Marketing Essentials (Unit 2) Report: Coca-Cola's Marketing Strategies

This report, prepared for the Marketing Essentials (Unit 2) module at Mont Rose College, provides a comprehensive analysis of Coca-Cola's marketing strategies. It begins by outlining the key elements of marketing, emphasizing the crucial interrelationships between marketing and other departments such as finance, production, and human resources. The report then delves into the roles and responsibilities of marketing within the Coca-Cola Company, examining both micro and macro environmental factors. A significant portion of the report evaluates Coca-Cola's marketing environment, including internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats. Finally, the report presents a strategic marketing plan, demonstrating the application of the 7Ps of the marketing mix and including projected sales figures. The analysis highlights the importance of market research, strategic planning, and effective tactics in achieving Coca-Cola's marketing objectives. The report also addresses the integration of marketing with other departments to ensure organizational success. The report utilizes the Harvard referencing system.

Marketing Essentials (Unit 2) Mont Rose College
Submission Front Sheet
Assignment Code: RQFBM-ME0202051
Programme: BTEC Higher National Diploma (HND) in Business Marketing
Unit Title and Number: Marketing Essentials(Unit2)
RQF Level and Credit value: 4; 15 credits; Unit Code: R/508/0486
Module Tutor: O.A Joshua
Email: [e-mail]
Date Set: 28.02.2021
Name: Gota Gheorghe Bogdan
Registration Number: 25317
Date: 28.02.2021
Is this a Final Submission
Word Count
Learner’s statement of authenticity
Student’s Name: Gota Gheorghe BogdanStudent’sID Number:25317
I certify that the work submitted for this assignment is my own. Where the work of others has been
used to support my work then credit has been acknowledged.I have identified and acknowledged
all sources used in this assignment and have referenced according to the Harvard referencing
system. I have read and understood the Plagiarism and Collusion section provided with the
assignment brief and understood the consequences of plagiarising.
Signature: Gota Bogdan Gheorghe Date: 28.02.2021
6604 words

Marketing Essentials (Unit 2) Mont Rose College
Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 3
Task 1 ........................................................................................................................................................... 4
Key elements of marketing and the importance of interrelationships between marketing and other
department .............................................................................................................................................. 4
Roles and responsibilities of marketing ................................................................................................... 4
Departments and their functions in the organization ......................................................................... 6
How marketing and other departments in the organization relate ..................................................... 7
Task 2 ......................................................................................................................................................... 11
Evaluate roles of marketing in the marketing environment of Coca-Cola Company ............................ 11
Roles of marketing in the marketing environment ............................................................................ 11
Internal factors of the organization ................................................................................................... 11
External factors affecting the organization ........................................................................................ 11
Advantages and disadvantages of conducting the internal and external analysis ............................ 12
Task 3 ......................................................................................................................................................... 12
Strategic marketing plan showing how the 7Ps of marketing have been applied ................................. 12
A strategic marketing plan refers to the process through which an organisation makes a plan on the
direction that the company will take. It is designed to provide guidelines on touch-points that are
crucial to the company if they are to obtain their objectives. It also ensures that there is a clearly
mapped out process through which the organisation is able to influence all their staff members to
follow for the company to be successful. .............................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Comparison of the 7Ps of marketing mix ........................................................................................... 12
Basic marketing plan .......................................................................................................................... 13
Figures and charts to represent the projected sales ......................................................................... 14
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 14
References ................................................................................................................................................. 14

Marketing Essentials (Unit 2) Mont Rose College
Introduction
Marketing refers to activities that a company undertakes to promote the buying or selling of a
product or service. Marketing includes advertising, selling, and delivering products to consumers
or other businesses.
Marketing as a discipline involves all the actions a company undertakes to draw in costumers
and maintain relationships new or old with them. Networking is part of the job which may
include social events, exchange of emails, being prompt to take calls or to respond to emails,
brunch with prospective clients, etc.
Marketing basically is connecting your product to the needs of the client ensuring profitability on
both sides.
The assignment is based on the multinational company Coca Cola, best known soft drink in the
market and the best sold worldwide, who started from selling a few bottles a year and developed
into the leader in soft drink all over the world.
The Coca Cola company is an American corporation that was founded in 1892, now standing
with more then 2.800 products available in more than 200 countries. With headquarters in
Atlanta, Georgia, Coca Cola is the largest manufacturer of soft drinks in the world.
The drink itself has originated in Atlanta, in 1886, by John S. Pemberton. In 1891, pharmacist
Asa Griggs Candler had complete ownership of the business incorporating the Coca Cola
company. By 1893, the U.S Patent Office has registered the trademark “Coca Cola”.
This assignment will focus on the key elements of marketing and the importance of
interrelationships between marketing and other departments, the roles and responsibilities of

