Get to know how the soda industry works by looking at Coca-Cola's distinct marketing strategies and principles.
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Introduction
Perhaps for once in your life, you sure have tried one of Coca-Cola products. If you love the brand, it's not news to you that they offer a wide selection of beverages for all types of customers. Coca-Cola is one of the leading companies in the soda industry and is also one of the largest brands in the world that offers non-alcoholic beverages. The global empire of Coca-Cola spreads throughout over 200 countries offering an extensive product portfolio of still and sparkling beverages.
While there may be a slight reduction in the popularity of soda drinks due to the growing demand for healthy beverages and other health trends, Coca-Cola has also focused on optimizing the product mix to accommodate the changing tastes of its target market worldwide. Besides its huge market share, the company is known for its high customer loyalty and solid brand image. Coca-Cola invests a huge amount of money every year in promotion and marketing to maintain its growing brand recognition and nurture customer engagement.
Behind the huge funding on marketing and promotions are various principles which guide every marketing initiative of Coca-Cola. Here lies the Coca-Cola marketing mix where it focuses on the four essential elements as parts of a comprehensive marketing strategy. It includes price, product, place, and promotion which will be discussed in the next chapter of this article.
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Coca-Cola Marketing Mix: Product
Product is the first component of the 4Ps of marketing of Coca-Cola. The company boasts an extensive showcase of product portfolio summing up to 500 still and sparkling brands. With this number, it provides more than 3000 beverage options. The company's leading product, Coca-Cola is one of the most popular and valuable brands globally. Some of the most famous brands from the company's portfolio are as follows:
Coca-Cola. One of the most recognized and top-selling soft drinks globally.
Sprite. This is another popular brand from Coca-Cola with a lemon-lime flavor. This was introduced to the market in 1961.
Fanta. This beverage comes in an orange flavor and is the second oldest drink from Coca-Cola that was introduced in 1940.
Diet co*ke. Those who are health-conscious opt to choose this drink as this is a calorie and sugar-free soft drink first made in 1982. Some call this Coca-Cola light.
Coca-Cola zero. This is the latest addition to the product portfolio of Coca-Cola which contains zero sugar.
Coca-Cola Life. It's a low-calorie beverage containing Stevia leaf extract and cane sugar.
Minute Maid. This is a juice drink by Coca-Cola acquired in 1960.
Ciel. Coca-Cola introduced this non-carbonated purified drinking water in 1960.
Powerade. This is a beverage for hydration and energy which contains electrolytes, carbohydrates, and fluids.
Powerade zero. Fitness and sports drinks contain electrolytes but without calories.
Powerade. This is a beverage for hydration and energy which contains electrolytes, carbohydrates, and fluids.
Simply orange. A 100% premium orange juice is available in six varieties.
Fresca. A soft drink with a distinct citrus taste and caffeine-free.
Glaceau Vitaminwater. This is drinking water enhanced with nutrients and is available in 26 different countries.
Del Valle. A premium line of nectars and juices exclusively sold in Central and Latin America.
Coca-Cola Marketing Mix: Price
Another component of the Coca-Cola marketing mix is the price. The company follows the price discrimination approach to its marketing mix. The approach allows the company to charge varying prices for its products in several segments. Oligopoly is typically a market with a small number of companies realizing that they are independent in terms of output policies and pricing. The beverages industry practices oligopoly having several purchasers but only with limited manufacturers.
The various price points of Coca-Cola are generally driven by the kind of consumption. Hence, the pricing power relies on several components including product usage and location. When Coca-Cola attempts to penetrate a new market, especially those sensitive to pricing, the company usually lowers the prices of its products than its competition. By the time it has solidified its position in the new market, it repositions its strategy as a premium brand using several promotional initiatives.
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Coca-Cola Marketing Mix: Place
With the success of Coca-Cola, it is no secret that the company has several global locations where its target market can easily access all its products. It has an extensive and comprehensive distribution system selling about 1.9 billion servings every day. Traditionally, Coca-Cola relied on the company's global bottling partners for packaging and distribution processes. The system operates across multiple channels.
Coca-Cola manufactures and sells syrups, concentrates, beverage bases to bottling operations. The company owns all the brands and is responsible for brand marketing initiatives. Instead of placing various retail stores around the world, Coca-Cola maximizes the capabilities of its authorized bottlers to package, merchandise, and distribute the beverages to the company's vending partners and customers. The authorized bottlers also work closely with restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, street vendors, amusem*nt parks, and movie theaters to distribute Coca-Cola products. Together they effectively execute a localized marketing strategy for the company.
