Decisions and Responsibility: Insights from Mauricio Ospina Durán on Coca-Cola's Marketing Strategy

The alarm goes off at 5 am, signaling the start of the day. The speaker reflects on the importance of making decisions, no matter how small, as they shape one's future. They emphasize taking on challenges to grow and improve for themselves and their family. The speaker asserts their belief in being the sole architect of their destiny, deciding to pursue education and obtain a degree for lifelong knowledge.

The speaker welcomes attendees to a virtual marketing conference in honor of the Marketing Week of Cevotec. The event kicks off with a keynote presentation by Mauricio Ospina Durán, an experienced professional in Strategy and Media, currently working at The Coca-Cola Company for Mexico. Mauricio's background includes roles in brand building, communication, media investment, and various marketing areas.

Mauricio expresses gratitude for the invitation to speak at the Subtec community event. He highlights the unique opportunity of remote work, mentioning his base in Colombia while working for Coca-Cola in Mexico. Mauricio emphasizes the value of cross-cultural connections and learning through remote ecosystems. He sets the stage for his talk on brand consolidation and customer experience.

Mauricio stresses the importance of storytelling in brand building, going beyond business and sales aspects. He discusses the three key elements of Research, Strategy, and Creativity in creating a customer experience ecosystem. Mauricio shares personal anecdotes and insights to make the discussion engaging and relatable, aiming for a conversational and informative session.

Mauricio reflects on his journey working in agencies and with Coca-Cola for four years, emphasizing the dedication to his craft. He dedicates the talk to his grandmother, who is ill, showcasing a personal touch to his professional endeavors. Mauricio promises to share insights, anecdotes, and practical experiences to make the session interactive and enriching for the audience.

The speaker discussed the importance of selecting an engaging topic for a presentation that would captivate the audience, especially those in Honduras and beyond. They decided to focus on 'customer experience,' emphasizing that working with brands today involves creating a holistic media ecosystem centered around creating experiences rather than just traditional advertising campaigns.

While acknowledging their affiliation with Coca-Cola, the speaker expressed a desire to avoid solely discussing advertising campaigns related to the brand. They highlighted the limitations of focusing solely on one brand, emphasizing the importance of broader learning opportunities and avoiding creating a purely promotional space.

The speaker recalled being invited to write recommendations for Copu, a Colombian advertising and marketing platform expanding into Latin America. They initially considered providing five expert recommendations but realized the need to cater to a wider audience, including beginners in strategic business planning, leading them to simplify their language and make the content more accessible.

Reflecting on their writing process, the speaker recognized the need to adjust their language to cater to diverse audiences. They shifted from technical jargon to colloquial language to broaden the target audience and ensure clarity and accessibility in their content, ultimately receiving positive feedback from both marketing professionals and academic figures.

The presentation will focus on marketing for non-marketers, offering insights on Customer Experience, research tips, and strategic points leading to execution. It aims to be accessible to a diverse audience, drawing inspiration from the EFI awards' emphasis on clarity and comprehensibility.

The EFI awards recognize campaign effectiveness in communication and advertising, spanning categories like automotive, finance, real-time strategies, and corporate reputation. The awards highlight success stories and innovative approaches within various industries.

The speaker advocates for a holistic approach beyond mere advertising, urging marketers to explore diverse communication avenues. Emphasizing the need to engage audiences beyond traditional ads, the discussion delves into the significance of building brand narratives and meaningful interactions.

Citing sources indicating individuals receive an advertising impact every ten seconds, the speaker underscores the saturation of ads in daily life. With an estimated 6,000 daily ads per person, the discussion prompts reflection on the relevance and attention given to these messages, urging a critical evaluation of advertising effectiveness.

In the discussion, it is highlighted that influencers play a crucial role in advertising on platforms like Instagram. The speaker mentions that influencers are part of the media landscape that contributes to ad production. This emphasizes the importance of considering influencer marketing strategies alongside traditional advertising methods.

