Analyzing Coca-Cola's Zero Sugar Market Introduction Strategies

Coca-Cola has consistently demonstrated prowess in launching successful products within the highly competitive beverage industry. The introduction of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar is no exception, achieved through meticulous marketing strategies that focus on understanding consumer needs and leveraging market trends. This analysis delves into how Coca-Cola identified its target demographic—health-conscious consumers seeking sugar-free alternatives without sacrificing taste—and tailored its messaging to resonate with this group. Marketing campaigns highlighted the product's health benefits while maintaining brand loyalty by drawing parallels with traditional Coca-Cola flavors. Strategic partnerships, extensive distribution networks, and robust digital marketing efforts further bolstered the product's market presence. Additionally, promotions such as free sample distributions and engaging social media content helped generate consumer interest and trial. This comprehensive approach not only facilitated a successful launch but also solidified Coca-Cola’s position in the zero-sugar segment of the beverage market.

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ORGANIZATIONAL MARKETING STRATEGIES
Student’s name
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Table of contents
Title Page
Executive summary …………………………………………………………… 3
Introduction …………………………………………………………………… 4
The Coca-Cola Company Business Environment …………………………….. 5
Marketing Mix theory Explanation …………………………………………… 5
Innovative recommendations …………………………………......................... 7
Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………. 7
References ……………………………………………………………………. 8

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Executive summary
Marketing is well understood as one of the most important operations that an
organization aiming to make sales is required to involve in. Marketing strategies help
organizations introduce their products into the market and at the same time inform the
consumers the reasons why they should prefer their products to those of other competitor
organizations. With this regard, therefore, the majority of the organizations establish
marketing strategies that are aimed at making their brands popular and preferred by their
targeted customers. An organization that lacks a good marketing strategy risks offering a
product into the market that is highly appropriate and competitive but making significantly
small sales since customers are not aware of the existence of this product and the means
through which it could be beneficial to them. A company that has highly effective marketing
strategies for its products is the Coca-Cola Company. One of the most recent product that the
organization has announced and is launching as it introduces to the market is the Coca-Cola
zero sugar product. This paper assesses the strategies that the Coca-Cola Company has
established to market and make significant sales of its new Coca-Cola Zero sugar product.
Introduction
The Coca-Cola Company is currently the leading foods and Beverage Company in the
world basing this ranking from revenue. The organization has managed to maintain this
position for a long time, mainly because of its highly appropriate and beneficial operations in
the nation. One major challenge that the organization faces in its operations and with its
products is caused by the main health issue of obesity that significantly impacts the United
States. This challenge occurs because some of the products of the organizations have a high
content of calories, which make them significantly inappropriate and less preferred by many
individuals. Due to this reason, the Coca-Cola Company recently responded by establishing

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the Coke Zero product, which is a refreshment drink that is created with products that have
significantly less calorie content. The organization has also recently announced its plans of
changing the product and replacing it with the new Coca-Cola Zero sugar brand. The paper
analyses the marketing strategies that the Coca-Cola Company has put in place, to market its
new product and explain the rationale for replacing its previous coke zero product (Kumar,
2008).
The Coca-Cola Zero Sugar product is one of the most recent Coca-Cola company
brands to be introduced in the market. The drink is a replacement of the recently famous coke
zero brands that were initially sold to the targeted group of individuals. The Coca-Cola
Company recently explained that the drink is created with similar ingredients but has
increased a sweetened flavor without any sugar in it. The company also ensured that it
incorporated the Coca-Cola taste in the drink thus ensuring that all individuals obtained the
product. Currently, this product can be purchased from the majority of the Coca-Cola stores
within the United States, and it will be available for all individuals in shops after successful
distribution of the drink takes place (Codita, 2010).
The Coca-Cola Company Business Environment
The Coca-Cola Company is as explained earlier the leading organization regarding
revenue in the whole world. This makes the organization placed in an appropriate position
within the market, beginning from the organization’s market share to the number of markets
where it has managed to expand and offer its products in. Due to this reason, the organization
has an appropriate and good business operating environment. It, however, faces the threat of
another significantly large organization in this category, which is also the second largest in
the industry. This organization is known as the PepsiCo Company. The organization also
targets similar customers to the ones that the Coca-Cola company targets and thus for that

