Contemporary Marketing Strategies: A Case Study on Coca-Cola

This research paper delves into the sophisticated marketing strategies utilized by Coca-Cola to maintain its dominant position in the beverage industry. It provides a comprehensive analysis of Coca-Cola's marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) and how these elements are tailored to meet consumer demands and preferences. The study further explores Coca-Cola's brand management strategies, highlighting how it builds and sustains strong brand equity through emotional connections and global campaigns. Additionally, the paper examines Coca-Cola's competitive landscape, identifying key competitors and analyzing how Coca-Cola differentiates itself in a crowded market. Through various case studies and examples, this research underscores the effectiveness of Coca-Cola's strategic initiatives in fostering customer loyalty and driving business growth.

Running head: MARKETING STRATEGY AND RECOMMENDATION
MARKETING STRATEGY AND RECOMMENDATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
8 marketing mix concepts................................................................................................................2
Applying the components to one of the product offerings..............................................................5
Contemporary issues facing the marketers in the present world.....................................................8
Contemporary issues impacting marketing strategy of Coca- Cola................................................9
Recommendations for helping Coca-cola to face contemporary issues........................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
The report focuses on the evaluation about the marketing strategy of Coca- Cola. The
study reflects on the concept of 8P marketing mix and its application on one of Coca- Cola
product offerings. The Coca-Cola is one of the biggest beverage organizations that refresh
customers with more than 3900 beverage choices. This company is one of the valuable as well as
recognizable brands in the globe. Their portfolio features with 21 billion brands, out of which 19
are available in reduced options. Even they are the world’s biggest distribution system and hence
distribute the products in more than 200 nations. The goal of this organization is to satisfy the
needs of the consumers and packages their products in varied sizes to appeal specific consumers.
The marketing mix refers to as the set of different marketing tools, which the company uses for
pursuing its marketing objectives. It is mainly the standard strategic instrument that the company
uses for formulating the product development plan and promotions. Occasionally the service
marketers might refer to 8P’s marketing mix (Saren et al., 2012). This type of marketing mix
facilitates this organization to review as well as define the vital issues, which impact the
marketing strategy of their goods and services. However, this marketing mix helps the Coca-
Cola entity to understand the synergy as well as dynamics that are involved among the important
elements.
8 marketing mix concepts
8P marketing mix refers to the framework that helps in evaluating their existing business
through proper approaches. It is also considered as useful model that helps in evaluating
particular organization rivalries and set their marketing strategy according to it. This new 8p’s

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are usually flexible for including the role of consumer service as well as adapt to all types of
business that sells both products and services (Ribeiro, 2015). The 8P’s marketing mix includes-
Product- The main hub of marketing effort is that the commodity must be according to
the consumer’s desire. Even if the company has the best marketing, they might face
difficulty selling the commodity for which it has no demand. For this reason, the
marketing manager of the organization should understand about how their product will
facilitate the customers in solving the problem (Ribeiro, 2015). Some of the organization
uses a vital tool at this stage, which is product testing. This testing however helps them in
making the product decisions regarding designing, packaging, brand names, etc that
accompanies with the commodity offering.
Place- It refers to the location where the businesses carry out or distribution channels
utilized to reach marketplace. This involves decisions regarding distribution channels that
are to be applied, the outlet location, transportation method and levels of inventory to be
held. The distribution channels mainly involves independent intermediaries including
retailers, distributors by which product passes to their consumers. These intermediaries
however give cost- effective access in the marketplace.
Promotion- Promotion mainly encompasses advertising, sponsorship, sales promotion,
public relations, personal selling etc. Through promotional mix the target customers are
usually made aware of product existence and benefits it confers on the customers.
Usually, the organization makes their first contact with the customers through
promotional efforts. Therefore, promotion raises the customers’ expectations as well as
drives the company’s overall sales.

