Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy for Coca-Cola: A Report

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of Coca-Cola's integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategy. It begins with a brief background of Coca-Cola and the context of the assignment. The report then outlines a creative strategy statement, defines Coca-Cola's brand positioning, and identifies the objectives of its marketing messages. It delves into the target audience, their current perceptions, and the desired feelings the brand aims to evoke. The report details action points for the target audience and explores how Coca-Cola communicates with its consumers through various channels, including social media, TV commercials, and digital campaigns. Furthermore, it examines opportunities to redesign the message through different media vehicles, offering specific examples of campaign adjustments. The report concludes with references and appendices illustrating various IMC campaigns and strategies employed by Coca-Cola.

Running Head: Integrated Marketing Communication
Coca Cola
Integrated Marketing Communication
Group Creative Brief

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Table of Content
1. Brief Background......................................................................................................................2
2. Strategy Statement...................................................................................................................3
3. Brand Positioning......................................................................................................................3
4. Objective of the Message.........................................................................................................4
5. Target Audience........................................................................................................................5
6. Current Feeling of the Target audience....................................................................................5
7. Feeling to be imbibed in people drinking Coca-Cola.................................................................5
8. Action Points for Target Audience............................................................................................5
9. Communicating with the Target Audience...............................................................................6
10. Redesigning the message through the media vehicle...............................................................7
11. Social Media- Original Campaign on Digital Media...................................................................7
12. TV Commercial..........................................................................................................................7
13. Digital Campaign/Social Media/Website/TV Commercial.........................................................8
14. References................................................................................................................................9

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1.0 Brief Background
Coca Cola is the world’s largest carbonated drink company which has been ruling the heart and taste
of people for over a century, the company has 98% brand recognition, which is highest for any
company operating across the globe (Ottman, 2017).The assignment here is an extension of
Assessment part 1, where the IMC practices of Coca-Cola were studied to create a coherent and
strong brand strategy. The purpose of the assignment here is to create a strategy statement for the
company and create a perceptual map on the brand positioning of Coca Cola. Further in the report,
the objective of the message to be conveyed to the audience has to be studied along with the
perception of the Target audience. Towards the end there would be a mention of the intended
action plan for the target audience to interact with the advertising campaign of Coca –Cola.
2.0 Strategy Statement
A creative strategy statement which is also known as the creative brief outlines the way in which the
advertising will appeal to the interest of the target audience (Gillespie & Riddle, 2015).
“Refresh the mind, body and spirit and inspire moments of optimism and happiness through the
taste of Coca-Cola”.
3.0 Brand Positioning
Brand positioning defines where the product stands in relation to the offering of other companies
offering similar product and services in the market as well in the minds of the consumers”(Schmitt &
Jedidi,2015).
 Refreshing and Thirst quenching.
 Drink uniting Nations.
 Coke-The real taste of Joy and Zing

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(Source: Silbiger, 2016)
4.0 Objective of the Message
The objective of the creative brief is to broadcast the message to the target audience of Coca-Cola
and communicate the message to the people. The objective of the message is:
 To increase the awareness of the brands product offering.
 Create awareness of the companies step towards environmental sustainability.
 Increase the sales of Coca-Cola across the globe.
5.0 Target Audience
Target audience can be understood as the customer group or the group of people towards whom
the marketing efforts are directed for the efficient delivery of the intended message (Greenfield,
2016).

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The target audience of Coca-Cola is the youth or the youngsters who also form a part of millennial.
Moreover the targeting is not based on gender, thus both the gender use the product in the ration
of 50/50 (Reddy, Reddy & Venkatesulu, 2016).
6.0 Current Feeling of the Target audience
The target audience resonates closely with the brand positioning of Coca –Cola. The youth who is
the future of the world wants a drink which gives them a feeling of strength, confidence,
rejuvenation and revitalization. Coca cola delivers all the above mentioned feelings in tis target
audience. A brand as big as Coca-Cola which is quenching the thirst of people by providing a
refreshing drink is also perceived as a sweeter drink by many. People also perceive a spirit of
triumph about Coca-Cola, and the company is perceived as a responsible citizen which is doing well
for the community and society by taking good care of the environment.
7.0 Feeling to be imbibed in people drinking Coca-Cola
The company aims to become the ultimate party drink for its target audience, the company aspires
that no matter whatever the occasion is, people should readily open a bottle of Coke celebrating the
spirit of joy for any occasion. Coca Cola which has successfully guarded its chemical formulae for
over 100 years also wants the Target audience to feel delighted after sipping the refreshing drink.
They want the audience to feel proud, empowered, strong, refreshed, energetic, confident and
motivated after sipping the drink. The company also wants its audience to put unfathomable support
in the product offering of the company, it wants it people to trust the company beyond all limits.
8.0 Action Points for Target Audience
Coca-Cola which has been quenching the thirst of people for over 100 years wants the target
audience to buy more and more drinks from the company. The company wants its sales to grow by
leaps and bound so that the company can contribute back to the society through its CSR initiative
program directed towards environmental sustainability and poverty alienation. The company wants
its audience to be its brand promoters, promote the brand so much to attract more and more
revenue from the advertisement which can be then used for the benefit of the poor section of the
society. Hence, the company wants indebted support from its target audience to develop a happy
world.

