Coca-Cola's Failed Marketing in China

This assignment examines the reasons behind Coca-Cola's failed marketing campaign in China. It analyzes factors such as neglecting price sensitivity based on income disparities, inadequate understanding of Chinese consumer preferences, and the impact of strong domestic competitors like Huiyan Juice. The report concludes by emphasizing the crucial role of cultural awareness and competitive analysis in successful international marketing strategies.

RUNNING HEAD: Brand Management
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Brand Management

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Marketing campaign of Coca-Cola..................................................................................................3
Reasons for failed marketing campaign of new drink of Coca-Cola...............................................3
Unable to understand target audience..........................................................................................3
Insufficient research.....................................................................................................................3
Market segmentation across different channels...........................................................................3
Not tracking right matrics............................................................................................................3
Inappropriate supremacy..............................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................4

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Introduction
Marketing campaigns refer to a planned course of action to market and offer a product or service.
This report describes the reasons for Coca-Cola marketing campaign of introducing new drink in
China which was unsuccessful in this country. The main objective of this report is to identify the
reasons behind the failed marketing campaigns of a brand in a different market.
Marketing campaign of introduced new drink of Coca-Cola
According to Kaplan & Haenlein (2011), Coca-Cola has fulfilled some great accomplishments in
advanced promoting, not slightest it’s massive after via web-based networking media and
different polar bear crusades. The organization attempts various creative propelling efforts, for
example, Coca-Cola Happiness Machines which are unique coke dessert equipments apportion
items including liquor, pizza, blooms, and sandwiches. The brand get huge number of good
customer views and positive response on the social website such as YouTube, gaining it a large
number of perspectives which help the organization to build a strong reputation in the market
towards the brand, and become more competitive, and increase their profitability and growth rate
in the market. Another advancing exertion of Coke zone is a prizes program introduced in 2008,
in Australia, set up with the purpose of finding customer's encounters, empowering customer
engagement and assisting with general client relationship association endeavors (Keller et al.,
2011). The program conducted for the marketing of product introduced by Coca-Cola in
Australia which was successful and gaining many rewards for the successful implementation in
the country.
Reasons for failed marketing campaign of new drink of Coca-Cola
According to Cugelman et al. (2011), the major reasons which show the marketing campaigns of
Coca-Cola new drink was unsuccessful in China are explained as follows:
Unable to understand target audience: According to Kaplan & Haenlein (2011),
marketing campaigns are often started from the perspective of what organization wants to offer.
Understanding the target audience is the big part of the campaign. In introducing new drink by
organization in China was unsuccessful because Company was not focusing on the target
audience of country for their product. Huiyuan has provides Coke genuinely important market

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entrance in third-and fourth-level urban areas. Company ignores less-developed areas which
affect the sales of Coke and the consumers of these areas are too poor that they are not able to
purchase the high cost of products.
Insufficient research: The new drink of Coca-Cola is a mix combination of Coke and Diet
Coke, with 35 percent lower kilojoules. The company offers its new drinks to its customers in
China without examining the proper research of the market segments of China. They are not
investigating properly the customer taste and preference towards drink and the marketing
strategies was not appropriate which attract the customers towards their product. They are not
investigating the research about the markets in China and the customer preference and taste
about drinks. China preferences, tastes, and execution are distinct from those of other cultures.
On the other side, Coca-Cola ignores the factor of localization of Chinese market which damages
a brand as badly as not having sufficient localization. Company when entering into the Chinese
market must ensure that the balance between localizing and handling the real picture of brand
was maintained or not. This factor was not considered by organization which will make their
marketing campaign unsuccessful for introducing a new drink in China (Miller & Lammas,
2010).
Price and Market segmentation across different channels: Each promoting channel
satisfies an alternate reason, so the company must strategize for each promoting channel
exclusively. The company may run different campaigns on diverse channels or use distinctive
systems out and reach channel achieves distinctive personas. The marketing campaign of Coca-
Cola new drink was unable to attract the customers towards its products. Cost is other important
promoting factor to evaluate, and the localization also needs to identify the correct harmony
between different closures of scope. As China’s per capita GDP is $6076 USD, as compared
with Australia’s $67723. Coco-Cola operating in China does not alter their costs of products to
reasonable levels and the results of this will affect their business as they are not able to bear the
cost of product of company. Company not considered the price level differences in Chinese
market of the country, as there are huge differences in the income levels of consumers. However,
Coca-Cola charged the lowest cost possible for their marketing campaign of introducing a new
drink in the market without considering the high perceived value of product.

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Inappropriate supremacy: According to Moodie et al. (2013), Huiyan is the biggest
privately owned juice manufacturer in China. It is involved in the production and sales of juice
and other nourishments products. Huiyan whose inventory is exchanged on the Hong Kong
trade, is the biggest manufacturer of pure orange juice in the country with over 40 percent of the
market share. On 3 September 2008, Coca-Cola Company decided to purchase China Huiyan
Juice for HK$17.9 billiion per share. On March 17, it was declared that Coca-Cola was
considering about surrendering the arrangement, as Chinese authorities demanded on
relinquishing the Huiyan brand name after acquisitions. Huiyan would have set Coke truly
necessary market entrance in third and fourth-level urban communities. Huiyan avoid less-
developed areas because they think the customers in that area are too poor to purchase high-cost
foreign products. But on the other side, Coke was grabbing this chance to achieve less-developed
markets. They are the place where the genuine customer development will come in the following
decade. The marketing campaign of Coca-Cola in order to introducing new soft drink in the
Chinese market was unsuccessful because retain the dominant manufacturer of juice the Chinese
market. The other manufactures in China likeWang Lao and Huiyan Ji, as these manufacturers
offer high-quality products with affordable price to the customer and also have effective
marketing strategies which enable them to maintain dominant position in the Chinese market.
Thus, the marketing strategies of these companies impact the profitability of Coke which will
result in losing its market share in the industry.
Conclusion
From this report, it has been concluded that marketing campaign assumes a critical part in
enhancing the brand awareness among the customers. This report explains the main reasons for
the failed marketing campaign of Coca-Cola in China.

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References
Cugelman, B., Thelwall, M., & Dawes, P. (2011). Online interventions for social marketing
health behavior change campaigns: a meta-analysis of psychological architectures and
adherence factors. Journal of medical Internet research, 13(1).
Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2011). Two hearts in three-quarter time: How to waltz the social
media/viral marketing dance. Business Horizons, 54(3), 253-263.
Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2011). Two hearts in three-quarter time: How to waltz the social
media/viral marketing dance. Business Horizons, 54(3), 253-263.
Keller, K. L., Parameswaran, M. G., & Jacob, I. (2011). Strategic brand management: Building,
measuring, and managing brand equity. Pearson Education India.
Miller, R., & Lammas, N. (2010). Social media and its implications for viral marketing. Asia
Pacific Public Relations Journal, 11(1), 1-9.
Moodie, R., Stuckler, D., Monteiro, C., Sheron, N., Neal, B., Thamarangsi, T., ... & Lancet NCD
Action Group. (2013). Profits and pandemics: prevention of harmful effects of tobacco,
alcohol, and ultra-processed food and drink industries. The Lancet, 381(9867), 670-679.