Marketing Essentials: A Comparative Report on Coca-Cola and Pepsi

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of marketing essentials, focusing on the strategies of Coca-Cola. It begins with an introduction to marketing principles and the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within a business context. The report then delves into a comparative analysis of Coca-Cola and Pepsi, examining their marketing mix elements such as product, price, promotion, and distribution. The study also explores how marketing relates to other functional units within Coca-Cola, including operations, finance, and human resources. The report uses real-world examples and discusses the impact of the political, economic, competitive, and social environments on marketing strategies. It aims to provide a detailed understanding of marketing concepts and their application in the competitive beverage industry, concluding with a summary of the key findings and implications for strategic decision-making.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Roles and responsibilities of marketing function .................................................................1
P2 Roles and responsibilities with wider business context..........................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P3 Comparison of the marketing mix elements within the Coca-cola and Pepsi company........5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
Covered in PPt.............................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Market refers to the place where buying and selling of goods takes place. All such
activities and requirements which are related with the production of the goods to the final
consumption regarded as a marketing essentials. This study will be based on marketing strategies
and business plans of Coca-cola company. Since marketing includes satisfying consumer needs,
it is also a social and managerial process which allows the organization to exchange products and
services. Also, it will help in developing a complete understanding about the roles and
responsibilities of different functions within the business. It will also explore 7p's of marketing
mix which supports the main objectives of the organization. The document will also help in
analysing the relationship between marketing and other functional units of the Coca-Cola
company. The report will also develop a marketing plan for an organization in order to overcome
the strategic challenges of the firm.
TASK 1
P1. Roles and responsibilities of marketing function
Marketing is defined as the management and strategic process which regulates the
movement of goods and services from concept to consumers of the organisation (Fahy and
Jobber, 2015). Thus marketing function describes and manages the information like product
specification, pricing, promotional methods and distribution channel. Marketing plays a very
significant role in the success of business as it aims to anticipate and satisfy the needs of target
customers profitably. Marketing process create and delivers the offerings which is valuable for
the investors, clients and society as well. Marketing function is known as the role which assist
organisations to assess and source products for market which are acceptable in terms of
consumer satisfaction and profitability goals of the company. Marketing department of Coca
Cola performs following functions:
Product development and distribution:
This is one of the fundamental function of marketing department of the organisation. The
organisation cannot achieve its goals if products are not satisfactory and as per the needs of
target audience. The marketing department of Coca Cola assesses the need of market and
formulate the product specifications, pricing strategy and distribution network so that more and
more people can be served with the quality services.
Market research and promotional channels:
1

Coca Cola cannot survive in the market for long term without gaining competitive
advantage. The marketing department also conducts marketing research so that the existing
needs and marketing trends can be identified and services can be improved accordingly. To
create the awareness of products among people marketing strategies are used to promote the
organisation (Holloway, 2016.). The lack of ineffective promotional strategies can be harmful
for the long term success of the organisation. Thus marketing functions regularly monitors the
competitors and marketing trends so that company can sustain its long term growth.
Public relation and brand management:
In order to expand globally and to retain dominant position in the local market business
groups are required to establish strong and good public relation and brand. The marketing
department ensure that the values and brand objects of the company are projected impressively
among social groups so that company get positive response from the people. This marketing
function is very important as improper brand management not only affects the new consumers
but can also influence the retention of existing service users.
Customer service:
It is almost impossible for the organisation to survive without customer support. The
important function of managing customer's service and relation is also performed by the
marketing department. Since the product is promoted and distributed by marketing department of
the company consumers have direct interaction with the marketing professionals (Baker, 2016).
Marketing department acts as an intermediate bridge between the customers and the
organisation. Marketing department communicate with the potential consumers so that their
needs can be understood and suitable products and services can be developed and delivered to
the customers.
Thus marketing department plays critical role in retaining loyal consumers as well to
create new customers which can add value to the growth and profitability of organisation.
The political and regulatory environment: Business get influenced by the federal, state and
local bodies who generally sets the rules and regulations to perform commercial practices. These
stated rules and regulations by the government are mainly aimed at protecting both consumer as
well as business. Recently Coca-cola company has had to learn about the decreased carbon
footprints in manufacturing the gases for the cold drinks.
2

