Coke unveils plan to reach ‘every hand with a mobile phone’
MWC: Coca-Cola is aiming to use mobile techniques to reach the estimated 6 billion phone owners as it looks to achieve its aggressive growth target of doubling the size of its business by 2020.
Speaking at AirWatch Connect 2013 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Coca-Cola group director of mobile and search Tom Daly said the company aims to partner with carriers and technology companies to predict what consumers want and to drive transactions.
He said: “There are about 6 billion mobile phones in the world and every day we will serve about 1.8 billion servings. I would like to get a Coke into every hand with a mobile phone. Our traditional marketing activities will take that 1.8 billion to 2 billion but I’d like to begin with that 6 billion.”
Such mobile experiences are expected to build brand love for Coca-Cola but also to drive sales.
Daly said: “I am looking at how we can use mobile technology and content to get a transaction. We are not just in the brand building business, we are in the direct response business.”
Coca-Cola’s Atlanta HQ has struck a number of partnerships with mobile companies such as AT&T and Isis to develop tools for mobile payment to solve the problem of consumers choosing not to buy one of its products because they do not have enough change in their pockets.
Daly said: “This is not just an NFC opportunity; paying using a simple text could be an option. A consumer could walk up to a vending machine with nothing but a key word which they can SMS to dispense from their phone.”
The company is also in the early stages of testing how mobile can be used to anticipate what people want, such as the inclusion of a sensor in an app to detect when consumers need rehydration. Coca-Cola is looking to work with more partners to bring these ideas to market.
Daly said: “We will need the capabilities [of companies such as] AT&T, [mobile device management software company] AirWatch and other companies to bring the resources of the world through Atlanta to figure out how we participate [in the mobile ecosystem].
Earlier this month Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent set out an ambition for the company to become better at “collaborating, innovating and listening” to consumers and partners.
