Coco Cola a Marketing Perspective Essay Example

Coco Cola a Marketing Perspective Essay Example Coco Cola a Marketing Perspective Essay Coco Cola a Marketing Perspective Essay The History Coca-cola was first introduced by John Syth Pemberton, a pharmacist, in the year 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia when he concocted caramel- coloured syrup in a three legged brass kettle in his backyard Dr Pemberton was skilled doctor and his chemistry work was of high quality. He developed chemical laboratories that were later state run analytical facilities.But he never realised the potential of Coca Cola. There were his successors that developed Coca Cola in the brand it is today. Until 1905 the soft drink marketed as tonic and contained traces of illegal drugs as well as caffeine-rich kola nut. By the late 1890 Asa Grieg Chandler directed the Coca-Cola Company and syrup sales rose for 4. 000% between 1890 and 1900. The famous logo, which is highly recognizable everywhere, was an idea and work of Dr. Pembertons accountant Frank Robinson. Asa Candler took over the Coca-Cola Company as owner soon after Dr. Pembertons death.He partnered with Frank Robinson and redid the formula f or Coca Cola syrup. Frank Robinsons creation was the logo, script and a push that the classic slogan delicious and refreshing be tied to all the future advertising. Coca-Cola Company also pioneered in distribution and coupon sales. Under long term tenure of chairman and CEO Woodruff between 1923 and 1981 CocaCola Company expanded in 44 countries and was global business. In sixties soda fountain was something like water cooler is today a meeting and chat place during breaks. As soon as bottled beverages and packed ice cream took over eople forgot about soda fountains. Advertising, packaging, distribution, and trade secret protection has made possible that over one billion of servings of Coca-Cola are sold today daily. Coca cola has been aggressively advertised on billboards and in newspaper under Chairman Candler who sold the company after prohibition to Ernest Wudruff, Robert Wudruff, son of Ernest Wudruff was the Coca-Cola Company’s boss for six decades. In his first year o f 1923 2 he introduced six pack, and in 1929 he made Coca Cola available through vending machines.In 1930s he started with radio advertising and in 1950s on television. In 1931 he introduced Coca Cola Santa Claus repeating its appearance and good wishes every Christmas since. In his sixty years at the wheel he was responsible for twelve ounce Coca Cola can in 1960s, the Coca Cola contour bottle in 1977, introduction of two litre bottles and plastic bottles. He raised prices of syrup for distributors but also improved efficiency and productivity, emphasized quality control, and improved sales department. The Boss also started big item advertising and promotional campaigns. Source: Cola Marketing History) The publicly traded company has also built a strong trust of its investors (Warren Buffet Secrets, 2010). About Coca-cola Coca-cola, company is the world’s leading manufacturer, marketer and distributor of nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, used to produce nearly 4 00 beverage brands. It sells beverage concentrates and syrups to bottling and canning operators, distributors, fountain retailers and fountain wholesalers. The company’s beverage products comprises of bottled and canned soft drinks as well as concentrates, syrups and not-ready-to-drink powder products.In addition to this it also produces and markets soft drinks, tea and coffee. The coca-cola company and its network of bottlers comprise the most sophisticated and pervasive production and distribution system in the world. The company aims at increasing shareowner value over time. It accomplishes this by working with its business partners to deliver satisfaction and value to consumers through a worldwide system of superior brands and services thus increasing brand equity on global basis.The associates of the company jointly take responsibility to ensure compliance with the framework of policies and protect the company’s assets and resources while limiting business risks. Plan of the study Coca-cola is one of the world’s largest beverages selling company. Its business and operations are extended all over the world. I have undertaken this project to look into the coca-cola company and its marketing perspective. 