Marketing Functions and Strategies: A Coca-Cola Case Study Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Coca-Cola's marketing functions, detailing the roles and responsibilities of the marketing department within the organization. It explores how Coca-Cola fulfills customer needs and wants, ensures organizational survival, expands market reach through various promotional activities, and manages product utility and pricing. The report also examines the importance of marketing in relation to other departments like Human Resources and Accounting, highlighting the collaborative efforts required to achieve organizational goals. Furthermore, it delves into Coca-Cola's marketing strategies, including marketing planning, customer engagement, competitor analysis, brand value management, and the use of marketing tools. The report concludes with an evaluation of the marketing mix and the development of an effective marketing plan for one of Coca-Cola's products.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
P1. Roles and responsibilities of marketing functions................................................................3
P2. Roles and responsibilities of marketing to wider organisational context.............................7
LO 2...............................................................................................................................................10
P3. Application of marketing-mix.............................................................................................10
LO 3...............................................................................................................................................13
P4. Marketing plan ...................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a process that is used by the organization to study and manage the
relationship with consumer and satisfy their need to retain them. Marketing functions is
performed by the company to promote the product and services of organization to full fill
business goals and attract and motivate the consumer by different activities to improve sales and
higher market share in market place (Campbell, Martin and Fabos, 2018). This is one of the
important functional department of an organization. Coca Cola is company is a soft drink
manufacturing company that is operating worldwide. Coca Cola is one of the most recognized
company around the globe. Coca Cola is a public limited company and it was introduced in year
1892 by John Stith Pemberton as coca cola and the company was introduced by Asa Griggs
Candler. Headquarter of company is in Atlanta, Georgia, united states of America.
This report is providing brief information of marketing function for Coca Cola company.
Key roles and responsibilities of marketing department are explained and evaluated to analyse
their importance in organization. Marketing roles and responsibilities of department are
explained with respect to current environment of marketing. Interrelation of marketing
department with other department is studied in the report to find its effectiveness for
organization. Key elements of marketing department and their relationship with other functional
units is also considered in study. The marketing strategy and marketing planning or coca cola is
studied to evaluate it for completion of different goals and targets of company. A effective
marketing plan is developed for one of product of company and marketing strategy is evaluated
on the basis 7 P's of marketing(Steenkamp, 2018).
LO 1
P1. Roles and responsibilities of marketing functions
 Fulfilling customer needs and wants : The main role of marketing department is to
understand the needs and wants of the target market. The marketing department of a
company analyse the market in order to know the current trends and demand in a market
and then accordingly creates marketing strategies(Cacciolatti and Lee, 2016.).
 Ensure organisation survival : The second most important role which the department
has in Coca Cola is that it helps the business to survive in a competitive market.
Customer retention is an important factor behind increase of market share by company.

Therefore marketing department helps Coca Cola to attract the customer toward their
products.
 Widen market : Marketers use wide variety of communication tools such as advertising,
email, event marketing, promotional campaign etc. As well as also make use of various
platforms in order to promote the product such as social media, youtube, print media etc.
The promotional programme helps company to build image in a market and create brand
awareness.
 Better product : Marketing department ensure to use a good packaging and labelling in
order to attract customers toward the product. Marketing department actively engage in a
activity of designing and managing product and introducing various offers and discounts
in order to increase sales(Baker, 2016).
 Creates utility : marketing of products help company to increase utility of product. Here
utility refers to the ability of product in order to satisfy the wants of a costumers. The
marketer. By using the necessary tactics marketing department makes the product
purchase easy. They use the strategies such as introduction of right product at right time
to right target audience.
 Right price : Price is one of the critical element in marketing mix which helps in
generating revenue. The marketing department of Coca Cola set such prices for its
product which is easily affordable by the various consumer groups.
 Management of demand : The marketers are experts in creating demand in market as
well as analysing demand. The demand can be of many form such as irregular demand,
full demand, overfull demand etc. Marketing department of Coca Cola are capable
enough in order to handle such demand.
 Economic growth : Marketers tries to created demand in market which helps in increase
in production and distribution activities. As a result of this industrial growth is increased
which helps in increasing ,employment in industry. Creation of demand for product also
helps in improving living standard of humans which results in economic growth.
 Discharge social responsibilities : Due to increase pressure by government and
environmental degradation almost all the companies including Coca cola is forced to
introduce activities contribute to the benefit of society. The marketing department of
Coca cola use social marketing for this purpose.

