Coca-Cola: As a foreign brand, it actively integrates Chinese culture and implements an example of advertising localization strategy.

It’s really hard to say enough about Coca-Cola, it’s so legendary. In the list of the world's 100 most valuable brands published by Business Week in 2001, Coca-Cola topped the list with a value of US$72.5 billion. A twentieth-century survey shows that the three most popular words in the world are God, her and Coca Cola. Coca-Cola was also the first foreign company to enter China after China's reform and opening up, and the first to advertise in China. When the Queen of England visited China in 1984, the British television station BBC filmed a documentary for China Central Television to show. As a diplomatic courtesy, CCTV had to broadcast it, but it had no money to give to the BBC, so it asked Coca-Cola to sponsor it. Coca-Cola proposed a sponsorship condition: to broadcast a Coca-Cola commercial before the documentary. This became the opening chapter in the history of TV advertising in New China. After that, many companies wrote reports and asked, "Coke can do TV advertising, can we do it?" Then the opportunity for TV advertising opened up.

Regardless of Coca-Cola’s glory, Coca-Cola’s advertising strategy is second to none in the world. Woodruff, the former boss of Coca-Cola Company, famously said: "Coca-Cola is 99.61% carbonic acid, syrup and water. If there is no advertising, who will drink it?" Historically, Coca-Cola Company has invested heavily in advertising. And win. Today, Coca-Cola’s global advertising spend exceeds US$600 million annually. The Chinese market is no exception. Coca-Cola invests tens of millions of yuan in advertising in China every year.

At first, Coca-Cola appeared in front of Chinese consumers with an international image, impressing consumers with the most typical American style and American personality, and the advertisements used were also the Atlanta version of the United States. Nearing the end of the 20th century, Coca-Cola realized that in order to be the leader in China's beverage market, the long-term way to integrate the brand into Chinese culture was. So in 1997, Coca-Cola's advertising and marketing strategy underwent significant changes. For its first TV commercial in China, it was shot in China, the first time it was designed by a Chinese advertising company, and the first time it invited Chinese actors to shoot the commercial. Coca-Cola began to take great strides to implement the strategy of localization of advertising.

Coca-Cola’s advertising localization strategy is first reflected in the combination of its advertising and Chinese culture. Chinese people love excitement, especially the Spring Festival, a time for family reunions, and Coca-Cola’s most eye-catching advertising efforts were a series of Spring Festival films from 1997 to 2002. The Coca-Cola New Year film chose typical Chinese scenes to shoot, using traditional Chinese arts such as couplets, puppets, and paper-cutting, and through folk activities such as pasting Spring Festival couplets and setting off fireworks to express China's strong local flavor. Coca-Cola also heavily advertised Beijing's successful bid for the Olympics and China's accession to the WTO. Now it is vigorously sponsoring the Chinese football team, claiming that drinking Coca-Cola will "share the excitement of the World Cup." Coca-Cola has become a local product in China, and this local image has indeed achieved the effect of communicating with Chinese consumers.

Secondly, Coca-Cola actively chooses new generation Chinese idols as its image spokespersons. Coca-Cola has always adopted an undifferentiated market coverage strategy, and its target customers appear to be relatively broad. Recently, Coca-Cola's advertising strategy has focused its audience on young people, and the advertising images are dominated by images of energetic and healthy young people. In 1999, firstly, Zhang Huimei was appointed. This female singer is fierce, wild and "girly" and has won the love of a large number of teenagers. Then the new generation idol Nicholas Tse was appointed as Coca-Cola Digital Elite General Mobilizer.

In 2001, the popular idol Cecilia Cheung was introduced as the image spokesperson for Coca-Cola’s summer marketing campaign. Then, diving star, three-time Olympic champion, and Chinese diving queen Fu Mingxia signed a contract with Coca-Cola to become the “Sprite” in the new century. "The brand's first advertising spokesperson in China. In the TV commercial, Fu Mingxia leaps from a plane thousands of meters above the ground and lands in the crystal clear ice and snow, hinting at the freshness and straightforwardness of Sprite. It is said that after using the new generation of Chinese idols for promotion, Coca-Cola's sales in China increased by 24%.

Coca-Cola deserves to be the world’s number one brand and has a long-term strategic vision. In order to maintain its dominance in China's soft drink market for a long time, its advertising strategy can abandon American thinking and actively integrate local Chinese concepts.

This localization strategy has been welcomed by every Chinese people. According to data from the CCTV Survey and Consultation Center, Coca-Cola has ranked first in market share, best brand recognition ratio and brand awareness for seven consecutive years. 90% of consumers in China now know Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola’s advertising localization strategy is worth learning from foreign brands that want to enter the Chinese market. For example, the advertising spokespersons of Unilever’s Lux soap are often international female stars. Now they insist on hiring Chinese female stars such as Michelle Reis, Maggie Cheung, and Shu Qi. As an example of localization strategy, Coca-Cola deserves to be ranked second in the top ten advertising strategies.