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Price- Price mainly covers the total amount that the customers pay for acquiring the
product. It represents the unit basis that the organization receives for a specific product
that is being marketed. The marketing manager mainly focuses on the pricing objectives
and the factors influencing price setting. However, if the customer value is positive, then
the product is priced more than its monetary value. Product price is also influenced by
their distribution plans, markups, cost of value chain and competitors price their product.
People- They basically defines service. This relates to the staffs that have direct contact
with their customers. One of the vital operations of the business is to select, recruit and
retain those people for doing the job involved in this marketing operation. The staffs in
this Coca- Cola Company mainly have standard uniform. They focus on prompt as well
as friendly service to their customers from their staff.
Process- The Company’s design the processes for maximizing the consumers enjoyment
throughout. Some of the process problems which are annoying for consumers are process
elements that place provider’s convenience ahead of customers. The procedure at Coca-
Cola organization is transparent as well as hidden (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2012) It
involves several processes including bottling as well as labeling solutions. The vital stage
which this company considers is their control for getting products at proper time and
selling the beverages for the target customers.
Physical evidences- All visible as well as tangible traces of the business, which the
consumer encounters preceding to purchasing of products are defined as physical
evidence. However, advertising, corporate brochure, signage are the vital part of physical
evidence in business (Drucker, 2013). Some of the company uses physical evidence for

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gaining competitive advantage as well as create good brand image. For example, the
Coca- Cola signage that reassures the customer through branding.
Product Distribution- Distribution indicates how the commodity reaches their customers
for example, retailing point. Effective distribution is essential for the company to achieve
their marketing objectives. However, it is necessary for the organization to distribute their
product to the customers at right place and time. There are three kinds of distribution
strategies that most of the organizations use based on their product features (Ribeiro,
2015). These strategies include- intensive distribution, selective distribution and
exclusive distribution. Intensive distribution denotes the distribution of impulse or less
priced products. Extensive distribution involves distribution of high priced products and
thus needs sales detail from mediator. Furthermore, selective distribution occurs
producers require higher geographical spread.
Partnerships- The Company should seek for new partnership as well as manage their
existing partners for improving their marketing operations. This would also help them to
maximize profitability level and improve the business performance.
Applying the components to one of the product offerings
The Coca-Cola organization has developed several new products, out of which Diet Coke has
gained huge success since it created good sales and overtook existing brand named as Diet Cola.
Currently this product has been ranked as third biggest soft drink being sold in the global
marketplace (Singh, 2012). This product is also known as Coca-Cola Light in some places and
has been subsidiary of parent organization. The 8P’s marketing mix of this product is illustrated
as under-

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Product- The Coca-Cola company applied separate formula to produce this Diet Coke.
The calorie content in this product in 330 ml can is 1.3 kilocalories. This organization has
produced several flavors of this diet Coke, which includes-
a) Splenda Diet Coke-Launched in 2005 and has about 2.83 mg of total caffeine content
b) Diet Coke Lime- launched in 2004 and is presently available in US, UK, Canada and
Ireland.
c) Diet Coke Cherry- Launched in 1986 and is mainly available in US and UK with
cherry flavor
Place-Diet Coke has created good marketplace by its quality. The launch of this product
was restricted to several markets in the US. But its network was spread to near about 150
nations. At present, it is highly successful brands and hence its is available in the nations
such as Australia, Austria etc.
Price- The product price is one of the vital components which have direct impact on
demand as well as supply of this product. In fact, proper pricing policy has been vital for
brand success and hence is considered as medium for generating higher revenues. This in
turn helps them to expand it in the customer market. Coca- Cola has applied numerous
pricing strategies for this brand. They applied skimming pricing policy during the launch
of Diet Coke and after switched to competitive pricing policy due to availability of
similar products produced by rivals organization. Moreover, they also applied penetration
policy for creating new markets in each nation. This strategy facilitates them to retain
loyal consumer base as well as create good revenues from this pricing policy (Gilaninia,
Taleghani & Azizi, 2013). The Coke’s price was highly reasonable with respect to their
rivalries.

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Promotion-If any product is of high standards, the company must apply proper
promotional activities. The company targeted those persons who are conscious about
their health and suffering from diabetes. In fact, absence of less sugar content also
facilitated this brand in achieving desired success. This company also followed
aggressive policy in promoting this product, which in turn helped them in increasing
awareness as well as visibility among the customers.
People-Coca- Cola also employed huge number of staffs and provided training to them,
so that they can provide good service to the customers ( Armstrong et al., 2015),. This
however helped them to attract large number of customers and attain their trust about this
brand. It alsi helped them to attain good reputation.
Process-The packaging of this product was done in appropriate way, thereby it involved
bottling as well as labeling this solution. In order to keep the quality better than other
product, they changed their process of operation. They segmented levels pf income
through packaging. For low income persons, they made returnable glass bottle while for
high income people it was non returnable bottle.
Physical evidences-the logo of this Diet Coke and the advertising method also helped
them to attract customers in the new market.
Product distribution-This product has good distribution network for marketing their
products competently and efficiently. This company has applied intensive policy in
distributing this product in order to make it available in the grocery store (Rohm,
Kaltcheva &. Milnes, 2013). However, diet Coke can was easily available and hence
could be purchased in convenient manner.

