Marketing and Communications Strategies for Coca-Cola's Relaunch

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Coca-Cola's marketing and communication strategies in the digital world, focusing on the relaunch of New Coke. It begins with an introduction to the importance of marketing within business organizations, using Coca-Cola as a case study. The report then delves into the elements of the marketing mix (product, promotion, price, place, people, process, and physical evidence) as applied by Coca-Cola. It identifies research requirements, including primary and secondary research methods, and presents a detailed research plan using a Gantt chart. The report also discusses the implementation and critical analysis of the research, along with findings and recommendations. The final section focuses on a presentation that covers market segmentation (geographic, demographic, and psychographic) and digital media strategies, emphasizing how Coca-Cola can leverage these to enhance its marketing efforts and ensure the success of its relaunch program. The report highlights the importance of understanding consumer behavior and adapting to the digital landscape for effective marketing.

Marketing and Communications in a Digital World
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Part One- Elements of the marketing mix..................................................................................4
Part Two- Identifying research requirements.............................................................................5
Part Three- Detailed research plan.............................................................................................6
Part Four – Presentation.............................................................................................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................18
References................................................................................................................................19
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Introduction
Business organizations need various functions to complete properly so that they can operate
their activities very smoothly. Businesses have different departments like production,
marketing, distribution, sales, finance, human resource, and so on. All the departments must
be function properly to ensure the success of the business organization. Among all marketing
department is one of the most significant parts by which a business organization connects
with their customers and let the customers know about their products. This report will be
going to discuss different aspects of marketing and its various function within a business
organization. All the discussion is going to be based on Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola is one of the
leading non-alcoholic beverage companies in the world. They started their journey as a syrup
manufacturer organization in 1892. Now they are the biggest sweeten carbonated beverage
manufacturer in the world. They also produce non-carbonated beverages for their customers.
They have annual revenue of 40 billion USD. Their headquarter is in Atlanta, USA. This is
the USA originated organization. They have employed around 90000 people of the world.
The marketing unit of Coca-Cola is very efficient. This report will describe different
marketing aspects of Coca-Cola.
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Part One- Elements of the marketing mix
New Coke was the first beverage prepared and marketed by Coca-Cola. It had created
different controversies for which some customers even protested. Afterwards, Coca-Cola
classic marketized by the company and it took the place of New Coke. Gradually, it had
become one of the most popular soft drinks of the market and the best product of Coca-Cola.
The production of new Coke has stopped just after 15 years of its starting. Now, Coca-Cola is
relaunching their new Coke in honour of a series of Netflix called Stranger Things. For this,
Coca-Cola had to take some steps to make that successful and ensure effective marketing.
Product: Products are the key elements of a business organization. It is the core thing that is
provided by the company and received by the customers in exchange for money
(BARRACLOUGH, 2016). Coca-Cola operates their business in the beverage industry. There
is various type of people with various preferences. Coca-Cola offers different soft drinks to
those different types of customers such as Diet Coke for health concerned customers.
Promotion: Business organizations let their customers or target customers know about their
products with their promotional activities. Coca-Cola focused on different online marketing
mediums such as social media, online marketplaces to advertise their products.
Price: Price is the exchange amount of currency by which the ownership of a product can be
transferred between two parties. Coca-Cola set their product’s price very reasonable so that
all type of customers can easily get their products and maximum sales can be ensured.
Place: Place is generally the area of firms where they conduct their business operations. The
place is very significant for a business organization to reach the maximum number of
audiences and transform them into their actual customers.
People: People refers to the most significant stakeholders of the firm or a business
organization. Employees, managers, customers, and many other stakeholders are considered
as people. Coca-Cola has over 90000 employees working for their organization (Blanchard,
Zigarmi and Zigarmi, 2013). When they relaunched New Coke, they had a greater number of
people to make that project successful.
Process: Process can be identified as the entire process by which the customers can get the
final product from the production department of a business organization. The process can
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control the sales proceedings by which Coca-Cola can ensure their maximum sales. Again,
they don’t offer direct home delivery services which can slow down their business slightly.
