Integrated Marketing Communications: A Case Study of Coca Cola's Share a Coke Campaign

This report analyses Coca Cola's Share a Coke campaign as a case study for integrated marketing communication. It evaluates the success of the campaign and the challenges faced by modern day businesses in designing promotional campaigns and combining marketing channels. The report proposes solutions and recommendations to improve Coca Cola's integrated marketing functions and business operations.

Integrated marketing
communication

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Case study background...............................................................................................................3
Evaluation...................................................................................................................................4
Proposed solution or changes......................................................................................................6
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Businesses deploy a variety of strategies, policies and tools in order to succeed in
penetrating and dominating their target markets but in order to maintain market share and be
profitable in the long run, enterprises have to make sure their marketing plans and channels
remain consistent and innovative to service their customers and this is where the need for
integrated marketing campaigns is of prime importance (Brubaker, 2020). Integrated marketing
communication refers to the streamlining and combining various important elements of the
marketing mix such as advertising, direct marketing, public relations, digital marketing and sales
promotion tactics in order to create a unique brand identity to serve and influence target
customers (Hamilton and Webster, 2018).
This report will analyse the case study of Coca Cola company's integrated marketing
communication tactics and it's groundbreaking “Share a coke” campaign in order to highlight the
challenges that comes with designing promotional campaigns and combining marketing channels
to achieve efficiency. Through this analysis, the importance and impact of sound market channel
management will be highlighted along with the need for integrated marketing communication for
modern day businesses.
MAIN BODY
Case study background
The Coca Cola company was formally founded on 29th January, 1892 in Atlanta,
Georgia, United States by Asa Griggs Candler and it has become a hugely successful business
giant over time which dominates the beverages and soft drinks industry by servicing it's
customers in more than 200 countries with over 500 brands being a part of it's portfolio. The
main theme around which this case study is based is the impact of integrated marketing
communications on business operations and the challenges that occur while combining and
utilising multiple marketing channels and strategies at once and the Coca Cola company has
successfully overcame a lot of these challenges but many problems remain.
Coca Cola Company's Share a coke campaign is a massive marketing tactic deployed on
a worldwide scale which was first launched in Australia during 2011 and it was a aim to
personalize their approach towards consumers of their beverages and to change the product's

branding to include “Share a coke with” followed by names of persons which were hand-picked
after identifying 250 most common birth names of people belonging to the country in which
Coca Cola company operates. It is the focal point of this case study as it is one the most
groundbreaking campaigns ever undertaken by a business using combination and integration of
multiple tools and techniques of marketing and it has been successful in boosting the sales and
stronghold of Coca Cola in emerging markets and has breathed new life in the sales channel of
the beverage giant by revitalizing it's declining revenue in stagnant markets such as the United
States. However the campaign has also backfired in some social and cultural aspects and it's
facing tough barriers of modern day business which did not exist a decade ago.
Evaluation
Coca Cola despite being a massive and classic presence in the global beverage market
was suffering from stagnating sales figures and declining revenues in major locations across the
world in the 2000's which led to it innovating and going for a far more personalised form of
marketing which was wholly aimed at pleasing the general public which was called Share a coke
campaign. Ever since this campaign was launched in Australia in 2011, it has been cited by
marketing and business experts around the globe as one of best examples of a personalized
marketing campaign. Coca Cola used all the 5 elements of Integrated Marketing
Communication (IMC) framework optimally which are all described below.
 Advertising – Coca Cola company has been historically prolific when it comes to it's
advertising efforts as their ads are built on personally and emotionally appeal towards the
general public by focusing on human experiences and problems and hiring superstars as
brand ambassadors such as Keanu Reeves. It was even the first preferred drink by
astronauts in space voyages.
 Direct Marketing - Coca Cola employs a myriad of direct marketing approaches by
making their beverages exclusively available at select outlets and restaurants and even
sponsoring major sporting and entertainment events around the globe (Yakovlev, 2019).
Their direct marketing efforts are integrated and support their other campaigns as the
concept of share a coke was marketed aggressively during sporting events and by local
traders.
 Internet Marketing - Since the brand is so well recognized across the board, web and
social media marketing isn't necessary for brand building and is instead used to

supplement coordinated marketing campaigns by integrating with other marketing
channels. Coca Cola engages more than 80 million people on it's social media handles
and it has promoted share a coke campaign by posting the pictures of people holding
coke bottles with their name on it to generate major hype around the marketing initiative.
 Public Relations – Coca Cola's brand name is big enough to gain recognition even in the
most remote locations and this makes the corporate social responsibility and being people
oriented that much more important. The company regularly indulges in social service and
partners with NGOs and public bodies combating hunger and providing education. The
firm has also used social media marketing to build a huge community through use of
personalized marketing campaigns like share a coke.
 Sales promotion tactics - Coca Cola's sales promotion methods are thoroughly
integrated with all their other channels of marketing which helps them design consistently
effective strategies to incentivise customers to drink their products. Share a coke
campaign even after a decade is still getting supported through social media promotion.
However a decade later after this campaign went live, the state of Coca Coca company and it's
integrated marketing campaigns is not in an industry leading position and there are a lot of
elements and factors that have not worked in Coca Cola's favour because it did not enough
attention to the macroeconomic factors of the theory of the marketing environment which
facilitates the study of the complex dimensions of marketing by dividing them on the basis of
certain criteria (Kara, Vredeveld and Ross Jr, 2018). Coca Cola's current weakness in this regard
can be further explained with the use of PEST analysis.
 Political – The political conditions and relationship turmoil between major countries in
recent times have been detrimental to Coca Cola's growth and sales ambition as trade and
tariff wars has lead to supply chain bottlenecks and major markets like Cuba and North
Korea are still off limits to the Coca Cola company. Authority and governmental
restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic has also not been kind to Coca Cola as it's
robust dealership networks and restaurant exclusivity have been adversely affected.
 Economical – The major revenue of beverage industry comes from two important
outlets, food and retail and both these sectors have been hit very hard during the current
pandemic which has made the company incur massive losses in 2020 which it still
couldn't recover from in 2021 (Lee, 2019). Through it's integrated campaigns and use of

