Marketing Strategy And Plan For Coca Cola Drink Companies

The objectives of the marketing plan

Discuss about the Marketing Strategy and Plan for Coca Cola Drink Companies.

The objectives of the marketing plan

The marketing objectives are required by every business and the objectives of the marketing plan are as follows:

1. Realistic objectives – When it comes to the detailing of the marketing objectives, realism is very important (Lee et al. 2015).

2. Measurable objectives – When the individuals have the ability to measure the results of their objectives then it is termed as measurable objectives.

Background of the company

Coca-Cola is one of the largest soft drink companies in the world. The company includes various brands that include Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite and many such names. 

The market is selected because the beverage industry is one of the most popular sectors that contribute to a large part of the GDP in the country. The report mainly deals with the youth and the products that mostly attracts. Coca Cola mostly has a variety of the product of line that includes diet coke for the individuals who has diabetes and zero coke for those who are health conscious.

Product Portfolio in Relation to the Competition 

The Value proposition of Coca Cola is the unique benefits that are delivered by its business in order to resolve a precise problem of the target customers (Osterwalder et al. 2014).

The comparison of the value proposition   

The value proposition of Coca Cola is that the company encourages in order to shape a better future and the company mainly focuses on the integrity. However, the value proposition of Pepsi is to thrive the society and the business together.

There are different cost and benefit that are associated with Coca Cola and the cost is as follows:

1. Diabetes – Coca Cola is mainly known to cause diabetes, as it is a sweetened drink and is a main source of calories. If an individual consumes excessive of Coca Cola, then it might prove to be harmful for that person.

2. Dehydration – Coca Cola also acts as dehydrating diuretics as it contains sugar.

The benefits that are associated with Coca Cola are as follows:

1. Taste – The Taste of Coca Cola can make an individual feel relaxed, as it tastes good.

2. Rusted Bolt- If a cloth soaked with Coca Cola can be applied on the rusted bolt; it will help to loosen it.

3. Toilet cleaner – A can of Coca Cola can act as a toilet cleaner after it is applied for an hour on the toilet (Ladas et al. 2013).

Justification of the market selection

Every business has the aim to grow, be it a start-up company or a well-established company that is seeking to augment the profit. However, there always remains a confusion regarding the fact that which strategy will lead to growth. The Ansoff’s Matrix provides with the solution that can be applied by the business (Darroch 2014).

Market Penetration – The strategy of market penetration involves an attempt that helps to increase the share of the market within the existing industries. It can be done by either selling more products to the customers who are established or by searching for new customers within the market. Coca Cola being a popular brand is able to utilise the market penetration on a yearly basis, for example through the notorious Coca-Cola Christmas advert that in turn helped to increase the sale of Coca-Cola (Hussain et al. 2013).

(Source: Oakley, 2015)

Product Development – This mainly involves the development of the new product for the existing market. This is done with the aim to fulfil the needs of the customers with the new products that are launched by the company as well as to outperform the competitors. An example of this includes the launch of the Cherry Coke in the year 1985. The company found it profitable to sell the flavoured products (Al-Azzam et al. 2016).

Market Development – The main strategy of the market development is to find a new group of buyers for the product of Coca Cola that already exists. In the year 2005, for example, the launch of Coke Zero was an ideal example of market development. Coke Zero was similar to that of diet coke; however, it was widely accepted by women rather than men. The men did not accept it as they thought that it was a women drink. Therefore, the Coca Cola Company changed the outer look of the brand to give it a masculine appeal (Krützkamp 2013).

Diversification – There are two types of diversification in this case, the first one being the related diversification and the second one is the unrelated diversification. The related diversification comprises of the production of a new category of goods that complements the existing portfolio. However, under unrelated diversification, Coca-Cola started offering merchandises that include shirts, glasses as well as fridges which helped to expand its brand.

The PESTLE Analysis of Coca Cola is as follows:

1. Political factors – Several political factors have affected Coca Cola. The political factors include the changes in the laws and regulation. The political factors also include the level of political stability that in turn affected the global pressure group and domestic market vestibule groups and the government approach towards the industry (Chhabra and Kiran 2015).

Value Analysis

2. Economic factors –The various economic factors that affected the sales of Coca Cola are rate of tax, the rate of interest, labor cost as well as the level of economic growth in the company.

(Source: LeSure, LeSure and profile 2012)

3. Social factors – The social factors that have affected the performance of Coca Cola include the social change that has been implicated by Coca Cola in the form of carbonated drink that is mainly for the quest of healthy lifestyle.

4. Technological factors – In the case of Coca Cola, the technology is continuously increasing as the company is introducing some equipment. As a result, the production volume of Coca Cola is also increasing sharply as compared to the last few years.

