kofola
I was at a marketing event last night chatting with a guy from Prague and I mentioned my recent trip there. He pointed me to a story of kofola, a brand I’d never heard of. Apparently, it was launched in 1962 as the Czech Communist answer to Coca-Cola. In 1989, when Communism fell, kofola suddenly had to compete with Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and nearly went under, because Czechs were rushing to try Western brands that were previously contraband.
One might think this would be game over for kofola. But, actually, in recent years, kofola has fought back. It did this, not by aping Coca-Cola and Pepsi, but instead by actually playing up its authentic Communist history, and staying true to what it stands for. In 2002, it launched a new campaign aimed at a young and hip audience that plays Communism as cool (check out the web site, particularly kofola fashion: kofola.cz). As it turns out, since the pro-Western halycon days of 1989, there’s actually been a backlash against Western capitalism (probably in proportion to the number of McDonald’s in central Prague). Suddenly, kofola is cool again.
By 2004, kofola actually eclipsed Coca-Cola in share (17% versus 14%), one of the few markets in the world where that is the case.
From what I can tell, it did this by branding, not by product. Here’s a funny description I found on an expat blog about how kofola tastes: "The cola has to be made with cabbage, like everything else in this country. Once you get over the slight cabbage taste there is a tiny cheese burger after taste." Yum. But cool.
That’s eerily similar to the story of Thums Up in India – it was the only cola available before India’s markets had opened up in the early 90′s, then went under for a while as Pepsi and Coca-cola were suddenly very popular. Now, Thums Up is the second most popular cola drink (Pepsi’s still #1). The reason, however, is not a fascination for communism but apparently for its taste – it’s sweeter than any of the other drinks and that helps in a hot country!
A similar thing happened to Cockta in Slovenia