Marketing Analysis : Coca Cola

In this assignment I’m going to describe how the marketing research information is used in order to understand customers, competitors and the market environment in a company like Coca Cola. I’m also going to describe how the link between the principles of marketing are applied within the Coca Cola Company and the marketing research activities used by the same organisation.

The market share of soft drink industry actually has to maintain by spending and investing huge amount of money on advertisement and marketing. The advertising cost of Coca-Cola was $3.3 billion in 2012. Such a high cost makes it very hard for a new competitor to survive in the market and expand visibility. Moreover, due to the highly recognized brand name of Coca-Cola, the strong loyal customers’ base would not easy to switch to a new product. Therefore, it is nearly impossible for a new comer to compete in the soft drink industry.

Such things as market leadership, joint ventures, managerial expertise, inventive business solutions, and flexible organizational structure have giving Coca Cola a competitive advantage (Coca-Cola FEMSA, 2010). Coca Cola also provide managerial expertise training programs to improve their abilities, The inquiries for both companies on sugar content in the products have increased. Also there are negative doubts about their recipe of sugar content effecting weight control, pop culture, and society. Over the course of the years Coca Cola have adjusted their recipe because they are using crafty marketing and distributing smaller

1.The company I chose to research is the, Coca-Cola Company. Their company mission is to “refresh the world” and spread happiness, which can be seen in the media advertising. Although this company is sold in stores, there is the option for online buying as well. Its URL is, http://www.coca-colastore.com. While this URL, is the company’s actual website, http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company. This online website allows customers to buy Coca-Cola products “Share-a-Coke” and Coke brand merchandise (Moye, 2015).

According to David Cravens and others “Target market is a group of existing or potential customers within a specific product market towards which an organisation directs its marketing efforts”. Coca cola company follow Total market approach; therefore, company develops a single marketing mix and directs it at the whole market for their products.

One of the external factors that have an effect on Coca-Cola is the newer technology. People know that Coca-Cola first provide their product in a form of a fountain drink. It has a fixed ingredient ready for people to get some ice and get Coke from their fountain. But with the advances in the technology today, Coke has invented a new Freestyle soda machine that allows people to create a custom beverage for themselves. Their new machine benefits Coca-Cola because it can shake up the market. It gets people to become curious and want to try it out the new machine. This is an opportunity that could boost the sales for coke and their other fountain drink products.

Over the years Coca-Cola has produced thousands of advertisements, appealing to the different senses. Along with trying to maintain a broad enough audience, to become the number one soda producer in the world. Starting with the vintage advertisment from 1886, when prohibition laws were being to be passed. This advertisement was placed near drink fountains, and convenience stores where coca-cola was sold in bottles. The second advertisement was published in May 2015, currently circulating inside of the Netherlands. Both of the advertisements attempt to appeal to everyone and anyone, who are in search of personal happiness. Regardless of the century gap, Coca-cola claims to be the drink that produces happiness and relief from the ecosocial problems experienced throughout everyday life.

Brand awareness means how familiar a consumer is with a product or service. Cokes strong self-belief and its consistent advertising helped achieve its position in the market. Coke helped adapt their drink to various markets around the world and they wanted to achieve to satisfy the different tastes of the consumers. This showed great flexibility and innovativeness. Coke is also a very aesthetic product. The design of the product is recognised all over the world. Consumers remember the glass bottle and the red and white can. Even though coke is one of the most recognisable product in the world people still think it is not recognised for the product but for the marketing around it, especially for its commercials. It is one of the most persistent and well-loved brands and is considered among the most

Market research is the process where the marketing problems and opportunities are defined through the information gained from the customers. The Market research is also used to help understand the marketing process, which then helps increase the performance of the company’s marketing. Due to the raise of the public awareness of obesity and its consequences, the soft drink companies such as Coca Cola where heavily bombarded with negative publicity. As a result the sales of many soft drink companies have declined. In response to this major companies such as Coca Cola have embraced the idea of quantitative market research to understand the needs of the consumers. To be able to achieve an effective market research the company has spent around $132.8 million on many methods of retrieving information but one of the main method was by surveys. The surveys have shown that the image of the company was associated with unhealthy products, due to the results that were provided Coca Cola was able to understand that to attract more customer the only solution was to change the marketing plan to re- brand the business into a health conscious business.

The Coca-Cola Company is the globes leading and largest beverage company, offering to its consumers with more than five hundred still and sparkling brands. The portfolio of the company features seventy billion dollars brands such as Fanta, Coca-cola Zero and Diet Coke. The societal views of the 1990s greatly differ with the contemporary views especially with regards to issues such as masculinity and feminism. Within the last decades, women have changed the previous anticipation of their roles and have much self-sovereignty when compared to the previous decades. As a result, the advertisers of various products have changed the way through which they sell their brands to these groups of individuals. The paper shall presents how the commercial advertisement for one of its products the Diet Coke have changed over years most specifically focusing on the commercial ad of the year 1990s and that of the year 2014.

Each and every player of soft drink industry mainly targets the age group of 15 to 30. Though some brands only focus to the urban people and some targets only to rural people. Some targets only to female and some targets to male only.

Coca-Cola 's "Friends" advertisement is a well composed advertisement. The advertisement is drawn in a minimalistic style that lends harmony and order to the artifact; the key elements of the artifact are arranged in a orderly manner appropriate to the subject of the artifact. The background is a mid-tone red that contrasts sharply with the white hands featured prominently in the center of the artifact. These white hands, unblemished and of one shade, reach towards one another from opposite sides of the advertisement with cupped hands. These hands bear an offering to one another, their wrists titled delicately towards one another, and the exchange is of equal value, the left hand drops a seed

Coca-Cola is the largest non-alcohol beverage manufacturer in the world, which holds approximate 43% market share. The firm is also ranked in top 20 in the Fortune 500 in terms of the largest capital with over 100 billion dollars in assets. John Stith Pemberton is the founder of the firm, which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. During its 100 years of history, Coca-Cola has grown its businesses substantially in the globe. Currently, the firm presents over 160 countries, including China, India, Japan, and South East Asia countries. The main objectives of the firm that is it can serve its products to all consumers in the globe, and expands its businesses to the majority of strategic regions. In order to grow and expand its present to the other major markets, Coca-Cola executes its marketing strategies based on three different categories, including price, place, partnerships, and core products. These marketing methods have supported Coca-Cola to sustain, and grow in the soft drink industry.

In the Coca Cola Company, they are applying several components of advancement including advertisement. Coca- Cola has engaged in mass media, in which, has been compromised into sectors of television announcements, outstanding circular media (ex. Magazines, coupons,billboards,etc.), and social media (ex. Twitter, Pintrest, Facebook, Instagram, etc.). Coke’s classical choice of broadcasting its brand has gained productive marketing experiences. Coke’s trademark can be identified all over the globe, and it is an essential to the stamping of it’s representation in the forum.

Coca Cola has a diverse mixture of products in their portfolio, which includes carbonated soft drinks, juice drinks, water beverages, liquid flavor enhances, sports drinks, teas, coffee drinks, low and no calorie drinks, caffeine free drinks, gluten free drinks, and low sodium drinks (Coca-Cola, 2015). Moreover, their product list consists of 20 different brands, which include: Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Vitaminwater, Powerade, Minute Maid, Simply, and Fuze to name a few. (Schaefer, 2016).