Soda's ode to Seth Godin

When I was more involved with Marketing, I was a HYOOGE fan of Seth Godin.


I still am a huge fan, but I read him less often because my current position of work has a slightly different scope of work to it than when I was more actively pursuing his (marketing) ideas.





(By the way, I recently joined the gym so I wouldn't REALLY be huge. Well, hang on. I guess if I work really, really hard I COULD be a huge fan...Ok, we'll address that later.)





Anyway, today I was listening to an interview Seth gave, and it occur ed to me: I used to read Seth's blog all the time, I wonder if he's ever read mine?





And more importantly (because I don't cater to my own Self Importance): Does Seth like Soda? Does he think soda is good?

Jumped over to my friend Google and looked into Seth Godin's ideas about Soda:

Seth Godin Mistakes Custom Soda for a Hybrid Car - an author's critique of Seth comparing Jones Soda's marketing to Toyota's marketing of their hybrid vehicle.





Everyone is Clueless - Seth is impressed with how the owner of Galco's Soda Pop Stop actually TURNED DOWN Pepsi as a vendor. Actually, I'm pretty impressed myself...!





By the way, here is the You Tube video that showcases Galco's.
Even though the typed text around the 'screen' is not in English, the commentary absolutely is.

Our sister blog, Coke vs Pepsi, is shown on a platform called Squidoo. (as opposed to Blogger. Follow?) You cannot find much about Seth at Coke vs. Pepsi...but he IS the person who first conceived the idea of the 'Squidoo' platform that CvP is on, and assembled a team that brought it to life!

Seth Godin is one of the most insightful and thought provoking marketer I've ever read. I highly encourage you to pour yourself a tall glass of Cola and read the first book of his you can find!

A note about Cola Comments

This blog does NOT get the kind of traffic that BoingBoing or The Onion. It's not as prolific as anything written by Perez Hilton or Seth Godin.

But I'm happy with the daily traffic it gets and that's that. ;)

Now and again, I'm lucky to have a reader drop a comment.
If it's related to the article...or ANYthing about soda, really...it gets published right away.

But very, very, very often I get comments about investments vehicles and porn sites.
Many of them are written in VERY bad English!
(Note to people reading this blog - if you are going to try to SPAM the comments page, PLEASE have someone proofread your work!)

Anyway, this page was not written to complain.
Actually, it's my way of acknowledging all of the people who wrote comments that did not get published and thought I just ignored them.
I did not ignore you...I just didn't publish your comment because it had nothing to do with the topic on hand.

SO...to be a good sport...let me ensure that this page has something soda-related on it:
The Soda Pop Blog ran from 2006 to 2009. Pretty good stuff. I wish I saw it last year or I'd have given it some free press.

The Orange Soda Blog has NOTHING to do with soda...but man they take GREAT wedding pictures! REALLY interesting shots, and high quality!

The Soda Spectrum Series ran from 2005 to 2008. We must have just missed each other. I think I should steal some of his old material and re-vamp it for 2010. Saves me having to come up with original ideas. LOL! I'm kidding of course...

So., the morale of our story is:
1) you cannot get SPAM comments on this blog, so please stop trying
2) if you write a unique and interesting blog about soda, odds are you are ME, as the other interesting and unique blogs seem to have stopped writing
3) it doesn't matter if you like Coke or if you like Pepsi. Soda is for everyone. So is this blog.

See you at Coke vs. Pepsi!

Five Guys Burgers and Fries...and Sodas

I'm a late bloomer. It takes me FOREVER to get to the Next Big Thing.

Today was the Very First Time I've eaten at Five Guys Burger and Fries.
And I feel a little foolish because there were posters and signs all over the place showing that they have been the Zagat rated and raved about FOREVER.

Where have I been?!?!?

So I started with the basics: a double burger with mushrooms and A1 sauce.
(MAN I like A1 sauce. Kicks the crap outta ketchup!)

I have to be honest, I didn't KNOW I was ordering a double burger, and coulda' saved a dollar if I went with what they call a 'small burger'.