 Face competition : The Coca Cola marketing department helps in maintaining balance
between customer expectation. The marketing department of a company timely plan new
strategies in order to stay ahead of its competitors(Keegan, , Rowley and Tonge, 2017).
Responsibilities of Marketing
Different responsibilities of marketing function in organization are related to their role in
company. These strategies are listening the customers, track and monitor the competitors in
market place, work and brand value, searching new marketing tools for organization, coordinate
the efforts of organization with company partners, innovation communicate with rest of
organization, improves the sales procedure, manage marketing budget and plan marketing
strategy.
Plan Marketing Strategy
The basic role of marketing department is to design the strategy for the promotion of
company product. This is their responsibility to develop an effective marketing plan for the
product of organization (Larson and Draper, 2015). As per the current market conditions they
have to develop a plan to make customer aware of the new company product. This is important
for the company to performs marketing in effective way to motivate and encourage the customer
to buy product of company. These responsibilities of marketing function important for coca Cola
to meet sales target.
Listening the Customer Needs
The customers are the target audience for organization and all the function of marketing
department are based on the consumer needs. All the planes made by the organization are
designed by keeping need of consumer in mind to make effective and productive plan. To
develop high effective plan of marketing they need to know the requirements of consumer. This
thing will help them to design various promotional advertisements.
Monitor and Track competitors
Competitors in the market place also use different promotional methods to perform
marketing of their product. To develop plan for marketing they need to know the positioning of
the Coca Cola in market place. This can help them to evaluate their mistakes and issues in
current marketing policy of company. This also support the organization by reducing the chances
of failure for Coca Cola company.
Work for Brand Value

The brand value of company is important for their effectiveness of market place. The
reputation of company in market lead the organization to success or failure of strategy. If the
consumers are not aware of company product then this will lead to less market share of company
in market place. To create high market value of company product in market to make good
impression on customers and encourage them to by product of Coca Cola.
Searching For Marketing Tools
there are various tools of marketing are used by the marketing department complete their
individual goals and sales goals of company. These tools are used for different functions of
marketing department. To improve the actions of department they need to use various new tools
to improve their data collection and process (Muralidharan and Raval, 2017). These tools
provide better opportunity to organization and marketing department to decide policy for
promotion of company product. The tools used by marketing department are divided in three
categories that are production management tools, marketing automation tools, and product
information management tools.
Coordination with Business Partners
When organization is performing business in collaboration with other company then it is
responsibility of marketing department to make them aware of different specification of
company product to ensure their role in organization. This is important for effectiveness of
marketing policy for business partners.
Introduce Innovation
The marketing department is also responsible to introduce innovation to the organization
to improve the business process. Generally different type of research is performed by marketing
department to make the company aware of various market trends. To meet the market
requirement marketing department analyse the business strategy and technology used by
competitor to suggest changes to company to improve the performance of organization in global
market.
Communicate With rest of Company
Marketing department communicate with other people and department in the organization
to make them aware of different information collected by them through marketing research
(Baker and Saren, 2016). This is important for company to get this information to improve and
change their functions for achieving company goals.

Improve Sales Process and Customer
The marketing department is responsible to know the feelings of customers about the
company to make effective changes to the marketing policy. By making respective changes
marketing department try to cover up the profit goals.
Prepare Marketing Budget
For different activities that are performed by marketing department and for these
activities they need to prepare a budget. This budget help them to full fill the requirement of fund
for various operation.
P2. Roles and responsibilities of marketing to wider organisational context
Relation of Marketing department with 1250
Marketing department almost work with all the other department within the organisation
in order to analyse the market properly and accordingly set the strategies for pricing, promotion,
and selection of appropriate platform to promote the product, their target market etc. The
marketing department work with almost all department including finance department, human
resource department, customers service department etc. It is necessary that marketing department
work closely with all other department in order to achieve organisational goal. The working with
different department creates a clear picture for the marketing department to make marketing
strategies in order to gain the attraction of customers(Feng, Morgan and Rego, , 201).
Human resource department : Marketing and human resource department are not different form
each other. When a business need to attract people or convince them it is required that a
company market the requirement which looks attractive. The main function of HR department is
to recruit right people for the organisation who will contribute to the success of the organisation.
The HR department of Coca coal recruit the talented and knowledgeable candidate in the
organisation(Noe and et.al., 2017). The department monitor the functioning of all other
department and make an effort in order to improve the productivity of different departments.
The marketing department in order to have an efficient team who are good is selling or
product and promoting product require to work closely with the human resource department. The
both department work closely with each other in order to motivate the employees of organisation
as well as attracting customers which will enhance the overall performance of the organisation.

