A lesson in isolating your target demographic: The Sprite Step Off
Coca-Cola finds their Sprite brand extension in hot water this week after backtracking, naming two co-winners for their first ever Sprite Step Off program. The competition, designed to celebrate the history and heritage of collegiate stepping, concluded on Saturday with the Epsilon chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha winning the competition and taking home the first place $100,000 prize. Competing against traditional black sororities, the Zetas from the University of Arkansas pulled off the upset and caused an immediate uproar following the event amongst event attendees, which by Monday morning had carried over onto the Sprite Facebook page.
While a white sorority winning the tournament was controversial, the real stir up began late Wednesday evening when Sprite announced on their site, that during a post-competition review, a scoring discrepancy had been discovered and an additional winning sorority had been announced. The Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority would now be deemed co-winners, sharing the spotlight with the Zeta Tau Alphas, while both would receive the $100,000 grand prize.
Outcries of a “sympathy win” began with students and event competitors, both demanding to know when and how the error occurred; specifically, how it went five days unnoticed. Based on the program branding and promotion, it’s easy to see that Sprite had a clear target demographic in mind, and was caught off guard with the presence and ability of the Zeta Tau Alpha steppers. The backlash has caused inflammatory comments surrounding the Sprite brand outside of their Facebook page as students are now voicing their thoughts on Twitter, and coverage has reached both NPR and The Chicago Sun-Times.
Brands and marketers take notice: we live, more than ever, in a multicultural society – especially amongst our youth and college consumers. While brands inherently realize (and speak highly of) the power of the multicultural segment, this is an example of overlooking the possibilities of the student population and their interests. Coca-Cola, although your program was catered to a specific demographic, it expanded and gained interest amongst an audience you weren’t targeting and simply put, you were unprepared and without an exit strategy. Let’s stop speaking about the power of youth culture and instead start building our programs, promotions, and brands around it.
