using the consumer data that has been acquired, every digital experience can be personalised. The product itself becomes part of the advertising campaign and encourages interactivity. It is particularly the young teenager target group that is always hungry for something new.

The Guide gives specific tips for the planning and implementation of smart products in every field. Current technologies, such as Image Recognition and iBeacon are explained and assessed in order to provide assistance on a global level on the use of the right mechanics. Internal and external case studies give fascinating insights and are supplemented with valuable empirical examples. If Coca-Cola sells a billion bottles per day and every one of those can be a marketing channel, then this technology must be exploited.