As in this competitive era it is becoming difficult day by day to find right people for the
job. Effective marketing can help the company to get right candidate at right time for the right
position.
Account department : Accounting department is responsible for managing affairs related to
monitoring the sales. Accounting department of a coca cola monitors the financial condition of
company. While the marketing department of a company is responsible for managing the sales of
a business. Accounting department should work closely with marketing department in order to
analyse the current trends in market and accordingly prepare budget for company to support the
various marketing activities by the marketing department(Noe and et.al., 2015).
The accounting department monitors the sales of a business. Which helps the company to
look at the profit earned by a company.
As the marketing department has to plan budget for performing various promotional
activities such as promotional campaign, designing of packaging and labelling, advertising
through print media, electron media etc., therefore both the department should work closely with
each other in order to prepare budget for the company promotional activities.
The marketing department plans various programmes in order to increase the sales of a
company products and services. The department prepares a report in order to determine that
whether the sales strategies has worked or not. Report includes gross sales per campaign, how
many customer hits website etc., such type of point help company to determine the success of
marketing strategies.
Both the department work closely which helps the business in preparing budget for future
projects. By analysing the past data the account department can create a budget for a company.
Customer service department : Customer service department within the organisation is
responsible for maintaining public relation and secondly it helps in retaining customer. The
department is responsible for building a healthy relation with the customers. Retaining customer
is one of the most important factor for the organisation the reason behind this is that the increase
in competition and presence of substitutes results in loss of customers. Therefore it is important
that the representative of customer department should built a strong relation with the customers
in order to gain their trust and loyalty.
Marketing department and customers service department work with each other in order to
understand the needs and wants of customer in detail. The customer service department take

Feng, H., Morgan, N.A. and Rego, L.L., 2019 feedback from the customers about the products
and services offered by the company. The feedback which the company receives help marketing
department to understand the concerns of the customer as well as knowing that which type of
product they like. Therefore it helps the marketing department of company to design the product
accordingly or to make changes in the existing product.
The marketing department creates the strategies by knowing that what customer really
wants and how they want it. And this is known by conducting a online survey, or by making a
call, taking a feedback from customers.
Production department : Production department of company converts the raw material into
finished products. The production department of organisation set standard for the products. The
department monitors the quantity and quality of both finished as well as raw materials. The
quality is monitored by almost all employee in the production department. The department also
ensures the proper flow of raw materials within the organisation(DeLaGrange, Insurance Lounge
Franchise Company, Inc., 2016). The department also ensures to test and design new product and
produce prototypes of the final product.
The marketing department and production department works closely the reason behind
this is that marketing department analyse the market and find out the needs and wants of
customers, trend in market, opportunities in market etc., as the demand of the market changes
continuously with the rapid change in the business environment. Therefore in order to hold the
position in market it become important for the organisation to continuously analyse the market.
After proper analysis of market by marketing department production department make the
product accordingly.
Information technology department : the IT department of a company is responsible for
providing automation in the organisation. It implements governance for using networks and
operating system in the organisation. The IT department is responsible for maintaining,
designing, supporting and monitoring the information technology infrastructure(Choi and et.al.,
2016).
Earlier marketing department plays an important role in the success of the organisation
but now a days marketing department alone cannot help the company to achieve success. As the
use of technology is increasing day by day therefore it become essential for every organisation
to have IT department within it.

The IT department use big data analytics in order to collect the data of customers. IT
department works closely with marketing department in order to created strategies for achieving
business objectives.
Marketing department and IT department work closely to help the organisation to achieve
its objective. The data which has been collected by IT department about the customer is used by
marketing department in order to analyse their target customer and to know the what type of
products or services customer like. The data which the IT department collects include personal
data of customers, Such as age, contact numbers, the site they visited the most etc. It helps the
marketing department to clearly analyse their customer.
Therefore it can be concluded that the various functions of an organisation work
collaboratively with the marketing department which helps the company to achieve its
objectives.
LO 2
P3. Application of marketing-mix
Comparison of 7P's of Coca cola and Pepsi
Product: Coca cola has a large product portfolio which consist of about 500 sparkling brands.
The company provides 3900 beverages choices to its customers. The brand has a good strong
image in market. The portfolio of company has 21 billion dollars out of which 19 are in low and
no calorie choices. Some brand in coca cola portfolio are : Sprite, Diet coke, coca cola zero, coca
cola life, Minute maid, Ciel, simply orange(Brownlee, Dmytriyev and Elias, 2017).
Pepsi also provides a wide range of beverage, snacks and foods. The company has about
22 different brands which include Pepsi Cola, Mountain Dew, Tropicano, Diet Pepsi, 7 UP, Lay's
and other international brands.
The portfolio of company also includes brand related drinks, accessories and limited
products which is related to the above mentioned brands.
Place: The products of Coca Cola is distributed in more than 200 countries and about 6
operating regions including Latin, America, North America, Pacific, Eurasia & Africa. About 1.9
billion product of Coca Cola is sold every day. The company use the multiple local chain in
order to distribute its product. The bottling partner of company provide customers its products