The speaker discusses the significance of considering the entire marketing funnel, including the beginning, middle, and end stages. They stress the need to focus not only on initial brand awareness and final conversions but also on the intermediate stages of the customer journey. This holistic approach is deemed essential for creating meaningful interactions with consumers.

The conversation delves into the evolving landscape of communication, where both small and large advertisers have access to diverse resources beyond traditional mass media. It is emphasized that modern communication strategies should not solely focus on driving sales but also on broader objectives such as brand building, engagement, and impact creation.

The speaker advocates for moving away from outdated product-centric messaging that solely focuses on tangible product features and benefits. They highlight the importance of creating emotional connections with consumers through storytelling and experiences. This shift is seen as crucial for building lasting relationships and driving repeat purchases.

The discussion centers on the importance of balancing brand identity with product focus. While acknowledging the significance of highlighting product attributes and history, the speaker emphasizes the need to integrate these aspects into a cohesive brand narrative. This approach aims to differentiate the brand while maintaining a strong product focus.

The conversation shifts to analyzing a word cloud generated from key conversations with a partner organization. The word cloud reflects the primary topics and themes discussed, providing insights into prevalent keywords and discussions. This analytical approach aids in understanding the core focus areas of the collaborative efforts.

People on social media in 2023 from January to December are recalling various aspects beyond just the product itself. They remember how the brand made them feel and the impact it had on their lives. This goes beyond mere advertising campaigns to building lasting connections with consumers. Examples include themes of magic and nostalgia like Christmas and Coca-Cola, as well as events like Flow Fest featuring artists like Rosalía.

Beyond showcasing product features, the focus is on how the brand is perceived by the target audience. It's about creating a relationship with consumers, not just selling a product. By highlighting values and emotional connections, the brand aims to engage with consumers on a deeper level and build lasting loyalty.

Understanding the TikTok format and leveraging digital trends like ASNR is crucial. It's not just about showcasing products but creating a symbolic connection with consumers. By aligning with popular figures like Rosalía and engaging in online conversations, brands like Coca-Cola can enhance their image positively.

Creating immersive consumer experiences through event sponsorships goes beyond traditional marketing. By associating with festivals and concerts, brands like Coca-Cola offer more than just products; they provide memorable experiences that enhance brand perception. Initiatives like Coca Estudio and Clubfest focus on building emotional connections and delivering value beyond mere sponsorship.

Adapting to cultural trends like the 'coqueta' aesthetic of the 1950s can be a strategic move for brands. By tapping into popular aesthetics and social conversations, brands can resonate with consumers on a deeper level. For example, Coca-Cola's 'La Verdadera Coqueta' campaign cleverly aligns with the trend while maintaining brand identity and relevance.

Coca-Cola implemented successful marketing strategies by creating engaging content that resonated with their target audience, resulting in high reach and engagement. They strategically positioned themselves as a brand associated with Christmas, leveraging various activities like caravans, tree lighting events, and partnerships with Amazon for self-gifting during the holiday season. By forming alliances with partners like Amazon, Coca-Cola provided special Christmas-themed packaging with QR codes for additional benefits, enhancing their brand perception and creating closer connections with consumers.

Coca-Cola strategically aligned itself with football events, particularly the 2022 Qatar World Cup, to capitalize on the global audience's interest. They created real-time content experiences during the World Cup to engage consumers effectively. By understanding key moments that resonated with audiences globally, Coca-Cola successfully leveraged the football event to enhance brand visibility and consumer engagement across multiple countries.

As a major sponsor of the FIFA World Cup, Coca-Cola aimed to infuse joy and optimism into the championship. They tasked their team in Brazil with creating real-time content that inspired belief in the magic of the event. Through data analysis and strategic planning, Coca-Cola transformed tense moments during matches into magical perspectives of the FIFA World Cup, emphasizing the unique spirit of joy that defines the tournament. By leveraging Brazil's passion for football, Coca-Cola successfully delivered a consistent message that resonated with the country and achieved significant engagement and brand visibility.

