Marketing Essentials: Report on Coca-Cola Marketing Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Coca-Cola's marketing strategies, delving into the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function. It explores the interrelation of marketing activities with other organizational functions like finance, human resources, and customer service. The report examines the application of the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion) in the marketing planning process and culminates in the formulation of a marketing plan for Coca-Cola. Key topics covered include market analysis, segmentation, pricing, distribution, and after-sales services, providing insights into Coca-Cola's approach to maintaining its market position and brand loyalty. The report also highlights the importance of finance, human resources and customer service departments in supporting marketing efforts.

Marketing Essentials

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function ...........................................................1
P2 Interrelation of marketing activities with other wider organisational functions ...................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
P3 Application of marketing mix in the process of marketing planning....................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P4 Formulation of marketing plan for organisation....................................................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is important management process which includes movement of final goods of
organisation in market for its consumption by customer's. There are many other important
functions are performed by marketing manager in organisation which includes development of
products as per preferences of customers, fixation of pricing policies as per the paying capacity,
selection of best routes of distribution and deployment of best promotional activities to attract
customers in large numbers (Al-Ekam and et. al., 2012). There is huge importance of these
activities within the organisation for the purpose of survival in market and attaining
sustainability in operations. Coca-cola is multinational organisation which provides diversified
drinks in market.
In the present report explain about, concept of marketing, importance of marketing for
organisation, determination of key marketing marketing functions along with the roles of
personnel, relation of marketing activities with other functions of organisation and designing of
marketing mix for planning of marketing activities to accomplish business objectives. Also,
formulation of marketing plan for organisation.
TASK 1
P1 Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function
Marketing
Marketing refers to all the activities which company perform to acquire clients or
customer. Involved advertising ,selling ,delivering product to customer’s .It is done in different
way through slogans, packaging, celebrity support and media influence. The supreme goal of
marketing is to match a company's product according to customer needs and wants to insure
profitability (Baker and Magnini, 2016).
Importance of marketing for coca cola
Develop awareness – Marketing help to create awareness among people about the
product as already coca-cola customer know who are they ,what they offer ,where they can
find ,when to purchase their product.
Gain sales – Their marketing campaign is at its best which get popularity and
remembrance in very short time and people like to become their customer ,which directly
increase sales.
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Increase trust - When some company continuously doing campaign customer able to
create trust and loyalty in our business. Coca cola always take this benefit as customer ensure
about the quality of product they offer.
Creates employment – Marketing is a activity which involve large number of people to
perform. It involve functions which is production, buying ,selling, financing, transport,
warehousing, risk bearing , packing and standardisation etc. Coca cola gives employment to
large no. of people as huge persons involved in performing all such activities (Campbell and
Martin, 2012).
Source of new ideas – Marketing as an instrument of measurement, give info about new
demand pattern, so accordingly changes can be made in the goods. With the help of this coca
cola company also make alteration in their product and attract more and more customer’s.
Development of economy – Marketing is the thing ,makes the economy strong and
stable,the lesser the stress on this function,the weaker will be the economy,Coca cola has big
hand in the upliftment of the economy.
Key marketing functions
It a role which help a company to identify and point towards beneficial products for the
market they continue and then promote by differentiate from available similar products. It a
important part every company or organisation done. It starts from identifying what client needs
and end with satisfying client needs. It include performing strategy formation,market research,
financing an enterprise, producing a marketing plan, and product development, product
designing, product development, promotion, pricing, distribution for sale, customer service and
public relations. In modern marketing has other functions apart from that has to gathering the
market info and examine that info (Dibb and Simkin, 2014). There are many functions are
performed by the marketing department of Coca-cola which should be understood from the
following points defined below:
 Market analysis: It is important activity which includes the functions related to research
of the different perspectives of market which are present in business environment and
having significant impact upon functioning of organisation. The evaluation is done with
the aim of attaining information which improved decision making management in future.
Such information is related to preferences of target customers, number of competitors and
quality of their products and market trends which are present in industry in current
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scenario. All these information has huge importance in making the overall internal
structure of Coca-cola stronger.