Marketing Essentials (Unit 2) Mont Rose College
marketing, departments and their function in the company and how marketing and other
departments in the organization relate.
In the second task of the assignment will evaluate the role of marketing in the marketing
environment of the Coca Cola company, internal and external factors that affect the organization
and the advantages and disadvantages of conduction the internal and external analysis.
In the final part of the assignment we will look at the strategic marketing plan showing how the
7P of marketing have been applied.
Task 1
Key elements of marketing and the importance of interrelationships between marketing
and other department
Roles and responsibilities of marketing
Coca-Cola Company is the most known soft drinks producer worldwide, which uses the roles of
their marketing functions in a particular way. The roles and responsibilities of marketing
functions in Coca-Cola Company are depending on two different marketing environments, micro
environment (company, customer, suppliers, competition) and macro environment (political ,
social, environmental, economic, technological).
The marketing function can be explained as the roles of the business organization that will help
in finding and sourcing potential products for the targeted market and giving a big help in
promoting them afterwards. These functions are common in a company, and contain marketing
researching, product planning, developing process, promoting, selling, customer service, etc.

Marketing Essentials (Unit 2) Mont Rose College
The main role of these functions is to achieve growth for the company. The marketing functions
consist of strategy management, human resource department, finance, product developing,
marketing research, etc. All the above have the role to promote the growth of the company in the
targeted market.
The main role of marketing in Coca-Cola Company is to gather information regarding the market
and analyse it. It continues with finding out the demands and needs of their customers, creating
marketing plans. It helps in design and development of new products, helps is improving the
package to be easier for the costumers to handle and use the said product. Marketing creates
attractive adds in order to increase brand awareness in the market.
The key elements of marketing functions in Coca-Cola Company are the following:
Research: like in any other business, the market research for Coca-Cola Company plays a
crucial role. Without the market research, basically their business could be impossible. By
researching the market, Coca-Cola is gathering all the information needed that concern their
business process. Alongside with the market researching, Coca-Cola is conducting researching in
logistics, finance, raw material, etc.
Strategy: after they did the researching, Coca-Cola must find out all their possible strengths and
weaknesses among their business operation. Doing this, they can choose wisely which strategies
they should apply for their organization. The strategies are offering them the guidance to
maintain their leader position and compete with PepsiCo. All the strategies are build based on the
possibilities and outcome that were measured during research.

Marketing Essentials (Unit 2) Mont Rose College
Planning: after researching and strategy procedures, the next key function of their marketing
department is the planning process. Their marketing department must do the financial planning,
forecasting of sales figures, distribution, etc.
Tactics: these are mostly short-term plans that must be implemented which will ensure Coca-
Cola that they will attract their targeted customers. This involves limited period promotions or
offers, that will offer the company a boost in their marketing plan. It’s also helping in gaining an
advantage in front of the competitors and boosting the sales.
There is a close connection between marketing functions and other organizational functions in
the company ( operations management/production, finance, HR, sales department).
Departments and their functions in the organization
Finance department
The financial department of the Coca-Cola Company is responsible for the financial record
keeping. This involves keeping records of money received and paid out. The financial report wall
is used to produce the annual reports for the shareholders. The finance department is also
responsible for the management accounts for the business like marketing tact. The Coca-Cola
Company finance department is also responsible for making the budget of the company and for
each other department budget like marketing, R&D, production, etc. They will also be involved
in the planning process like taking over any major decision.
Packaging department
The packaging department of the Coca-Cola Company is responsible for packaging of the
product. They have to make the packaging important so that the product meets the eye of the

Marketing Essentials (Unit 2) Mont Rose College
consumer. Bringing the new product packages is their responsibility. It work alongside the
companies bottling partners to produce an attractive combination.
Sales department
The sales department of the Coca-Cola Company is in charge of coordinating the selling
program. They also have to make their distribution methods, etc. They also decide on how much
to sell and how much to store in the warehouse, they choose the transportation method that
works best in efficiency and time.
Research and Development department
This department has the budget given by the finance department and their responsibility is to
investigate new products. They work closely with the marketing department by looking at the
marketing research findings. They have to bring new products in the market for the change
because consumers cannot stick with the same old product. If necessary then they also have to
improve the quality of the product. The Coca-Cola Company R&D department has done a lot of
research and has recently launched many new product on the market.
Administration department
This department is essential for keeping the business going. They act as a help support of the
company, it is not the central purpose but every organization would need this department. They
deal with queries, emails, complains and information to any consumer. Any complain for
example on the product itself will be transferred to the R&D department to fix the problem or
make the product better.
How marketing and other departments in the organization relate
The marketing department has to work together with other departments in the organization to
ensure that the organization gets to fulfill their objectives in the industry. This is through the
following ways.
Marketing and the Operation management/production.
The marketing department has to work together with the production department to ensure that
research and development are planned in order to satisfy all their customers needs, that the

