Impact of Consumer Behavior on Coca-Cola Marketing Strategies (MBA404)

This report examines the influence of consumer behavior on Coca-Cola's marketing strategies. The study explores the marketing communication mix, including advertising, sales promotions, public relations, personal selling, and direct marketing, and analyzes their impact on consumer attitudes, group influences, and buying decisions. It discusses how consumer behavior elements such as attitudes, social class, culture, and personal buying processes affect Coca-Cola's market performance. The report uses findings from a survey to align consumer perspectives with the marketing communication mix. Strategic recommendations are provided to address market issues and enhance Coca-Cola's competitive advantage by effectively understanding and responding to consumer behavior, including strategies to leverage consumer attitudes, cultural preferences, and buying decisions to optimize marketing efforts. The report also highlights the importance of adapting to evolving market conditions and consumer preferences for sustained success.

Impact of Consumer Behaviour on Coca Cola
Student Details
2/15/2020

Executive Summary
Coca Cola drink is in command in the market when it comes to non alcoholic drinks; however it
has strong competition with Pepsi drink which the product is of PepsiCo Company. Current
study has been conducted to talk about the marketing issues that are encountered by Coca Cola
Company related to consumer behaviors. In order to do this all probable elements of consumer
behaviour are separated in the 6 identified elements. In order to analyze the market conditions
and cater the market issues of the company, the study discusses the concept the basis of the
marketing communication mix and the findings of the previously conducted survey. The
variations and strong link among marketing communication mix and the responses made by
customers are found in the study. On the other hand the identified variations are tried to solve by
providing few strategic recommendations to Coca Cola Company. It can help company in getting
competitive advantage over other by understanding consumer behaviour in more effective
manner.

Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Marketing Communication Mix......................................................................................................4
Advertising...................................................................................................................................4
Sales Promotions..........................................................................................................................5
Public Relations...........................................................................................................................5
Personal Selling............................................................................................................................6
Direct Marketing..........................................................................................................................6
Alignment to Findings.....................................................................................................................6
Strategic Recommendations............................................................................................................8
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
Consumer behaviour is termed as the concept that talks about the steps can be taken by a
consumer at the time of purchase before it or after it. In this study the consumer behaviour of
Coca Cola Company regarding its most famous product that is Coca Cola beverage is discussed.
Coca Cola Company which was established in 1892 in US has been serving its customers since
then and gradually has become one of the top market players (Coca Cola Company, 2018a). The
company is busy in manufacturing of different type of beverages and its most famous beverage is
coca cola drink. Coca Cola is a carbonated soft drink, which was first introduced by the company
in 1886 and since then it has many variations in its packaging; however there is no change in its
taste. The company has launched coca cola drink with some variants all over the world like Coca
Cola Zero Sugar, Caffeine free Coca Cola, etc.
The market performance of Coca Cola has taken a handsome lead every year. Coca Cola drink is
in command in the market when it comes to non alcoholic drinks; however it has strong
competition with Pepsi drink which the product is of PepsiCo Company (Coca Cola Company,
2018c). Current study has been conducted to talk about the marketing issues that are encountered
by Coca Cola Company related to consumer behaviors. The behaviour of consumer based on the
past students has been divided into multiple elements that are group influences, attitudes, social
class, culture, personal buying decision making process and consumer learning processes, all
elements in together design the behaviour of a consumer as per past studies (Ardito & Messeni,
2019). There are many other factors as well which can frame the behaviour of the consumer,
however in order to make current study more systematic and influential all probable elements of
consumer behaviour are separated in the 6 identified elements that are listed in above lines.
Marketing Communication Mix
The market communication mix of Coca Cola Company and the drink is discussed in following
lines with respect to various identified elements of consumer behaviour which can be directly or
indirectly get influenced with the same (Jackson & Ahuja, 2016).
Advertising
It is considered one of the main elements of marketing communication mix, where the basic
details, benefits etc are communicated to customers through audio or video devices. There are

