Coca-Cola and automobiles provide lessons on branding

A 1914 Ford T Model used by General Jan Smuts in Taveta during the World War I. Notice the “crank handle” in front for starting the car. Photo by XN Iraki

The invention of the car changed the world in more ways than we think. The most noticeable change was collapsing distance. For thousands of years, the distance we could cover in a day or hour was limited by our inborn abilities.

Later we improved on that using horses and other beasts of burden depending on which part of the world you lived in. Elephant, buffalo and yak in Asia or Llama in South America. Like human beings, the beasts are limited in speed and endurance.

The car changed all that. It could work continuously with a longer range.

The car was originally a luxury item, but later it found commercial uses, ushering in a huge sector in not just manufacturing cars and their components, but transportation of goods and human beings. Trucks and matatus transport goods and human beings respectively.

As expected, the car found use in war, transporting troops and supplies faster and making the war uglier. In peace, the car became a status symbol. The car you drive signifies whether you are sonko or a hustler. Is it a Maybach or my Vitz? In government, the car symbolises power. Ever seen a GK Vitz?

The car also changed relationships. We found it easy to visit other people, to elope, to cheat and, believe me, to be lonely. I miss the days I would sit with strangers in matatus every day and share stories, unlike today when I am lonely in my car. Unfortunately, in matatus, everyone is nowadays engrossed in the phone; no time to interact.

The car is hailed as one of the greatest innovations in the last 100 years, rivalled only by the cellular phone. But, curiously, it has not changed much in those years.

A recent encounter with a 1914 Ford T model convinced me that change is constant. The car was formerly owned and used by Jan Smuts, a South African general in WWI in Taveta. It is now in custody of Michael Hughes in Nairobi.

The basic design of the car has remained the same. It has four cylinders, the same steering wheel, same three pedals, same propeller shaft and same fan. The tires borrowed a lot from the rickshaw. The only difference with modern cars is additions such as independent suspensions for each wheel and more electronics. The T Model had no signals; you used your hands. I have always wondered why Kenyans take hand signals more seriously than lights.

USED PARAFFIN

The T model’s lamps used paraffin — yes, with wicks. It had no jack, and no spare wheel. The Ford A model that came later had a spare wheel. It is not clear why the T model came before A model despite the letters of the alphabet.

The Concour d’Elegance on September 24 this year at Ngong Race Course provides us with an opportunity to see the grandparents of modern cars. Bob Dewar, one of the Concour organisers, adds that there will be a “dessert" this year that includes steam engines and other vintage technologies. The eight-year rule on imported cars should exclude vintage cars like the one in the photo.

There is something sentimental about old cars, just like old wine. Do you have such an old car? Talk to me.

The Model T, invented more than a hundred years ago, closely mimics Coca Cola and their most famous product, Coke. The drink has not changed since invention. Incidentally, the car and Coke were invented the same year, 1886.

Both Ford and Coca Cola are well known brands. They have thrived, not by changing their product radically, but keeping it the same or innovating around it. They keep the core intact. For Ford, the engine while for Coca Cola, the Coke soda.

Look at the adverts closely; for the cars, they emphasise the status, the speed and external appearances, not the engine, which is the core the car. Don’t we make matatu bodies in Kenya? Coca-Cola puts emphasis on happiness, the feeling, not the ingredients that make up coke or the process of making the drink. These do not change.

Yet, we tend to believe that to make money your innovation must be radical, earthshaking. Looking at Ford T, I have wondered loudly why we can’t make cars in Kenya. The basic technology has not changed for more than 100 years. Generations come and go, driving Ford or drinking Coke, but the two products remain almost the same.

It seems some innovators are lucky; they got it right the first time. The two products have resisted Schumpeter’s gale of creative destruction till now.

For Coke, the likely replacement is surprisingly water and juice — very natural. A subtle shift to “naturalness” in food industry seems in the offing. It is the first time in more than 100 years that the core of the car, the internal combustion engine is under threat.

Luckily, there is transition period through hybrid cars that use the internal combustion engine and the electric power through Lithium battery. Soon, most cars will be electric and self-driven. Don’t we fly planes by the wire?

Does it surprise you that Google and Apple, more famous for software than hardware, are showing such keen interest in cars? In future the core of the car might not be the internal combustion engine but the software.

The car you drive or the soft drinks you sip are monuments to long lasting innovations and the stream of money and profits that goes with it.