Coca-Cola's Consumer Behavior: Group Dynamics and Suggestions

This report provides an analysis of consumer behavior in relation to Coca-Cola, a leading non-alcoholic beverage company. It explores the influences of consumer groups, including geographical concentration, gender, family, age group, lifestyle, personality, psychological factors, attitude, occupation, and sociological influences. The report highlights the importance of culture in consumer purchasing decisions and discusses group identifiers and the role of group dynamics, including primary, secondary, formal, informal, membership, and symbolic groups. It outlines the consumer decision-making process, from need recognition and information search to evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post-purchase behavior. The report concludes with recommendations to address post-purchase dissonance and enhance customer loyalty, such as increasing product usage, conducting surveys, diversifying product lines, promoting healthier options, reducing water consumption, improving customer service, avoiding plastic usage, meeting consumer expectations, and enhancing communication processes. The study underscores the significance of understanding consumer behavior to maintain a competitive edge and foster brand loyalty.

Running Head: Consumer Group and Behaviour
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Coca -cola
Consumer Behavior
Student name
6/1/2019

Decision Making Procedure and Suggestions 1
Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Influences of the group:.............................................................................................................2
Importance of culture:................................................................................................................3
Group Identifiers and Role of Group Dynamics:.......................................................................3
Group Decision Making Process:...............................................................................................4
Recommendations:.....................................................................................................................5
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................5

Decision Making Procedure and Suggestions 2
Introduction:
Coca-Cola Company is one of the popular companies which provide non- alcoholic
beverages to consumers. It is not only the manufacturer of cold drinks but also does its
marketing and retailing. It previously sells only syrup and gives its syrup to various bottlers
for selling purpose. It is sold in the market as a medicine as it contains soda and their belief is
that soda can cure many diseases of the patients. Its name is derived from its two ingredients
that are coca leaves as well as kola nuts. It is formed in the year 1886 but makes the formula
in the year 1892. The formula is created by Frank M. Robinson (About Us Coco-Cola
History, 2018).
It is the largest and popular company which is famous also in the United States. It was
succeeded in capturing the interest of customers because of its innovation and creativity. Its
advertisement is conducted by various celebrities for its promotion. Company’s mission is to
refresh the people, inspiring towards happiness and for creating value to customers. It also
makes the product different from the competitors exist in the market. Its vision is to satisfy
the needs of society effectively (Mission, Vision & Values, 2018).
Consumer Behaviour is a set of behaviour which shows how consumers take a
purchase decision. Here, the focus is given on consumer group behaviour and their influences
which drive them to take a decision regarding the purchase of the product.
Influences of the group:
Influences which impact on a group selected basically are stated as follows:
i. Geographical concentration: It focuses on the particularly middle and urban class
segment.
ii. Gender: It makes its product for both segment females and men (Noel, 2017).
iii. Family: It satisfies the needs of families by providing its soft drink in various sizes
from small 500 ml to big 2L so to satisfy them appropriately.
iv. Age group: It gives preference to the youth population in which age group ranges
from 15-25 years although it makes a product for everyone but particularly attention
on them.

