The coke’s side of life is very different. It is full of happiness and joy, this is what coke was trying to show in one of its Ad Campaign that says ‘The Coke Side of life’. The product has no definition of itself that what it is. Is it a energy drink, or a refreshment or a fruit drink or a drink to make a person healthy or active. It features none of them but it has established itself as a drink that brings joy into people’s life, that makes people closer to each other and a drink that is used to enjoy the party.
Think for a while that was it possible without advertisements? Or was it possible to sell a product that has not any merit but is only a drink and if said in simple terms, is a cold drink only? The drink used as substitute for water that can make your throat cool for sometime and that can give you relief from summer for sometime. Could there be any better substitute to water? Still the Cola Manufactures are able to substitute water. This is said clearly by the Punchline of Sprite, “Bujhaye only pyas, Baki All Bakwas”. This all is made possible through Advertisement Tools. And the punch line/tagline plays a vital role in doing that. As these lines are used to spread the message that ad of a particular product wants to convey.
The Sprite’s Punchline was able to deliver what it was trying to convey and got huge success in the very beginning. But CocaCola had continually been experimenting with its punch lines. For instance, Coke launched sprite in India in 1999 and at that time the product was launched with the tagline as “Bujhaye only pyas, Baki All Bakwas” that was changed to “All Taste, No Gyan” later on. All the ads of Sprite have been complete nonsense without much creativity and innovation but still they performed well except few. The main reason behind that might be the taste of the product and the brand value of Coca-Cola that made most of its Ads a success.
Coke(Sprite) challenged Pepsi(Mountain Dew) into the battle by making fun of Pepsi in its Ads:
The ad is spoofing Mountain Dew. The guys enters the shop demanding Dew(I wanna do(dew)) but the shopkeeper dint get what they are saying. And then, someone translates that they wanna do(piss). The ad is indirectly making fun of the brand- Mountain Dew.
I still remember the time when the ad of Sprite used to say, “Deewano pe naa jaao, apni akal ladao”, yes this was also line of punch for an ad campaign of Coke’s Sprite. Coke kept on changing the punchlines for Sprite as it was getting the cut throat competition from Mountain Dew. This rivalry gave birth to a new punchline i.e. “Seedhi Baat, No Bakwas”
What the company wants to show about its brand through all these taglines is pretty unclear. The first tagline straightly says that the product is made as a perfect solution to the thirst only. The punch line was having sufficient potential to compete because this was telling the USP(Unique Selling Proposition) for the brand that it is simply a thirst hunter which no other cola is. After positioning itself different from colas, sprite tried to alter its image to a position that it is the only brand that people likes most because of its taste(All Taste…). Here the brand became confused in what to convey and ultimately got ineffective. Then again, it is difficult to say that why the brand was repositioned as a brand of minded fellows(deewano pe naa…). The brand lost its equity just because of its experiments and buckled under Mountain Dew.
But still it tried to regain its equity by doing some new experiments with its new punchline that indicates that it’s a drink for those who love Straight Forwardness(Seedhi baat…). In.com, in an effort to provide an innovative branding solution to Coca-Cola India’s lemon-lime beverage brand Sprite, has woven Sprite’s tagline ‘Seedhi Baat No Bakwaas’ into its email service by associating the Inbox and the Trash folder with ‘Seedhi Baat In’ and ‘Bakwaas Out’ respectively.
After that the brand again changed its tagline to “Clear Hai”. Look at this ad with such a bullshit that conveys no message and have no meaning yet it is success. In this way the ads are targeting youth of today those who loves nonsense:
The ad goes like stupid conversation with a frog- the sprite colored frog. The frog wants the kiss of the man drinking sprite, to become a princess. The ad shows that even frogs are crazy for sprite. The message is silly and funny both, as no one would like to kiss a frog, yet it is catchy.
It is remarkable to know that lastly the brand came up with a tagline that was the combination of all its previous taglines, “Seedhi Baat, No Bakwaas… Clear Hai”. This campaign have more creative ads in its portfolio than any of the previous one. The Ads are more funny with less non-sense.
The two ads shows that how smart are the Sprite people.
The Unclear goals and unrelated taglines affect the brand image and equity. Unclearly defined target market creates problems in positioning and hence occurred such kind of problems. That was not the case with the Sprite even after having stupidity in its Ads.
The brand was much clear on its goals since beginning and positioned it as a product for juveniles through its stupidity. And though it was successful in beating its direct rival i.e. Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew positioned itself as a dink for those people who have dare to do something challenging, since beginning”Darr ke aage jeet hai”. No Doubt the campaigns of Dew were also fantastic with sufficient innovation and message in it. That is the only reason that both of the brands have developed their own brand equity.
Sprite has not applied AKAL and still made people DEEWANA of it… Clear Hai.