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9.0 Communicating with the Target Audience
Coca Cola is a marketing behemoth when it comes to creating engaging content for its Target
audience. The company is well known for creating taglines and punch lines which resonate in the
minds of the customers. The company uses both the traditional and web 2.0 tools to communicate
with its target audience. A huge chunk of money goes in the marketing budget of Coca-Cola, the
company besides having its own team ties up with some of the biggest names in the advertising
world to create a coherent strategy to target the entire strata of its Target audience (Onkvisit &
Shaw, 2017).
Event Promotion- To speak on the values of the company and its new product offering to its
customers.
Social Media Marketing- Engage with its target audience, increase brand loyalty, gain plethora of
fans, increase in sales, loyalty points to the customers and developing a strong social media
community.
TV Commercial- Communicate any major collaboration with a celebrity as a bid to increase the
brand awareness. It can also be used to evoke a feeling of emotion, which can be of strength, win,
resilience, persistence and many more on its Target Audience.
You-tube- The Company should use this channel to promote its CSR activity, a channel preferably
used by the used, thus would help the company in creating the right image in front of its target
audience.
10.0 Redesigning the message through the media vehicle
10.1 Social Media- Original Campaign on Digital Media

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(Source: Yang, 2017)
The message can be redesigned as: “Your chance to spread smiles on the face of millions of Children
worldwide. Click a smiling Selfie with the Selfie bottle, post in on your Facebook timeline with the
hash tag #spreadinghappiness; the company will give a bottle of Coke to an underprivileged kid in
the remote part of the world.
10.2 TV Commercial
A recent Campaign of Coca-Cola has been targeted towards building a social media friendship
between a father and a son in India, during the IPL season. The ad is undoubtedly fantastic; however,
certain change in the designing of the ad would be more effective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2Rxj2z4HZA
The ad can be tweaked given call to action for the viewers to interact on a real time basis with the
Ad. Towards the ad, the company should have broadcasted the message, share your story involving
your parents with Coca-Cola and get a chance to win the Final’s ticket to the IPL 2018.
10.3 Digital Campaign/Social Media/Website/TV Commercial
The company in this ad replaced the earlier tagline of “Open happiness” with “Taste the feeling”.
The same was done because the original message was getting too mainstream and preachy.
However, “Taste the feeling” has strong resemblance with “Taste the Thunder” which is for the
companies own product Thumbs up, which leads to product confusion. However another tagline
“Taste the spirit of joy” would have encompassed both the messages in the same line
Refer Appendix for More such IMC campaigns pertaining to Coca-Cola

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References
Gillespie, K. and Riddle, L., 2015. Global marketing. Routledge.
Greenfield, S., 2016. Giving the Global High Sign: Coca-Cola Advertising of the “American Way” in
Life Magazine, 1941-1947.
Onkvisit, S. and Shaw, J.J., 2017. The ‘glocalization’of product and advertising strategies. Strategic
International Marketing: An Advanced Perspective, p.23.
Ottman, J., 2017. The new rules of green marketing: Strategies, tools, and inspiration for sustainable
branding. Routledge.

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Reddy, S.K., Reddy, U.M. and Venkatesulu, K., 2016. Brand revitalization. International journal of
science technology and management, 5(1), pp.321-326.
Schmitt, B. and Jedidi, K., 2015. Desirable Brand Images in East Asia and their Determinants: Analyses
from a Large-Scale Consumer Survey. ACR Asia-Pacific Advances.
Silbiger, S., 2016. The 10-day MBA: a step-by-step guide to mastering the skills taught in top business
schools. Hachette UK.
Yang, Q., 2017. Selfie Usage in Marketing Between Companies and Consumers. Rochester Institute of
Technology.
Appendix

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Billboard Campaign of Coca Cola as a part of its IMC Strategy
Facebook Campaign of Coca Cola

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Example of a IMC campaign targeted towards Coca-Cola effort in Environmental sustainability
Extremely popular IMC campaign of Coca-Cola

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An IMC campaign targeted toward Mobile audience to increase the engagement of the audience
with the company through Mobile communication