Coke's Kruse Control - Chief Marketer

Carol Kruse‘s world got a lot bigger in 2006. From overseeing interactive marketing for Coca-Cola North America, she stepped up to take charge of marketing the Coke brands online to the entire globe.

Not that her previous post was inconsequential. After all, she led the team responsible for building the hugely successful My Coke Rewards consumer loyalty program. Kruse joined Coke in 2001 when it bought RocketCash, an online payments and promotions company she helped found.

PROMO: How important is the interactive marketing channel for Coca-Cola?

Kruse: Just as in the 1940s when TV started, we’re looking at the best way to reach our consumers, and interactive is a great channel. We’re especially targeting a teen or young adult audience. They’re always on their mobile phones and they spend an inordinate amount of time on the Internet. It’s compelling because of the dialogue you can have. Frequently, it’s triggered by the consumer, who has clicked on your rich media ad, entered your search term or participated with your brand over a cell phone. That goes a long way toward building brand health and building volume.

P: Do you worry about losing control of your branded content in the online world?

K: We have tons of brand advocates. For years people have bought Coke T-shirts. If you go to eBay and look at the Coke memorabilia section, it’s enormous. So when people ask me if we think it’s OK for our brand to be in these social networks and social media, my reply is that it’s already in a social network. We’re just taking that dialogue from you wearing our T-shirt in the world to you wearing our T-shirt in a virtual environment.

P: What’s your attitude toward the precise measurements possible in online marketing?

K: As measurable as the digital world is, that still doesn’t mean it’s going to give you all the answers. The reason is that at the end of the day, it’s very hard to track the influence of any of our marketing efforts on a purchase decision. We did some online consumer studies with Yahoo! and Nielsen that determined yes, indeed, an online ad unit can make an emotional connection and encourage consumers to buy more of our products. But while it’s important to have that as a proof point, it doesn’t mean you constantly have to measure it.

P: Coke recently revamped its virtual world, swapping out the old Coke Studios on its proprietary site for a new one, CC Metro, within There.com. Why?

K: We were a pioneer brand in virtual reality. [Coke Studios] was a very successful marketing platform and we learned a lot from it. We’re now reinvesting to come out with the next great thing in virtual environments. We already have virtual worlds in South Korea, Spain and Mexico. Partnering with There.com could eventually produce versions tailored for Japan, Germany or other global markets.

P: Have large destination Web sites for brands become a thing of the past, at least for marketing or promotion?

K: I’ve come to the conclusion that in some cases it may be better to take our message to where our consumers are already spending their time. Those monolithic Web sites are expensive to build and maintain, and for some brands they just don’t make sense.

P: How does that work in regard to a specific brand?

K: Take Sprite. We have the Sprite.com Web site. We have the Sprite Yard, which is a mobile program. Sprite is part of MyCokeRewards.com. And we have a Facebook page with an app, Sprite Sips. It doesn’t matter whether the experience happens on the Sprite Web site, on Facebook or on a cell phone.

P: What are some of the global developments you’re thinking about in your new position?

K: I’m especially taken with the Asian markets because they pose interesting questions. For example, in Japan we build great, engaging Web sites and find that 70% of our page views come over mobile phones. Meanwhile, in China we have a market where hundreds of millions of people have never tasted a Coke. So one of our marketing aims in China is trial — inviting people to try a Coke via a message, coupon or reward on their mobile phones.