Lessons in Marketing from Coke

^[1]722 words

If you took the opportunity to read my introductory essay, “Coyote Ugly ^[2],” you will recall my thesis that Western institutions are as much, if not more, to blame for our demise as a people than any historic or current tribal conflicts. I painted my argument with a broad brush, and touched upon the low-hanging fruit of politics. It doesn’t take magical powers of perception, however, to see that “the state” isn’t the only institution working against us. After all, it is “business as usual” in Western nations, and decades of poorly-regulated markets have given way to a powerful technocracy and corporate oligarchy.

Specifically, Iʼd like to delve into the world of product marketing and the seeming contradiction of for-profit enterprises indulging in anti-white, anti-traditionalist, anti-Christian, and/or anti- male (and so on) marketing strategies. It is counter-intuitive for rational people to attempt to explicate this apparent conflict. Why would successful, powerful companies alienate their most loyal and affluent consumers? “Surely these companies no longer care about profit! They must be completely ideologically driven!” This is the argument put forth by the Dissident Right.

I think this argument misses the point. Our demographics are in the process of rapidly shifting. Our corporate institutions are no longer piloted by a coterie of aging, suit-wearing white men sitting in boardrooms filled with cigar smoke. Those men are still there, mind you, but they are held hostage by an invading horde of “problem glasses”-wearing up-and-comers who do not take “no” for an answer.

Letʼs dig a little deeper. Itʼs erroneous to assume that these companies are losing any profits from kooky multicultural advertising.

Leftist propaganda has always been a mainstay of BigCorp. As evidence, I offer one of the biggest corporations in the world, Coca-Cola. We are nearing the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most recognizable and wildly successful marketing campaigns in history, 1971ʼs I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke ^[3]. This campaign was so hugely successful that even Coke’s current marketing theme is inspired by it (think “Share a Coke” with “random name”). Iʼm certain that Coca-Cola’s Board of Directors in 1971 were aging white men, and they weren’t unaccustomed to cigar smoke and business suits. Yet this touchy-feely hippie-dippy advertisement set the tone for the entire Baby Boomer generation to become loyal brand enthusiasts. I think that the Dissident Right is projecting its own biases when we question the business acumen of our current caste of oligarchs.

Even if one can make an argument that these international corporations are losing money in the short term, their staying power allows them to role the dice on occasion. They are no longer solely the peddlers of Western-oriented goods; they are also the purveyors of globalist mercantile ideals. Their customer bases are truly multicultural, and whites (who still care) are quickly becoming an aging and shrinking demographic. These are ultimately long-term marketing strategies similar to Cokeʼs 1971 hippie culture gambit.

Assuming that the old curmudgeons of yore still wield influence in todayʼs boardrooms, imagine the current state of affairs. Three generations deep into affirmative action — the employment of upwardly-mobile people of color and “N-D-Pendant Wahmen” — boardrooms and marketing presentations have reached Patty Hearst levels of Stockholm Syndrome. As it is, marketing people spring from a shitlib well of liberal arts majors. From the soft science of psychology and sociology degrees to the Andy Warhol-inspired graphic illustrator, it is no wonder that todayʼs advertisers engage in blatant agitprop.

But again, it is a foolʼs errand to declare that this is bad business.

Marketing execs and political propagandists draw from precisely the same theory in cultivating their crafts. It is a fuzzy line that differentiates between targeting the consumer based on predisposed preferences versus manipulating them to accept new ones. Neither are mutually exclusive to one another, and both result in the same thing: a predictable, reliable consumer.

As the demographic avalanche quickly approaches, it is clear by every metric that the least reliable consumers are aging and dying off, or at best living on fixed incomes, and the coalition of ascending POC, suburban single mothers and homosexuals — as well as indifferent white hipsters and bugmen — are all primed and ready for whatever counterintuitive marketing ploys our multibillionaire oligarchs and technocrats seek to thrust upon them. And they will gladly stand in line, shouting “Here, take my money!” with glee.