Introduction
The Coca-Cola Company is an American corporation founded in 1892 ad primarily engages in the manufacturing and distributing of syrup and concentrate for coca cola. The sweetened carbonated beverage business sells its products in over 200 countries and territories, making it one of the most successful brands in marketing history (Brondoni, 2019). The company’s mission is to revitalize the world and make an impact. Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, and other sparkling soft drinks are among the names in the company’s portfolio. Dasani, Smartwater, Vitaminwater, Topo Chico, Powerade, Costa, Georgia, Gold Peak, Ayataka, and BodyArmor are among our hydration, sports, coffee, and tea products (Chua et al., 2020). Minute Maid, Simply, innocent, Del Valle, fairlife, and AdeS are among our nutrition, juice, dairy, and plant-based beverage products. From reducing sugar in their drinks to introducing innovative new products to market, coca-cola is continuously transforming its brand portfolio. Through water replenishment, packaging recycling, sustainable sourcing practices, and carbon emission reductions across our value chain, we aim to positively influence people’s lives, communities, and the planet. Together with our bottling partners, coca cola employs over 700,000 people, bringing economic opportunity to communities all over the globe.
COCA-COLA BRAND’S MARKETING ACTIVITIES
Marketing activities are tactics or methods that corporations or companies use in their business to encourage consumers to buy services or goods. They can also include initiatives to understand consumers better, such as conducting market research. Companies, therefore, employ different marketing activities such as advertisements, email campaigns, or even search engine optimization to reach returning and potential consumers. Companies use content marketing, digital marketing, market research, search engine optimization, and social media marketing (Wibowo et al., 2020). At Coca-Cola there, the company is always pursuing becoming a more consumer-centric total beverage company. The company has established a platform for sustained performance to capitalize on that opportunity centered on disciplined portfolio growth, an aligned and engaged bottling system, and winning with the stakeholders (Huse et al., 2022). All are underpinned by digitizing the enterprise, fostering a growth and inclusive culture, and growing sustainably. Coca-Cola’s marketing strategies are so well thought out that the company has a strong brand base and global recognition. A well-designed strategy can assist any company in getting on the correct track to success.
- Portfolio marketing
This category entails coverage of multiple tactics, mainly depending on the company’s portfolio. Coca-Cola’s marketing approach ensured the company’s portfolio remained well-maintained within its niche (Shang, 2023). The Coca-Cola brand expanded by bringing many new products to the market. They could restrict their portfolio to beverages such as juices, teas, coffees, and soft drinks. This also enabled them to reach more consumers with varying soft drink preferences and tastes.
They started by purchasing native product companies to expand their portfolio for native customers. Customers responded to them by purchasing them as they progressively conveyed that they also had other products from their production (The Coca-Cola Company, 2021).
- Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is the production and distribution of content via digital media channels such as websites, landing pages, social media, email, and mobile apps, as well as its promotion via various strategies across paid, earned, and owned digital channels. Coca-cola constantly posts videos, images, and other content on online digital marketing platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube. Additionally, coca-cola uses email marketing, SEO content marketing, and video marketing as the primary components of coca cola’s marketing plan (Chu, 2020).
- Content marketing/branding
A logo is the first thing that identifies and recognizes a company. It is critical to understand what a company provides to consumers. The logo, hue, and caption are all part of the branding. Coca-Cola recognized this and followed suit. Using the same brand logo ensured that their consumers knew they were holding a branded item. The labeling pattern became a trademark for the Coca-Cola brand, and by glancing at it, anyone can tell which one is a Coca-Cola. The way Coca-cola uses its logo in its marketing strategy ensures its imprint on consumers’ minds.
- Global advertising
Creative advertising has always been a crucial concept in Coca-Cola’s marketing strategy. Coca-Cola works on advertising its brand all over the globe. In addition, they respect their customers from every nation they serve. As a result, they made certain to give their clients what they desired. Making the product accessible everywhere aids them in reaching every corner of the globe. Labeling in regional dialects aids in the development of emotional branding. More customers were supplied by collaborating with area outlets and celebrities. Customers were entertained and drawn by creative advertising.
