Abstract
This chapter, drawing on consumer culture theory and focus group interviews with 61 youths from Nigeria and South Africa, explores the role of indigenous African languages in Coca-Cola's local popularity. Coca-Cola is the top-selling sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) brand in both Nigeria and South Africa. Coca-Cola's long-established and class-leading manufacturing and distribution operations in both countries give the multinational corporation significant competitive advantages. Coca-Cola's ongoing market-share dominance is also propelled by aggressive marketing in both countries. Against this backdrop, this chapter examines how Coca-Cola's marketing campaigns that draw on words and phrases in indigenous African languages are received, understood and acted upon by purposefully enlisted young adult Africans who are enthusiastic and habitual consumers. The chapter demonstrates how these youths reference the use of words and phrases from indigenous African languages in Coca-Cola's marketing as motivations for their understanding of the multinational brand and SSB. Bringing to the fore the propensity for this to foster deeper levels of brand intimacy, the chapter highlights how indigenous languages can go beyond the primary linguistic function of conveying informational content in marketing to serve as access through which multinational brands and products can identify with the culture and lived experiences of a target audience.