Mindshare Strategy

I finished my Christmas shopping this weekend.  Finally! Actually, this is the first time I’ve been done before the 20th of the month, so I’m a bit excited to no longer have the financial stress of buying the best present for each member of my family.

Unfortunately, I’ve also come down with a bit of a cold.  As a result, I never go anywhere without a bottle of water well within reach.  Well, until I went to the mall this weekend.  About 10 minutes into my evening of shopping I found myself in dire need of water.  So I sought out a shop near the food court that happens to sell Aquafina.  I was saved!

Later in the day, though, I came across an interesting sight.  In the hallway near the restrooms (I was using the drinking fountain to refill my bottle), I spied a Dasani machine.  Considering I have two family members who work for Coca Cola (Dasani’s parent company), I figured I’d check a price and possibly swap out my Aquafina (a Pepsi product) bottle.  Oddly enough, there was not a single bottle of water in the entire Dasani machine!

There I was, standing in front of a very large, blue Dasani vending machine that not only was free of any Dasani products, it didn’t even have a place for them! Had I not found my Aquafina earlier during the trip, I would have been very upset to find a machine advertising water that failed to actually sell water.

This would be akin to a furniture store advertising PS3 video games if it didn’t actually sell them.  It’s misleading to promote a product on what essentially amounts to a store window without actually carrying the product in the first place.  I’ll always be a Coke fan and supporter, but seeing a Coca Cola-owned vending machine in such a devious marketing position is disheartening, to say the least.