Physical Evidence: Physical evidence is the items with which customers interact directly and
connect with the organization (Dewing, McCormack and Titchen, 2015). In the case of New
Coke of Coca-Cola, customer relationship managers, products, distributors are the main
physical evidence.
Part Two- Identifying research requirements
Coca-Cola had developed a new type of drink that can be preferred by a large number of
people. This New Coke of Coca-Cola is a relaunch of their previous item. Initially, they
started their business with this product and run their operations for 15 years depending on it.
The relaunched program of this product will require tentative market research by which the
company will be able to know about the state of the market and they will be able to predict
that whether this product can give the success or not (Graetz, Smith, Rimmer and Lawrence,
2010). There are certain research requirements to conduct market research for this product of
Coca-Cola. Those are given below-
Primary Method: Primary information in marketing refers to a body of knowledge gleaned
from the first-hand experience and learned from real-life circumstances by marketers.
Continuous observation, postal surveys, telephone interviews, internet surveys, test
marketing, and other methods are employed. These are the most common ways to get first-
hand market information. Marketers learn to conduct various online or telephone interviews
to gain a basic understanding of consumer wants and desires to better comprehend the market
situation for New Coke. With a few basic tasks and investigation, it is possible to get
significant knowledge. Other methods, such as observation, can also be useful in acquiring
important data (Hart and Uhr, 2017). People cherish novel features and better cameras in
today's market, but there is also a significant need for mobile phones with excellent battery
life. The marketers were able to gain an in-depth understanding of customers who are looking
for mobile phones with excellent battery life by analysing several polls.
Secondary sources: Secondary data is less reliable, but it is much easier to collect. Marketers
obtain secondary information from a variety of current and publicly available sources,
including media, articles, journals, magazines, and newspapers. These many sources of data
can help the organisation get important knowledge to supplement its basic expertise and learn
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new concepts. Gathering information from numerous sources is a better way to make
secondary marketing research more reliable (Lee and Schaper, 2016). People age between 15-
35 are seeking new types of soft drinks for parting or celebrating occasions. New Coke can
serve those needs or demands of those types of people and ensure greater sales for them.
Part Three- Detailed research plan
Planning research
Method of Research Month-1 Month-2 Month-3 Month-4
Week
1st 2nd 3rd 4t
h
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 1st 2n
d
3rd 4th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
Primary
Research
Online
Interview
Observation
Online
Survey
Secondary
Research
Articles
Newspaper
Journals
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Execution Plan
Implement
the plan
Table 1: Gantt chart of Coca-Cola
The Gantt chart provides a clear illustration that how things are going to work and in which
week which task will be executed. The Gantt chart always helps to illustrate or make a clear
plan for doing research. The Gantt chart of Coca-Cola also shows the market research plan
for their new product.
Implementing research
Coca-Cola’s marketers were focused on acquiring primary data via an online interview,
observation, and internet survey, as well as determining the right target customers to focus
on. The marketers were able to gain a lot of insight into the market's needs thanks to the
observation method, and analysing the surveys allowed them to conduct a thorough analysis
of the target age group for their relaunch programme (Parés Franzi, Ospina and Subirats,
2014). According to secondary statistics, the product follows the current market trend of non-
carbonated soft drinks that are also health-conscious. Analysing journals, books, and
newspapers also provided valuable information.
Uniting the whole information becomes crucial and complex for the marketers during the
application process, and making vital decisions gets risky. This concept, according to certain
studies, can be a profitable investment with a lot of potentials. While others are more
concerned with democratic decisions and the firm's response.
Criticising the research
Although Coca-Cola had to face a very complicated marketing process, it can help the
organization to achieve its goals and ensure greater profitability. If the customers compare the
New Coke with other available products in the market they will be able to see the clear
difference between those and their purchase decision will be in favour of Coca-Cola due to
the effective marketing process (Levchenko, Lewis and Tesar, 2010). There might be some
health issues and concerns, yet people are looking for some luxury beverage to celebrate their
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special moments at which Coca-Cola can make business. There are a lot of soft drinks
available in the market, but the special marketing process can help Coca-Cola to ensure
success.