 Segmentation of market: It is the duty of marketing manager is to divide the market into
different segments to cater the need of different type of individual present in society. It is
important for organisation to know the preferences of customers and actual demand of
their products in market. This will provides the opportunity to bring changes in the
features of their product to make it more attractive and unique which enables in attraction
of large number of customers (Draelos, 2010). The market is segmented into four basis
such as demographic, behavioural, psycho-graphic and geographic. All the four aspects
divides the market on different basis which improves the understanding of management
regarding interpretation of the situation and behaviour of customers in more appropriate
manner.
 Pricing: Another important function which is performed by marketing department within
the organisation is related to determination of pricing policies as per the buying
behaviour of customers. There is huge influence of pricing on the number of sales of
products. There are many products are delivered by Coca cola in market required to adopt
different pricing policies as per their specification and demand in market. At present,
huge competition is present in soft drink market so, required to adopt reasonable pricing
for maintaining competitiveness.
 Distribution: After the production of products their main aim is to effectively distribute
them in market for its consumption by the end users. Coca-cola is multinational
organisation provides their products in almost all countries required to be adopt vast
distribution channels to improve their reach. It is the responsibility of marketing manager
is to select distribution channels in different nations and continuously check the
availability of their products (Eslinger, 2014).
 After sales services: There is huge importance of after sales services to attain the trust
and loyalty of customers and their retention of longer period of time. This function is also
marketing department which enables Coca-cola to maintain their same position in market
and captures large market share.
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P2 Interrelation of marketing activities with other wider organisational functions
Coca-cola is founded in 1886 in US which provides soft drinks in market. Now this
organisation have their business operations in almost all nations. The main core products of
Coca-cola includes:
 Coca-cola
 Diet coke
 Sprite
 Fanta
In behind the success of Coca-cola in market significant efforts are provided by all the
departments which are present within the organisation upon which structure of organisation
stands. Such main departments are known as finance, marketing , human resource and customer
service etc. All the departments having their different functioning in organisation which helps in
accomplishment of different tasks. Finance department of organisation provides the function
related to allocation of funds, marketing department is performs the functions related to
advertisement and emergence of product as per customer demand, Human resource department
provides their effort in regards to planning and management of workforce and customers service
department provides more emphasis on after sales services where issues of customer are resolve
in adequate manner (Hsu, 2011).
Marketing is referred as core activity which enables the organisation to improve their
sales and profitability which is prime of objective of every organisation. It is assessed from the
analysis of different marketing functions that there is huge relation is present of these activities
with other functions of department. The interrelation of these marketing activities with other
departmental functions of Coca-cola is understood from the points which are defined below:
Finance: The finance department is established within the organisation with the aim of
effective procurement of funds as per requirement of different departments in organisation. They
also provides the function related to preparation of budget for each and every department for
effective allocation of funds according to their roles and responsibilities. It is important that
funds are provided to department in adequate amount as it has direct impact upon their internal
capacity. So, required to provide the funds after analyse the need of different departments.
Marketing is one of the important department which has significant contribution in the success of
Coca-cola. The interrelation can be understood from the point that huge amount of funds are
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disbursed to the marketing department regarding application of innovate ways of promotion and
advertisement which has wide reach in market which helps to takes the revolution in sales of soft
drink.
Human resource: One of the important department which performs the function
regarding management of the business activities in appropriate manner. They provides their
function regarding building of organisational structure more profound and enable achieve their
predetermined targets. The different type of functions which are performed by HR department
within Coca-cola is related to workforce planning, determination of remuneration, designing of
raining and development programmes etc. It is an obligation upon HR department to oversee that
all the necessary requirements which are imposed by government for conducting business is
fulfilled timely (Lancaster and Massingham, 2010). In relation to marketing department, they
have the duty is to appoint qualified candidates as per requirement to optimally utilise the given
resources in effective manner to achieve desired results. This will improves internal strength of
marketing department of Coca-cola which allows them to use innovative technologies which are
in trend.
