‘Like an older family member’: Young Africans’ perceptions of Coca-Cola’s sugar-sweetened beverage brand in South Africa and Nigeria
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: This paper, through an examination of the perceptions of a purposefully enlisted set of young Africans from Nigeria and South Africa, brings to the fore how Coca-Cola is embedded culturally and symbolically in the lives of these consumers, who liken the sugar-sweetened, multinational beverage to ‘an older family member’ and regard it as a ‘local’ drink and brand. The paper highlights how this has the propensity to enhance the enthusiastic and habitual consumption of Coca-Cola by these young Africans and their contemporaries with similar perceptions. Located within a qualitative research design, the study, amongst other reasons, was conducted against the backdrop of the surge in the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages in Africa and other low- and middle-income countries and the increasing targeting of these regions by multinational food and beverage companies for their growth and profit, as consumers in the global north become more health aware.
Source: CBR - Consumer Behavior Review
Author: Olutobi Akingbade
Institution: Nelson Mandela University
Language: English
Subfield: Marketing
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4405239706