3 The reason for taking up this project is that I wanted to know the marketing strategy, advertising policy, marketing mix, market positioning, and market share of such a huge company.The promotional activities and the advertising policies always attracted my attention. I wanted to know how coca-cola manages its business affairs and operations all over the world so successfully. I wanted to know whether the market strategy helped cocacola in running successfully over such a long period of time. But there were certain limitations as well. There are many aspects of the company on which a wide research could have been done but due to lack of available time and a constraint on word limit, the study could not be done. Lack of availability of data was another such constraint COCA-COLA MARKETING PERSPECTIVE MARKETING Coca Cola advertising targets youth of all generations who want to enjoy life and have fun. Because of its longevity, the youth targeted twenty, thirty or forty years ago is no longer young but it feels like they are still young when with Coke. To name just a few of Coca Colas advertising campaigns: Have a Coke and a Smile, Coca-Cola. Enjoy, Id Like to Buy the World a Coke, The Real Thing. Every marketing campaign was strategically prepared and best advertising crews visit campuses and make practical jokes and films.There is a YouTube Coca Cola Channel with over 23000 members. On this channel we can watch short videos where real person is hidden in vending machine and starts giving bigger and better servings, two cokes for one and the like. In one of this shows they brought to the campus oversized vending machine where coin dispenser was as high as basketball rim and students had to climb to it but the machin e would then gave also oversized cokes. Videos are funny and they travel through viral networks carrying the message very fast and far. Student population is the most receptive Cokes target.The Coca-Cola Company has a few official contact points in new social media (like Face book, Twitter, and YouTube) which they use to spread the message. If we look back, a Coca Cola (advertisements copies observed online at Beautiful Life) g venues chosen. Coca Cola billboard advertisement from 1889 features a young lady standing by a stand where a glass of Coca Cola is for sale at 5 cents, the name Coca Cola in unique branded logo is repeated twice and the words delicious and refreshing stand on the stand above a bouquet of fresh roses. It looks that Coca Cola target upper class of society at the beginning of the century.By 1918 the feature was omitted from advertising. A poster from 1918 features beautiful young lady in white drinking Coca Cola as the logo on the glass shows with a playground a s a background and some greenery around to contrast whitish main motive. Text below the 5 picture promotes Coca Cola as The Drink of All the Year and mentions words delicious and refreshing. Coca Cola advancement was reached in 1931 when an advertisement in The Saturday Evening Post shows Santa Claus in red colour of Coca Cola without his hat explaining: My hats off to the pause that refreshes.The classic red rectangle saying Drink Coca Cola Delicious and Refreshing blinks prominently above Santas hand. The first advertisement that shows a change in targeting general audience instead of upper classes I found in 1937 Stop for a pause Go refreshed shows two workers at a gas station taking Coca Cola bottles out of special Coca Cola refrigerator. There is no price on this advertisement. It was still advertised as Drink Coca Cola Delicious and Refreshing as another advertisement from the same year shows a young lady with a dog and signature bottle in gloved hands sitting on a bench in a park.In this way coca-cola brought a change in its target and prospective consumers. In 1942 advertisement a hand holding unique patented Coca Cola bottle breaks through a paper that features red circle Drink Coca Cola Delicious and Refreshing and the price tag, still 5 cents. New six pack carrier has been introduced in 1948 and six bottles were sold for 25 cents (plus return deposit) and the name was shortened to Coke so the red circle does not carry the whole text just Coca Cola logo above bracketed new name Coke. cents Coca Cola vending machines were introduced in 1949 and a picture of red Coca Cola vending machine on the panoramic background calling: Inviting workers everywhere to the pause that refreshes with ice-cold Coca-Cola 5 cents. Coca-cola brought a change in its packaging by the introduction of six-pack. Although very important part, advertising is just a part of overall promotion in marketing mix, the others being price, place and product. We have seen from the adverti sements that more than seventy years Coca Cola sold for 5 cents a bottle.This was possible because of economy of scale as per capita consumption of Coca Cola has been steadily rising. Just in recent years from 1988 to 2008 annual worldwide consumption of Coca Cola has risen from 39 servings per capita to 85 servings per capita while consumption in the USA in the same time rose from 275 servings to 412 servings per capita. Americans are second in Coca 6 Cola consumption surpassed by Mexico with 635 servings per capita in 2008. (Source: The Coca-Cola Company) Although Coca Cola commands highest price among colas its product sales are very price sensitive.Interestingly enough the Coca Cola hasnt changed its taste from the 1890. The change of formula in 1985 is