Impact of branding on Organizational Development- A case study on Coca Cola Company

This research proposal explores the impact of branding on organizational development with a specific focus on Coca Cola Company. It establishes effective research objectives and research questions for assembling most significant research information.

Running head: RESEARCH IN BUSINESS
Impact of branding on Organizational Development- A case study on Coca Cola Company
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................2
2.0 Problem Statement.....................................................................................................................3
3.0 Aims and Objectives of Research..............................................................................................3
4.0 Research Questions....................................................................................................................4
5.0 Justification and Potential Output of the Research....................................................................4
6.0 Conceptual Framework..............................................................................................................4
6.1 Concept of Branding..............................................................................................................4
6.2 Branding of Coca Cola Company..........................................................................................5
6.3 Theory of Branding................................................................................................................6
6.4 Issues Associated with Branding...........................................................................................7
6.5 Impact of Branding on Organizational Development............................................................8
6.6 Effective Branding Strategies................................................................................................9
7.0 Methodology............................................................................................................................10
7.1 Research Approach and Sources of Data.............................................................................10
7.2 Proposed Data Collection and Data Analysis Technique....................................................11
7.3 Organization of the Study....................................................................................................12
7.4 Budget, Project Activities and Gantt chart..........................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................18

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1.0 Introduction
The process of branding is usually intended towards creating distinctive name and image
for the products in the minds of consumers through effective advertising technique with
consistent theme. It aims at establishing significant as well differentiating presence in the market
for attracting and retaining loyal customers. In contemporary business environment, branding
plays an important character in promoting the products and increasing sales volumes (Xie & Lee,
2015). The popularity of the products is actually enhanced through the help of promotional
branding. Effective branding successfully conveys the unique services provided by the
organizations to the customers. However, incongruent branding ultimately hampers the brand
success of an organization (Sasmita & Mohd Suki, 2015). Hence, the marketing managers of the
organizations should always focus on effective branding strategies for proper branding of their
organization for organizational development.
This research proposal will explore the impact of branding on organizational
development. In order to narrow down the research, this research study will specifically focus on
Coca Cola Company. Moreover, the specific focus of the research paper will be on the impact of
branding on the organizational development of Coca Cola Company. The research proposal will
establish effective research objectives and research question for assembling most significant
research information. On the other hand, research proposal will choose appropriate research
methodologies for collecting most authentic information regarding the topic of the research.

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2.0 Problem Statement
Effective branding facilitates in differentiating the brand image and products of an
organization from other competitors in the market. It can cast positive light on the business
turnover and business development. However, negative exposure of branding can dismiss the
brand esteem and sales volume within few days. The most noteworthy purpose of brand
disillusionment is Position Amnesia condition (Davvetas et al., 2015). In this condition, a brand
becomes willing to neglect its situation and takes initiatives to cover diverse things within its
character. Incongruent courses adopted by organizations can actually lead to negative brand
exposure leading to diminished sales volume. The leading beverage company Coca Cola has
already been through incongruent branding, while introducing new coke in competition with the
(PepsiCo Godey et al., 2016). It has ultimately questioned 50 years long publicity of the
organization.
3.0 Aims and Objectives of Research
Research Aim
The aim of the research is to explore the impact of branding on organizational
development of Coca Cola Company.
Research Objectives
 To assess the impact of branding on organizational development of Coca Cola Company
 To identify the branding strategies of Coca Cola Company for organizational
development
 To recognize the issues associated with the branding of Coca Cola Company

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 To suggest the most effective branding strategies for Coca Cola Company
4.0 Research Questions
 How branding impacts on organizational development of Coca Cola Company?
 What are the adopted branding strategies of Coca Cola Company for organizational
development?
 What are the issues associated with the branding of Coca Cola Company?
 How Coca Cola Company can enhance its branding for better organizational
development?
5.0 Justification and Potential Output of the Research
The research proposal is extremely important theoretically as well as practically for
enhancing the branding of organizations. Over the years, different scholars have conducted
research on the impact of branding on organizational development. Most of the scholars have
proved that effective branding can actually differentiate one brand name from other competitor
leading to high level of brand success. Proper and right choice of branding strategies can make
the customers loyal leading to repetitive sales. Hence, it is also expected that branding will have
high level of impact on the organizational development of Coca Cola Company.
6.0 Conceptual Framework
6.1 Concept of Branding
Branding is the marketing practice of creating unique name, symbol and design of a
particular brand that differentiates a particular brand from other rivals in the market. Effective
branding edge gives a major edge to the organizations in the competitive business environment

