McDonald’s and Coca-Cola are two of the most recognized brands in the entire world, and one would think that each of these exceedingly well-known brands wouldn’t have to bother with much advertising because pretty much everyone already seemingly knows about them. Yet, we find, as noted by statistic.com, that Coca-Cola spent over $4 billion globally on the marketing of their products in 2024, which would be indicative that Coca-Cola, along with other major big-brand products, still believes that advertising and marketing of their products are necessary, even though their brand awareness is quite high among the general public.
Indeed, if we were to presuppose that all of a sudden, McDonald’s or Coca-Cola’s advertising budget went down to zero, we would find that relatively quickly, rumors would be spread, that there must be something seriously wrong with these products, because the vacuum so created, by the absence of that advertising, would make the general public to believe, that not all is right, which would indicate that even if these well-known corporations wanted to spend considerably less on advertising, they actually couldn’t afford to, because once a product loses its particular cachet, some other product, from a worthwhile competitor, will take market-share from them.
So too, people need to be assured that whatever they are loyal to, still has meaningful relevance. For a certainty, what society members purchase still needs to be held in high respect by others that they associate with because people want to stay current, and that which has seen better days or no longer is considered to be the “in” product, isn’t considered thereby to be a product deserving of one’s loyalty, anymore. It is that lust for consumer loyalty that is the key component when it comes to advertising and marketing because big brand companies depend upon building relationships with consumers, that will last years upon years, if not generations, and believe that it is their marketing and advertising that will help them to achieve that very thing, by remaining a product that is not only desirable, but considered to be “cool” to be loyal to.
This would indicate that no matter how popular a given brand is currently, or how long it has been around, or how well well-known it is, the sellers of that product are going to make sure to spend the money and do all the necessary things to keep their product front and center in the minds of those that are their loyal constituents, not only because there is typically going to be competing products that are gunning for that market share, or even alternatives yet to be created, but because in order to have loyalty, there needs to be something of value to be loyal to, of which, it is that advertising that helps to sell the never-ending story, that the product being bought, is not only worthy of such but will continue to be worthy, because it is well positioned to continue to be so, thereby reflecting that the right choice has been made by the right people.