many issues that can be encountered by the company during advertising related to the behaviour
of the consumers such as:
 The attitude of target consumers can vary by the changes in the advertisement, which can
leads to increase or decrease in the sale of Coca Cola drink (Coca Cola Company,
2018b).
 The protests or any other type of group influence on the manufacturing of Coca Cola
drink can hamper its sale which can be directly based on the details mentioned in
advertisements.
Sales Promotions
It is the element which is related to the promotion of the product for the increase in its sale. Coca
Cola Company uses much type of sales promotions to influence the sale of its drink worldwide,
however it can directly or indirectly create some market issues which may be related to
consumer behaviour such as:
 The consumer attitudes and learning process can be influenced by the promotions
measures adopted by the company, like discounts can increase the positive attitude
among customers (Allen, 2015).
 Social classes, group and culture can influence the production of the Coca Cola drink by
the company based on the information they shared in the sales promotes like youth drink,
gives motivation, etc.
Public Relations
It is another element of market communication mix of Coca Cola drink, where the company tries
to make relations with public (Foster, 2014). This is done by introducing the drink to public, face
to face promoting it, and offering major discounts with on spot purchases as well. However there
are some variations that can create market issues for the company related to consumer behaviour
such as:
 Buying decision making process of consumers can be influenced by relation of the
company with the public.

 The steps taken by Coca Cola Company regarding the eco-friendly production and other
things can influence the group and individual attitudes worldwide, which can directly
impact the sale of Coca Cola drink (Lumen, 2019).
Personal Selling
It is the element which is related to the communicating with the customers by selling them
products directly. It is the type of communication conducted by Coca Cola Company that
included promotion and selling of the product at face to face to the consumer (Correia, et al.,
2015). In this process as well there are some market issues that can be created related to
consumer behaviour such as:
 Personal selling depends upon the culture and social classes in which the consumer
belongs to, this indirectly influence the range of sale of Coca Cola drink.
 Personal selling many times leads to non-buying decisions of the consumers which can
also decrease the sale of drink (Coca Cola Company, 2018d).
Direct Marketing
The processes of directly reaching to customers for marketing and ultimate selling of the product
is known as direct marketing (Gabrielli & Baghi, 2016). Under this element of marketing
communication mix, the behaviour of consumers can create some marketing issues for Coca
Cola Company regarding its drink such as:
 The attitudes of customer like ignorance can leads to negligible or no sale of Coca Cola
drink, which may lead to losses
 The social, cultural and group influences can restrict the concept of direct marketing
based on different regions, hence the sale of Coca Cola drink can also hamper.
Alignment to Findings
The Coca Cola Company is a multinational corporation which manufactures beverages and
syrups which are non alcoholic. In this study the marketing issues faced by Coca Cola Company
regarding the marketing of its most famous drink that is Coca Cola is discussed. The Company
retails as well as markets its products worldwide (Elmore, 2013). There are many issues that can
be encountered by Coca Cola Company during the marketing and selling procedures. Among
them the most influential one is the consumer behaviour. The study discussed the consumer