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(Mohseni et al., 2018). Effective advertising can be a powerful tool for creating and shaping a
unique brand and convey unique brand feature to the customers. Clear and attractive information
communicated through effective branding can attract the customers to purchase a particular
brand (Dessart et al., 2015). However, negative exposure of branding can hamper the customer
perception regarding a particular brand leading to declining sales volume and negative customer
perception.
6.2 Branding of Coca Cola Company
The new advertising campaign of Coca Cola namely “Enjoy the Feeling” has established
new positioning in the competitive market. The organization has included all variants of Coca
Cola in this communication. Halkias et al. (2016) pointed out that the Iconic Coca Cola Red Disc
has successfully established the trademark and packaging graphic for all variants of Cokes. The
unifying color has ensured single visual identity system for all variants of the Coca Cola’s
drinks. It helps the customers to easily identify different variants of the organization having
signature color. On the other hand, Baxendale et al. (2015) mentioned that fully integrated taste
and feeling campaign of Coca Cola can touched the emotional feelings of the consumers. In this
way, such creative branding strategies are actually connected with the customers emotionally.
The social media sites of Coca Cola often capture the feel of happiness through the tastes
of the cokes. Moreover, Delgado-Ballester and Fernandez Sabiote (2015) stated that the visual
style capture the authentic and unscripted moments of the enjoyed by the customers having the
taste of Coca Cola’s drinks. In this way, such advertising strategies are highly influential on the
influencing the purchasing intension of the customers leading to increased sales volume of the
organization. In this way, effective branding strategies actually contribute in the organizational
development of Coca Cola Company.

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6.3 Theory of Branding
Keller’s brand equity model suggests the ways of building unique brand equity through
understanding needs and desires of the customers. The level 1 of this model is associated with
brand identity, where the organizations are more inclined towards creating brand salience or
brand awareness among the customers. Strong brand identity highly attracts the customers
towards purchasing a particular product. In level 2, the organizations mostly communicate the
brand meaning to the customers for influencing their purchasing intension. Once the customers
become aware of the brand, they want to know about the brand performance for shaping their
brand imagery (Winit et al., 2014). Brand imagery enhances the commitment level of the
customers towards a particular brand.
Level 3 of this model is associated with the brand response, which is related to the
positive feelings of the customers towards a particular brand. In this context, the customers make
judgment regarding a brand based on its perceived quality. Hence, the organizations should
communicate the relevancy of the brand’s features with the needs and desires of the customers.
The 4th level of Keller’s pyramid assesses the brand resonance associated with a particular brand.
The behavioral loyalty and attitudinal loyalty of brand are determined through repeated purchase
and special purchase of the customers (Barreda et al., 2015).

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Figure 1: Keller’s Brand Equity Model
(Source: Helm & Özergin, 2015)
6.4 Issues Associated with Branding
Effective branding leads to high level of organizational development through increased
sales volume. However, Eggers et al. (2016) opined that negative brand exposure can hamper the
business growth of the organization. The major issue associated with branding is position
amnesia, where a particular brand neglects its position and tries to cover diverse things with its
characters. Irrelevant branding strategies adopted through the organizations leads to negative
brand affect. In case of Coca Cola Company, the organization has already been suffered through
the issue of position amnesia through launching New Coke in competition with the PepsiCo.
Through launching New Coke, Coca Cola actually contradicted with the previous marketing
efforts, where it spent 50 years for attaching customer emotion with their original products.
Hence, this product was actually boycotted and the organization had to bring back their original
products. On the other hand, Helm and Özergin (2015) opined that the organizations can often