Findings: People can have New Coke for their special celebration as well as regular
consumption. There are a lot of countries where hard drinks are prohibited and banned due to
social and religious norms. Those can be the idle place for Coca-Cola to marketize their
products and ensure a greater sale. According to the research, there are many markets
available in the world where those things can be utilized to ensure the success of the relaunch
program. All the findings are the conclusion of the different surveys, interviews, and other
research methods.
Recommendation: Relaunching products cannot meet the long-term success often. So, Coca-
Cola must ensure greater marketing and promotional strategies by which they can ensure the
success of this project. Allying with a very popular Netflix program Stranger Things can be a
great initiative to ensure a better marketing strategy for this relaunch program. Besides,
regular monetization is also required to ensure the necessary improvement and uphold the
customer’s demand.
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Part Four – Presentation
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Introduction
The core activity of marketing is to make the people or potential customers aware of a
product so that when those customers think of purchasing any product from that genre, they
consider that marketized brand. It is one of the most significant functions of the business
organization that can directly impact the sales of the organization.
Market segmentation
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Market segmentation is the process of breaking down a large group of people in the market
into smaller groups based on their age, interests, educational backgrounds, personality traits,
and behaviour (Engel, Fiorillo and Cayley, 2018). This market segmentation process
comprises actions such as analysing the market, evaluating potential customers, analysing
sales, and differentiating customers and detecting consumer commonalities. In the case of
Coca-Cola, there are several markets where different types of soft drinks are highly
demanded instead of any type of hard drinks due to their social and religious norms. Besides,
there is also a demand for soft drinks in societies where hard drinks are also legal. Mostly, the
age between 15-30 prefers the soft drinks of Coca-Cola.
There are several types of drinks available in the market such as soft drinks, hard drinks, fruit
juice, and so on. Different types of drinks have different customer bases and the producer of
those types of drinks have different target customers. Coca-Cola has to analyse the market
according to those differences and target the proper group of customers so that they can
ensure greater sales through their effective marketing (Van der Westhuyzen and Van der
Merwe, 2017). They are highly dependent on different social and cultural believes to increase
their sales and make their relaunch program successful. So, they must segment their market
according to that and ensure greater customer transformation.
They can ensure effective marketing for their relaunch program with different digital media.
The entire world has become technology dependent. So, this is the greatest way to reach the
maximum number of customers and ensure a significant number of sales for Coca-Cola and
make their relaunch program successful. There are three major types of market segmentations
which are geographic, demographic, and psychographic. Those are also discussed below-
Geographic Segmentation: Market segmentation according to the different geographical
location is known as geographic segmentation. Coca-Cola can divide market according to
different countries.
Demographic Segmentation: Market segmentation according to the different traits such as
gender, age is known as demographic segmentation. Coca-Cola can divide market according
to those traits.
Psychographic Segmentation: Market segmentation according to the beliefs, values, lifestyle
is known as psychographic segmentation. Coca-Cola can divide market according to different
types of people.
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Marketing mix
Product: Coca-Cola is relaunching New Coke with a new format and packaging by which
they will be able to attract more customers. They have also compared the previous production
process with the current and make the necessary improvements.
Price: Initially, New Coke was a premium drink. It was only affordable by the elite class of
the society which narrowed the range of the market. During the relaunch program, the price
of New Coke become very reasonable so that anyone can have it.
Promotion: Promotion is the most vital point for the relaunch program by which the
company will attract customers to the products and illustrate a clear difference of betterment
with the previous version (Clow and Baack, 2015). Coca-Cola must do a very effective
promotion to ensure the success of its relaunch program.
Place: Coca-Cola must target the places like Bangladesh, India, Nepal where soft drinks are
more popular than hard drinks. It will help them to element a specific type of competition
from the market.
People: There are several types of people associated with the Coca-Cola company. Their
relaunching program will associate more stakeholders to their organization. As a result, they
will be able to have a greater workforce for their organization which can help them to ensure
success.
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