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Introduction

1. A brief background to the organisation.

The soft drink industry has emerged as leading beverage industry. In 2009-2011, major
companies experienced sales rebound in the midst of economic recovery in the Western
developed markets. Whilst the players are busy shaping up their infrastructure in the major
emerging markets, they are also exploring opportunities to enhance scales of operation and enter
and expand into niche class in order to attain profitable growth.
Coca cola is an international company and the leading business in the soft drinks industry with
more than 500 brands and 3,500 beverage products and sells 17 billion servings per day in 200
countries. The business has been identified for the purpose of analysis and recommendations for
improvement in this marketing report. The analysis evaluates the organization’s current situation
by evaluating; the business history, organization’s vision, mission & objectives as well as its
products& brands, actual customers, its market segments, competitors and its current position in
the market. An analysis of the internal and external environment is done which involves
evaluating internal factors like; prospective & potential customers, suppliers and competitive
environment as well as external environment like; economic factors, demographic factors, social
& cultural factors, political & legal factors and the technological factors affecting the business
operations. With reference to the businesses’ two brands; Regular coke and Diet Coke, the report
establishes the products’ marketing goals & objectives, target markets and explains marketing
mix strategies; product strategies, pricing strategies, distribution strategies and promotion
strategies applied by the organization and makes recommendations for change in consideration
of the current situation. A tactical program is identified by which the marketing program will be
implemented with a budget and implementation timeframe outlined. The report finally explains
the monitoring and control system that will be applied in appraising and ensuring that the set
objectives are being achieved.

The Organisation

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Coca-Cola, with more than 3500 products, is a leading company in the beverage industry. The
inception of the company can be traced back 125 years ago. As of now, the company has
business in more than 200 countries with around 139,600 employees.

2. Current communications objectives.

Corporate Objectives
The company has several objectives to be mentioned. Coca-Cola wants to accelerate the growth
of carbonated soft drink. To drive profitable growth, the company looks forward to broaden its
family of beverage brands. It wants to grow system profitability and capability together with its
bottling partners. The company would continue to invest into high potential areas across varied
markets. Coca-Cola would serve the customers efficiently and cost effectively to generate growth
across the channels.

Marketing Objectives
Coca-Cola’s marketing objective is to high visibility of the brand. The company wants to be the
favourite brand among youth and in turn increase its sales.

Communication Objectives
The marketing communication objectives of Coca-Cola are to increase the awareness to the
target audiences, to put an emphasis on the differences of its product against those of its
competitors and hence it wants to create differentiation awareness among its consumers. Coca-
Cola has a different taste compared to those of its competitors. The company wants to enhance
the brand value by repositioning the brand as a substance of youth and fun. In all, the company
wants to maintain preference of its brand among its consumers. Further increase in worldwide
sales and creating moe brand awareness are the objectives too. With the company’s goals of
being the brand of choice, increasing market share and improving profitability, the objectives
proposed following the SMART objectives criteria for the year 2017 includes; sales increase for
both brands by 15%, profitability increase for Diet Coke by 30% and market share growth for
Diet Coke by 25%. The target markets for the brands are the youthful consumers aged below 30
years for Diet Coke & the mature consumers aged above 30 years for the Regular Coca Cola.
Objectives of Coca-Cola Campaign

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Coca-Cola advertisement campaigns have been launched in order to achieve specific objectives.
It is clear that the main objective of Coca-Cola Company as a business entity is profit
maximisation, and all of the efforts of the company are directed to the achievement of this
primary objective. However, Coca-Cola advertisement campaigns contribute to the achievement
of the primary objective of profit maximisation in several ways.

Varey (2002) informs that marketing communication campaign might have up to eight
objectives. Each of these objectives can be analysed in order to identify if Coca-Cola marketing
campaigns are aiming to achieve them.

Firstly, creating awareness of the company and its products. This specific marketing objective is
pursued by Coca-Cola Company as a secondary objective. This is because the company already
has a high level of brand recognition and its limited range of products is widely well-known
within the countries the company is operating.

Secondly, informing and educating consumers and buyers. The relevance of this type of
marketing objective to Coca-Cola campaigns is limited due to the fact that there are no positive
informational and educational points associated with Coca-Cola drink, such as nutritional aspects
and health benefits that could be communicated to the potential and existing customers.

Thirdly, encouraging a liking for the company’s products over those of the competitors of the
company. This is one of the main objectives Coca-Cola marketing campaigns aim to achieve.
Global market of beverage products is highly competitive, and of the main strategies adopted by
Coca-Cola Company involves engaging in intensive marketing initiatives.

Fourthly, encouraging product trial among potential new customers. This form of marketing
objective is pursued by Coca-Cola very occasionally and only in new markets the company is
entering.