behaviour and its various elements with respect to the marketing communication mix of Coca
Cola drink of the company. As per the previous study the survey is conducted to get the
perspective of consumers to purchase Coca-Cola (Karjaluoto, et al., 2015 ).
The findings of survey and the analysis of market helps company in identifying the strengths and
weaknesses of Coca Cola drink. It can help further company to make improvements in Coca
Cola as per its needs and wants in the future. The communication mix helped in relating to the
findings of the survey in more systematic and elaborate manner. Almost in every answer of the
respondents the link to various elements of market communication mix is discussed. The link is
indirect, however it is showing the consumer behaviour that can influence the sale of Coca Cola
drink to that particular region or worldwide. The survey was designed for addressing the
consumer buying behaviour and their decision-making process towards Coca-Cola. Responses to
all survey questions were related to different themes such as perception, culture, attitude,
inspiration, family, social values, person and group differences, lifestyle, as well as buying
decision making process (Dhar, et al., 2015).
The communication mix talked about the consumer behaviour by following various elements that
frame the consumer behaviour in the market. In the survey, different perspective has been chosen
by researcher named as perception, attitudes, motivation, culture, family, lifestyles, and family as
well as group. It is identified that attitude is a learned tendency for responding consistently with
respect to a given object. It is the type of communication conducted by Coca Cola Company that
included promotion and selling of the product at face to face to the consumer. Attitude factor
may create some motivational issues and functions among consumers. It shows that the
marketing communication mix of Coca Cola drink shows a strong alignment of the consumer
behaviour and the marketing process of the Coca Cola Company. For any organization, the
consumer behaviour is most imperative element as it aids to the organization for operating their
business process in right direction and meeting their research purpose (Gillespie, 2015).
The responses made about the perception and attitude by the customers which included
approximately purchase of 66% and 46% respectively by the consumers. On the other hand 40%
of the consumer provided value to the coke, 40% are influenced to purchase coke, where as 46%
like the taste of coca cola drink that is coke, etc. These responses made it easy to relate the
perception, attitude, cultural and social preferences and buying decisions of the consumer with

the marketing communication mix of the Coca Cola drink. In turn this help the company in
establishing policies and frameworks that can help in manufacturing, marketing and selling of
Coca Cola drink and other products of the company in the market in effective and efficient
manner (McKinley, 2012). In this study some strategies are given for the Coca Cola Company to
consider them as recommendation, which can help them in future to avoid or minimize market
issues related to consumer behaviour.
Strategic Recommendations
Consumer behavior can be referred to as the study which is conducted to understand responses of
consumers and what factors influence such attitudes towards a specific product. Coca Cola
Company uses much type of sales promotions to influence the sale of its drink worldwide. In
current study the consumer behaviour of coca cola drink has been analysed by considering its
various elements (Coca Cola Company, 2018a). It is analysed in order to address various market
issues which are directly or indirectly created by the consumer behaviour of the drink. In order to
sell the manufactured product each company need to adopt some steps that can help the company
and the manufactured product to communicate effectively with the probable customers. In the
language of marketing it is known as market communication and it comprises of 5 basic
elements that in together frame market communication mix.
The findings of previously conducted survey help the company in identifying motivation
procedures that may impact consumers in terms of behaving as they take buying decisions. It is
important for the process of catering need of the customers in most productive and proficient
manner (Elmore, 2013). It is the type of communication conducted by Coca Cola Company that
included promotion and selling of the product at face to face to the consumer. Attitude factor
may create some motivational issues and functions among consumers. The process is created
while need is originated and company works towards satisfying those needs of their customers.
The study identified that there are some ways in which the company is lacking in addressing its
market issues created by consumer behaviors, hence in order to meet the requirement following
suggestions have been made:
a) Cater social and cultural needs of the consumer: The society plays a very important
role in overall functioning of an organization. It acts as the basis that provides resources
and aim to the company for their working. It is important for Coca Cola Company to

cater the social and cultural needs of their consumers. This must be adopted by company
to be the part of top companies worldwide (Correia, et al., 2015).
b) Align with trending lifestyle: It is also advised to Coca Cola Company to alignment
with the changing lifestyles across the globe, as the coke has become a global icon for
youth. It plays an important role among the minds of the customers regarding the
variations in their lifestyle and the style statement it adds to the life of those customers.
c) Fulfill Environmental Responsibilities: The role of company towards the environment
also considered one of the major factor in designing the behaviour and attitudes of their
customers (Elmore, 2013). In Coca Cola Company it is advised to management to
consider their responsibility towards the environment while manufacturing and marketing
of Coca Cola drink. It can help company in addressing market issues in productive
manner.

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