Coca-Cola's FIFA World Cup campaign in 2022 resulted in a significant increase in brand visibility and engagement. The campaign led to a higher number of brand mentions compared to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, showcasing a substantial rise in participation rates exceeding industry averages. Through innovative real-time content creation and strategic partnerships, Coca-Cola emerged as a champion in engaging global audiences and reinforcing its brand presence during the prestigious football event.

Brazil achieved success in the FIFA World Cup 2022, turning their magic into reality.

Efforts were made to create real-time content during match days, moving beyond mere match narration.

A bronze award was won in EFILATAM through a real-time content strategy, expanding reach across LATAM.

The key to success was understanding how to build digital relationships with individuals, leading to significant achievements.

The cost and effort involved in digital relationship building vary based on brand, effort, and brand awareness, requiring consistency and periodic engagement.

Establishing strong relationships with consumers reduces costs, increases repurchase rates, and enhances brand loyalty, as highlighted by Forbes.

Before engaging in relationship building, it is crucial to establish a strong brand equity to ensure long-term success and consumer loyalty.

Extensive preparation is necessary before embarking on relationship building, involving understanding brand attributes, value propositions, market shares, and competitor analysis.

To develop effective business benchmarking strategies, it is crucial to analyze various aspects such as business communication, reputation, sales channels, pricing distribution, innovations, equity plans, corporate culture, sustainability, and social initiatives. Understanding market trends, economic and political situations, social and environmental issues, and even customer feedback are essential for strategic planning.

It is vital for companies to continuously update and understand their target audience over time. Changes in consumer behavior, preferences, and market dynamics necessitate a shift in marketing strategies. For example, the rise of discount supermarkets in Colombia has altered consumer preferences, highlighting the importance of adapting to evolving target demographics.

Acknowledging and learning from critics is crucial for brand improvement. Understanding why certain individuals dislike a product or brand can provide valuable insights for enhancing relationships and refining marketing strategies. Engaging with dissenting voices can lead to valuable learning experiences and foster better brand-customer relationships.

Developing a comprehensive long-term plan for a company or brand involves aligning all stakeholders, including employees, partners, and agencies. Ensuring that everyone shares a common vision and values is essential for creating brand ambassadors who embody the brand's ethos. Collaboration and alignment across all levels of the organization are key to successful brand management.

Continuous measurement and evaluation are critical components of effective marketing strategies. Monitoring key performance indicators, customer sentiment, brand equity, trends, target audience feedback, and media impact are essential for assessing the success of marketing campaigns. Regular evaluation helps in making data-driven decisions and optimizing marketing efforts.

Targeting strategies should not rely solely on demographics but also incorporate psychographics to understand the emotions, preferences, and interests of the audience. Demographics like age, location, and income are essential for creating a target profile, but they should be complemented with deeper insights to avoid misjudging the audience.

A balance between demographics and psychographics is crucial for effective targeting. While demographics provide a foundation, psychographics offer a deeper understanding of the audience's passions, interests, and frustrations. Over-reliance on demographics can hinder relationship development, emphasizing the need for a holistic approach that considers both quantitative and qualitative aspects.

Global targeting should not be limited to demographic factors like country of origin. Shared passions, interests, and frustrations can connect individuals across borders, allowing for diverse target audiences. Understanding audience interests and passions enables more personalized messaging and effective targeting beyond demographic boundaries.

Effective targeting strategies involve a balanced approach that considers both demographic and psychographic factors. By understanding audience passions, interests, and frustrations, marketers can cluster and profile audiences effectively, leading to more meaningful relationships beyond quantitative metrics.

Creating relationships with customers goes beyond advertising to encompass the customer journey and funnel. Understanding the customer experience (CX) funnel or journey is essential for marketers to not only create ads but also build lasting relationships with customers, emphasizing the importance of a holistic approach in marketing strategies.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the customer journey, mentioning various types of journeys like funnels with cone or knot shapes, horizontal or linear funnels. They highlight the significance of knowing when customers enter the journey, whether at the brand discovery phase or at a more advanced retention stage. The speaker stresses that regardless of the model adopted, understanding the journey is crucial.