Decision Making Procedure and Suggestions 3
v. Lifestyle: Each member of the group lives in different lifestyles so; it makes the
product in an innovative way to satisfy the needs of busy people and for the hi-tech
generation which uses mobile phones (Solomon, Rusell- Bennett, & Previte, 2012).
vi. Personality: It makes its product as a brand by promoting it on a large scale so to
attract the attention of society successfully.
vii. Psychological Influence: It happens when perception and sensation work together to
influence the buyers. In the case of this product, red colour is used for eye-catching,
the taste of the product somewhat different as it has made a unique formula which
catches the sensation of customers and moreover advertising is done in a repetitive
way so, to remembers the customer every time whenever a purchase is done.
viii. Attitude: It changes the mentality of people by showcasing the brand effectiveness on
the consumer. It does through by giving happiness to group members thereby
reducing the burden and tension in the targeted group (Mallaiah & Ramana, 2018).
ix. Occupation: There is no specific occupation selected but mainly targeted on students
and also on members of the family.
x. Sociological Influence: It happens whenever a consumer makes the choice of the
brand on the basis of their preferences. Each customer is different, as they are living a
different lifestyle, so their likes are also different. In order to cope with this situation,
it makes the product in various varieties like introducing low calorie, caffeine free and
juices so to satisfy the requirements of the customers well.
Importance of culture:
Culture plays an important role in buying any goods and services. So, it is very much
important which is to be kept in mind by organizations to be fulfilled for the survival of the
business. It includes norms, beliefs, and perception which direct the behaviour of an
individual in a group. It is just like following the same tradition or values which is run by
their heritage (Ghosh, Ghosh, & Ghosh, 2016).
The company understands the value of culture to customers as by providing its goods
on a cricket match as this sport is very much popular and famous in the lives of people
basically for cricket lovers.
It is available at various places such as at musical concerts, food festivals and also in
various festivals such as Eid. It makes the attitude in the mind of customers that whenever
they eat food, at watching the movie they need coke to enhance their experience.

Decision Making Procedure and Suggestions 4
Group Identifiers and Role of Group Dynamics:
Group Identifiers get recognition due to the use of new technology, as it serves as a
guide for the marketer’s decision making for selecting the target market effectively. It is
applied to identifying the correct market segment. It gets its scope due to the human resource
marketing concept. With the help of this, personal details of consumer received successfully
so to increase the personal knowledge of the customer. It is a good concept for getting the
data effectively (Zimmerman & Blythe, 2013).
Group Dynamics is considered as when two or more people came forward to achieve
individual and collective goals (Forsyth, 2018). In terms of consumer behaviour concept, it is
said when the consumer makes a purchase with the advice of the reference groups in order to
get information about the product correctly. It is a basic principle which is performed by all
consumers to be surer about the product by offering suggestions of the other people regarding
this (Franz, 2012).
It is used for solving the problem in a team efficiently to be in an innovative and
productive manner. It is concerned with attitudinal and behavioural patterns in a group. It
focuses on basically how groups formed, their structure and which process followed in their
functioning.
There are 3 types of groups: Primary and Secondary; Formal and Informal;
Membership and Symbolic. The primary group is the one where regular interaction takes
place in the group members, while the secondary group is the one where communication does
not happen regularly. A formal group is the one when there is no relation exists between
group members whereas Informal is created due to relation. A membership group is created
out of connection basis while Symbolic is created without any membership but out of
affection (What Is a Consumer Group ?, 2019).
Consumers take the help of the reference group and opinion leader for the decision of
a product or service. Opinion Leader guides the individual by giving an opinion about a
product if they wanted. This leader is given importance because of its knowledge.
Group Decision Making Process:
The process relating to purchase by any rational customer:
a. Need Recognition: It is a process which is generally started with the identification of
need of the targeted group. This product is purchased only when there is want because