Marketing Essentials (Unit 2) Mont Rose College
product can and will be produced to the quality and design specs needed by the consumers and
that the volume of production provided by marketing will be achieved in the required time, to be
able to be scheduled for delivery.
Most of the times, marketing will set deadlines that is possible to stretch the capacity of the
production line. The marketing people will always want to put their product in the market as
soon as possible to maintain their competitive advantage in front of PepsiCo, whereas the
production people will always want to test and develop their product at the maximum to ensure
that no repairs or replace will be needed in the future and that the products are complying with
the health and safety requirements.
Marketing and finance departments.
The marketing department must work together with the finance department to ensure that there is
an adequate budget to fulfil the needs of researching, distributing and promoting the product.
The finance department must ensure that all the business operates within their budget. Like other
department, the oca-Cola Company’s marketing team will always wish to overspend if profitable
marketing strategies will appear over the year. The marketing department is most focused on
raising their market share and growing their sales, while the finance department is more focused
in cash flow, covering expenses and repaying back the investments in the shortest time possible.
Marketing department and HRM.
The marketing department is working closely with the HRM in order to ensure the qualified staff
with appropriate skills are in place for researching and developing new products, meeting
production targets, and creating an ambitious, professional and competent sales team.

Marketing Essentials (Unit 2) Mont Rose College
Marketing and Sales department.
These two departments must work together because in the past few years, the marketing
department is holding onto leads more that use to de in the past, and they are focusing in
developing relationships with their leads before handing them off to the Sales department.
By holding that much to the leads and nurturing them, marketing department is reducing the
number of cold leads and is increasing the number of warm lads that is making the process of
closing deals for the sales department to be easier. By working together and combining their
different talents, marketing and sales are creating an effective team in generating growth.
Quality control.
Quality control is very substantial for one company in their production process, seeing that
increasingly fierce competition in the global, especially for Coca-Cola Company in grapping
their toughest rival, PepsiCo. It’s very important for Coca-Cola Company as the leader in
beverages company to control their quality of their products. Coca-Cola Company succeded to
dominate the national and international market, both from small businesses to large restaurants.
Coca-Cola company produces some soft drink products such as Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, and
Fresh Tea, packaged in glass bottles with different sizes. In controlling their products’ quality,
Coca-Cola Company sets their products’ quality standards, involving sugar levels, CO2 levels,
bottle cleanliness, bottle condition, and even the taste should meet the requirements of the
standard that have been set by the company.
Lack of feedback-this is another issue that may arise. The efficiency of the organization might
be in problems when the organization is not able to bring the marketing and the other

Marketing Essentials (Unit 2) Mont Rose College
departments to function together. This may cost them more money than they are able to bring in
as profits.
Operational inefficiencies.
Inefficiency happens when projects have either not been properly panned, poorly scheduled,
and/or experience poor quality control or supervision.
“Effectiveness is doing the right thing; efficiency is doing the things right.” – Peter Drucker
Improper planning happens when during the planning stage there are operational inefficiencies
even before the project begins. Improper planning can range from neglect of resources or
redundancies, both of which will produce an inefficient operation , or improper planning can be
neglecting to establishing operational contingencies should a problem arise.
Scheduling is more then telling your staff to show up at nine and leave at six. When we think
about it, scheduling is essentially how managers and their team do their part for the project.
Without scheduling, nothing would ever get done. Products would not be ready in time,
customers would have to wait for a long time, deadlines will be missed, going over the budgets
that the finance department work out for that specific project.
In 2014, Coca-Cola Company lost their sales 1% caused by negative issues of product quality
befell the Coca-Cola company, especially on their carbonate soft drink, Coca-Cola. The loss of
1% seems like a small number, but the decrease in their sales volume would make Coca-Cola
Company quandary in meeting their long term targets.
Increase sales-.

Marketing Essentials (Unit 2) Mont Rose College
As the Coca-Cola Company continues their journey as a total beverage company, building love
brands through disciplined portfolio plays an integral role in the journey. The strategy is driving
results with their flagship brand today.
Through brand building, focusing on the basics, being clear on the occasion, brand, price, pack
and channels their ultimate goal is the increase in the weekly drinkers of the product.
Task 2
Evaluate roles of marketing in the marketing environment of Coca-Cola Company
Roles of marketing in the marketing environment
Customer satisfaction
Increase of market share-.
Employment-
Internal factors of the organization
Strengths-
Weaknesses-
Opportunities-
Threats-
External factors affecting the organization
Political factors
Economic factors-

Marketing Essentials (Unit 2) Mont Rose College
Social factors-
Technological factors-
Environmental factors-
Legal factors-
Advantages and disadvantages of conducting the internal and external analysis
Strategy planning-
Increased awareness-
Lack of reliability-
No solutions-
Task 3
Strategic marketing plan showing how the 7Ps of marketing have been applied
Comparison of the 7Ps of marketing mix
Product-
Price-
Place-
Promotions-
People
Process-