Coke and the joy of reading

Putting together a marketing promotion around the Harry Potter movie has not been easy.

The author, J.K. Rowling, placed a tough condition on The Coca-Cola Co., the sole marketing partner for the movie, said Gidget Aguinaldo, promotions and activations director of The Coca-Cola Export Corp.," Rowling wanted a reading component. She wanted to help promote the joy and magic of reading."

Worldwide, the Atlanta-based company has committed to give away 65 million books. The Philippine share is 2,500 books, including 20 sets of the four Harry Potter books.

"We have an unusual situation here. Our natural market for this promotion is the AB market. It is this market that has purchased 80,558 Harry Potter books so far from National Bookstore," Aguinaldo said.

"Our traditonal main markets, however, are the lower C and DE markets who don’t do a lot of reading largely because they don’t have ready access to story-telling books."

Shortlist

Coca-Cola Export sought the help of Coca-Cola Foundation Phils. Inc. which is in the last phase of a five-year program to build 50 public schools in the country’s most remote communities. Coca-Cola Export set down two requirements for the public schools it wanted to help. One, the schools must be based in Metro Manila where the Harry Potter mania is strongest. Two, the school-beneficiaries must be low-performing.

The Foundation quickly linked up with the Department of Education Culture and Sports which has reported a national average score of 48% for the 1999 NEAT.

There are two phases to the Coca-Cola Export two-week marketing promotion that starts today. Buyers of Coke can win instant prizes. They also automatically donate one point per purchase to the mini libraries of 10 public schools. For every 250 accumulated points, Coca-Cola Export donates one book to the public schools.

"We’ve done our numbers," said Aguinaldo. "The 2,500 books are sure bet."

In exchange for the 625,00 vendo cups of Coke that are expected to be consumed in two weeks, a maximum of 250 books will be given to each public school. Of the total books donated, 70% will be of the story-telling kind, just the way Rowling wants it. – MJGrey