Coca-Cola Sharpens its Brand with New Global Identity

Launched Monday 20 July across Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Asia, the 140-year-old Coca-Cola brand is getting revitalised with a bold new identity. 

The brand released numerous images alongside its announcement to reveal what consumers can expect in the brand's new image.

The changes will appear across packaging, retail environments, equipment and digital platforms and places stronger emphasis on Coca-Cola’s most distinctive visual assets – including the Dynamic Ribbon design and its red and white colour palette. 

Its refreshed design confirms a new era of brand consistency and guaranteed standout across more than 200 markets.

The strategy behind a new global identity

With over 2.2 billion servings of Coca-Cola products consumed worldwide every day, a new design project wouldn’t typically be high on a brand’s priority list. Coca-Cola emphasises this is more than a refreshed visual and is a strategic effort to ensure it has an easily recognisable and consistent appearance whenever consumers encounter the brand. 

Arnab Roy, President of Coca-Cola Global Category, comments: “Coca-Cola is one of the most recognised brands in the world, and with that comes a responsibility to keep evolving. This refresh is about being clearer and more consistent in how we show up, wherever people experience our brand.”

The company highlights that it is not redesigning itself because consumers are unable to distinguish Coca-Cola from other brands. It is because its future growth will depend on the brand’s strong foundation while extracting maximum value from the brand equity it already owns.

Arnab adds: “By building on the things people already know and love, we’re creating a stronger foundation for growth while staying unmistakably Coca-Cola.”

Having one seamless visual identity allows its consumers to be delivered one recognisable brand experience which in turn will further develop brand loyalty and consistency. The refresh will ensure Coca-Cola remains a dominant brand in the carbonated soft drink market.

Coca-Cola continue to withstand through its competition 

It is impossible to deny that Coca-Cola is one of the world’s most popular consumer brands, and has been for many decades, but there is now a large market of competitors that Coca-Cola is required to keep up with.

Seen through the rapidly increasing sales of Coca-Cola Zero, the traditional carbonated soft drinks are maturing as fresh, lower-sugar and wellness-oriented beverages are emerging. Coca-Cola is aware of its consumers’ preferences changing and have adopted this into their new identity strategy.

The traditionally silver Coca-Cola Zero can is a large part of the brand refresh – and the company has modified its design to match the iconic red and white colour palette used for full fat Coca-Cola cans. Coca-Cola has ensured the different cans can still be distinguished through the use of one of its most established assets, the Coca-Cola ribbon.

With a black ribbon design on its Coca-Cola Zero cans, or a white ribbon on its Original Coke Cans (or a black/red bottle cap), the beverage company has established a point of difference within its ‘Zero’ range through the black detailing while still ensuring they keep a consistent identity.

To support the global rollout, Coca-Cola has introduced a new immersive Brand Center alongside tech-powered Design Intelligence tools that appear to function as a universal design system.

Established for its internal design and marketing teams, as well as the wider network of agency partners, these new tools support governance, craft and consistency at a global scale.