share a coke

The Coca-Cola Company, based in Atlanta, Georgia, is the world’s largest non-alcoholic beverage company, serving the functions of manufacture, distribution and marketing (The Coca-Cola Company, 2013). The company is famous for its flagship product Coca-Cola, a carbonated cola flavored soft drink invented by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in 1886. Asa Griggs Candler bought the Coca-Cola formula and brand in 1889 and then incorporated The Coca-Cola Company in 1892. Today, the company owns or licenses more than 500 brands and over 3500 products worldwide, including Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Minute Maid, Vitamin Water, etc. Everyday, it serves over 1.8 billion servings in more than 200 countries or territories (The Coca-Cola Company, 2013).In 2011, Australia launched an innovative campaign, “Share a Coke”. The company chose 150 of Australia’s most popular names and put them on the front of millions of Coca-Cola bottles (Lionbridge, n.d.). This is the first time in its 125-year history that Coca-Cola has made such a major change to it packaging. Later on, this simple idea then expanded to countries around the world, including New Zealand, the U.K., Norway, Ireland and China.
Other countries adapted Australian "Share a Coke" campaign into their own unique ways. In China, nicknames were printed on the packs instead of first names. Because of the culture difference, it’s not easy to conclude popular names among 1.3 billion people. Coca-Cola realized online that Chinese youth celebrate their individuality by creating nicknames that express their personality. So they took the 64 most popular nicknames and put them on half a billion bottles and invited China to share them (Lau, 2013). When launching, Coca-Cola sent personalized bottles to a hundred leading celebrities who blogged about them. Instantly, Coca-Cola nickname bottles became a hot topic.
Coca-Cola used this campaign to remind people of friends, families, and loved ones in their lives. It received huge reactions