I mean, no grown adult wants to order a small...but I only needed 1 patty.
I'm not complaining. The pricing was GREAT. Well worth the money.

So I took my cup over to the soda machine...and for a guy who says that Soda is Good, I was in Soda Heaven!!!

If you know anything about this blog you know I was stoped to see both Mello Yello AND Mister Pibb!

AWESOME! All the great flavors you cannot get at McDonald's or Taco Bell!

So I filled my cup with Mello Yello, ignoring the overkill from last year's trip to South Carolina, and added 2 shots of Sprite just for good measure.

Oooops...my mistake.
Sprite actually DE-flavored it.
Bummer.

But the Burger?
DELICIOUS!

Go to Five Guys, and take a second to stare at the soda machine and see AAAAALLLLLL the great sodas they offer.

I do not work for Five Guys and I do not get any money for talking about them.
But I DO strongly support Coke vs. Pepsi.
Great site! :)

Seeking Proof that Soda is Good

Gosh I love this blog! I love writing it, I love reading it.
I love when others read it...

Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper and many more...

Of course, we know that Soda is not good 'for' you...but it's GOOD!
It tastes good; and that's good.
We share laughs over a soda or two, and that's good.
It goes great with whatever you are eating; and THAT's good!

So today I went to Google and looked to see what would happen if I sought out 'Soda is Good'.

(Disclaimer - I had to ignore any post that talked about BAKING Soda is good for you. I don't care if BAKING soda is good for you! It doesn't taste good, it doesn't go great with whatever you are eating and it's not exactly a medium for sharing laughs and good times!)

So the top pieces of Google Evidence to prove that Soda is Good:
1) Soda is Good on Hub Pages
2) DIET Soda is NOT good for you. Bummer :(
3) Jones Soda is the coolest, but NOT a great investment per Motley Fool. Another Bummer. Dang...
4) CHEAP Soda is good for you. YAAAAAAAY!!!!
5) New York Times says Soda: It's Good for You.
6) Soda is Good For You on Flickr!
7) VIDEO: Grape Soda is good s--t

Decided to add #7 for TWO reasons.
1 - always leave on a high note.
2 - because my ORIGINAL idea for this post was my periodic update on the Purple Beverage company. (You may think that I am unfairly hard on Purple, but I try to be objective.) Anyway, I nixed the idea, but when I saw a PURPLE Beverage (Grape Soda) I could not resist. It's like Kharma. Really.



For MORE evidence that Soda is Good, visit our friends at www.Squidoo.com/CokevsPepsi

Pepsi not advertising at SuperBowl this year

Pepsi will end it's 23 year streak of advertising during the SuperBowl and instead conserve it's funds so it can put more strength into it's online efforts.

See the whole article here.

How expensive is it to advertise during the biggest football game of the year?
Last year it cost an average of 3 million dollars for a 30 second spot.

That's a lot of Pepsi to sell to cover that bill!

There is no reason to 'doubt' Pepsi's reasons for pulling out of SuperBowl this year, but one has to wonder if they are just being polite. In other words, are they selling 6 or 8 million Pepsi's per ad? Have they finally decided that they are not getting enough bang for the buck?

It's incredibly hard to gauge. If they were offering an entirely new product/brand, then you could count sales for 10 days following SuperBowl and estimate a majority came from the ad. But to spend 3 million dollars for 30 seconds to show off an already globally-recognized product...how do you know if the marketing is WORKING?!

Last year, FedEx sat out the SuperBowl...and they plan to do so again this year.
Maybe Corporate America is finding that the price tag is just too high, and not worth it.

I once worked for a company that participated in a big trade show each year.
We got very little business from the show itself...but it was a 'status symbol' to be there.

So if you were NOT there, it looked bad. People would talk. Rumours would start.

Maybe Pepsi (and many others) has been hanging in just so no one speculates that they can't afford to be there?

