Coca-Cola's Marketing Mix and its Impact on Business Objectives

Desklib provides solved assignments and past papers to help students succeed.

Marketing Essentials
VALENTIN GABRIEL NICHIFOR
ID:LCC20196012
1

Introduction 3
Task 1 3
P1.Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function. 3
M1. Analyse the roles and responsibilities of marketing in the context of the marketing
environment. 4
D1. Critically analyses and evaluates the key elements of the marketing function and how they
interrelate with other functional units of an organisation. 5
P2. Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organizational context.
6
M2 Analyse the significance of interrelationships between marketing and other functional units of
the organization 6
LO2 (Task 02): 8
P3. Compare the ways in which two organizations (Coca-Cola or any other organization of your
choice) apply the marketing mix to the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.
8
M3 Evaluate different tactics applied by organisations to demonstrate how business objectives
have been achieved. 8
D2 Design a strategic marketing plan that tactically applies the use of the 7Ps to achieve overall
marketing objectives. 9
Conclusion 9
2

Introduction
The key purpose of the report is to use the principles of marketing and understanding the purpose of
developing a basic marketing plan. The marketers across the globe employ different marketing
strategies and also develop an efficient marketing plan to acquire results. Coca cola use marketing
tactics to influence customers and engage them with their products or services. The marketers use
several marketing technique to attract and influence customers. In this report, the focus is on
understanding the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function and how marketing team is
structured differently in coca cola. The organization taken for evaluation is Coca-Cola, which is a
multinational beverage company. The company leads in the food and beverage sector and has been
known for its extensive marketing strategies. The functions of marketing, role and responsibilities of
marketing and how these roles relate to coca cola will be discussed in this assignment. Coca cola has
several functions and these functions are interrelated, the importance of this interrelations ship will be
discussed here. The seven P’s of marketing mix are compared between coca cola and Pepsi.
Task 1
P1.Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.
Marketing is one of the integrated activities of every organisation. It is expected that the organisation
has a dedicated team for handling the marketing activities of the products or services. Marketing is
defined as a management process through which the products moves from concept to customers, by
appropriately developing the marketing mix (Berry, 2015). The marketing is a critical tool used in
business, which includes comprehending about market, needs of consumers, developing relations,
developing customer driven strategies and also ensuring that the customers get quality products. The
organisational managers need to realise the importance of building relationships with customers so as
to engage with several innovative marketing approaches.
Importance of marketing for coca cola - Marketing is highly critical for an organisation like Coca-
Cola, which is a famous giant which has become successful due to its marketing techniques. The
Coca-Cola is known by as much as 94 percent of the population of the earth and considered a giant in
different industries. The beverage company is recognized across the globe from petrol pumps to small
and large shops of the world. The success of the company can be attributed to the marketing tactics of
the company.
For Coca Cola, the marketing has helped in building efficient goodwill of the company. As far as
good or bad reputation is concerned, it hugely impacts the sales of the company (Churchill &
Iacobucci, 2018). Hence, the marketers of Coca-Cola realized it early that marketing tactics can
enable them develop a good reputation for the company and also cope with the massive competition
3

in the food and beverage industry. For instance, Coca-Cola runs several advertisements on television
and even offer frequent offers to the consumers so that they can engage with the beverage company.
Marketing Function
As per Churchill & Iacobucci, (2018), marketing function is considered as the role of the organisation
which enable it to advertise and promote the products or services among the customers. The
marketing tactics can be diverse and vary from organisation to organisation. The marketing functions
are common in organisation and include steps such as research, developing product plan, development
process, promotion, finance, sales and customer service. According to various studies, marketing
function also includes different responsibilities for the business and these functions are highly
responsible for the company’s growth (Kotler & Kotler, 2012). The key marketing functions include
developing strategy, conducting marketing research, developing products, distribution system etc.
The key marketing functions for Coca-Cola are as follows.
Market segmentation: It is a strategic way used by the marketers to segment the target audience as
per different criteria including behavioral, physiographic, psychographic and demographic etc. It
enables the marketers to understand the customer needs. It is vital to determine the needs and wants of
the consumers so as to develop products in such a way only. The marketers need proper information
as per the needs of the customers to develop their products based on them (Kotler & Kotler, 2012).
Distribution: another marketing function, which is crucial for the marketers is distribution. It
includes making the product available to the customers appropriately. For instance, the products of
Coca-Cola are available at retailing stores and supermarkets and even local shops. The products are
highly accessible.
Product development: the products are developed by Analysing the consumer needs effectively. The
design of the product is crucial so that the consumers can stay engaged with the product or service.
However, the factors such as cost and durability of the product also plays a vital role in its
development.
Standardization: The uniformity of the product i.e. the standardization plays a vital role. The
customers should get products with same and quality so as to maintain high standards for product
development.
M1. Analyse the roles and responsibilities of marketing in the context of the marketing
environment.
There are different factors that influence the marketing activities of an organisation. As per (), the
marketing factors are of two types; micro and macro factors (Lovelock & Patterson, 2015). The micro
factors determine the factors influencing the marketing from within the firm and tools such as SWOT
is used. On the other, the macro factors are those that determine the factors influencing the business
4

