Coca-Cola has a “secret recipe”, but you don’t really hear them talk about it much. In fact, you really never hear them talk about any of their ingredients. Why? Consumers don’t really care.
In his classic book “Ogilvy on Advertising“, David Ogilvy explains a time when he made this mistake while advertising for a brand of whiskey:
“Writing advertising for any kind of liquor is an extremely subtle art. I once tried using rational facts to argue the consumer into choosing a brand of whiskey. It didn’t work. You don’t catch Coca Cola advertising that Coke contains 50 per cent more cola berries.”
When a brand is doing things right, the specific details don’t matter as much. Along with Coca-Cola, Apple is among the best in the world at doing this. It made me think of the funny video from years ago where it showed how Microsoft might have tried to redesign the iPod packaging by touting features, and the resulting mess that it made.
Most people don’t buy a Macbook because it has the best specs on the marketing, and they don’t drink Coke because it has “50% more cola berries”, because the purchase isn’t about that. It’s about brand loyalty and trust, and knowing that the purchase will solve their problem.
If you can help customers understand that your product or service will solve their problem, the specific number of cola berries that you include is of no real significance.
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