Tim Hesler, GMBA Class of 2017 

“A brand is a promise. A good brand is a promise kept.”This was the foundation on which Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent’s October 23 dialogue with Tsinghua SEM students was premised. It is also the foundation on which he believes Coca-Cola has been built and will continue to thrive in the future. The dialogue, titled, “Why Brands Matter,” gave an inside look at arguably the most recognizable corporate brand in the world. 

Mr. Kent’s presentation at Tsinghua SEM came on the heels of a corporate visit several days earlier by a group of current MBA students to Coca-Cola’s Beijing facilities. In the course of the visit, students were given a view of local operations, engaged in dialogue by Ms. Ling Ping Li, Coca-Cola’s Greater China Director of Government and Community, PAC, and even allowed to snag iconic Coca-Cola polar bear sefies. 

As a vivid depiction of Coca-Cola’s brand-consciousness, Mr. Kent shared the once-ambitious goal of having a bottle “that anyone can touch in the dark and instantly know what it is.” He pointed out that while any truly great brand must begin with a particularly distinctive product or service – in Coca-Cola’s case, defined by the unique taste of its original signature beverage – that product alone serves as more of a necessary than sufficient condition. 

But what else goes into the “romancing of this proprietary package,” as Mr. Kent aptly characterized it? In his view, the answer both shifts over time and also remains constant. On the one hand, consumers expect something different – perhaps more – now than they did at Coca-Cola’s founding 130 years ago. 

On the other hand, the constant: successful brands consistently tend to be both authentic and responsive to consumer needs, and in the 21st Century, it remains a deep level of responsiveness to those shifting expectations that propels a brand forward. In China, for instance, Mr. Kent says the 500 million-strong rural population is routinely on the forefront of his radar, with an eye to the massive base of both consumers and, simply, people. By 2018, it is expected that Coca- Cola will have invested $9 billion in China, and not a trivial portion of that amount into undertakings like supporting schools through the Project Hope program. 

Despite the company’s growth from one beverage to over 500, despite Coca-Cola’s touting a whopping 20 different billion-dollar beverage brands, Mr. Kent still believes there is room both to dream and to be on guard. What keeps him up at night, he says, is the threat facing essentially any highly successful company: the prospect of complacency. In an effort to avoid that pitfall, he says he attempts to maintain a learner’s posture, especially when engaging with retailers and consumers. “Every time I visit a point of sale,” he explains, “I learn something new.” 

As for his dreams? “My dream is one day people can drink Coca-Cola from a package and then eat the package, so that nothing is wasted.” It may sound unconventional and even a bit audacious, but so once did an instantly-identifiable-in-the-dark bottle. A lifelong Coca-Cola employee, Mr. Kent would argue that being tasked with overseeing a brand as ubiquitous as this one is still as much about awareness and forward trailblazing as it is about preservation, and from his vantage point, continuing to meet and especially push the boundaries of consumer expectations is an essential part of fulfilling the promise that is the Coca-Cola brand.