Key Messages
Learn How Coca-Cola Combines Stability And Innovation For Unrivaled Branding Success
If you’re looking to find out what makes Coca-Cola so successful, then you’ll be delighted to discover their secret recipe for success.
It all comes down to the ability to remain agile yet stable at the same time.
On one hand, Coca-Cola has managed to keep its core product relatively unchanged for over sixty years with its classic bottle of Coke remaining almost identical since Back To The Future was released in 1985.
Yet at the same time, the company is constantly innovating and adapting in other areas with highly successful campaigns like their iconic jingle and ongoing collaborations with customers to market their products.
So if you’re looking for a recipe for success, then take a page from Coca-Cola’s book and aim for both stability and agility in your business!
Good Design Is More Than Just Art- It Combines The Visible And Invisible To Maximize Functionality
Good design is essential for the growth of any company.
This is a lesson Coca-Cola has taken to heart with their recent redesign of the Minaqua bottled water in Japan.
The brand wanted to combine both visible and invisible features, so they conducted extensive research on Japanese people and their habits.
It was this research that led Coca-Cola to redesign the product into a small, lightweight plastic bottle that could easily be twisted, making it easier to store and recycle.
Combining great visuals with clever invisible design made this rebranding a success and significantly increased product sales.
This proves that good design needs to combine the visible features of a product or service with the invisible processes to ensure success.
Understanding what customers need from your products or services and having processes in place to deliver them will make sure your business grows and succeeds.
The Power Of Simplicity And Quality: How Coca-Cola Prevailed Through A Balanced Combination Of Stability And Flexibility
Simplicity and standardized quality are the key to scalability for any business.
This is especially true for start-ups, which often need to be flexible when it comes to experimenting with different avenues and opportunities.
But once the company has found its footing, it’s time to switch over from too much flexibility and experimentations; instead, focus on standardizing products, processes and strategies that will take the company into a stage of stability and growth.
Take Coca-Cola as an example – they successfully established their brand by creating something simple yet recognizable — such as the contour bottle designed in 1915 after a competition was launched or the curly script logo which they standardized in 1923.
They also implemented a franchise business model in 1899 which allowed two businessmen to buy rights to bottle Coca-Cola for just one dollar; this enabled their product to expand quickly across different areas of the world.
Because of their simplicity and quality, Coca-Cola became instantly recognizable, famous and popular!
Long story short: if you’re looking for ways to scale your business up, don’t complicate things further by implementing new management systems, logos or products — prioritize simplicity and quality instead!
Coca-Cola Tackles Wicked Problems With Agile Solutions: Aiming To Be Water-Neutral In Ten Years
In today’s world, companies are faced with complex problems that require targeted solutions.
This is true for businesses both big and small – from local stores to major corporations like Coca-Cola.
It’s not enough to just have a standard formula for success; rather, businesses need to think outside the box and create specific solutions tailored to their particular problem.
Take the example of Coca-Cola: one of their most pressing challenges is finding a clean water supply given climate change, poor infrastructure and rapid population growth.
So how did they tackle this issue? They decided to become water-neutral within 10 years by returning the same amount of water as they use back into the supply.
This type of targeted solution requires agility in order to be implemented before it’s too late – something that cannot be achieved without deductive thinking and creative problem solving.
If businesses want to remain successful in this post-internet world, it is crucial that they take the time to analyze their problems thoroughly and create individualized solutions for them.
Otherwise, those geeky teenagers will have taken over!
How To Make Sure Nobody Takes Your Market Share: Experiment And Create Modular Systems For Agility
In today’s constantly-evolving business world, it’s important to stay agile and be able to respond quickly to changes in your environment.
That meant by experimenting fearlessly, even if you know there’s a risk of failure.
Take Norm Larsen for example.
After 40 failed attempts at inventing a substance that prevented rusting in nuclear missiles, he still hadn’t achieved his goal.
But instead of giving up, he kept going.
What he ended up inventing was a substance that had other unexpected uses like stopping doors from squeaking, cleaning guitar strings and even removing tomato stains from clothing – we know this today as WD40!
Adapting modular systems is another way to cultivate agility in business.
This means creating fixed elements that can be combined in different ways to produce different results.
For example, Coca Cola created a jingle with just five simple notes that became an international success – due to its simplicity and ‘modular’ structure, the tune could be adapted to any style or culture and still remain recognizable as the Coca-Cola theme song!
By experimenting fearlessly and learning from our mistakes, along with being able to implement smarter ideas quickly, companies can become more agile and better equipped for success!
Harness The Power Of Open Innovation To Cut Costs And Boost Efficiency
You don’t have to make your company bigger and bigger just to stay ahead of the competition.
By utilizing an open-innovation system, you can ensure that your organization is staying lean and efficient.
An open innovation system refers to modularization with fixed elements that also accommodate for flexibility.
Take Wikipedia as an example – it has set elements such as its font, format and coding but the content is created by users.
By making the most of crowd knowledge, large companies like Coca-Cola are able to keep their research and development expenses to a minimum while still gaining valuable insights into what their customers want.
Coca Cola’s Design Machine web platform encourages customers to create their very own product designs or adverts using packaging templates, standard slogans, Spencerian Scripting and the cola red – allowing Coca Cola to track customer preferences easily without spending too much on research.
All in all, opting for crowdsourced innovation is a great way for companies big or small take advantage of consumer feedback and ideas, remain cost effective and keep products up-to date with current trends!
Wrap Up
Design To Grow is a book that breaks down the essentials for successful businesses to remain competitive in today’s market.
It encourages companies to be both scalable and agile.
By finding innovative solutions and implementing them through well-conceived design, long-term growth and success can be achieved.
The key takeaway from this book: staying ahead of the competition means you must continuously innovate and stay open to change.
Through strategic design, proactive systems, and continual adaptation, your business will continue to flourish in even the most competitive market.