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face issues of overconfidence in successfully branding their products. Moreover, some large
scale business organization attempt to apply same branding strategies based on their strength and
past victories. The overconfidence and extensive use of branding strategies actually leads to
failure of branding of even successful barnds. Such issue in branding is also called Icarus
paradox. In case of Coca Cola Company, targeting the middle ground and lack of persuasive
promotional message led to the failure of Coca-Cola Life brand.
6.5 Impact of Branding on Organizational Development
According to Költringer and Dickinger (2015), the new developed advertising campaign
has combines both intrinsic benefits of refreshment and taste with extrinsic benefits of
authenticity and optimism. Likewise, the persuasive promotional message of Coca Cola
Company has combines both intrinsic and extrinsic value of the customers leading to high level
of customer attraction. On the other hand, Bilgihan (2016) stated that effective branding impacts
on the commitment level of the customers leading them to be attracted to a particular brand. In
case of Coca Cola, the organization creates several alternate versions of advertisements, which
are actually relevant with the culturally relevant vignettes and locally relevant casts. In this way,
the advertising contents of the organization ultimately get attached to the emotional feelings of
the global customers. Hence, such branding strategies are highly influential the emotional
attachments of the customers with the products of the organization. However, Hajli et al. (2017)
argued that negative exposure and offensive banding strategies can ultimately hamper the
branding success of the organization. The introduction of New Coke was actually contradictory
with the previous promotional efforts of Coca Cola Company. Hence, this brand of Coca Cola
faced high level of failure in the beverage industry. Furthermore, Wang et al. (2015) opined that

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effective branding can move a particular band to the prospective customer groups. Hence, it
actually helps in enhancing the customer base of the organizations.
6.6 Effective Branding Strategies
Effective branding is dependent on formulation persuasive promotional message through
effective advertisements. Moreover, Bilgihan (2016) opined that the communication of
persuasive promotional message through advertisements gets connected with the emotional
feelings of the customers. Hence, the customers can easily connect the attributes of the brands
with their specific needs and desires. On other hand, Davvetas et al. (2015) mentioned that
packaging design can become the salient salesman, which can grab the attention of busy
customers towards a particular product. It conveys the valuable properties of the brands and
visually differentiates a particular brand from others in the competitive business market. As per
Godey et al. (2016), visual identity of a particular brand differentiates the brand from other
competitors leading to unique brand advantage in attracting the customers and organizational
development. Effective pricing can also contribute in the brand enhancement of a particular
brand through immediately grabbing the intension of customers and influencing their purchasing
intension.

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7.0 Methodology
7.1 Research Approach and Sources of Data
Research approach is an extremely significant method for assembling the data concerning
the research topic. The selection of research approach is completely dependent on the topic and
associated variables of the research. Two types of research variables are mostly used in
conducting research namely inductive and deductive approach. Inductive approach is relied on
formulation of new and unique theories and models relevant to the research topic for collecting
effective research information. In such approach, known premises are generally used for
generating untested conclusion (Lewis, 2015). It facilitates in generalizing the collected
information from specific to general. Furthermore, deductive approach facilitates in using
previously framed theories and models for gathering most usefully research information. This
approach helps in generalizing the collected information from general to specific (Choy, 2014).
Inductive approach needs huge time to frame new theories and models. Deductive approach
saves the time and budget of the research through allowing the usage of previous theories and
models. Hence, this research will use deductive approach for conducting the research.
This research study will also use descriptive research purpose for collecting noteworthy
research information. Such research purpose will help in getting actual explanation of the
research study. Moreover, such explanation will ultimately accumulate the actual purpose of the
research study. Hence, it will be easier to collect most relevant and useful research information,
which will actually assist in enhancing the quality of ultimate research outcome. There are
mostly two types of data sources in research filed, which are namely primary source and

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secondary source. However, this research will choose primary source of data for getting highly
authentic research information.
7.2 Proposed Data Collection and Data Analysis Technique
Propose Data Collection Method
Data collection is the most important method for gathering noteworthy and authentic
information about the research topic. The research will use both sources of data collection
namely primary secondary sources of data. Secondary data will be used to construct effective
literature review. Such data will mostly be collected from authentic books, journals and websites.
However, major focus of the research will be on primary method of data collection. Such method
will provide most authentic, first hand and bias free information regarding the topic of the
research.
In case of primary data collection, there are two types of data collection techniques,
which are namely quantitative and qualitative technique. However, this research study will use
only qualitative data collection technique for gathering useful research information (Dumay &
Cai, 2015). Such method will provide descriptive data regarding the topic of the research.
Moreover, the research study will arrange interview with 5 managers of Coca Cola Company for
gathering core organizational information regarding their branding. The managers will provide
most authentic and bias free information regarding their branding and its impact on
organizational development.

