Coca-Cola: Repurposing tools
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A product-comparison tool is adapted as a reputation builder.
The Site
Coca-Cola, the US-based soft drinks company, has adapted a product-comparison tool as a reputation builder on its UK site.
Coca-Cola’s Great Britain site has a Your Health section which includes a ‘What’s in our drinks?’ page where an interactive comparison tool features. Users can click and drag a product image from a carousel into a ‘What’s in every drink?’ frame to compare the product with another drink from the range. The frame is ready-populated with a bottle of standard Coca-Cola as the default comparator but this can be replaced using click-and-drag.
Tabs at the bottom of the frame allow comparisons in four categories: GDA [Guideline Daily Amounts] information, Nutrition information, Ingredients and Brand information. Clear instructions are given above and to the left of the frame on how to use the tool and the selected information displays in the frame between the product images.
The Takeaway
Product comparison features are pretty standard fare these days on consumer or business-to-business sites, where they add to the richness of the medium as a research tool. Coca-Cola’s drinks comparator is in essence no different but its repurposing as a reputation management feature is decidedly noteworthy.
Health issues are high on the company’s reputation agenda, nowhere more so than the obesity-obsessed UK, and this is reflected in the prominence given on the UK country site to the Your Health section. The interactive element of the comparison tool allied to the use of simple tabbing make it an inviting way for anxious parents among others to find out about the make up and potential effects of Coca-Cola products. There are a couple of weaknesses, though, that take some of the fizz out of the feature. The comparisons are restricted to Coca-Cola products, which may or may not be a pragmatic decision but adds a marketing flavour, and there is no way of capturing or forwarding the information.
http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/yourhealth/whats_in_our_drinks/First published on 03 April, 2008