Customer service: One of the important department which is required to be build by
every organisation is related to customer service. The main function of this department is to
collect the feedback from the customers about quality and feature of their product and provide
solution for their issues. They also responsible for after sales services to customers. It is observed
that there is huge competition in soft drink industry and competitor like Pepsi have large market
share impacts their ales and negatively. The function of customer service department of Coca-
cola enables them to attain their trust and loyalty towards their products which influence their
behaviour regarding purchase of their drinks only in future instead of competitor like Pepsi.
There is huge relation is present between this and marketing department. Marketing department
divided the whole market into four different perspectives (Lane, 2014). This helps the customer
service department is to met their demand after sales according to their behaviour and nature.
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TASK 2
P3 Application of marketing mix in the process of marketing planning
Marketing mix: It is refers as set of marketing tool which enables the firm to use them in
accomplishment of marketing objectives and targets. Here, decision is taken regarding product,
price, promotion and place. Marketing mix of Coca-cola and Pepsi is defined below:
Marketing mix of Coca-cola
Product: This will includes description about number of products provided by
organisation under their brand name. It provides around 3900 beverages choices. It is observed
from this analysis that Coca-cola has large value in market. The products provide by Coca-cola
includes Sprite, Fanta, Diet coke, Coca-cola etc.
Price: The prices which are adopted by Coca-cola is not too much high as they have huge
competition in market in form of Pepsi and not too much low as depicts the impression of low
quality. So, affordable prices are set by organisation which drive their brand loyalty (Malhotra,
Birks and Wills, 2013).
Place: It is observed that Coca-cola has business operations in more than 200 nations.
The average number of products which sold every day is around 1.9 billion. They have relied on
their bottle partners for packaging and distribution. They also have multiple local channels
through which they reach towards customer's.
Promotion: Dominant promotional strategy is adopted by Coca-cola due to having high
competition such as Pepsi. The promotional budget is 216 is around $4billion. It uses both
methods to advertise their products traditional and modern. For ex., TV ads, campaigns, internet
and social media.
People: The number of employees working in organisation is vast in number which
allows them to easily serve their services across the world.
Process: The process of making soft drink is need to re-invented on regular basis to make
it more effective through which large number of benefits are gathered.
Physical evidence: They have large number of local distributors through which they can
provide their products to customers (Martin, Campbell and Harmsen, 2014).
Marketing mix of Pepsi
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Products: Having wide portfolio of products in both beverages and snacks. Such
products are known as Pepsi, Mountain dew, Tropicana, Diet Pepsi, Cheetos, Aquafina, Mirinda
etc.
Price: Due to present of high competition in non alcoholic beverage industry the
competition in price is high. So, they decide the pricing which helps to grab the attention of large
customers.
Place: It is wide present in worldwide market and used variety of distribution systems on
the basis of consumer needs, characteristics, local trade practices etc. This will includes direct
store delivery, customer warehouse, vending distribution networks.
Promotion: The cost which is incurred on promotion in year 2016 is around $2.5 billion.
They heavily rely on their advertising activities. They provide more emphasis on the mode of
digital advertising. Here, they uses television, internet and social media (Moons and et. al.,
2010).
People: Large number of employees are working in Pepsi which helps in effective
operation of different functions in diversified business environment.
Process: Need to bring changes in their process on continuous basis for effective
execution of functions. This will provides opportunity regarding minimisation of cost and
improvement of profit margin (Perreault, 2010).
Physical evidence: The products of Pepsi is distributed in market with the help of large
number of local shops and distribution channels. This will improves the reach of their products
easily towards final customers (Wieser, 2012).
TASK 3
Covered in PPT
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that main four key functions which are
provided by marketing department within Coca-cola is related to selection and development of
new drinks as per customer demand and selection of best promotional strategy which provides
the opportunity to spread awareness among the different segment of individuals. There are many
other important departments which are working in organisation includes finance, human
resource, customer service and marketing. Huge relation is persist between marketing activities
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and other departmental functions which improves their strength regarding performance of their
functions with more ease and effectiveness. Development of marketing plays assisting role
towards employees of organisation in accomplishment of their desired objectives.
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