By sticking their neck and their press release out NOW to announce the parting of ways...and to use an excuse that will draw attention and get people looking for new marketing...Pepsi has squashed any rumours. Personally, I say let Coke spend the millions of millions just to say they were there. It's a very costly venture.

(and watch them fight it out on www.Squidoo.com/CokevsPepsi!)

We all know that marketing endeavors are only valuable if you can measure them.
If you don't know how many Pepsis your 30 second spot sells, then 3 million dollars is 2.9 million dollars too many!

Social Butterfly talks up ColaLife

Now and again I talk up Simon Berry's ColaLife project.
It's simple and brilliant at the same time!

ColaLife is a non-profit organization that strives to get CocaCola to leverage it's distribution strength to bring aid to the malnourished Third World nations in Africa.

In other words, if they can bring Coca Cola into Africa, then they should be able to easily bring water and medicine as well.

While I pride myself on keeping the world updated on Simon's work, I found a GREAT article about ColaLife in a recent Social Butterfly post here. (Be sure to click on the video. It's very cute, despite the grave message).

Social marketing is being used to get the public on board with products. But it's just as powerful a tool for sharing valuable 'non profit' ideas...like saving lives!

Alexandra's blog is fabulous, and the ColaLife article is concise and thorough at the same time!
Be sure to check it out...and then read further into ColaLife's efforts and see if and where you can help!


And for something less "political", don't forget our friends at Coke versus Pepsi!

Coke versus Costco - Greed is not so Good!

It's all over the news. Well, the 'Soda' news.
Costco isn't getting the pricing it wants from Coca Cola, so they've decided to no longer carry their products.

Well...they'll sell out what they have and THEN stop carrying it. The quote in the Associated Press article reads like this:

The wholesale club operator, based in Issaquah, Wash., is not removing products like Coke and Diet Coke from store shelves, but it does not plan to restock them "until the matter is resolved,".

The Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post and Walletpop reported the story also...but both sides of the argument are being rather tight lipped about it all so there isn't much for them to share.

Which products? Apparently ALL of them: Coke, Cherry Coke (Jay-Z's favorite!), Classic Coke, Black Cherry Vanilla Coke (yes, really!), Diet Coke, Coke Zero and Sprite. And Disani water! and Vitamin Water! And Energy Drinks!

But who is really being the price bully here? Have you ever bought soda in a price club? I have NEVER seen brand-name soda at a reasonable price at ANY price club. I don't care if it's Costco, Sam's, BJ's...they all have been consistently higher in price than the grocery chain stores.

How big a discount does the #1 soda distributor have to give a retailer? Soda is like soap...people are going to keep buying it no matter WHAT it costs. This is not to say that it's reasonable to 'price gouge'...but my point is that if the national Grocery Chains can sell soda at a given price, then the wholesale stores should be able to sell 'competitively' as well.

These 'price clubs' have made a career of asking the public to pay a membership fee so that they can buy products in bulk. Sure, you get a good price on Mayonaise...it's because you're buying a 2-gallon jug of it! Less plastic, less glass, less paper labels...lower price.

But maybe Joe Blow doesn't WANT to buy 300 cans of Coca Cola in order to get a good price. He wants to go where he buys his chopped meat and chicken and buy everything for dinner in 1 place. If Costco can't make money selling Coca Cola then they should stick to selling no-name brands at a profit.

Costco is a huge chain, but will Coca Cola suffer dramatically from the loss?
I'm inclined to say 'no'.

Sure, you want every sale you can get...but this might open Coca Cola up to finding some markets they have NOT yet exploited...and tell Costco to get back in line with everyone else and pay what everyone else is paying.

And do you think Costco can find enough no-name substitutes for the brands they are discontinuing? How many people are going to say "Oh look! It's Cola Zero! Sure, it's not COKE Zero, but I'll drink it! And LOOK! They have Dish-ani! Sure, it's not Disani..but I'm sure it's similar!"

Almost none.

Much of the feedback I've seen has been based around "glad to see Costco telling Coke to shove it." As a business man and a Costco customer I say "tough noogies, Costco."