Discuss about the Global Marketing And The Advertising Of Coca Cola.
The Coco-Cola Company is an American multinational organisation which manufactures, retails and markets of non-alcoholic beverage. The flagship product was invented by a pharmacist named John Stith Pemberton in 1886. The company was incorporated by Asa Griggs Candler in 1892. There are a number of subsidiary brands that operate under the company and has its operations in a number of countries. Minute maid and Powerade are two popular brands of the company. Coco-Cola Coca-Cola acquired Minute Maid in 1960 and Powerade is a replenishing sports drink that is introduced by the company in 1990 (coca-colacompany.com 2018).
The mission statement of the company as stated in their global website is as follows:
Standardization is the process by which an organisation follows universal guidelines and rules to manufacture and market the products and services. In this process the company provides the consumers all around the world with products that are made with raw materials or ingredients without changing it (Tan and Sousa 2013).
Adaptation is the process by which organisations have different rules for different areas of operation. This is mainly incorporated in the process of strategic management as it helps the company to conform to the cultural differences of different places (Magnusson et al 2013).
In the case of Coco-Cola, all the products under the company follow the standardization process. This is because, there are no such aspects in the raw material or ingredients which is not acceptable by culture or government of any country of operation. The company has an official page in their website that is dedicated to the product line and their ingredients, in this page the ingredients used for all the products are stated. Therefore it can be said that both Minute Maid and Powerade has a standardization strategy. In 2016 the company came up with One Brand strategy which was an international campaign to unite the trademark. The process of standardization also helps the company to ensure to use the advantages of economies of scale (Moye 2018).
Minute maid has a number of flavours under each of these brands and there are localised or adapted names, packaging and availability of the variants. For example: apple flavour bottle looks different from what is available in India to what is available in The US. Pomegranate is marketed as Anar in India and also there is difference in flavours availability as well. The US market has a lot of flavours which is not available elsewhere (Moye 2018).
Powerade also has a number of flavours the amiability of which keeps differing form one country to another. For example the mountain blast flavour is not available in the UK market but is very popular in Australia as well as some other countries. The flavours have the same ingredients (Moye 2018).
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Minute Maid |
Powerade |
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Products |
The product is fruit juice; it is made up of fresh fruits. This juice can be enjoyed at any part of the day. This is the Coco-Cola’s first venture outside soft drinks. There are various sizes of the product available in the market. there are over a 100 varieties of flavour (Minutemaid.com 2018). |
This is a replenishing sports drink. It is supposed to energise and refresh. It has carbohydrates, electrolytes with fluids that provide hydration and energy. It is said to replenish Sodium, Potassium, Calcium and Magnesium which are four main nutrients which are lost in sweat (Powerade.com 2018). Refer to appendix for list of flavors. |
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Price |
The prices of both the items are dependent on a lot of aspects like size, packaging and flavour etc. Though the price in the US market of the two products are similar. It is priced at a low range so that people can enjoy the beverage irrespective of the income group . |
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Place |
The product is available in around 30 countries and the distribution process ensures that the availability is from corner store to supermarkets and hypermarkets |
Powerade is available in around 18 countries and is mostly available in convenience stores and supermarkets etc. |
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Promotion |
This product is promoted as a alternative of the soft drinks as they are made up of fresh fruit concentrates. Clean flavours and farm fresh. The company uses advertising, PR or sponsorship, sales promotions as primary tools of the promotion mix (Minutemaid.com 2018). |
Energy sports drink which instantly wakes up the fatigue feeing and helps in replenishing the mood. It is promoted as a sports drink and has been associated with several sports events around the world. Like Minute Maid Powerade also uses advertising, PR or sponsorship, sales promotions as promotional instruments (Powerade.com 2018). |
Language is one of the most important aspects of communication. Therefore, in localisation language plays an important role this helps in product translation and its cultural adaptation for specific target market. This process involves a broad learning of the culture as it is important for a company to correctly adapt to the cultural aspect of the area of expansion as it is a sensitive area of the target market (De Mooij 2013).
Minute Maid: the following images will help in understanding the Verbal-graphic and iconographic aspects of localisation of the product in three different countries:
Language has been used to communicate with the customers of the same product in two different countries. This helps the company connect with the target market. The icon has not been changes in the products it is the language that is different. Local celebrities promote the products this is one of the major difference but the theme remains the same. There is also change in the tag line of the company. For example the tag line for India is Ras Ras main India (promoting the theme that it is grown in India and is made for India) (Mander 2014).
Powerade on the other hand uses English as the language of communication, though the website of Powerade South Korea is in the Korean language but English logo bottles are distributed in the country. For advertisement purpose also there is not much difference in the appearance of the brand. Though there are iconographic differences as the products are promoted by local celebrities who are seen advertising the product. As far as tag line is considered the word “Power” is focused in all the country for promotional purposes (Heitner , 2018). The official Youtube page of Powerade will confirm the fact that the company does not have a lot of aspect that differentiates the product in different countries. Though the language of communication in the form of written or background voice is different the word “power” can be found on all the bottles (Powerade 2018).