considered one of the biggest marketing blunders of all times. People boycotted new Coke so much that its market share fell from 25% to almost 2% at the lowest point so the company was forced to return the old Coca Cola from then on called Coca Cola Classic. Then CEO campaigned with We have got your message when reintroducing the old Coca Cola taste back to the market. The packaging of Coca Cola changes followed the development of different distribution channels.While Coca Cola started selling in drug stores and it slowly moved into soda fountains, the product that company sold to distributors was syrup that was mixed with soda water. New branded bottle was introduced so that Coca Cola could be sold in shops and supermarkets as well as gas stations. Six-bottle-packaging was invented to increase sales as it was convenient to carry, so people would buy six at a time instead of two or three. As Coca Cola is best ice cold the company introduced special refrigerators that later on developed into vending machines.Vending machines became Coca Colas next big distribution channel bringing their product into companies and schools lunch rooms and other places where people gathered in numbers. Coca Cola contracted McDo nalds and some other franchise chains and their contracts require exclusivity. We cannot get Pepsi or any other brand Behind the Arches of McDonalds. The law forbids the same tactics in supermarkets and other retailer chains but Coca Cola is very good in choosing the right spots for their promotion because they do it extremely professional. The Coca Cola Company in Atlanta only makes syrup.Coke is bottled close to its distributors as transportation costs plays big role in the final product price. It is much cheaper to send overseas only syrup and then add 90% of its bulk closer to consumers than it would be making and transporting final products to worldwide destinations out of Georgia. Coca Cola introduced cans because they were safer for vending machines and cheaper to make than glass bottles. Both were partially replaced with plastic bottles for the same reason as they are cheaper to make and harder to brake or distort. 7 The Coca Cola Company first sponsored Olympic Games of 192 4 in Amsterdam.It looks like we can find Coca Cola logo everywhere although it is not exactly so. Coca Cola is strategically placing its logo to events and places that are associated with fun, enjoyment, refreshment, harmony, sportsmanship, and happiness like sports facilities, amusement parks, Olympic games, World Cup, Super Bowl and Christmas celebrations. Researchers in positive psychology are of opinion that lasting happiness is the result of an engaged life, one with close social ties and one that that is motivated by values and goals larger than oneself and lasting happiness is something that Coca Cola is trying to associate with (Nuys, 2010).Association with the need of the people to aspire to goals higher than oneself is clearly expressed in Coca Colas Open Happiness music video series (Open Happiness, 2010) where everyone is invited to join happy and purposeful self improvement that will ultimately lead to happier society with rhymes open up a little happiness today, so I c an be someone new open up a smile on another face, so I can feel something new. Here Coca Cola uses positive association and positive psychology to enter universal desire for deep, lasting happiness, even life essence (Kracauer, 168). And this is a logical extension of Delicious and Refreshing self centred fulfilment slogan that Coca Cola has been advertising for the first hundred and something years. From being refreshment it now intends to move up the human needs leader and associate itself with lasting open happiness.Coca Cola has been adding popular music to their advertising since early times. For Coca Cola this move came naturally as colas and popular music share similar demographics (Klein, 7). So water, sugar, some secret ingredients and a few bubbles made Coca Cola the biggest beverage company, operating in 206 countries round the globe, evaluated at 67 billion dollars and daily worldwide consumption of 100 million gallons (375 million litres ). 8 MARKETING MIXPRODUCT With a portfolio of more than 3,500 beverages, from diet and regular sparkling beverages to still beverages such as 100 percent fruit juices and fruit drinks, waters, sports and energy drinks, teas and coffees, and milk-and soy-based beverages, its variety spans the globe. The global nature of business requires that the Coca-Cola system has the highest standards and processes for ensuring consistent product safety and quality from concentrate production to bottling and product delivery.It measure key product and package quality attributes to ensure beverage products in the marketplace meet the company requirements and consumer expectations. Consistency and reliability are critical to product quality and to meeting global regulatory requirements