Applicable concepts in coca cola brand’s marketing activities
Perception
The process by which an individual receives, selects, organizes, and interprets information to produce a meaningful picture of the world is described as perception. In marketing, perception is defined as the process by which a consumer identifies organizes and interprets information to generate meaning (Shang, 2023). Perception is a psychological variable influencing customer behavior during purchase decisions. Consumers go through phases in the perception process where they choose which promotional messages they will be exposed to. Several fundamental elements affect consumers’ perceptions of Coca-Cola advertising media. Cost, product nature, credibility, quality, and branding are such variables. Consumers accumulate positive and negative experiences in their memories, which serve as a reference point to help them arrange themselves in similar situations. Their experience influences their perception of goods. They tend to avoid or accept goods based on their prior experience with them. Although their coca cola has made huge steps, initially, the products were seen as those that result in obesity ad as the foundation of a poor diet (Sultan et al., 2019). Therefore, to correct this perception, coca-cola combined all its variations to form one united campaign replacing the ‘ open happiness’ slogan with the skittles-like ‘ taste the feeling.’ However, the coca-cola company has a good rad image globally, and most consumers are satisfied with the packaging and the price.
Learning and memory
The concept of learning and memory emphasizes that there is a permanent change in behavior through learning. This change can be due to observational, operant, classical, or incidental learning. The idea is that when consumers acquire knowledge through their information processing, they learn and remember in their buying decisions. Therefore in consumer behavior, learning is the process by which consumers acquire the information they apply to future purchase behavior (Shang, 2023). For instance, through classical learning, consumers can relate with songs used in advertising coca cola, or via incidental learning, consumers recognize the coca-cola logo. When a product satisfies consumers’ specific needs or desires, it may be awarded years of rad or store loyalty. Coca-Cola has been in the market for decades, making consumers have memories of the products accumulated in their minds. Consumer elaborate activities make use of previously stored experiences, values, attitudes, beliefs, and feelings. Coca-Cola for instance has designed a ‘coke hands’ or the image of two people shaking hands around a coke bottle as a symbol of togetherness which naturally evoke the idea of people coming together to share enjoyment in the product. Through the creation of a visual language for the brand, consumers are learning ad memorizing and a behavioral change is enhanced.
Motivation and affect
Consumer motivation is a psychological state that drives people to seek out and purchase goods or services that satisfy both conscious and unconscious needs and desires. Fulfilling those needs may then drive them to make another purchase or to seek out different products and services to better meet those needs (Shang, 2023). Regardless of industry or product, effective marketing begins with a clear grasp of what motivates your customers to act. Individuals are motivated by the desire to meet as many needs as feasible at one moment. Biogenic and psychogenic needs can exist. All of these requirements contribute to the development of good motivation. It should be noted that marketing strategies are frequently designed to arouse such needs in both the short and long run. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, he states that consumers are obsessed with different needs at particular times (Shang, 2023). As in the case of Coca-Cola, quenching thirst is the most basic urge, and satisfying it with water is preferable to using Coca-Cola, which is expensive and only suitable for those who have satisfied their psychological and social requirements. Coca-Cola addiction stems mainly from a desire for self-esteem and status.
DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES AND PSYCHOGRAPHIC VARIABLES IN ANALYZING COCA COLA’S TARGET AUDIENCE IN THE COUNTRY.
