Santa still endorses Coke after 75 years

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The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) has been using Santa Claus for more than 75 years to sell their classic beverage. Here's a little history:

Coca-Cola commissioned Chicago artist Haddon Sundblom (Bio) in 1931 to illustrate several lifelike versions of Santa Claus for advertisements to boost sales during the normally slow winter months. Sundblom's first work appeared in publications such as the Saturday Evening Post (below), Ladies Home Journal and National Geographic, and it was so well received that Coca-Cola hired him to paint one each year from 1931 to 1964.

From Coke:

"[In the 1920s], many people thought of Coca-Cola as a drink only for warm weather. The Coca-Cola Company began a campaign to remind people that Coca-Cola was a great choice in any month. This  began with the 1922 slogan "Thirst Knows No Season," and continued with a campaign connecting a true icon of winter - Santa Claus - with the beverage."

What a brilliant move; taking a nationally recognized (and not trademarked) image and using it to sell your products. The campaign has resulted in instant brand recognition, created a strong emotional connection and invented probably one of the first "celebrity" endorsements of a product in marketing. The Coca-Cola Santa Claus still lives on today.*

Small businesses take note: marketing your product is all about how you utilize people's perceptions of their world and relate your products to that world. You don't have the advertising budget of Coke, but you do have the ability to use well-recognized images, sounds, themes etc and connect them to your business.

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*See many of Sundblom's original illustrations here (sorry about the ads), and read all about Cokelore here.