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Data Analysis Technique
Data analysis technique is extremely important for assessing the actual meaning
associated with the data collected from the selected respondents (Lewis, 2015). This research
study will apply narrative analysis for analyzing the data collected through the interview with the
managers of Coca Cola Company. Such data analysis method will sort out and reflect on the
narrative aspect of the interview data. It will ultimately shape and present the collected data to
the readers in a meaningful way. It will actually reformulate the stories presented by the
managers in different context based on different experience.
7.3 Organization of the Study
Chapter 1: Introduction: The introduction section will be related with explanation of
research background and research problems. The identification of accurate research problems in
this chapter will create concrete based of the overall research study. On the other hand, this
chapter will also formulate effective research aims, objectives and questions. Such effective
research objectives and questions will facilitate to assemble useful research information.
Chapter 2: Literature Review: This particular chapter will be associated with existing
literature and scholarly information relevant to the topic of the research. The main focus of this
chapter will be on theoretical underpinning of the research topic. Moreover, the chapter will
define various relevant research theories and model of the research topic. Apart from that, this
section will also highlight several empirical evidences associated with the research topic, which
can enhance the quality of the research outcome.
Chapter 3: Research Methodology: This chapter will select appropriate research
methods for gathering noteworthy research information. Moreover, this section will choose most

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suitable research approach, research purpose, research strategies, data collection method and data
analysis method.
Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion: This chapter will be associated with collection of
data from the selected data collection and finding the actual meaning of the collected data.
Proper findings and discussion will lead to most reliable and authentic research result.
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation: This section will narrow down the
summary of the overall research conducted on the research topic. The chapter will also provide
suitable recommendation for resolving the research problem.
Figure 2: Organization of the Study
(Source: Created by Author)
IntroductionLiteratureReviewResearchMethodologyFindingsandDiscussionConclusionandRecommendation

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7.4 Budget, Project Activities and Gantt chart
Budget
The budget allocated for the research study is $5500 for its successful completion within
the given time frame.
The followings have demonstrated the budget allocation for different research activities:
 Literature Review: The access to the authentic journals, books and websites will cost
around $1500
 Purchasing of Data from secondary source: This activity will cost around $2500
 Data Structuring and Data Analysis: This activity will cost around $1000.
Research Activities Estimated Budget Allocation
Literature Review $1500
Purchasing of Data from secondary
source
$2500
Data Structuring and Data Analysis $1000
Total Estimated Budget $5500
Table 1: Estimated Budget for Research
(Source: Created by Author)

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Project Activities
Month 1 Mo
nth2
Mo
nth
3
Mo
nth4
Mo
nth5
Mileston
e
We
ek1
We
ek2
We
ek3
We
ek4
We
ek5
We
ek6
We
ek7
We
ek8
We
ek9
Wee
k10
Wee
k11
Wee
k12
Wee
k13
Wee
k14
Wee
k15
Wee
k16
Wee
k17
Wee
k18
Wee
k19
Wee
k20
Introducti
on
Framing
Problem
Establishi
ng
Research
Objective
s
Research
Structure
Literature
Review
Evaluatin
g
Concepts
and
Theories
Demonstr
ating
Critical
Analysis
Finding
Empirical
Evidence
Research
Methodol
ogy
Framing
Research
Approach
Framing
Research
Techniqu

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es
Setting
Secondar
y Data
Collectio
n Method
Findings
and
Analysis
Chi-
Square
Test
Data
Interpreta
tion
Conclusi
on
Research
Summary
Providing
Recomm
endation
Table 2: Activities
(Source: Created by Author)

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Gantt chart
Month 1 Month2 Month3 Month4 Month5
Milestone Week1 Week2 Week3 Week4 Week5 Week6 Week7 Week8 Week9 Week10 Week11 Week12 Week13 Week14 Week15 Week16 Week17 Week18 Week19 Week20
Introduction
Framing Problem
Establishing Research Objectives
Research Structure
Literature Review
Evaluating Concepts and Theories
Demonstrating Critical Analysis
Finding Empirical Evidence
Research Methodology
Framing Research Approach
Framing Research Techniques
Setting Secondary Data Collection Method
Findings and Analysis
Chi-Square Test
Data Interpretation
Conclusion
Research Summary
Providing Recommendation
Figure 3: Gantt chart
(Source: Created by Author)

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