The discussion shifts to the weight attribution in the customer journey, emphasizing that the weights assigned to different stages vary based on factors like brand maturity. For instance, a new brand may focus more on initial engagement rather than transactions. The speaker underscores the importance of considering various touchpoints and media channels in the weight attribution process.

Touchpoints and media channels play a significant role in customer engagement. The speaker explains that the selection of touchpoints, such as billboards with QR codes, should align with customer preferences and behaviors. They suggest using influencer marketing or interactive formats to enhance engagement. Constant measurement and evaluation of touchpoints are crucial for optimizing customer interactions.

The importance of continuous measurement and learning in marketing strategies is highlighted. The speaker stresses the need for ongoing evaluation during campaigns to identify strengths and areas for improvement. Post-campaign analysis and reflection aid in refining future plans and adapting to evolving consumer trends. Continuous learning and adaptation are key to staying relevant in a dynamic marketing landscape.

The discussion concludes with a focus on adapting to changing consumer behavior and media trends. The speaker points out that marketing is not about repeating magic formulas but about evolving with shifting consumer preferences. They cite examples like the transition from Facebook to TikTok as a reflection of changing audience preferences. Adapting to new platforms and consumer behaviors is essential for staying competitive in the marketing industry.

Brands are facing a shift in consumer skepticism, leading them to be more cautious in their messaging and approach to engaging with people. This evolution requires breaking out of comfort zones repeatedly to adapt to changing demographics and consumer attitudes.

A music festival faced a challenge when its original target audience aged from 18 to 25, resulting in a disconnect with newer 18-year-olds. To address this, the festival revamped its approach by diversifying its lineup, focusing on creating year-round experiences, and offering transactional benefits to attendees.

Successful marketing strategies involve thorough target audience analysis, strategic planning, and understanding consumer interests to create meaningful connections. Constantly pushing boundaries and comfort zones is essential for sustained success in marketing efforts.

The key to brand success lies in building genuine relationships with consumers rather than solely relying on advertising. This approach applies not only to advertisers and ad agencies but also to individuals aiming to establish themselves as influencers or experts in their respective fields.

The audience expresses gratitude for the enriching and insightful presentation, highlighting the value of understanding the reasoning behind successful advertising campaigns like those of Coca-Cola. The expert's insights enhance the audience's knowledge and reinforce classroom teachings.

New brands face the challenge of establishing consistent relationships with the public. Strategies to positively impact perception in a short time frame include leveraging available resources, implementing effective amplification strategies, and engaging in road hacking to accelerate brand recognition and acceptance.

Starting with a limited budget, it's essential for brands to focus on recommendations and referrals to create a positive image. Leveraging word-of-mouth can help brands with smaller communities gain credibility and trust from potential customers. The approach varies depending on the brand category, with consumer brands focusing on trial experiences while service-oriented brands need to establish credibility. Additionally, creating high-quality, owner-generated content can differentiate a brand and attract followers.

The key criteria for selecting content pillars for a brand's social media strategy include understanding the brand's DNA and desired positioning. By defining these aspects clearly, brands can build a consistent and authentic presence. Content pillars should encompass product features, unique selling points, and audience interests. Conducting competitor analysis and engaging with the target audience's community can provide valuable insights for content creation.

Analyzing the type of photography that audiences engage with, their preferences, and dislikes provides valuable insights for creating communication pillars. These pillars should evolve rather than change, adapting to the brand's goals and leveraging seasonal behaviors like increased spending in December to build relationships and showcase brand value.

When addressing cultural differences in strategy development, it's crucial to maintain a consistent brand base globally for international brands. Understanding local communication preferences, adapting messages to align with passion points across multiple countries, and avoiding reductionist cultural appropriation are key considerations. Targeting specific generations and identifying common trends for a seamless execution is also vital.