The economic environment: Business thrives when the economy is growing, employment is
full and prices of the products are stable. Marketing products of the Coca- Cola brand are easier
because consumers are willing to buy more (Oishi, 2018). On the other hand, with the fall of the
economy, unemployment is raising which resulted in less money for the people to spend and
therefore the marketer's job is harder. Economic crisis may be occurred due to the increased
inflation rate, increase in foreign exchange market etc.
The competitive environment: With the rapid growing advancement of the world, there are
various companies who are planning to enter into the new market or expand the business
activities. This resulted in the increased competition in the market. Meanwhile, Pepsi is one of
the strongest competitor of the Coke. Among this both the companies introduced new product
namely C2 and Pepsi Edge. Both the companies have targetted the cola drinkers who want the
flavours of the regular soda but with few calories. So due to the huge competition in the market,
the makers of the competitive brand need to consider the effective marketing strategies which
will inspire the people to buy the product of the Coca-Cola as compared to other brands.
The social and cultural environment: Marketers also have to stay tuned to cultural and social
factors which influence the main objectives of the company. Social factors can be concerned
with the tastes and perceptions and lifestyle of the people which frequently changes with the time
and thus this impacts on the sales of the company (Makagiansar, and et.al., 2018). Along with
this cultural environment may be referred as one of the most import concern which effects the
main profitability of the firm. Cultural practices are the set of beliefs, practices, customs and
behaviour which are found to be common so thus according to the cultural differences of the
people, companies profits are dependent.
P2 Roles and responsibilities with wider business context.
Marketing is one of the important aspects which allows the business to maintain the long-
lasting and ever present relationship with their audience. Marketing helps in increasing the
awareness about goods and services which are available in the market. By raising the awareness
through marketing, Coca-Cola company will build the audience of potential customers. Also
marketing helps in increasing the sales of the company which ultimately contributes towards the
huge profitability. Marketing and socialising the goods and services creates the trust and faith
among the people.
3

Coca-Cola company deals with the variety of cold-drinks and thus this organization have
expanded the business in an international market (Blythe and Martin, 2019). So in order to
manage the company and coordinate the operations and activities of the company, Coca-Cola has
a separate international division structure. This structure allows the company to operate and
manage its international staff separately. Although, the Coca-Cola company has a corporate
segment which is mainly responsible for giving the overall direction to the company which
supports the regional structure.
The role of the operation management is to deal with the productivity system of the
Coca-Cola. This consists of various different functions within the company. These operations
can be carried out by various different units in order to deals with the final distribution and
consumption to the final user.
Finance: This functional unit of the organization assists in making the number based decisions
by providing the accurate financial status of the company. Finance department of the company is
mainly aimed at accurate financial information to improve the performance continuously which
helps in raising the whole system of the quality based service.
Human resource: This function is aimed at shaping the human assets for the company. So HR
manager plays very important role in achieving the human goals in business operations. So it is
one of the important function within the business as this unit attract and develop the talents,
manage HR policy, administration, schedules and other staff activities. This function within the
business is able to effectively recruit, develop and retain the human Resources of the Coca-Cola
company.
Marketing: It is one of the important aspect of the organization which allows the company to
reveal it goods and services via different effective marketing channels. Thus it helps in engaging
large number of customers as well contributes towards increased sales and profitability of the
firm.
Customer service: The Coca-Cola is one of the most popular brand among all the people across
the country as well as different nations of the world (Nguyen, Nguyen and Do, 2019). So in order
top increase the sales of goods and services, customers are most important link which buys the
goods of the company which strengthens the company to provide more according to the needs
and the demands of the people.
4

All these units of the company are inter-related with each other as production and
manufacturing department deals with the production of the goods and services (Fahy and Jobber,
2015). Marketing department provides the information about the marketing trends and demands
of the customer according to which operational department performs its operations. Also, Human
resource department is responsible for the recruitment and selection of the new employees which
supports the operations of the company and thus this department manages all the payslip and
records of the employees which is further processed by the finance unit of the Coca-Cola
company. In addition, sales department generates the report which depicts the total sale of the
goods and services and this information is thus processed by the production department in order
to identify the available stock within the company (Leke, Chironga and Desvaux, 2018). This is
how all the functional units of the company are inter related with each other. However, lack of
coordination and communication among different departments of the Coca-Cola results in low
performance and thus it impacts on the overall profitability of the firm.
TASK 2
P3 Comparison of the marketing mix elements within the Coca-cola and Pepsi company
The business objectives are the final result which the company aims to achieve via
utilising different strategies and plans. These objectives vary according to the time frame and list
of resources available within the organization. The Coca-Cola brand is mainly aimed at
providing the customer satisfaction via production of the cold drinks. So the objectives of the
company play a big role in forming the foundation of the companies regarding the decision
making process. So the main objectives of the company is to refresh the world in order to inspire
the moments of optimism and happiness (Deal, 2018). This creates the value and make a
difference with the other competitive brands. In contrast the Pepsi company focus towards the
protecting the water supplies in which the organization argues that the water is essential to the
production of their products. Pepsi company is also aimed at meeting the food and resource need
of the people.
Marketing Mix can be considered as the foundation model for the businesses. The
marketing mix is referred as the set of marketing tools that which are used by the firm to pursue
its marketing objectives. This includes various different types of broad terms which supports the
understanding and marketing plan which contributes towards the accomplishment of the mian
objectives within firm. Such elements are described below:
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Product: Coca-Cola product strategy in marketing mix can be determined by its wide range of
products. So the products offered by the Coca-Cola company are Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Diet
Coke, Coca cola Zero, Coca cola Life, Honest tea, Fresca, Glaceau Vitamin water, Mello yello,
Fuze, Fuze tea, Osewalla, Powerade Zero etc. This company sales its products in variety of
different packages and sizes which consists of its core product that is mainly consists of 200ml,
500ml, 2ltr cans etc. On the other hand, Pepsi is one of the strong competitor which produces
simiolar products as compared to Coca-Cola (Barlow and et.al., 2018). The core product of the
Pepsi is the Carbonated Soft Drink and various drinks are offered by this company such as
carbonated beverages, fruit juices, snacks, etc. Mountain dew and 7up are the two main products
provided by the Pepsi Brand.
Price: Coca-Cola company mainly follows the Price discrimination strategy in marketing mix. In
this highly competitive world, Coca-cola and Pepsi are the two dominant players. However,
Prises of Both the companies are generally similar to each other. In developing countries if the
coke increase its prices then people will switch to the Pepsi products. Hence both the companies
comes to an agreement of maintaining the price parity in each segment. On the other hand
sometimes, Coca-cola offers the discounted offers discounts on bulk purchase.
Place: As The Coca Cola company has developed the brand image since more then 130 years in
the market so this company have developed it outlets in almost 200 countries of the world. Talso
this company have huge distribution channel which supports the company to develop its retail
outlet over various popular hotels and restaurants (Stuckler, Ruskin and McKee, 2018). In
contrast, outlets of the Pepsi are also developed in more then 200 countries of the world and this
company has developed its outlet at the areas where the targetted customers are available. This
company focuses towards extensive retail channel through grocery stores, restaurants,
supermarkets etc.
Promotion: Coca-cola sets the bench mark for advertising and branding of the firm. This
company mainly focuses towards the aggressive marketing through the effective campaign via
TV, Social media, Sponsorship etc. Also, this company have promoted coke products by
providing the incentives to the distributors and retailers in expanding the reach of the
products(Kraus, 2018). In contrast with this, Pepsi have developed the effective promotional
activities by celebrity endorsement.
6