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Fifthly, increasing short-term sales by the means of stimulating action. This specific marketing
objective is often pursued by Coca-Cola. Accordingly, seasonal and other sales are often
introduced in major supermarkets, and relevant information is communicated to the potential and
existing customers.

Sixthly, reassuring customers and reinforcing their particular desirable buying behaviour. This
type of marketing objective is pursued by Coca-Cola campaigns through integrating the
consumption of the drink to the lifestyle of the customers, thus achieving their lifelong loyalty.

Seventhly, generating information from customers. Such type of marketing objective is not very
popular with Coca-Cola marketing campaigns due to the size of the company as well as the
nature of the business.

Eighthly, creating sales lead. The marketing objective of creating sales lead is popular with the
types of businesses that operate with the push strategy, i.e. the companies that direct their
marketing initiatives mainly to the distributors and wholesalers, not the final consumers. Coca-
Cola Company, on the other hand, operates under the pull strategy and directs its marketing
efforts and communication to the final consumers, and therefore, does not have a necessity to
generate sales leads.
3. A critical evaluation of those objectives (Are they suitable?).
(APPLY SMART TOOL WITH EXPLANATION)

4. Chosen channels of communications.

Marketing Communication of Coca-Cola

According to Gary Armstrong and Philip Kotler, the marketing mix of an organisation consists of
particular blend of advertising, personal selling, direct marketing, sales promotions and public
relations. A company can take tactical measures to communicate customer values and develop
customer relationships. The same is pretty much applicable for Coca-Cola. Its marketing
communication is a blend of various advertising and sales channels.

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Advertising: This is one of significant element of marketing communication mix. Coca-Cola has
always used this channel to promote ideas and its product range.
Coke Zero has come up with its latest TV ad “taste the possibilities”. The ad activity runs across
the TV, video on demand channels and even on the Coke zone website. This was targeted to the
core audience, the youngsters. According to Coke zero, the ad is to position the band as “beacon
of possibilities” (Bearne, 2012).
Diet Coke has also come up with its new phase of fashion focussed TV campaigning “Love it
Light”. The TV campaign displays that the brand’s “fashionista” puppet ambassadors arguing
over who among them deserves the last can of Coke left in the fridge. Diet Coke is also offering
support to this year’s activity with three brand new pack designs, promoting the brand’s
partnership with Benefit. The activity was also supported with a dedicated Facebook page which
encourages the consumers to ‘Get Glam’ with Benefit make-up.
Diet Coke has carried out strategies for the tenure of three years which also included the brand
linked to fashion. So far, the activities included partnerships with London Fashion Week, Asos
and Week and Nails Inc (O’Reilly, 2012).
In last Christmas, Coca-Cola came up with ‘holidays are coming’, featuring Santa Claus,
followed by an ad dubbed “snow globe” which shows the role of Coke in festive family
occasions.

Outdoor Activities: Furthermore, Coca-Cola put effort to enhance the essence further by outdoor
activities featuring Santa and Coca-Cola truck. At West End of London, Coca-Cola Piccadilly
sign featured goodwill messages which have been tweeted by the consumers. The truck tour of
Santa stopped at some 100 towns of UK to surprise millions of people in the festive season
(Fernandez, 2010).

Press: Since long, the company has been using magazines as a form of advertisements. In 1931,
the Coca-Cola Santa made its debut on the pages of The Saturday Evening Post. Along with this,
the advertisement used to also come on the pages of Ladies Home Journal, National Geographic,
The New Yorker and others. One of such advertisement featured Santa even as a rocker (The
Coca-Cola Company, 2012).

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Internet and Social Media: Internet has been a significant way for Coca-Cola to promote its
products. The company has a well developed website, which is quite simple to navigate. The
website also allows contests, shopping through a special section of the website, enabling the
consumers to find out the way to help the community.
Now a days, social media has gained enough importance in the communication mix. Coca-Cola
has also given its effort to position itself in the online media world. The company has created a
well developed marketing strategy for facebook to reach a large amount of prospective audience.

Sponsorship: The company has moved into the sport sponsorship to encourage brand awareness.
Coca-Cola will gauge its support to enhance the awareness among the young generation. As a
longest serving partner of the global Olympic movement, the company refurbishes its marketing
approach for every Olympiad. For London 2012, the company aims to assist the organising
committee to inspire the youngsters in a way which would leave a legacy after the Games. Coca-
Cola is doing so by carrying out its music oriented campaign ‘Move to the Beat’ (Barnett, 2012).
The company has lent its support to the charity initiatives which raises finance and awareness to
help the charity organisation eliminate HIV and AIDS.

Direct Marketing and Sales Promotion: The company practices direct marketing and sales
promotion activities. The company offers its products to retailers at low prices and as a result, the
retailer can sell off the products on sale.
The company uses direct marketing in several ways. The company partners with various movie
theatres and restaurants to advertise and sell its products. Coca-Cola has also started mobile
advertising. It uses mobile graphics and texts to appeal the market.