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reason, there is a stiff competition between these two major organizations. Apart from
PepsiCo, the organization also face competition from other local beverage organizations in
the markets where it has expanded its operations. These are the organizations that produce
local drinks to the local people, and thus instead of customers purchasing products from the
organization, they consider making the local company purchases. With this regard, therefore
competition by these organizations is also a significant factor that helps to establish an
environment for the organization (Coca-Cola Journey, 2017).
The Main Target Market for the Company is the individuals that are significantly
concerned about the content of calories that they take into their bodies through the foods and
drinks that they consume on a daily basis. Calories have led to a large number of individuals
attaining the condition of obesity, especially in the United States where the number of
individuals with the condition and those at risk of this condition is significantly high. Due to
this reason, many individuals have attained the concern of some calories that they consume in
their bodies, an aspect that can be utilized to prevent them from obtaining this condition.
These are the individuals that seek drinks with significantly fewer amounts of calories to
refresh themselves with. It is for these individuals that the Coca-Cola Company obtained the
need to develop and offer the Coca-Cola zero sugar product in the market. These individuals
are thus the main target market for this product (Coca-Cola, 2017).
Marketing Mix theory Explanation
The marketing mix is the model through which many organizations utilize to market
their products and enhance success in their marketing strategies. The marketing mix model
has four main contents which include the product, the price, promotion, and placement.
Product

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The product of concern is the new Coca-Cola Zero Sugar product offered by the Coca-Cola
Company. This product has some basic benefits which are the main reason why it is more
preferred over other products. The first benefit is the fact that it provides refreshments to
individuals that take it. It also has the pleasant taste of Coca-Cola drinks which is the taste
that majority of the individuals seek to obtain. The drink also does not contain calories thus
making it one of the healthiest drinks that also refresh people. It currently appears in red icon
Coca-Cola branded bottles, an aspect that helps people associate the drink with the Coca-Cola
brand easily. It is packaged in bottles and content of different millimeters like all other Coca-
Cola products. Being a beverage product, there are no warranty aspects or after sale services.
The organization however accept any criticism or customer feedback on aspects like tastes
and preferences.
This product is of the narrow drinking class, since it helps to satisfy the need for
people refreshments. Since the product was recently introduced into the market, I consider its
life cycle to be at the initial stage. This implies that in this stage, marketing strategies should
be intensified. The organization has utilized a branding strategy of describing the product
contents to the consumers and also associating the brand to the general Coca-Cola brand that
is well known by the organizational customers.
Price
The Coca-Cola Zero Sugar product is similarly priced like its previous brand, Coke
Zero. The price of this brand has for some time been considered much better compared to the
prices of other health drinks which are much higher. This aspect places the drink in much
better position in the market compared to the brands of competitor organizations. From the
prices that were initially established for this product, it appears to have had a pricing
objective of being the best-priced drink whose ingredients are completely healthy. Price