multiple marketing channels, Coca Cola is eyeing a comeback but the struggling global
economy is not helping. The restrictions that countries have put in international and
domestic trade routes to minimize physical contact has also put the entire beverage
industry in trouble.
 Social – This is an area where Coca Cola missed the trick entirely as it's share a coke
campaign backfired massively as it failed take the beliefs and local culture of the people
into account. Share a coke campaign offended the LGBT community globally and the
company got called homophobic after the words “gay” could not be printed on the coke
cans and by making their entire integrated campaign open to public customization, they
invited constant controversies as people kept printing abuses and offensive names on
bottles and cans (Maamoun, 2020). The goodwill Coca Cola earned among the
impressionable youth and social media users also got hit severely hard after the world
famous football legend, Cristiano Ronaldo who is the most followed person on social
media and world's most popular athlete, publicly rejected to drink Coca Cola and his lack
of endorsement even caused major wiping of the company's stocks. The growing
awareness in general public to endorse drinking clean water and fruit juices instead of
carbonated soft drinks like Coke is also affecting Coca Cola as it has failed to capitalize
on it's diet coke brand and introduce a new healthy beverage in the market.
 Technological – Coca Cola company has been ahead of the curve in terms of
technological and product innovation and constantly develops new tools and flavours to
satisfy a new target market. It has even gone as far as to introduce frozen beverages in
Japan and automatic dispensers worldwide to ease customer convenience (Pavenkov and
Rubtcova, 2019). The problem however is that their new experimentations with soda
flavours and coke variants have failed the public taste test and they are struggling to
come up with something new that is public approved.
Proposed solution or changes
The woes of Coca Cola company in it's integrated marketing functions and trouble in it's
business operations can be bettered with some realistic solutions proposed below.
 Better experimentation with flavours and bringing back old classics – Coca Cola
despite having multiple brands under it has not been able to use the coke brand name to

introduce a brand new popular market offering and this must change if things are to
change for it in the post pandemic world. It needs to conduct better market research and
mix tried and tasted soda flavour combinations to make develop drinks with a new
flavour profile or bring back old classics that is launched decades back to give it a go in
modern markets such as Diet Coke plus green tea, Citra and Coca Cola life (Pearson and
Perera, 2018). This solution has been chosen because new, healthy and innovative market
offerings can drive sales in emerging markets and help the company launch new
integrated campaigns.
 Spreading awareness and spinning the negative narrative through social media –
The harm done to the social branding of Coca Cola due to celebrity negligence and
constant controversies can be undone by focusing on people oriented social service and
positive and aware marketing messages which Coca Cola has successfully done in
Nigeria. This solution works as Coca Cola's dominance of 70 years as the beverage
market leader in a country like Nigeria needs to be studied and emulated everywhere as
it's marketing campaigns there have been very successful even in the pandemic.
Recommendations
Coca Cola company can use components of it's integrated marketing tools and given
recommendations below together to achieve market success and high growth once again based
on proposed solutions. Instead of focusing solely on growth, the need of the hour is to build awareness among
the public and take advantage of the massive branding of Coca Cola. The company
should come up with socially positive and considerate content to cater across it's 95
million social media audience. Coca Cola should keep innovating to bring new flavours and healthy alternatives like
diet coke to keep servicing it's target market in every way possible. It should also stand
for plastic emission and invest in new green technologies and position itself as a green
and socially aware brand for goodwill.

CONCLUSION
In the above report, the impact, role and framework of integrated marketing
communication was studied with the use of case study of Coca Cola company with an emphasis
on it's integrated marketing campaigns especially the share a coke initiative. The detailed
background of the company and the campaign was stated along with the evaluation of the case
study where the reasons for success and the company's well documented use of it's integrated
marketing framework was highlighted along with a PESTLE analysis to label it's shortcoming in
addressing it's external environment problems. The report was concluded with the proposal of
solutions which could help strength the company and it's marketing campaigns along with
recommendations to achieve the described solutions.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Brubaker, J., 2020. Celebrity and the American Political Process: Integrated Marketing
Communication. Lexington Books.
Hamilton, L. and Webster, P., 2018. The international business environment. Oxford University
Press.
Kara, S., Vredeveld, A.J. and Ross Jr, W.T., 2018. We share; we connect: How shared brand
consumption influences relational brand connections. Psychology & Marketing, 35(5),
pp.325-340.
Lee, B., 2019. How Coca-Cola went three-dimensional to revolutionise its package design
workflow to save time, money and foster more creativity. Journal of Digital Media
Management, 7(2), pp.106-114.
Maamoun, A., 2020. Coca-Cola Brews a Hot Acquisition: Costa Coffee. SAGE Publications:
SAGE Business Cases Originals.
Pavenkov, O. and Rubtcova, M., 2019, February. Traditional model of marketing
communications and integrated marketing communications: comparative research. In
ITM International Conference and Summit on Techno Management Trends (pp. 15-22).
Pearson, D. and Perera, A., 2018. Reducing food waste: A practitioner guide identifying
requirements for an integrated social marketing communication campaign. Social
Marketing Quarterly, 24(1), pp.45-57.
Yakovlev, V.V., 2019, March. Coke or Diet Coke?(Conference Presentation). In Optical
Diagnostics and Sensing XIX: Toward Point-of-Care Diagnostics (Vol. 10885, p.
108850P). SPIE.