Sitting in a diner in New York I looked on the walls and saw several vintage signs, signs of an era gone by. Then I realized how many different signs there were for Coca Cola. Here are some samples:

Then I thought of the times when I grew up and there was a bottling plant in San Fernando. They made Coca Cola in the hobble skirt bottle. But the signs were everywhere. On every shop front, nailed into every counter front, hung at an angle on the eaves they put a Coca Cola sign wherever it could fit. Small wonder that Coke is still “it” after all these years. In 1971, they taught the world to sing in perfect harmony and drink Coke at the same time.

So the question really is: how do we expect to have our brands live long if we do not put our message where our consumers are?  How can we do so if we do not know who our consumers are? Our consumers are not ‘everybody’ that is a lazy man’s view of the market. So again, who is your consumer? Can you define that clearly? Take a look at the Coke ad and see who they defined as their consumer? So the question again: as a brand or marketing manager can you define clearly your consumer/customer? How do you know that is truly who s/he is?