Marketing Principles/ Coca Cola

The story of one of the biggest marketing blunders in history, is a story of false hubris, desperation, and driving ambition. Made by one of the largest corporations in the world. The creators of a product on the forefront of the American consciousness. As intertwined into American culture as baseball, apple pie, and Thanksgiving dinner. That product of course was Coca Cola, the formula of which had remained unchanged close to 100 years. Since its creation by Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton in 1885 as a topical remedy marketed as a cure from ailments such as stomach pains, headaches, and even impotence, Coca Cola had grown into the number one drink in America.

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.

Companies uses a blend of advertisement, public relations, personnel selling and direct marketing tools to communicate and persuade customers of value of product to them.

In a culture of ever-changing media, the most constant mover of product has always been white women. Companies spanning many industries are guilty of selling sex, and Coca Cola is far from an exception. Ads are in place to, “pursue attraction to people’s fantasy aspirations…” allowing consumers to become inspired and ingrained in them. These two ads from Coca Cola pander to the fantasies of the average Joe through placement of women that fit the paradigms of societally normal beauty front and center to draw the eye of the consumer to their product. By the time The Coca Cola Company had a successful means of distribution in the United States, World War II was at the doorstep causing citizens to have to answer a call to arms, however, “...the government told the women to go back home to be housewives. The advertisements may have contributed a key in encouraging this. Women were employed as a way of selling products and represented in distinct social-classes to give their brands a further worldwide attraction mainly to other proletariat people.” At this time, advertisements were known to, “…pursue working-class women because they never had sexual appearances,” as displayed by the older Coca Cola ad from 1939, found through the “American Memory Project” from the Library of Congress.

Another component of an effective marketing plan is a distribution channel analysis. The path a product or service takes to reach the end consumer is referred to as a distribution channel, which can include wholesalers, retailers, distributors and the internet (Distribution Channel, 2013). A distribution channel analysis aids in the creation of a distribution strategy which will convey the company’s plan regarding the distribution of its products, determining whether to use a push or a pull strategy, and how that strategy fits the product, the target market, and overall marketing

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).

Coca Cola and Pepsi are the brands with the highest brand equities. Both, Coca Cola and Pepsi have gone through the highs and lows of their business to reach that position. Coca Cola’s marketing has been changing over time with more and more products being added every day, while Pepsi has implemented several smart marketing strategies to improve its turnover and profits. So, let’s see what were the marketing strategies implemented by Coca Cola and Pepsi.

Coca Cola was born in the laboratory of Dr. John Pemberton in May 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia. Coca-Cola's own name was made by Frank Robinson. And marketed for the first time with an ad of banners with the inscription of oil paints labeled "drink Coca Cola". Although it was the title of "brand of the century", Frank Robison had experienced a loss in sales. Coca Cola formula then bought by Asa Chandler in 1892 that heavily promoting senhingga experiencing huge profits. Coca cola increasingly global sales thanks to independent bottling firms with licenses to other countries and this is maintained until now.

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.

The Coca-Cola Company is one of the largest in the world and the Coke logo is one of the most widely recognized icons in the world. The company used many different marketing campaigns in the years since the company has been created, some being more successful than others. Two such commercials, the Hilltop commercial and the Taylor Swift commercial, both differ in the approaches but are still both successful in their approaches. The first was first aired in nineteen seventy one while the second was first aired in twenty fourteen. I think that the Taylor Swift commercial is more successful than the Hilltop commercial because it better addresses its more specific audience.

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.

Coca-Cola was invented by John Pemberton the Coca-Cola Company began in 1886. With more than 1.9 billion consumers a day, in more than 200 countries, Coca-Cola is dedicated to being the world’s largest beverage company by maintaining and gaining customers. Customer preference is a core value to coke. Coke has dedicated itself to meet the thirst needs of every customer. They engage with their customers at home, restaurants, sporting events. Almost everywhere customers go, they can find a coke product. They build their top line growth and capital efficiency through investment in FIFA World Cup, “Open Happiness” global campaign, and have many worldwide partners, increasing their business nearly 5% every year by creating a diverse customer base.

The history of Coca Cola began in 1886 when Dr. John S Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist created a tasty soft drink which could sell at soda fountains. Since then, Coca Cola grew to be a global brand and touched great heights. Today, it sells across 200 countries and is just as popular across all the markets and nations. The company today, owns or licenses and markets more than 500 non alcoholic beverage brands. The brand has only few major competitors in the global market. The daily servings of coca cola are estimated to be at 1.9 billion globally. (Coca-Colahellenic, n.d.) This is just another proof of the popularity of the brand which has a very large and diversified

In this report, I will be discussing how businesses gain a competitive advantage through the use of various marketing methods.

In businesses uses various promotional methods to promote their product or service with individuals, groups and organizations.