1. The five forces of Porter had helped to analyse the competitors of the company by using a simple framework model.

The threat of entry of new competitors – The Company Such As Coca Cola and its competitors hold special licensing deals, which includes their product being sold in the fast food chains. Moreover, Coca Cola has resulted in a strong loyal base of the customers as they invest a huge amount on marketing for their promotion. As a result, as far as brand image and customer loyalty is concerned, the new competitors might find it difficult to match up to that level ( Dobbs 2014).

As a result, it will become difficult for the new competitors to threaten the well-established company like Coca Cola. Moreover, Coca Cola also has franchise contracts with presented bottlers. As per the contract, the bottlers are forbidden to take up new competitors with the similar products.

2. The intensity of competitive rivalry – Pepsi is the first rival that comes to mind when it comes to the competitive rival of Coca Cola. Both the companies are in competition from the past 19^th The reason for the rivalry is that both the companies have comparable elements in their marquee products and they have similar contributions. The non-soda interests are also alike for both the companies (Latif and Parker 2014).

(Source: Dudovskiy, 2015)

3. The threat of substitute products – The beverage industry is supplemented with massive figures of substitutes that include water, coffee, juices, alcoholic drink and many more such products. As a result, there is always a choice of buyers purchasing fresh juices or coffee instead of Coca Cola. Since, more and more are becoming health conscious with each passing day the individuals might substitute healthy juices instead of Coca Cola.

Ansoff’s Growth Matrix

4. The bargaining power of buyers – The fair amount of bargaining power of the buyers directly affects the bottom line of Coca Cola. Coca Cola sells its product with the help of the distribution companies rather than selling the products directly to the buyers. As a result, when it comes to the food stores the prices are low enough so that the customers can remain attached with the product.

5. The bargaining power of the suppliers – The suppliers in the beverage industries are relatively weak, as they do not have any bargaining power. The supplier supplies the raw materials that are the required component of a soft drink company. These raw materials are easily available to the producers and this does not make any difference to the suppliers, as they are reasonable.

The brands are able to define their appropriate products with the help of segmentation to the diverse customers. As far as Coca Cola is concerned, it does not target a precise segment but becomes accustomed the marketing approaches by developing new products. As far as targeting is concerned, the plan is to target diverse ages of customers that is there should not be any specific target. The key customers of Coca Cola are the individuals belonging to the age group between 12-30 years.

(Consumerpsychologist.com, 2016)

The company has also tied up with fast food markets, which includes McDonalds so that the plan to reach the product of the company below the age of 12 becomes successful. Targeting does not deal with gender group but the plan is to make the product acceptable to both male and females. All age groups are mostly targeted, but the aim is to target the age group 18-25 that consists of 40 percent of the population.

As far as positioning is concerned, Coca Cola has become successful to deliberately position itself in the soft drink market of the world. Coca Cola has also planned to generate those positions that help the product to get the largest advantage in the target market.

The act of designing the offer of a company is ideally done by brand positioning. It has been years that the cola wars between Pepsi and Coca Cola has started.  As far as positioning is concerned, the two brands have completely target audiences as well as positioning. Pepsi mainly position their products among the teenagers whereas, Coca Cola has positioned them as a drink that is fit for the complete family.

Justification

Analyse uncontrollable forces

The segmentation positioning and targeting has been planned in such a way that Coca Cola can compete with its competitors and then become successful compared to Pepsi.

Support Services

One of the most widely used soft drink in the world is Coca Cola. The company is known to have very efficient as well as extensive distribution in the world. The decisions of the Coca Cola business are mainly done on the domestic basis to be fitted in with the diverse culture as well as the requirements of the domestic community. Coca Cola is also known to provide service to huge geographic as well as diverse areas. With the help of CSR, Coca Cola has been able to execute the campaign known as the “Support my school” campaign (Hanssens et al. 2014).

Packaging

Packaging also plays an important role in the case of Coca Cola as packaging has affected its sales as well as the positioning of the industry. After Coca Cola changed the packaging of Coke Zero, it became acceptable to the men besides the women. Coca Cola is mainly differentiated from their competitor that is Pepsi in the form of ingredients.    

Distribution Strategies

Coca Cola has a concentrated distribution channel as well as bottler system that helps its product to get available anywhere in the world starting from Middle East to Australia. It is mainly sold in the retail outlet. This retails store mainly looks like the local food stores that contains all sorts of beverages as well as food.

