Martketing. The Art and The Brain of Branding.

The author has been for many years Group VP Marketing of the Coca Cola Company, where he led global campaigns and worldwide marketing initiatives. 

This book is about his professional – and, I would add, personal and emotional – journey in Coca-Cola and the key lessons he learned, in particular on how to manage and nurture such a delicate still complex asset like a global brand.

I had the honor and the privilege to work for The Coca-Cola Company for nearly three years, in one of its regional offices. Therefore, reading this book has been a bit of a “revival” to me. I found that the way this book is written, the topics that are developed, the solutions that are explained and the overall “cultural” landscape that is described here are definitely “Very Coke”. In my own experience, I would define it as a mix of chaos, politics, passions and the occasional stroke of genius!

Lamelas did a very good job in demonstrating that there is a logic in all this, that it is possible to deconstruct such a multifaceted topic that is the way Coke does marketing – the mix of “Art” and “Brain” mentioned in the book title - without being too pedantic and despite the risk of sometimes patronizing the reader a bit too much. But… Let’s not forget that this probably one of the most successful brands ever, and I do not see any sign of apparent tiredness…

Coca-Cola is definitely unique. Being a franchising and being the cash cow of its portfolio – the “Classic Coke”, of course - an evergreen product, the “Firm” is in actual fact a “pure” marketing company. Very much differently from other companies I have worked for, everybody’s focus is on marketing and branding. 

Of course, there is a lot of NPD projects happening all the time, but when you work there it seems like everybody is engaged in one key main task, that is keeping the Coca-Cola main message fresh and contemporary. Once my manager told me that “the key task of the Coca-Cola marketing team is to tell always the same thing to the consumers, every year in a different way”. Therefore, I personally believe that the essence of this book is about explaining how Coca-Cola is able to be forever the same but also new and different every single year.

Warmly recommended, particularly if you are interested in learning about “The Real Thing” on marketing in Coke, and directly from the original source!