A World without Coca-Cola.

"Do you really want to live in a world without Coca-Cola?"

- Walter White/Heisenberg, Breaking Bad

I worship Breaking Bad, like so many other purists who knew of it before it became as famous as it is now, as well as like the newbies who started watching it because their friends were watching it. There have been several instances where Walter aka Heisenberg has employed the use of his 'colorful metaphors' to describe certain situations in his descent into darkness. 

After the show ended, I started watching random episodes again(it's now playing on Star World) with the homies, the girlfriend, or all by myself. Out of all the episodes, out of all the metaphors and quotes that Heisenberg spurts out sporadically in his trademark bad-ass baritone, the aforementioned quote(as well as the story behind it) is by far, the most insanely brilliant moment in television history. For those who don't know, Heisenberg describes the chemical potency of his product, that is 'crystal meth', to a group of meth manufacturers and distributors. What he says is that what the distributors produce is an impure, low-grade substance, comparing it to a sub-standard fizzy soda. And what he makes, is 'Classic Coke'.

Walt Buys a can of coke with the first ever dollar earned at the Car Wash.

When I watched the episode for the first time, I was just spellbound by the sheer audacity of the scene, and stood up and clapped at how fucking insane that moment was. As I watched that episode over and over again, I started taking something else out of the scene. There are so many things to take out of Breaking Bad, but this wasn't about Breaking Bad itself. Breaking Bad has had a powerful impact on me, but something else had an impact on something so powerful like Breaking Bad. Some entity that is so powerful and influential that a show like Breaking Bad had to feature it not once, but twice through the course of its cumulative airtime.

Like Heisenberg, I asked myself, "Do I really want to live in a world without Coca-Cola?" 

The World's Most Loved Brand

I always used to be a 'Pepsi fanboy', but I can't help but marvel at the sheer brilliance of how Coke has reached the hearts of billions of people all over the world. Until recently, Coke was the 'World's Most Valuable and Recognized Brand' till Apple and Google came along and pushed Coke down the charts. 

Still, the brand is recognized by 94% of the world's population. It is also the most valuable brand product on Facebook, and controls 44% of the global soda market share. Pepsi might come close to Coke in terms of revenue, but can never even imagine compare to the Coke's reach into the global marketplace, and the minds and hearts of consumers. And Coke's been doing this in style, for decades, even centuries.

So why is Coke so popular? For  a company that sells a calorie-heavy product that even contains pesticides, it is unfathomable to see it grow to be the world's most loved brand.  While other cola companies would communicate to the world that their product is completely pesticide-free and contains very few calories, Coke stuck to doing what they do best, and said this:

Sayin' it like it is.

While other brands fight it out over numerous celebrity endorsements, radical advertising strategies, cool-sounding brand stories,  and over-the-top marketing communication, Coke broke it down, got right to the roots and based their entire marketing communication around both the most complicated yet most simple emotion known to mankind: Happiness.

Opening Happiness

As much as I hate the three annoying cast members of that pathetic movie 'Student of the Year', I couldn't help but admire their latest TV ad campaign for Coke that promotes happiness through 'random acts of kindness'. The funda is simple: if you see anyone having a rough day, especially to strangers, hand them a Coke! It implies the notion that if people call you crazy for being kind to strangers, be proud to be crazy.

One of the few ads during my teenage years that actually made me smile.

Coke was smart enough to recognize the effect it was having on its consumers, and took that emotion and made it their brand story. It probably began when it was losing out to Pepsi for a few years, Coke spent years on understanding consumer psychology, and realized that the true secret to success is to not sell a product, but to sell feelings! The packaging for instance, the bottle design, went back to the 'classic coke' style, evoking memories of a simpler, happier time. One thing many people might not know is that Coke made it a point to get their product to the soldiers who were part of World War II. It was like getting a letter from home, but in this case, it was a soda.

Coke took the core element of happiness, made their communication as simple as possible. I'm sure for a fact that if you try to correlate the color red to a product, the first thing you would think of is Coke. Coke understood this very well and used their brand recall and loyalty to their advantage and designed an overall 'glocal marketing strategy' to share the love back to their consumers. I wouldn't want to get into the social and community-based initiatives by Coke, because quite simply, I'm not into that sort of thing when brands use social causes to their advantage.

Coming to my own life and the ones of the people I know, I've observed the following situations:

• Biriyani is incomplete without a dose of Coke. So is Pizza. And french fries. And Tandoori Chicken. And chips. And Kathi rolls. OK, I guess you get the point.
• Coke is a unanimous friend to the otherwise repulsive spirit called Rum.
• Movies aren't the same without Coke.
• Speaking of movies, popcorn isn't the same without Coke.
• You always tend to sub-consciously stock up on Coke during cricket matches. Whether is is consumed during the match, after winning or after losing. It doesn't matter.
• Sunny day = a bottle of coke. Or two.
• Chilling in the College canteen = a few bottles of coke. Or 15.
• Coke Ads  in the early 2000s with Aamir Khan. Class.
• When there is a large social gathering, especially in the case of families and relatives, someone ALWAYS has to say the phrase "Array yaar, koi Coke-shoke leke aao."

But why?

It so happened once that I was waiting for someone outside a restaurant, smoking a cigarette and sipping on a half-liter bottle of Coke to while away time, when a street kid, came begging, asking for money. She didn't notice the bottle of Coke in my hand yet. When she did, she told me, "Actually, don't give me any money. Just let me have the rest of that Coke." I did, and on her face I saw a smile so genuine, it made me wonder about the last time I saw a kid smile like that.

Come to think of it, Coke does equal happiness. People identify with Coke because happiness as a virtue, as an emotion, as a feeling is something we all yearn for in a way.

But on a broader perspective, why would any brand use a common word such as 'happiness' and build their campaigns around it? Would any regular brand go for something so simple, take such a big risk? People might say, 'LOL happiness? you gotta be fucking kidding me!' or 'Open Happiness? That sounds so gay!'

But why did it click?

The greatest and most successful brands have always established a personal connection with their consumers, and kept the communication simple. The most successful have always believed in selling feelings, over selling the product. Martin Luther King did it with 'I have a dream'. Apple did it with 'Think Different'. Nike did it with 'Just Do It'. Coke didn't do anything different. They all kept it simple.

And that, is where Coke hit the jackpot. Coke understood that if they believed in the emotion of something as pure, raw and simple as happiness,  people would believe in their idea and would buy their product, for sure. 

To quote Simon Sinek from 'The Golden Circle' philosophy, 

"People don't buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it."

So seriously. Do you really wanna live in a world without Coke?