Pricing

The pricing of Coca Cola is done based on the segment of both markets as well as geographic. There are different pricing strategies for diverse sub-brands of Coca Cola. As far as consumer perspective is concerned, the consumers who prefer going to malls for them the price relatively high as compared to the one who prefers retail stores. Hence, the prices are not constant across the entire consumer segment. The pricing strategy is mainly based on the competitors pricing strategy that is if Pepsi lowers the price of their product, then Coca Cola is bound to lower the price.

The potential risks of pricing strategy are as follows:

1. Changed professed value – If Coca Cola raise or lower the price, then the professed value of the product will change in the eyes of the customers.

2. Reduction in the margin – If Coca Cola reduces the price of its product, then they might tend to lose the margin of the profit.

Advertising Strategy

Porter’s five forces

Coca Cola has adopted to various advertisement strategies that is used to promote its product. The company mainly targets the value-based advertisement so that it can increase the demand of its product. The advertising prospect has helped to create demand for Coca Cola. The potential risk in advertising strategy is that Coca Cola has to frame the ad in such a way that it attracts all the age group rather than youth.

Coca Cola mainly follows the FMCG distribution strategies for its product. The efficient distribution network of coke has approximately battered the small and middle level players in the market.

Distribution Channels

The type of distribution that will be used by company is the indirect channel that is the company will take the help of the middleman to sell their products. 

Analysing competitors

The strategic position of Coca Cola as compared to Pepsi will be that Coca Cola will be more beneficial as it targets the family besides the youth.

Conclusion

Coca Cola has a concentrated distribution channel as well as bottler system that helps its product to get available anywhere in the world starting from Middle East to Australia. The pricing of Coca Cola is done based on the segment of both markets as well as geographic.

References

Al-Azzam, Z.F., Irtaimeh, H.J. and Al-Qura’an, A.B., 2016. Impact of Intellectual Capital on Carrefour Internal Growth Strategies (Ansoffs Model) in Governorate of Irbid. Available at SSRN.

Chhabra, S. and Kiran, R., 2015. An Empirical Analysis of Total Factor Productivity in Food and Beverage Sector. Productivity, 56(2), p.121.

Consumerpsychologist.com. (2016). Introduction to Marketing. [online] Available at: https://www.consumerpsychologist.com/marketing_introduction.html [Accessed 3 Jul. 2016].

Darroch, J., 2014. Ansoff’s Growth Matrix—In Detail. In Why Marketing to Women Doesn’t Work (pp. 131-147). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Dudovskiy, J. (2015). Coca Cola Porter’s Five Forces Analysis – Research Methodology. [online] Research Methodology. Available at: https://research-methodology.net/coca-cola-porters-five-forces-analysis/ [Accessed 3 Jul. 2016].

Dobbs, M., 2014. Guidelines for applying Porter’s five forces framework: a set of industry analysis templates. Competitiveness Review, 24(1), pp.32-45.

Hanssens, D.M., Pauwels, K.H., Srinivasan, S., Vanhuele, M. and Yildirim, G., 2014. Consumer attitude metrics for guiding marketing mix decisions. Marketing Science, 33(4), pp.534-550.

Hussain, S., Khattak, J., Rizwan, A. and Latif, M.A., 2013. ANSOFF matrix, environment, and growth-an interactive triangle. Management and Administrative Sciences Review, 2(2), pp.196-206.

Krützkamp, K., 2013. Celebrity-Marketing: Market penetration by image transfer from stars using the example of the brand Coca-Cola light of the beverage producer Coca Cola.

Ladas, S.D., Kamberoglou, D., Karamanolis, G., Vlachogiannakos, J. and Zouboulisâ€ÂVafiadis, I., 2013. Systematic review: Cocaâ€ÂCola can effectively dissolve gastric phytobezoars as a firstâ€Âline treatment. Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics, 37(2), pp.169-173.

Latif, S. and Parker, D., 2014. Supply chain and logistics: An Australian perspective. Management Services, 58(1), pp.20-26.

Lee, J.Y., Kozlenkova, I.V. and Palmatier, R.W., 2015. Structural marketing: using organizational structure to achieve marketing objectives. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(1), pp.73-99.

LeSure, D., LeSure, D. and profile, V. (2012). Coca-Cola: PEST Analysis for Coca-Cola. [online] Desmondcocacola.blogspot.in. Available at: https://desmondcocacola.blogspot.in/2012/06/pest-analysis-for-coca-cola.html [Accessed 4 Jul. 2016].

Oakley, T. (2015). Coca-Cola: Ansoff Matrix. [online] the Marketing Agenda. Available at: https://themarketingagenda.com/2015/03/28/coca-cola-ansoff-matrix/ [Accessed 3 Jul. 2016].

Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Bernarda, G. and Smith, A., 2014. Value proposition design: how to create products and services customers want. John Wiley & Sons.