Something heart stopping!

Have you lately read news about a woman who died because of drinking coke? According to Iltalehti she drunk Coca-cola something like 12 litres in one day, and got a heart attack.

I just can't keep thinking how that kind of publicity disturbs a brand image!

Like, if you think Coca-cola, a world wide known brand. Almost everyone drinks "Coke", and then you suddenly see that kind of news in the media? Does it affect you like "omg I can never drink coke anymore". Well at least I have to say that I still drink it.....

But I just wonder how strong brand image Coca-cola must have that it can take that kind of publicity. There isn't so many brands which have so deep reliability in customers' hearts' (yea funny...) so that kind of things doesn't harm the image.

It's well known that it usually takes tens, maybe hundreds of years to build a reliable, permanent brand image, but it needs only one scandal to break it up. So how can Coca-cola hold on its image a year after year, even if people die in a heart attacks and their teeth rot in a mouth because of drinking coke...? I have to say that's nothing but amazing.

And although Coca-cola has so many health harms, it is still probably the most known brand in the whole world. You hardly can find a place where people don't drink coke. 

If I could, I would ask the creator of Coca-cola, how on earth he has succeeded making such a brand. (Well at least he isn''t alive anymore because Coca-cole was invented in 1886...)

But I think this gives some hope to this days' brands too. If a black liquid with various health harms can become a most known brand in a world, maybe others have also chances.

But if you think Pepsi for example, yeah everybody knows what it is, but most people still prefer Coca-cola. It's the law of the first; if you can innovate something first, it doesn't matter how much better the second is, because everyone remembers only the first one. And Coca-cola was the first.

See ya,
Heidi :)