One common mistake brands make when trying to connect with audiences is unintentionally causing offense despite good intentions. Cultural understanding and audience sensitivity are essential to avoid hurtful messages. Creating culturally aware content tailored to the target audience helps prevent missteps and ensures messages resonate positively.

Messages with double interpretations can lead to dysfunction, especially on social media. It is crucial to be clear in communication to avoid misunderstandings. Brands should not appropriate sensitive issues like social themes without genuine commitment, as seen in cases of 'greenwashing' or superficial support for LGTBI causes only during Pride events. Brands must align with their values to avoid negative associations and rejection.

Brands should authentically support causes they claim to endorse. Using models or actors that do not represent the population being supported can be offensive and counterproductive. For example, promoting disability awareness should involve using models with disabilities, not those without, to avoid misrepresentation and insensitivity.

Entrepreneurs facing competition from larger companies should prioritize agility and quick results. Understanding the target audience deeply by analyzing insights from social media conversations is essential. Identifying recurring patterns and unique aspects in target profiles can guide strategic decisions. Additionally, studying communication pillars of successful brands on platforms like Instagram can provide valuable insights for entrepreneurial success.

Consulting and market research firms often publish open reports that are publicly available. These reports contain valuable consumer trends and category insights that can be found for free on the internet, particularly through tools like Google. One must be cautious in using this information for commercial purposes as it is meant for understanding and not direct utilization. An example is Diego Plazas, a knowledgeable figure in advertising planning, who emphasized the importance of utilizing Google for research before agency tools.

Diego Plazas advised learning essential research techniques like conducting a mystery shopper activity to understand buyer behavior and store checks to analyze competitors' point of sale strategies. These methods, along with surveys and interviews, provide valuable insights for brands aiming to understand market dynamics and consumer behavior.

Agencies like JWT, now evolved into various forms, offer efficient strategy creation manuals for online platforms. By leveraging these resources, individuals can swiftly develop effective strategies for digital marketing and brand communication.

To ensure the effectiveness of social media posts and avoid competition saturation, brands must differentiate themselves by identifying unique opportunities to surpass industry leaders. Content creation should be tailored to each social media platform, with a focus on engaging and entertaining visuals. Text within graphic content should be concise, engaging, and quickly convey the message to capture audience attention effectively.

Content on social media platforms, such as TikTok, needs to be not only informative but also highly entertaining to capture audience interest. Even informative content must be engaging to ensure consumption. Trends and color palettes, like those published by Juan and Sasa, can significantly impact the potency of organic content. Good segmentation and budget allocation are crucial for leveraging media effectively for increased reach and interaction.

Mauricio expresses gratitude for the contributions and queries received, acknowledging the clear and informative responses provided. The community, especially from CEU TEC and the Marketing degree program, is thanked for their time and knowledge shared during the event commemorating Marketing Week. The importance of expanding knowledge beyond classroom teachings and understanding real-world brand management is highlighted.

A certificate of participation in the Research Strategy in Creativity conference, part of Marketing Vibes week, is presented to Mauricio. The certificate, signed by Silvana Torres Pacetti and Miguel Ángel Salgado, will be sent to Mauricio's email as a token of appreciation for sharing knowledge with the CEU TEC community.

Mauricio expresses gratitude to Miguel, the CEU TEC community, and attendees for the opportunity, questions, and interest shown during the virtual event. Despite the challenges of virtual formats, Mauricio felt connected to the audience and encourages further interaction through LinkedIn for any queries. He emphasizes the openness to different perspectives in marketing and the value of sharing knowledge and experiences for mutual learning.

The event organizers express gratitude to Mauricio and the attendees, hoping the session was enriching. They look forward to future interactions and learning opportunities. The audience is wished a good night and a great week ahead, with anticipation for the upcoming conferences in celebration of Marketing Week.