Marketing Communication Mix

TV and Movie Campaigns

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A TV campaign can be introduced as a base of drip strategy. A theme based on more fun is
required to be the base of campaigning to reposition the image of Coca-Cola. The symbol
associated with Coca Cola is Polar Bear. So this white bear can be used as the prominent
character in the campaign. One of the significant objectives is to encourage impulsive buy. This
kind of promotional activity can take place in the beaches. On the beach, to remind people of
Coca-Cola this kind of advertisement can be used with some Hawaii or rock music.
The objective of this advertisement is based on few objectives. Some of them are to reinforce the
idea that Coca-Cola is a refresher drink, to develop the idea that Coca-Cola takes you to
somewhere else and finally this reinforces the idea of fun and youth. Other advertisements can
also be carried out in sync such as the bear clubbing with its friends in pubs or clubs can be a
good idea. The campaign is required to be changed in the Christmas time with its usual Santa
ads. The aim is to reach a large targeted audience.

Press
Press advertising can be a burst campaign, used mostly in the end of Spring and Summer. In this
time, Coca-Cola can come up with advertisements on the pages of magazines as in the holiday
time people would have more time to read the magazines. In this way, the company will target
two different audiences: young and old. From the creative point of view, the advertisement is
required to be full with plenty of colours, with more of visual effect to reflect more youth and
fun.
To attract the old people, the advertising is required to be full of facts. In this case, the
advertisement must reveal the advantages of this drink against other drinks. This advertisement
can display a strong relationship of grand children with their grandparents. In this way, Coca-
Cola can help the elderly people feel strong bond with the young people by sharing values.
In the young magazines, the advertisement can be placed on the last cover page as the
advertisement would be visually prominent. For elder people, the advertisements can be placed
on the right page and at the beginning of the journal. People tend to read an advertisement at the
beginning of the magazine.

A critical evaluation of those channels (Are they suitable?).

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Evaluation
There are many methods to evaluate the achievement of the company’s objectives. If one
objective is not achieved in the stipulated time period, one must develop and implement new
plans. . For long term implementation process, a pre evaluation can take place quarterly or semi
annually. This would help the company to amend the plan prior to obtaining complete non-
success.

Advertising
To evaluate the effectiveness of advertisement, a work-in-progress advertisement can be shown
to a specific group of people and get their feedback. The company can also make use of focus
group to collect feedback from the group. This would help them to understand the effectiveness
of the advertisements and would help them to refine the commercial to enhance the effectiveness.
Furthermore, tracking procedure can be taken to get informed about the awareness level of a
commercial. Interviewing people on regular basis can help the company to collect data regarding
the buyers’ perception about their advertisements. For established products, a periodic tracking
will be helpful.
Test of likeability is another predictor to evaluate the effectiveness of an ad. However, there can
be misleading information as people may like the ad but may not relate the same with the brand.
So, a careful prediction is necessary for the company (Neuez, 2003).

Sales Promotion
To evaluate the reseller sales promotion, a manufacturer can carry out pre and post analysis of
both allocated shelf space as well as products taken into the reseller’s portfolio. The marketing
objectives can be checked in terms of increase in sales amount.

Sponsorship
It is difficult to evaluate sponsorship. It can be done essentially for the sport sponsors by
consumer surveys i.e. personal interview, postal surveys and telephone. Specifically, recall tests
can be used to evaluate the impact on the memory of the target audience.

Public Relations

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Evaluation of a corporate image should be a regular exercise, supported by the company
management. Key stakeholders and consumers can be questioned about their perceptions of the
significant attributes of the company, they are related to. The company can carry out evaluation
of it in each of the attributes and evaluation of the performances in the attributes compared to
those of the competitors.

6. A critical evaluation of one example of creative content from that organization’s

marketing
communications.

Analysis of Images and Words used in Coca-Cola Advertising and Their Appeal

Coca-Cola marketing campaign materials have been devised according to the messages they aim
to convey, and images, words and sounds featuring within them have been perfected by
marketing professionals in order to serve the same purpose.

Messages sent through images, words and audio materials promoting Coca-Cola can be
classified into three categories: Coca-Cola helps to best satisfy the thirst, drinking Coca-Cola is
stylish, and drinking Coca-Cola is part of a lifestyle.

Marketing initiatives, words, images, audio and video materials Coca-Cola employs tries to
communicate a message that this drink satisfies the thirst in the best possible manner and
partially for this reason Coca-Cola is consumed by millions of people per day. However, a range
of scientists as well as marketing authors such as Bsonera (online, 2009) cast a doubt about the
ability of Coca-Cola to satisfy the thirst efficiently, and argue that ‘thirst’ for Coca-Cola has been
created by company marketing professionals in the first place.