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elasticity aspect for this product have not yet been introduced in the market since it was
recently introduced. Factors that however appear to influence its price include the cost of
production and the prices of competitor drinks.
Promotion is the other important aspect of marketing that the Coca-Cola Company
has completely established in its marketing strategy. The organization has utilized the
promotion strategies of making the drink available to many individuals at half price, to give
them a chance of testing this new brand. The message conveyed is completely effective, since
a large number of individuals have already obtained the news about the new brand and its
intended additional benefit, is the reason why they should purchase the same (Summers, &
Smith, 2014). For the advert provided in the appendices section, the organization has
managed to provide a clear explanation of the Coca-Cola new brand by using the creative
strategy of general description and relating the product to the already known and market
accepted brands of the organization. In terms of applying the hierarchy of effects model, the
message is completely effective since it has been organized in an appropriate way and
communicates the intended message clearly and appropriately (Zyman, 2000).
Placement
The placement utilized for this product involves aspects of making sure that all
individuals manage to obtain it from any location that they may be in. the marketing for the
product is through both direct and indirect channels. To begin with, the organization markets
its product through the stores that it owns and also utilized the general methods like the
internet to make a general marketing of the same. The advert provided is a good evidence to
the channels utilized. If channel intermediaries were used, the organization would utilize the
merchant wholesalers since they can distribute the product easily to many other regions. The
organization is likely to utilize a distribution strategy of moving the drink from the main

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manufacturing point to other regions through the utilization of mediums like the
organizational transportation trucks which move the drinks from the main manufacturing
places to the main storage units, and then from those units to the organizational stores. The
organization is also likely to offer the product for retail (Richter, 2012).
Innovative recommendations
The organization can make certain improvements by utilizing other improvement strategies
which might be highly beneficial. The first strategy is establishing a promotion program that
will give free drinks for all individuals who provide a good and correct description of how the
product appears and tastes. This will encourage many individuals to purchase the new drink
first and then communicate more about it as they make descriptions. The other
recommendation is organizing an organizational forum to address a social issue and then
name that forum after the new brand. In the forum, the organization will obtain a chance to
explain about its new product and offer it to the crowd for testing. This strategy will help the
society and at the same time provide awareness of the availability of this new drink (Zimuto,
2012).
Conclusion
The Coca-Cola Company has managed to achieve significant success in the majority
of the products that it has introduced in the market. Its recent introduction of the Coca-Cola
Zero sugar product is also a positively received advancement of the organization which is
likely to manage to attain success like all other brands. One of the main reasons why the
organization has managed to obtain success is its marketing strategies, which ensure that all
individuals manage to obtain an understanding of the product and the benefits that it offers
into the market. The company is thus likely to obtain success in the introduction of this
product into the market. Implementation of more innovative strategies like promotions that

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invite people to offer descriptions of the new product could, however, increase the success
that the organization is likely to obtain (Dewey, 2017).

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References
Coca-Cola Journey, 2017. What’s The Difference between Coke Zero and Coca-Cola Zero
Sugar: Coca-Cola Journey. Retrieved from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/coca-
cola-unbottled/what_s-the-difference-between-coke-zero-and-coca-cola--zero-suga
Coca-Cola, 2017. Coca-Cola Zero Sugar ingredients: The Coca-Cola Company. Retrieved
from http://www.coca-colaproductfacts.com/en/products/coca-cola-zero-sugar/
Dewey, C. 2017. Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Coke’s hot new soda, isn’t actually that new at all:
The Washington post. Retrieved from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/07/26/coca-cola-zero-sugar-
cokes-hot-new-soda-isnt-actually-that-new-at-all/?utm_term=.8812e4c7ff58
Summers, J. & Smith, B. 2014. Communication skills handbook. Milton, Qld: John Wiley
and Sons Australia, Ltd.
Codita, R. 2010. Contingency factors of marketing-mix standardization : German consumer
goods companies in Central and Eastern Europe. Wiesbaden: Gabler.
Kumar, S. 2008. Conceptual issues in consumer behaviour : the Indian context. Delhi:
Pearson Education.
Richter, T. 2012. International marketing mix management theoretical framework,
contingency factors and empirical findings from world-markets. Berlin: Logos-Verl.
Zimuto, J. 2012. The effectiveness of marketing mix elements Product, price, place and
promotion on retail shops performance in Zimbabwe. Saarbrücken: LAP LAMBERT
Academic Publishing.
Morgan, M. & Summers, J. (2005). Sports marketing. Southbank, Vic: Thomson.

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Zyman, S. (2000). The end of marketing as we know it. New York: HarperBusiness.
Appendices

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