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Partnerships-.they also partnered with other companies in order to produce best quality
product. They associates with the several bottling partners in order to discuss about their
development of the main performance indicators for this coca-cola systems. The
associates as well as representatives from their bottling partners have helped them to
determine feasibility owing to legal as well as management complexity of this company’s
system.
Contemporary issues facing the marketers in the present world
The contemporary issues facing the marketers of the coca- cola includes-
Corporate social responsibility (CSR)- CSR refers to as the commitment for improving
society well being through some discretionary business practices as well as corporate
resources contribution (Tai & Chuang, 2014). Few areas of CSR interest are the welfare
of laborers, environment protection etc. Some of the CSR issues that the marketers of
coca- cola faces in the present world includes-
a) This company has been accused of containing high pesticide residue level that has
been found through different tests.
b) Another issue was that they have been accused of causing shortage of water in
several areas. In fact, they have given allegation of creating water pollution through
the discharge of wastewater.
Advances in technology- Though advancement of technology helped the marketers,
they faced several issues such as face to face interactions between marketers and
customers and training the team for developing new products (Berthon et al., 2012). As
targeting international audience is one of the key components of marketing, the

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marketers of this company also faces huge challenge they could not identify the persona
of the buyers.
Social media interactions- In the recent era, the marketers face huge challenge of social
media interactions due to absence of guildlines provided by the government (Hastings &
Domegan, 2013). In addition, the marketers might face inadequacy of information,
which in turn adversely affects the organization. However, the marketer’s faces
difficulties in making decision based on this information (Royle & Laing, 2014).
Furthermore, bad feedback from the customers might discourage the marketers of the
organization.
Ethical concerns- The marketers faces ethical issues regarding marketing campaigns as
it might target the children (Kuo & Rice, 2015). Some of the advertisements that are
directed towards the children can impact their mental condition.
Globalization- Globalization has created several problems for the marketers in this
century. The brand name choice is the vital issue that some companies like coca- cola
faces as it is used around the globe for flagship of their products (Royle & Laing, 2014).
They also face huge competition in terms of pricing and distribution of products owing
to globalization.
Contemporary issues impacting marketing strategy of Coca- Cola
Contemporary problems adversely affected the marketing strategy of Coca- cola. Due to
CSR issues, this company had to face long legal process and hence they lost their customers trust
(Wilson, 2012). In fact, the overall sales of few products lowered and also damaged their
reputation. Moreover, advancement of technology also reduced efficiency of some of the
marketers of this company. As Coca- Cola faced several challenges for being globalised, the

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company tried to provide good quality and refreshing products. Few advertising campaigns also
created conflict between the company and society (Keller & Fay, 2012). This in turn influenced
their targeted audience and pricing policy of the company. Although technological advancement
improved their distribution network, the technological issues increased the overall cost of the
production and distribution. Globalization issues also influenced their marketing strategy and
hence they changed their logo as well as slogan of each product. These issues also adversely
impacted on their partnerships of this company.
Recommendations for helping Coca-cola to face contemporary issues
As globalization created branding issues for coca-cola, their marketers should introduce
new recipe for the original products. They should create slogans for each product in order to
make their own identity and achieve success. Additionally, as technological advancement also
creates issues for the marketers of coca- cola, their marketing strategies should include providing
training and development to their marketers. They should also provide education to their
marketers about the social media interactions, which in turn will help them to attain feedback
from the customers about the product and make changes accordingly. It will also help them in
building good relationship with their customers. Coca- cola should also made effort in improving
the community areas by making some initiatives regarding waste management and climate
change. They should also focus on supporting society based rainwater harvesting projects for
restoring levels of water and promoting health education. In context of ethical concerns, the
company must focus on responsible marketing (Baker, 2014). This means they should make their
marketing campaigns in responsible as socially sustainable way. As society shapes
advertisements, the company should focus on the making advertisements that consist of moral
values.

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Conclusion
From the above report, it can be concluded that adoption of proper marketing strategies
by the Coca- Cola Company helps them in gaining competitive advantage against their rivalries.
Although they faced some contemporary issues, they adopted new marketing strategies in order
to mitigate these challenges. Moreover, it also helped in building good relationship with
customers and attains their trust. This also helped them to maximize profit and lower their debt
level. As a result, this improved their financial performance of the company and helped them in
expanding their business globally.