everywhere including theatres, amusement parks, convenience store, street vendors and many
other places.
PepsiCo products are sold in various territories around the world. The products of
PespsiCo is available in min- markets, grocery stores, supermarkets and also in fast food
restaurants and various other restaurants. The company usually focusing on giving its product in
fast food chains. In year 2015 about more than 5000 locations were added in the customer
portfolio of a company across various countries such as UK, Canada, India and
Netherlands(Eades and Thornhill, 2017.).
Price: Coco-cola is well-known for the flexible pricing scheme used by the company to cover
the global market. As there is already good competitor available for the Coco-Cola in the market
the company use the Penetration pricing strategy as it help the company to cover the larger
market area as in this strategy company keeps the price at a low level at the initial stage of the
product launch so that they are able to attract the customer toward the organization.
PepsiCo use the market oriented pricing strategy(Serodio and et.al., 2016). Means the
company use different pricing strategies for different products. For example for Pepsi cola
company use cost leadership pricing , while for Doritos the company uses premium pricing
strategy. The reason behind this is that in that market company has a strong competitive position.
Promotion: As there is huge competition in the market and the company in same industry is
highly involved in advertising of its product as a result of the Coca Cola also spend high amount
in order to promote its product. Marketing expenditure of Coca Coal is about $ 4 billion as
recorded in year 2016(Renz and Vogel, 2016). The company uses both traditional as well as
modern channel in order to promote its product. The company uses various methods in order to
promote its product such as TV advertisements, outdoor ad campaign, internet and social media.
The company performs a heavy marketing and advertising strategies for promoting its
products. In year 2016 the company has spent about $ 2.5 billion. The company spent large
amount of its advertising fund on digital marketing. The company uses both social media as well
as print media in order to promote its product.
People: Generally Coco-cola is well-known for the employee base which has been developed by
them as they used to recruit the best employee from the market and used to train them according
to the organizational need which helps the company in retaining the customer for the longer
period as with that also they used to provide the best rewards and wages to them.

PespsiCo has an efficient employees in its organisation which plays a huge role in the
success of the organisation. The company has also won award of ' Workplace Excellence' in
order to create a good management of employees in the organisation. The company has also
listed in top 20 of 'Ideal employer MBA ranking. The company knows that employees is the
most important resource of the organisation therefore the company gives value to its employees
and also work for their betterment.
Processes: Coca cola products is available in almost every store or formats whether it is mini
store, Supermarket, theatre or any other place(Liu and et.al., 2017). The company ensures to
have an efficient supply chain management. The company tries its best to create a healthy
relation with its customers,. The company provides various services to the customers. The
company use the various distribution channels in order to provide products to its customers. The
company assures that its products are available in each store where ever the company is
supplying its product.
PepsiCo is trying to make sure that its products are available in every retail stores so that
customer can get the product easily(MAANI HESSARI and et.al., 2019). The company manages
a regular contact with retailers in order to ensure regular supply of products. PepsiCo use the
online delivery process which helps in receiving of orders by the computer system and on the
basis of orders the inventory is shipped to the retailers or service providers. The company is
actively involved in performing the marketing research which helps the company to know the
current trend in the market and manufacture the product accordingly. In order to understand the
market company takes the feedback from its customers by offline as well as online medium and
through the social media pages.
Physical Evidence: Logo is the biggest physical evidence for the product of the coco cola and it
and the company use same for the all its product in the market. Company also provides its drink
in Can.
PepsiCo has its own websites which provide information about the wealth of a company
which includes history of company, products of company, areas in which company is operating
and its manufacture process. Pepsico is leading the industry in packaging. The packaging of a
company helps in promoting and implementing standards which should be used for sustainable
packaging. The company has the basic concept behind packaging of the product and that is
reduce, recycle, reuse, renew and remove.