- The Coca-Cola Company has launched a new global visual identity system to support a new era of brand consistency across more than 200 global markets including: Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
- The new design, which builds on the brand’s iconic red and white assets, includes three new visual cues – larger “Zero Sugar” text, a prominent black Dynamic Ribbon on cans, as well as a black bottle cap on PET packaging
- It will be more featured across packaging, retail environments, equipment and digital experiences.
Brand Innovators caught up with Rapha Abreu, global vice president of design at The Coca‑Cola Company to discuss the redesign.
What is the marketing strategy behind the redesign?
The strategy is really about making Coca-Cola more Coca-Cola. Rather than reinventing one of the world’s most iconic brands, we’re doubling down on the distinctive assets people already know by heart: our red and white, the Spencerian Script, the Dynamic Ribbon and the Arden Square, and creating a stronger, more consistent Coca-Cola experience across every touchpoint and more than 200 markets.
What inspired the new visual identity?
The inspiration came directly from almost 140 years of Coca-Cola design history. We went back to the archives and found that Coca-Cola was at its best when it was simple, confident and expressive, so we amplified the assets that have always made the brand unmistakable, while creating a system that feels both timeless and timely.
How are you bringing this to life globally?
This is much more than a packaging refresh; we created a complete design system that works across packaging, retail, digital, equipment, experiences and communications. To help scale it globally, we’ve also created a new immersive Brand Center and Design Intelligence tools that give our teams and agency partners the guidance and tools to create with greater consistency, speed and craft.
What business opportunities does this new look address?
For a brand operating in more than 200 markets and across thousands of touchpoints, consistency and distinctiveness are enormous opportunities. The new system gives us a simple, flexible foundation that can scale globally while helping ensure that wherever someone encounters Coca-Cola, they get the same uncompromised Coca-Cola brand experience.
In what ways, if any, is the consumer perspective involved in the redesign?
We started with what people already recognize, trust and love about Coca-Cola, for generations. That’s also why Original Taste and Zero Sugar now share more of the same iconic design DNA, red and white, the Script and the Ribbon, while retaining clear variant cues, so whichever Coca-Cola someone chooses, it looks and feels unmistakably Coca-Cola.