People: Coco-Cola company focuses towards the large audience of every age group. This
company targets youngsters and physical conscious people who are aimed at consuming the diet
coke. This company mainly offers large variety of products for the people of all the age group
specially teenagers. Similarly, Pepsi company also offers the carbonated drinks for the huge
audience in order to consume such carbonated drinks.
Process: The Pepsi is often sweeter then coke while similar chemical composition are generally
processed while manufacturing the products of the Pepsi and Coca-Cola. Although, coke consists
of more carbonated components as compared to Coca-cola. But the process of making these cold
drinks is almost similar to each other.
Physical evidence: the coca-cola company provides the the goods at the general stores, retail
shops, super markets and various different stores of the market (Alahi and Bass, 2018). The Coca
cola company has developed its brand image which helps the customer in easily recognising the
coca-cola products. This company has a unique black and Red coloured logo with a written coca
cola with a attractive red coloured font. On the other hand, Pepsi has a unique logo of circle in
trio of colours are visible. A circle with a layer of red followed by white and blue (Marketing
mix, 2017).
TASK 3
Covered in PPt
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it can be concluded that Coca-Cola deals with the various different
types of units which are interrelated with each other in order to accomplish the main objectives
of the company. This report has presented roles and responsibilities of marketing functions
which contributes the organization in sustainable development and improved overall
performance of the business. Also it has developed a clear understanding about the marketing
mix elements which helped the organization in achieving the main objectives of the Coca-Cola
company. This study has also helped in comparing the 7 p's of marketing mix with two different
organizations. The above provided information has also provided the marketing plan for the
Coca-Cola company and this plan has created a complete understanding about the main
objectives, strategies, target market selection and segmentation which supports the company for
the successful development. This study has also evaluated the sales and market share of in order
to determine the Accurate and actual efficient ratios and cost-profitable analysis.
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REFERENCES
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Oishi, A.H.A., 2018. Analysis of H&M home supply chain and implementing such in
Bangladeshi market of same arena.
Makagiansar, and et.al., 2018 "QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF COCA-COLA BRAND
EQUITY (CONSUMER PERSPECTIVE IN MANADO)." Jurnal EMBA: Jurnal Riset
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the World's Next Big Growth Market. Harvard Business Press.
Deal, J., 2018. Brand Communication in a Large Consumer Goods Company: A Case of The
Coca-Cola Company.
Barlow, P. and et.al., 2018. Science organisations and Coca-Cola’s ‘war’with the public health
community: insights from an internal industry document. J Epidemiol Community
Health. 72(9). pp.761-763.
Stuckler, D., Ruskin, G. and McKee, M., 2018. Complexity and conflicts of interest statements:
a case-study of emails exchanged between Coca-Cola and the principal investigators of
the International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment
(ISCOLE). Journal of public health policy. 39(1). pp.49-56.
Alahi, A. and Bass, E., 2018. COCA-COLA’S FUTURE GROWTH STRATEGY:
DIVERSIFICATION?.
Kraus, C., 2018. More than Just a Soft Drink: Coca-Cola and China’s Early Reform and
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Marketing mix. 2017. [online]. Available through:<https://www.businessinsider.com/the-
difference-between-coke-and-pepsi-2012-12?IR=T>
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