- Demographic variables
Demographic factors are by definition distinct variables because they cannot be manipulated. Demographic variables in the study can be categorical (e.g., gender, ethnicity, marital status, psychiatric diagnosis) or continuous. (e.g., age, years of education, income, family size) (Shang, 2023). When analyzing your target audience, age is an essential factor to consider. Cultural generations are groups of people who grow up in the same period. They frequently share many of the same situations as others their age. In a highly competitive market, marketers prefer demographic segmentation. The reason is that consumer wants, preferences, and usage rates are mainly depends upon demographic variables. In general, the company focus on all age group irrespective of other criteria of demographic segmentation, but the young generation is the target market of the company. Coca-Cola’s targeting approach is broader, not only because of its worldwide market presence, but also because of the various products that they offer (Wang, 2021). There is also the need to please a wide range of customers, from the average to the health-conscious. Coca-Cola’s main market is made up of people aged 10 to 25, with a secondary market made up of people aged 25 to 40. In terms of taste, the business targets the market that prefers a strong flavor in their regular cola drinks (Singaram et al., 2019). Meanwhile, diet cola drinks and their variants cater to health-conscious consumers. Coca-Cola has also extended its product line to include non-cola beverages in order to appeal to those who do not enjoy drinking its traditional cola drinks. Sprite, a Coca-Cola product, is specifically intended to target teenagers and college students, whereas others target the young working group. Therefore company offers different beverages for different age groups. For example they use “OASIS”, a juice to target the age group of 20-30 (Singaram et al., 2019).
- Psychographic variables
Businesses are constantly looking for novel methods to acquire new customers and increase sales. Using customer segmentation tools, such as psychographic variables, to determine what characteristics a company’s consumers share can assist marketers in developing more engaging advertisements. Psychographic segmentation is a tool used by marketers to divide their target audience into various segments based on internal characteristics (Shang, 2023). Personality traits, beliefs, attitudes, socioeconomic class, values, lifestyle, and hobbies are examples of internal characteristics. Psychographic segmentation is used by marketers to gain a better grasp of their target audience as individuals, allowing them to connect with them on a more personal level. Lifestyle segmentation is the business practice of grouping prospective or actual buyers into groups known as market segments based on lifestyle variables such as purchasing preferences. The aim is to target one or more lifestyle segments with your marketing mix.
A psychographic analysis of Coca-Cola customers reveals a broad socioeconomic breakdown, ranging from working class to middle and upper class. The Coke targeting strategy also places a strong emphasis on what is known as the “conscious progressive” personality type, which refers to consumers who value independence, learning, personal development, and being true to oneself, and who seek out those traits and experiences in the brands they consume. Coca cola have been conscious with consumers who are diabetic which is a lifestyle disease. To target all consumers therefore, coca cola came up with diet coke which is a better ad healthier choice when it comes to soft drinks. Diet cokes are therefore marketed as zero-calorie drinks that can replace the regular soft drinks. Since, the diet coke is sugar-free and calorie-free, people who are watching their health switch to this in order to remain healthy (The Coca Cola Company, 2023). This drink is particularly popular among children and teenagers, who prefer sugary drinks. The idea of having their favorite drink while avoiding the sugar overload of regular carbonated drinks is so appealing that even the majority of parents are persuaded of its deception. There have been increase in demand for diet soft drinks for instance in Canada. Diet soft beverages are widely sold in supermarkets and general merchandisers. In 2018, supermarkets made USD 1.4 billion in revenue. Furthermore, the goods are purchased through online distribution channels. From 2019 to 2025, this group is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR of 3.8% (Grand View Research, 2019).
Conclusion
Understanding how consumers behave is critical for a company’s existing products and new product launches to thrive. Consumers have various thought processes and attitudes toward purchasing a specific merchandise. If a company fails to comprehend a consumer’s reaction to a product, the product is likely to fail. Consumer behavior changes as a result of changing fashion, technology, trends, lifestyle, disposable income, and other related variables. A marketer must comprehend the factors that are changing in order to align marketing efforts accordingly. Consumer behavior is critical not only for attracting new customers, but also for retaining current customers. When a customer is pleased with a product, he or she will make another transaction. As a result, marketing the product should be done in such a manner that customers will be persuaded to buy it again and again. It is clear that acquiring and retaining clients is critical. This can only be accomplished by understanding and giving attention to the consumer’s purchasing behavior.
References
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Shang. J. (2023). Chapter 2: perception [PowerPoint presentation]. Moodle.
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