Why would a recognisable brand like Coca-Cola need a refresh?

Coca-Cola is one of the world's most recognisable brands, with visual assets such as its signature red and white colour palette, Spencerian script and Dynamic Ribbon remaining largely unchanged for decades. So when the beverage giant unveiled a new global visual identity system this week, it raised an interesting question: why would a brand that has already achieved iconic status still invest in a visual refresh?

According to Arnab Roy, president of Coca-Cola global category, the update is intended to create a "clearer and more consistent" brand experience wherever consumers encounter Coca-Cola. Meanwhile, Rapha Abreu, global vice president of design at The Coca-Cola Company, said the refreshed identity will enable the company to deliver "one recognisable brand experience" across more than 200 markets.

On the surface, the changes are subtle, reinforcing rather than reinventing Coca-Cola's core brand assets. But for marketers, the move opens up a broader discussion about branding itself. If one of the world's most valuable brands continues to refine its identity, what does that say about how iconic brands should evolve? And when does maintaining brand equity become just as important as building it?

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While the refresh has generated headlines, branding experts argue that Coca-Cola's primary objective isn't to become more recognisable. Instead, it's about ensuring one of the world's most recognisable brands remains unmistakable wherever consumers encounter it.

"Coca-Cola doesn't have an awareness problem, it has a consistency problem across thousands of touchpoints and markets," said Jacopo Pesavento, founder and CEO of Branding Records.

As brands expand across agencies, markets and platforms, identities inevitably become stretched, reinterpreted and diluted, he explained. In that context, the refresh is as much an exercise in internal discipline as it is a consumer-facing design update.

That challenge has become even more pressing in today's hyper-competitive FMCG landscape, where consumers have more choice than ever before.

Kimming Yap, managing director at branding agency Creativeans, said Coca-Cola's response isn't to create something entirely new, but to reinforce why it remains the original modern soft drink. By relying on fewer but stronger assets—from its typography and signature red to its packaging system, the company is strengthening ownership of the visual and mental space it has spent decades building.

The strategy also strengthens the memory structures consumers already associate with Coca-Cola, according to Evan Tan, co-founder and managing director of framethefolks.

"Instead of introducing something new, it's reinforcing the visual assets people already associate with the brand, making it even quicker and easier for consumers to recognise Coca-Cola wherever they encounter it," he said, adding that a clearer visual system also helps internal teams and agency partners execute more consistently across global markets.

For Jeffrey Lim, managing director of creative branding agency 8traordinary, a refresh also creates an opportunity to retell the brand story, ensuring it remains relevant across new channels, products and audiences while bringing greater alignment across the business.

Evolution over reinvention

That emphasis on reinforcing existing assets rather than replacing them also reflects a broader lesson in how mature brands should evolve. Rather than chasing novelty, the experts agreed that heritage brands derive greater value from refining what consumers already know.

Yap described Coca-Cola as a textbook example of an evolutionary refresh. While Pepsi has historically been more willing to make visible changes to its identity, Coca-Cola has consistently taken a more measured approach, refining rather than replacing its visual system.

For a brand of Coca-Cola's scale, he said, the objective is not to reinvent an identity that already works, but to adapt it to new channels, systems and consumer behaviours.

That philosophy is echoed in Tan's view of brand equity. He pointed to Jaguar's widely discussed rebrand as an example of how changing too much can leave consumers questioning what a brand stands for. Coca-Cola, by contrast, is asking consumers to remember, not relearn, the brand. He said: 

They're not asking consumers to relearn the brand; they're just making it even easier to recognise wherever they see it.

Pesavento believes that restraint ultimately comes from confidence.

"Coca-Cola already owns some of the most valuable visual equity on the planet. Nobody needs a new idea there, they need better execution of the old one."

For Lim, that confidence allows the company to build on its heritage while making the brand more compelling and relevant for today's consumers, rather than abandoning the foundations that made it iconic.

Global identity, local expression

If consistency is the goal, the next challenge becomes maintaining it across more than 200 markets without losing local relevance. For Tan, that starts with understanding the difference between identity and expression.

The logo, colours, typography and other distinctive assets should remain universal because they are what consumers recognise around the world. Storytelling, however, should adapt to local culture.

He pointed to Coca-Cola's campaigns around occasions such as Chinese New Year, Ramadan and major sporting events as examples of how the company has remained globally recognisable while tailoring its message for local audiences.

Yap uses a different analogy:

A brand is like a sandbox in a playground. You know where you belong. But within the sandbox, you can build different sandcastles.

The overarching brand identity should remain consistent, he said, while local teams are given the flexibility to interpret it in ways that resonate with different cultures and consumer behaviours. That balance between consistency and flexibility is becoming increasingly important as brands scale.

Consistency, however, should exist "at the level of identity, not execution", according to Pesavento, allowing local teams to shape emotional connections while preserving the brand's core visual codes.

He added that Coca-Cola's introduction of AI-powered design intelligence tools suggests the company is moving beyond traditional brand guidelines and towards systems capable of maintaining consistency at scale.

As brands continue navigating new platforms, markets and consumer behaviours, he argued, the objective isn't constant reinvention.

"The real skill is making sure a 100-year-old asset still feels alive without touching the DNA."

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