and Company standards It has made great strides in expanding the level of nutritional information on the packaging, offering consumers factual and meaningful information about the beverage products to assist them in their beverage selections.The policy is to place nutritional information on all of the labels, where feasible. Where this is not possible, for example on recyclable glass bottles, it provide nutritional information via other means such as Company websites The coca-cola company has a wide range of products. They are the following:IN THE COLA SECTION IN THE LEMON SECTION IN THE ORANGE SECTION IN THE BOTTLED Diet coke Limca Maaza Sprite Minute maid WATER Kinley SECTION Coca-cola Thumps up 9 PROMOTION –The Coca-cola uses following promotional tools for its marketing campaign.Getting shelves They gets or purchase shelves in big departmental stores and display their products in that shelves in that style which show their product more clear and more attractive for the consumers. Eye Catching Position Salesman of the coca cola company positions their freezers and their products in eyecatching positions. Normally they keep their freezers near the entrance of the stores. Sale Promotion Company also sponsor college and school’s cafes and sponsors their sports events and other extra curriculum activities for getting market share.UTC Scheme UTC mean under the crown scheme, coca cola often do this type of scheme and they offer very handy prizes in it. Like once they offer bicycles, caps, tv sets, cash prizes etc. This scheme is very much popular among children. COKE’S ADVERTISING SLOGANS 1904 Delicious and refreshing 1905 Coca-cola revives and sustains 1906 The great national temperature beverage 1917 Three million a day 1922 Thirst knows no season 1923 Enjoy thirst 1924 Refresh yourself 1925 Six million a day 1926 It had to be good to get where it is 1927 Around the corner from anywhere 1929 The pause that refreshes 10 932 Ice cold sunshine 1938 The best friend thirst ever had 1939 Thirst asks nothing more 1939 Whoever you are, whatever you do, Wherever you may be, When you think of refreshment, think of the ice cold Coca-cola 1942 The only thing Coca-cola is Coca-cola itself 1949 Along the highway to anywhere 1952 What you want is coke 1956 Coca-cola †¦makes good things taste better 1957 Sign of good taste 1958 The cold crisp taste of coke 1959 Be really refreshed 1963 Things go better with coke 1969 It’s the real thing 1971 I’d like to buy the world coke 1975 Look up America 1976 Coke adds life 1979 Have a coke and smile 1982 Coke is it! 985 We’ve got a taste for you 1985 America’s real choice 1986 Red, white and you (for coke classic) 1986 Catch the wave (for coca-cola) 1987 When coca-cola is part of your life, you can’t beat the Feeling 1988 You can’t beat the feeling 1989 Official summer drink 1990 You can’t beat the real thing 1993 Always coca-cola 2000 Coca-cola enjoy 2001 Life tastes good 2003 Coca-cola †¦real 11 2009 Open happiness 2010 Twist the cap to refreshment 2011 Life begins here SOURCE-Book Advertising Management By: -Jayshree Jethwaney Shruti JainAdvertisement has always played a sig nificant role in the marketing strategy of coca-cola, here is a detail about the various ad campaigns of coca-cola. A billboard advertisement from 1900 depicts a beautiful young lady on a horse drawn wagon served by a white uniformed waiter, the Coca Cola logo again repeated twice, once as a store name and once in text below where its price at 5 cents is also stated. The message was stated as The ideal beverage for discriminating people.An advertisement from 1907 also depicts angel like lady in white gloves as if selling Coca Cola at the stand. Besides the Coca Cola logo being repeated three times there is also price for a drink at 5 cents. In 1909 an a billboard advertisements shows something like all ladies party in the background with three young fashionably clothed women drink and the message written depicts Relieves the fatigue that comes from over-play, over-work, and overthinking, delicious, refreshing, thirst-quenching with 5 cents price tag.The logo is repeated twice. The f atigue relieving theme was also a theme of billboard advertisement from 1910. There are two pictures in the advertisement one with tired executive behind his desk and one with a waiter filling a glass from soda fountain. The logo is depicted centrally in large print. It also looks that Coca Cola has got some competition by 1910 as the words below the logo say: It will relieve your fatigue, cool you comfortably, calm your jangled nerves and quench the thirst.But be sure to get the genuine, Cooling Refreshing Wholesome Another advertisement from the same time shows a young lady sitting on a bench with only blurry picture of colonial home in the background, holding a bottle with Coca Cola logo and drinking from it using a straw. The message: Drink Coca Cola in bottles delicious and refreshing†. 12