Coca-Cola Marketing Mix: Promotion
The competition is tight in the soda industry, thus most companies spend a huge amount of money to fund several advertisem*nts and other promotional initiatives. In 2016, Coca-Cola recorded a marketing expenditure of $4 billion and increased to $4.1 billion in 2018.
It was also in 2016 where the company launched the Taste the Feeling promotional campaign which marks a significant turnaround from its previous marketing approach. Besides televisions and outdoor advertising campaigns, Coca-Cola has expanded its ads across several social media channels. Since digital marketing is one of the more modern ways to promote a product, the company's social media accounts are utilized to connect with followers and fans and for customer engagements. In its official YouTube account, there are over 1, 250 promotional videos where customers can view. As competition gets tougher, Coca-Cola aims to strengthen its reputation in the industry through its social media platforms.
Surely digital marketing has played a significant role in modern marketing, however, over the years, Coca-Cola has also been consistent with its promotional initiatives in marketing strategy. They never deviate from the fundamental and household message to their customers, which is happiness. The company executes diverse campaigns, but never forgets to instill in each ad the underlying theme throughout the company's history.
Besides the fundamental promotional ads, Coca-Cola also invests in corporate social responsibility and sustainability to develop a sustainable manufacturing network and supply chain.
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Mind Map
The 4Ps of marketing of Coca-Cola can surely be overwhelming if you look into the comprehensive discussion above. However, one can simplify the components using a mind map. With this, users can categorize every marketing mix component for better understanding. See the example below.
View, edit, and download this template in EdrawMind >>
Key Takeaways
Looking into the Coca-Cola marketing mix, it is kind of unusual seeing the company not having several outlets of their brand. That is how the soda industry usually works. Instead of opening up a physical store, which will require a huge sum of money, they partner with global bottlers to package and distribute their products. As a result, those authorized bottlers will be the ones coordinating with their customers to sell Coca-Cola's products to the end-users.
The way Coca-Cola handles its placement and distribution may not be very applicable for all businesses, especially for startups. However, other principles and components in its marketing mix can help formulate one's marketing plan.
Organize your inputs and elements in your marketing plan with a simple mind mapping tool. With EdrawMind, you can navigate through modern diagramming software with a user-friendly interface. Suppose you are new to using mind maps, the pre-built 4Ps of Marketing Template will be your guide as you create your framework. With its flexibility, you can create and edit your diagrams using the browser or install the software on your computer.
Suppose you are working on the marketing plan as a team, EdrawMind also allows collaboration among the team, where members can give suggestions, comments, and even edit the diagram themselves. Team member just needs to have the link to the project to view and some permissions to edit the mind map you created.
It analyses the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, and Promotion) of Coca-Cola Company and explains its business & marketing strategies. The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational corporation. It is best known around the world for its flagship product, Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company has a wide product range.
Coca Cola follows a price discrimination strategy in its marketing mix. This means that they charge different prices for products in different segments. The beverage market is considered an oligopoly, with a small number of sellers and a large number of purchasers.
Product, price, promotion, and place form the four Ps of the marketing mix. These are the key factors that are involved in introducing a product or service to the public.
Coca-Cola has product brands like Minute Maid, Sprite, Fanta, Thumbs up, etc. under its name. These constitute the width of the product mix. There are a total of 3500 products handled by the Coca-Cola brand.
Promotion. co*ke aggressively markets its product lines through ad campaigns across multiple mediums and channels, including TV, online ads, sponsorships, etc. Coca-Cola's sponsorships include NASCAR, NBA, the Olympics, American Idol, etc.
Coca-Cola uniquely designs its marketing strategy, which gives a boost and gives broad global recognition. Like many other companies, Coca-Cola bases its marketing strategy on 4Ps: product, promotion, price, and place. Coca-cola follows the marketing mix strategy.
The commercial itself closely follows Coca-Cola's primary principles in their advertising rather than attempting to sell it as a drink. co*ke focuses on selling an abstract positive concept, such as happiness, family, and sharing.
The 4 Ps of marketing include product, price, place, and promotion. These are the key elements that must be united to effectively foster and promote a brand's unique value, and help it stand out from the competition.
A significant part of Coca-Cola's success is its emphasis on brand over product. co*ke doesn't sell a soft drink in a bottle; it sells “happiness” in a bottle.
