Which Do You Prefer?

It's the age old question: Coke or Pepsi?

There is a growing trend of creating partnerships between brands and celebrities to generate new brand imagery through design. We've seen it in the telecommunication, sports, and technology industries. The problem with such collaborations lies in the execution of these partnerships. The association of a celebrity and a brand must be cohesive. The celebrity's target market should be similar, if not identical, to the target market of the brand product. 

Coke was followed immediately by Pepsi after introducing a Diet Coke partnership with Marc Jacobs in Europe. 

As a fashion conscious consumer, upon first notice I was thrilled to see such an alliance between one of my favorite designers and my low-cal drink of choice. But, as a brand aware consumer, upon further inspection I deemed this partnership completely inappropriate. I am not fully aware of the European brand perceptions of Marc Jacobs, but I have deduced from the knowledge of Americans' orientation of the product that the Diet Coke brand and Marc Jacobs brand do not match. Coke may capture it's upper class, fashion conscious consumer with this limited time rebranding, but the majority of Coke consumers (lower to middle class) will prove inattentive to the brand partnership.


When Pepsi followed suit, they introduced a collaboration with Vern Yip. 

WHO?! Exactly my point. Though Coke's Marc Jacobs rebranding may have isolated consumers, Pepsi's rebranding has consumers perplexed. "Who is Vern Yip and what is he doing to my Diet Pepsi can?!" The partnership seems rather advantageous for Vern: large consumer base of Pepsi googles "who is Vern Yip" (which I'm sure 90% of you just did). But for Pepsi, this may be a sunk cost with no real increase in returns. 

So where are companies going with this? Will the limited addition rebrandings continue? Most likely. Though the use of celebrities to rebrand products may not increase profits in the long run, it creates buzz. And word of mouth advertising is exactly what these brands are hoping for.