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Minute Maid |
The population of the market that the company targets are wide as it caters to broad age group. The company targets people who enjoy having fruits over unhealthy snacks. As it is a fruit juice it replaces the soft drinks with people who are health conscious and do not prefer soda or alcoholic beverages. As the product is available in various size and packages the price of the product also varies which makes it affordable. This also helps the company expand the target market as it does not cater to a specific income group. Furthermore, the product is available in a range of store format which makes it available for anyone who is looking for morning freshness with clean fruit flavors (Minutemaid.com 2018). |
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Powerade |
This product is targeted to a niche market as it is made for the people who are associated with physically strenuous work. it is promoted as a sports drink which will help in replenishing the nutrients. The age group is from 18-25 and the income group is the upper middle class. A person who goes to the gym can pick up a bottle on the way it is not targeted towards an office going person (Powerade 2018). |
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Minute Maid |
Positioned as a fruit juice which is made of fresh fruits picked from the farm, it is associated with a fresh fruit juice that is made and served at home. It is an alternative for the soft drink and alcoholic beverages. It contains vitamins and calcium and is also low in calorie. It is not positioned as a companion with the breakfast like many of the competitors of the brand; rather it is placed as a fruit juice which can be enjoyed any time when a customer is looking for refreshment much like a soft drink. The brand focuses on the freshness of the fruits and being made available to the customers straight from the garden. This is the position of the brand internationally (Minutemaid.com 2018). |
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Powerade |
It is difficult to talk about the brand without mentioning the way it is positioned. As mentioned repeatedly in the study that this is a product that is positioned very strongly in the market as a sport drink. This is a competitor of Pepsi Co. Gatorate which is positioned in a similar fashion among the target market (Powerade 2018). The company is positioned to target the youth market and hence is promoted by young sports celebrities or any other celebrity who is known for being physically active and fit. The Coco-Cola company has launched the product as a direct competition to the product that was offered by Pepsi Co (Heitner 2018). |
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Minute Maid |
This is the company has been acquired by Coco-Cola, in 1960. After the acquisition the company had come up with several flavours in the market and has been able to cater the customers need. The brand works with other organisations to operate in various countries, for example: in Central Europe the products are sold under the brand Cappy and in Norway it is sold under Fruitopia (Minutemaid.com 2018). . |
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Powerade |
The product is a diversification of the product line of Coco-cola, as the item is both manufactured and marketed by the company itself therefore the organisational factors are associated with the parent company (Powerade 2018). |
Coco-cola is an organisation that has taken several sustainable initiatives over the years, the company takes these initiatives on the basis of the country of operation and there are no official environmental inputs by the brands: Minute Maid and Powerade separately (coca-colacompany.com 2018).
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that the brands have been successful in positioning and grabbing the market of countries which have distinctively different cultures than the home country US, for example Minute Maid in India as well as China and Powerade in Spain and Brazil. The brands have been able to do this by maintaining their own strategic management plan. Therefore it can be said that the brands will be successful in UAE as well, one of the major aspect that the company has to overcome is the strict quality check, but because Coco-Cola is prominent in UAE already these brands will also be successful. The brands are positioned in a universally acceptable manner hence there should not be any difficulty in engaging the target audience in this region. In the above discussion it is observed that the target market of the brands are also not based on any country specific factor or cultural elements hence the population of the target markets are also present in the UAE. Therefore with the help of packaging and promotional difference from the US market the company can successfully build place for these brands.
The Coca-Cola Company operated in this region with a joint venture between private stakeholders in the U.A.E. & Oman, the organisation is called Al Ahlia Gulf Line General Trading Co. (AGL) U.A.E. & Oman. It was founded in1988 in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The head Office as well as the production plant are located in Al Ain City. One of the missions of this organisation is to win the hearts & minds of consumers with the help of offering them refreshment through diverse portfolio, the addition of the two brands to the portfolio will also cater to the mission of the company (Agl.coca-cola.com 2018).
Reference list:
Agl.coca-cola.com. 2018. Company Profile. [online] agl.coca-cola.com. Available at: https://agl.coca-cola.com/company-profile.htm [Accessed 24 Mar. 2018].
coca-colacompany.com 2018. OUR COMPANY. [online] coca-colacompany.com. Available at: https://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/mission-vision-values [Accessed 24 Mar. 2018].
coca-colacompany.com 2018. SUSTAINABILITY. [online] coca-colacompany.com. Available at: https://www.coca-colacompany.com/sustainability
De Mooij, M., 2013. Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes. Sage Publications.
Magnusson, P., Westjohn, S.A., Semenov, A.V., Randrianasolo, A.A. and Zdravkovic, S., 2013. The role of cultural intelligence in marketing adaptation and export performance. Journal of Marketing Research, 21(4), pp.44-61.
Mander, J. ed., 2014. The case against the global economy: and for a turn towards localization. Routledge.
Minutemaid.com (2018). Home page. [online] minutemaid.com. Available at: https://www.minutemaid.com/ [Accessed 24 Mar. 2018].
Moye, J., 2018. ‘One Brand’ Strategy, New Global Campaign Unite Coca-Cola Trademark. [online] coca-colacompany.com. Available at: https://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/taste-the-feeling-launch [Accessed 24 Mar. 2018].
Powerade.com (2018). Home page. [online] powerade.com. Available at: https://www.powerade.com/ [Accessed 24 Mar. 2018].
Tan, Q. and Sousa, C.M., 2013. International marketing standardization. Management international review, 53(5), pp.711-739.
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