Definition: The marketing mix refers to the set of actions, or tactics, that a company uses to promote its brand or product in the market. The 4Ps make up a typical marketing mix - Price, Product, Promotion and Place.
The marketing mix, also known as the four P's of marketing, refers to the four key elements of a marketing strategy: product, price, place and promotion.
Product mix analyses evaluate different go-to-market strategies to identify the optimal product mix at the customer, regional, or national levels, often extending the scenarios to new product introduction and SKU sun-setting decisions.
Coca-Cola use focus groups and interviews when carrying out their 5 stage process. Coca-Cola use research to find out what customers want and how happy they are with products that are on offer. Primary research methods help with determining if products need improving in different ways eg. taste, aesthetics.
Coca-Cola uses the product differentiation strategy to enable the company to obtain profits higher than the average level of the same industry. The soft drink industry has a long history and is gradually diversified. In the future, it will attract more players, and the competition will be more intense.
The Coca-Cola bottle remains unique in its design. It was created in 1915, by Earl R. Dean; the Coca-Cola bottle was first introduced as a 'contour bottle' or 'hobble-skirt' bottle, wide from the centre and slender from below.
Through its competitive positioning strategy, Coca-Cola stays ahead of its competitors by offering an extensive product line, providing superior customer service, and expanding its advertising efforts. Coca-Cola dedicates a significant portion of its net revenue to advertising, contributing to its high market share.
One of the main reason for the company to develop Coca-Cola Life is to satisfy consumer's demand for greater choice. The majority of consumer in the soft drink market is showing increasing awareness in healthy lifestyles (Andrews, 2015).
The main goal of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is to break the inter-generational cycle of poverty by fostering change In behavior among parents to invest in their children's (and their own) future (health, nutrition, education] because low schooling and high malnutrition rate are strongly associated with ...
Social protection programs, Pantawid included, have cushioned the poor from the adverse impacts of various shocks the country experienced over the past six years. A study estimates that the program has led to a poverty reduction of 1.4 percentage points per year or 1.5 million less poor Filipinos.
The 4Ps is a human development measure of the national government that provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor, to improve the health, nutrition, and the education of children aged 0-18.
A marketing mix includes multiple areas of focus as part of a comprehensive marketing plan. The term often refers to a common classification that began as the four Ps: product, price, placement, and promotion. Effective marketing touches on a broad range of areas as opposed to fixating on one message.
What is a Product? Think of Product in marketing mix as an umbrella term that describes anything a business wants to sell to their customer (an end user or another business). Product is the entity that satisfies a customer's need and want.
The role of product in the marketing mix is one of the key components that makes the entire process of connecting with consumers and generating sales possible. Along with price, place, and promotion, the product provides the ultimate value to the customer and serves as the entire reason for the marketing effort.
Helps understand what your product or service can offer to your customers. Helps plan a successful product offering. Helps with planning, developing and executing effective marketing strategies. Helps businesses make use of their strengths and avoid unnecessary costs.
The 4Ps also helps the Philippine government fulfill its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)—specifically in eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, in achieving universal primary education, in promoting gender equality, in reducing child mortality, and in improving maternal health care.
Your product mix is important in determining the image of your business and brand, as it helps you to maintain consistency in the eyes of your target market. For instance, if you're a discount retailer, your target market likely consists of economy-minded shoppers looking for low prices.
Product mix, also known as product assortment, refers to the total number of product lines a company offers to its customers. The four dimensions to a company's product mix include width, length, depth and consistency.
Since 2018, Coca-Cola has incorporated artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and real-time analytics into the equation. Today's customers can pre-order drinks using their mobile apps which allows Coca-Cola's data scientists to track long-term consumer behavior in incredible detail. And that's not all.
The changes will see Coca-Cola create five global categories that it hopes will lead a prioritisation of strong brands and innovation, as well as shifting its marketing execution “closer to customers and consumers”.
Coca-Cola collects data on local drink preferences through the interfaces on its touch-screen vending machines – over 1 million of them are installed in Japan alone.
The 4Ps of marketing is a model for enhancing the components of your "marketing mix" – the way in which you take a new product or service to market. It helps you to define your marketing options in terms of price, product, promotion, and place so that your offering meets a specific customer need or demand.
Introduction: My name is Tish Haag, I am a excited, delightful, curious, beautiful, agreeable, enchanting, fancy person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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