‘Sell Stuff’ Is Sergio Zyman’s Gospel

Former Coca-Cola Co. executive Sergio Zyman treats life’s routine stops as opportunities to gather grist to feed his constantly churning marketing mill.

Before ordering lunch at the Pacific Dining Car in Los Angeles, Zyman queries the waiter on the merits of the restaurant’s menu. In between bites of his medium-rare steak sandwich, he critiques a previous night’s hotel accommodations to illustrate the importance of listening to customers. During coffee, he contrasts recent flights--one that took a pleasant twist, another that encapsulated all that’s wrong with commercial airlines--to underscore the importance of customer service.

Asked if he ever turns off his marketing meter, Zyman smiles and quickly responds that “no, marketing is what I do. . . . In fact, I’ll probably end up using this experience in a speech.”

Lunch with Zyman provides a glimpse into the personality of a marketer who, during two stints as Coke’s chief marketing officer, earned a reputation for being a tough taskmaster. In his new book, “The End of Marketing as We Know It” (Harper Business), Zyman acknowledges that he angered advertising agency executives and members of the media, who, in turn, dubbed him the “Aya-Cola.”

Zyman, 53, writes that the New Coke fiasco, which occurred during his first watch, ultimately was a positive event because it forced the Atlanta-based cola giant to sharpen its marketing focus. He contends that marketers can translate such real-world events as the death of Princess Diana into increased sales. And he constantly returns to his refrain that, despite Madison Avenue’s lust for award-winning advertising, successful marketing should be measured solely by whether it “sells stuff.”

The first chapter of the marketing gospel according to Zyman demands that company executives take back the strategic reins from advertising agency creative types. He wants corporate executives to define their marketing strategy, and then let hired hands at the ad agency worry about how best to give it voice.

It’s that kind of thinking that led to the “Aya-Cola” sobriquet: Not only did Zyman break with the industry practice of hiring only one ad agency, but he also subsequently bypassed Madison Avenue entirely by hiring Creative Artists Agency, a Hollywood talent agency, to make its commercials.

But Zyman, who told reporters in 1998 that he was leaving Coke to spend more time with his wife and daughters, said the task of selling stuff is too important to be left to marketers who can become intoxicated by statistics and studies and pay more attention to industry awards than whether the commercials work.

He knows this firsthand.

New Coke, he said, was an example of how a corporation fell asleep at the marketing switch. Sure, the company had reams and reams of market research data supporting its belief that consumers would embrace New Coke. But Zyman writes that he wasn’t asking the right question.

Instead of asking if consumers liked the taste of New Coke, Zyman says marketers should have been asking how customers would respond if the old formula was yanked and replaced by the New Coke.

Zyman admits that his departure a year after New Coke’s failure sparked rumors that he had been fired: “I admittedly played a large part in it, but that’s not why I left the company. . . . I left because . . . a lot of people in the company wanted to forget New Coke and get back to doing things the way we always had.”

Zyman quips that New Coke and other abrupt reversals prompted critics to dub him “Mr. I’ve Changed My Mind And Now We’re Going To Do Something Different.” But New Coke did prompt the company to take a knife to its marketing strategy. Zyman’s marketing army dreamed up a bank of “35 different attributes or dimensions that we used to convince customers to buy Coke.” Rather than concentrate solely on taste or price, Coke ads focused on such qualities as “refreshing, sociable, trendy, reliable, cool and all sorts of other things.”

With 35 different ads to choose from, Zyman said it was possible to tailor ads to fit the occasion.

In the aftermath of Princess Diana’s funeral, for example, Coca-Cola shifted the emphasis of its commercials, relying upon messages that “celebrated life and ones that suggested comfort and dependability.” And when it set about selling more cola in countries where consumers fast during the day to observe Ramadan, Coke pitched itself as the perfect nighttime beverage for breaking the fast.

The title of Zyman’s book states that traditional marketing is dead. But Zyman’s recent promotional tour, which took him to seven cities in nine days, suggests otherwise. So do the admiring quotes on the dust cover from the likes of USC professor Warren Bennis, NBA Commissioner David Stern and brokerage founder Charles R. Schwab.

Chiat/Day Advertising co-founder Jay Chiat weighs in with “If you read it and learn its lessons, you’ll become a high voltage, successful marketer . . . just like Sergio.”

Zyman has formed Z Group, a marketing firm that recently signed as a consultant to the Newspaper Assn. of America, a Tysons Corner, Va.-based trade organization. He also has joined the boards of several new media companies, including Santa Monica-based Launch Media Inc. “I’m a reality check for those companies,” Zyman said. “I’m serving as the consumer’s representative.”

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Marketing Coke

Sergio Zyman has been Coca-Cola top marketing officer twice, and each time he played an integral role in the company’s advertising, marketing and sales efforts.

1979: Zyman joins Coca-Cola.

1982: Diet Coke, the first Coke spinoff, introduced.

1985: New Coke introduced, but after 77 days, old Coke returns as Coke Classic.

1986: Zyman leaves Coca-Cola.

1991: Coca-Cola hires Creative Artists Agency to make commercials.

1993: Zyman rejoins Coke as top marketing officer. Coke introduces Tab Clear to counter Crystal Pepsi. Both flop.

1994: OK Soda, Fruitopia introduced to attract young males.

1998: Zyman leaves Coca-Cola a second time. Joins board of directors of Santa Monica-based Launch, a new-media company.

1999: Newspaper Assn. of America hires Zyman to help reposition newspapers in local markets.

Source: Los Angeles Times reports