Decision Making Procedure and Suggestions 5
drinking a soft drink is not happens regularly but when a person feels thirsty and
wants such a drink which is cold and refreshing. Coca-Cola satisfies the self-esteem
needs of the person therefore; it can be achieved only when previous level needs
relating to basic, safety and social motives are satisfied well (Maslow, 2019).
b. Information search: It is important for every business to gather information as by
these opportunities and threats can be well known easily, in order to survive for a
longest time in the future. It can be gathered through various ways by obtaining
information from references group, business sources and from other sources whether
through media and by associations. It is done through business sources by
advertisement and packaging meritoriously to fold the attention of customers.
c. Evaluation of alternatives: It is done by weighing the advantages and disadvantages of
the substitute products available in the market. It is done to make a purchase of the
product.
A branded product gets an advantage in this regard due to their goodwill and as; it
also creates a barrier for the new entrants as it earns the trust of its customers which
makes the members loyal towards such brand. It is having competition from the Pepsi
as it has a somewhat the same formula so the company has to take successful steps so
to compete with the competitor (Ware, 2014).
d. Taking purchase decision: It happens when actually consumer make a purchase of the
product and not take the product of other competitors which exist in the market. It is
the final phase when payment is made by the consumer.
e. Post-purchase Behaviour: It happens after the purchase decision to satisfy the needs of
consumer effectively by giving after-sales service and hearing the complaints of the
customer so to make solutions of the problem to make the consumer loyal towards the
brand. After this stage, the evaluation process is done to cater to the needs of group
satisfactorily by giving them value for each rupee spent on it.
Recommendations:
Post-purchase evaluation is done to know whether the consumer is satisfied with the
product or not. If a consumer is not satisfied with the product and doing regret of purchasing
and thinking of purchasing the other alternatives this will automatically impact on the
company as in next time consumer do not purchase its product and also giving advice to
family, friends and group members to not to buy such product it is called as post-purchase

Decision Making Procedure and Suggestions 6
dissonance. It leads to an increase in the use of the brand and decreases the other brands by
adopting alternatives which exist in the market scenario (Armstrong, Abubakar, & Sikayena,
2017).
Solutions for this dissonance are:
a) Increase the use of the product so that the buyer purchases it more for other uses as
well.
b) A survey is conducted to obtain information regarding what consumer thinks about
the product or company.
c) It has to diversify the lines of product in order to compete with the competitor
effectively as done by Pepsi by manufacturing food items like Lays. So, it has to
launch its food items in the market.
d) Making product which is healthier for society as it gives its impact on the health of
people because of this people adopts healthy products like using fruit juice.
e) It has to develop ways to reduce the consumption of water as it is a limited resource
on this planet.
f) Provides more service to the customer so that they not shift to other brands available.
g) It has to take steps to not to use plastic as it is a harmful material.
h) It has to meet the expectations of consumers by avoiding deceptive practices and not
to make unsafe products to society.
i) Conducting the communication process so to reduce the conflicts of the consumer
regarding the product purchased. Developing call centres and using e-mail for
understanding the problem (Sharifi & Esfidan, 2014).
j) Product is to be made by keeping in the place of consumers.
k) It has to give extra benefits to the buyers along with the basic product.
l) Company has to give proper training to employees to deal with this situation.
m) It has to evaluate product alternatives available in the market so to develop the
product in a different way.
n) Changing the attitude of the person by means of showing its benefits in the
advertisement.
Whenever a consumer is satisfied with the quality of the product they make a repeat
purchase and become brand loyal which gives the product in preference over other
alternatives and they are ready to pay any money for getting the product (Hamid, 2012).

Decision Making Procedure and Suggestions 7
Conclusion:
In conclusion, it can be concluded that Coca-Cola has a good brand value which
targets its product to the youth generation. Here, the study emphasizes on the behaviour of
the consumer and in order to know influences of them and on how rational consumer comes
to the buying decision by firstly identify needs, gathering of information, evaluation of
options available, purchasing of product and finally, post-purchase evaluation stage.
As nowadays, the buyer cannot influence the consumer to buy his product as today
more varieties are available which gives choice to the buyers and results into consumer as a
king. Therefore, the focus is given on providing satisfaction to them so that they do not buy
goods from other companies. In this, a study on consumer behaviour In order to survive in the
marketplace successfully it has to follow the recommendations given so to make the customer
loyalty towards the brand and also does its word- of- promotion so that new customers also
join the company.

Decision Making Procedure and Suggestions 8
Bibliography
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https://www.worldofcoca-cola.com/about-us/coca-cola-history/
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colacompany.com/our-company/mission-vision-values
What Is a Consumer Group ? (2019). Retrieved from Chron:
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Decision Making Procedure and Suggestions 9
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