In other words, ‘thirst’ created for Coca-Cola is fundamentally different from the natural thirst
for water, and the ‘thirst’ for Coca-Cola is more a want than a thirst in a virtual meaning of the
word.

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Moreover, Kotler and Keller (2006) state that the most effective marketing messages are
presented by companies as a solution to a problem potential customers experience. This idea
finds its confirmation in case of Coca-Cola in a way that the drink is being associated with a
style and being ‘cool’ and trendy and at the same time the drink is consumed by successful and
famous personalities such as Wayne Rooney, Cristina Aguilera, and Jessica Sarah-Parker. The
linkage between these two points requires more detailed explanations that is provided below.

According to Freud (2005) in whatever they do people are motivated by two forces: sexual
satisfaction and the willingness to be great. These two issues can be viewed as a problem and
need that need to be satisfied. Specifically, some people aim to satisfy the need of the willingness
to be great by trying to be stylish and trendy and associating themselves with established,
famous, and successful personalities.

This fact is used by businesses such as Coca-Cola Company by paying famous individuals
perceived to be successful such as Wayne Rooney, Cristina Aguilera, and Jessica Sarah-Parker to
publicly associate themselves with the products and services the company is offering. As a result,
other people will purchase these products and services because they want to be famous and
successful as well. This is a partial explanation for the contents of some Coca-Cola
advertisement materials where celebrities are featured.

Apart from the above discussed points of the Coca-Cola being positioned as a drink to satisfy
thirst, and attribute of style and success, the contents of various marketing materials used to
promote Coca-Cola also try to make the existing and potential customers believe that Coca-Cola
is a necessary component of everyday life. This is achieved by making potential and existing
customers exposed to intensive marketing campaigns through various channels.

7. Appropriate recommendations and a rationale for those recommendations.

Other communication mix recommendations

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Banners
During the summer, Coca-Cola can make intensive use of banners. As mentioned earlier, the
company can sponsor the show events of any young singer. To reinforce the same, the company
can use the banners showing the singer wearing sunglasses and bottle of Coke. The same can be
done with the bear. A cute bear wearing sunglass and Coke would appeal prospective customers
on the beach.
Banners can be used to display in the buses where it can appeal a huge number of people. In
bigger cities, general banners can be displayed to attract prospective consumers.

Sports
Coca-Cola is already known for their sport sponsorship. During the entire year, the company can
put banner in the stadium during large sport events. National Rugby team and Football teams can
be sponsored during the year.
Cause Related Marketing
Cause related marketing has a significant importance in developing public relations. The
company extend its support to specific associations in order to enhance the awareness of the
company. Through these means, the company can place itself as more credible, ethical and
responsible. This differentiation is required to attract consumers’ attention in this competitive
world. The company can take part in the events related to health or environment or may be both.
The company can also invest in addressing health problems of young people, trying to establish a
new model of an ideal body.
Coca-Cola can also continue to sponsor youth development programs, which can contain some
training programs. In this way, the company can create a more clear and ethical image to the
population.

Sales Promotions
In case of sales promotions, two channels can be used by the organisation: manufacturer to the
resellers and manufacturers to the consumers. The objective of the first type of sales promotion is
to make them buy and display more of its products. To establish a brand loyalty, the company
can offer buying allowance and discounts to increase the average order size.

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The company can offer special offers, coupons to increase immediate short term sales to the
consumers. It can also organise a trip to some place for the winner. Along with that, they can
have other prizes such as T-shirts, Caps and CDs. To promote this, the bottles can be designed
with a shiny picture of the specific tourist place.

Online promotion
In today’s era of internet, the companies are fighting to get attention in the cyber space. The
above competition can be also made available online. In order to reinforce brand awareness,
games, screen-savers, eBooks and interesting downloads can be made available on the site. This
promotion is not directly related to the product; however, this is expected to increase web traffic
on its site and hence would create awareness among the young people.
Social Media has gained its importance with increasing traffic on the social networking sites. The
company must use most of the social media and sites like facebook, twitter and other sites. The
company can launch new campaigns, ads to attract the people on these networks and can seek
feedbacks on the same. This would raise more awareness among the people.

Joint Ventures
Joint venture is another significant promotional activity which is pretty important in today’s
competitive scenario. As mentioned earlier, the company can move into venture with whisky
brand and display joint promotional activities in pubs and clubs. Coca-Cola can also develop
special relationship with specific clubs and pubs. The company can bring in new fashion about
whisky-Coke.
To attract the young adults, the company can distribute T-shirts and caps in the clubs and pubs.
Another significant thing is to use some differently designed glasses in the pubs and clubs to
serve whisky-coke.

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