from outside. The PESTLE is a strategic tool which enables the marketers to determine the forces
influencing the business from outside including political, economical, social, technological, legal and
environmental factors.
The PESTLE of Coca-Cola is as under.
Political: the political factors such as taxes, laws and changes in the labor laws influence the operation
of Coca-Cola in a country. The products manufactured by Coca-Cola should adhere to the regulations
of the food safety standards so that food items are as per the standards of the human consumption. For
instance, there are taxes including sugar tax, Goods and Services tax and other import and export
duties that the company has to take care of.
Economical: the products of Coca-Cola are influenced by the customers, cultures, desires and tastes of
the people in the country. The way the beverage company has been operating has changed over the
years and the company is always in process of introducing new products.
Social: the tastes of consumers keep changing due to which the company has to cope with the needs
of the customers effectively. Consumers are also concerned about issues including obesity, sugar
level, cholesterol due to which they look for healthy options to ensure that they can get rid of any
issues, this can reduce the consumer base of the Coca-Cola.
Technology: the company has been following appropriate technology so as to increase the profits of
the organization. This has made the company successful across the world. Coca cola have been using
highest technology to produce millions of bottles worldwide and so the batch production takes place
with the high technology machines also the quality test, packaging, bottle making, drink production
all is handled by robots of advanced technology.
Legal: the company is expected to adhere to different laws and regulations so as to ensure it operates
in any country effectively. Due to health concerns among people, the company ensures that its product
is as per the standards of human consumption and do not contain any harmful substance. Coca follows
all employability laws and food and beverage acts imposed by the UK legislation to ensure safety of
the consumers and employees, if there is any change in laws in any country then the company’s
survival can be in danger.
Environmental: Coca-Cola has taken many steps towards ensuring that the company does not
influence the environment in a negative way. The refineries of Coca-Cola do not pollute water bodies
and the waste does not get released into it. With this, the beverage company indicates that the
company is socially responsible. UK has imposed laws for low carbon emission and a harmful gas in
the environment due to heavy production so Coca cola needs to minimize the outflow of gases like
sulfur and carbon in the environment and has to perform CSR activities to contribute to the society.
In spite of the fact that Coca-Cola is highly successful across the world, the industry is massively
competitive due to which the company has to keep taking strategic steps to sustain its competition in
market. The company has to ensure that it maintains the quality of its products and the quality does
not deteriorate due to which the company can lose clients.
5

D1. Critically analyses and evaluates the key elements of the marketing function and how they
interrelate with other functional units of an organisation.
The marketing functions of an organisation are usually related to the functional units of the
organisation including HR department, Finance department, Sales department etc. The key elements
of the marketing function include market analysis, market segmentation, pricing, distribution etc. The
key elements of the marketing function are depicted in the image below.
Fig 1
Source: McCarthy, Shapiro & Perreault, 2014
The marketing functions are critical part of the organisation and other departments are connected to
them. The departments of an organisation need to provide adequate support so as to ensure that the
marketing functions are carried properly. For instance, Coca-Cola has been a successful company due
to its efficient functional units that provide support to the marketing function. When the marketing
team plans to offer any discount on a product, they take adequate inputs from finance and sales team
so as to study the profits and ensure that providing discounts do not hamper the profit margins of the
company (McCarthy, Shapiro & Perreault, 2014). The communication between different departments
is highly critical. The key function of all the departments is to increase the profitability of the business
and ensuring that they provide enough inputs to support the marketing activities. The finance
department prepares accounting reports to provide a clear view of the budget and financials of the
company. On the other hand, production department provide its inputs to the transportation and
6

logistics department so as to ensure that the product deliveries are successfully being done (Malhotra
et al., 2016). The human resource unit of the company analyses the market needs and consumer needs
of the company so that it can effectively be used by marketing team to develop appropriate marketing
plans.
P2. Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organizational
context.
As per Malhotra et al., (2016), marketing management is the process of appropriate planning and
implementing several different concepts of marketing. The marketing concepts include product,
promotion, distribution and sales etc. The key aim is to cater to the needs of the audience really well.
There are plenty of marketing functions that are crucial for organisation.
Market segmentation: The marketers use segmentation to group their target audience in a single
category and make strategies to influence them. The businesses need appropriate segmentation so that
the strategy developed is also accurate. The marketing manager determines the customers of the
markets and encourages the products or services among consumers. There are 4 variables of
segmenting but Coca cola uses two segmentation factors that is geographical segmentation and
demographic segmentation, geographic segmentation includes distributing market according to
country, cities and regions. , coca cola has a significant presence in urban and suburban areas and not
in rural areas.
Market strategies: the role of marketing is to develop marketing strategies by appropriate planning
in the organization. The management needs to determine the needs of the consumers so as to develop
the products or services in an appropriate manner. Therefore, the marketing strategies should be
developed in a way so that there is a proper balance between organizational objectives and market
opportunities. Marketing function has the responsibility to designing and implements the strategies
after scanning the environment and identifying the opportunities and threats. At coca cola there are
various opportunities threats from competitors and other external threats so to regularly plan for
minimizing those threats the strategies need to be planned.
MIS: The Marketing Information System enables the marketers to consider different factors including
product, planning, execution and regulation of marketing strategies. The MIS enables the marketers to
get appropriate information about the delivery of products such as logistics so that the consumers are
satisfied about timely deliveries (Kotler et al., 2015). The marketing department has the function of
forecasting future sales and demand for coca cola so to analyses the past records through charts and
graphs, and predict the trends the MIS system is very useful.
Marketing environment monitor: In the marketing process, it is vital for the marketers to determine
the new developments in marketing so as to cope with the changes effectively. The developments help
in providing proper response for developing products and services. The developments can include
7

changing consumer needs, internal and external changes, legal changes, economic changes etc.
Marketing function has to perform strategies for CSR in order to increase the goodwill of the
company.
Research: The crucial part of marketing is the research. It plays a vital role in marketing as there
needs to be proper research about the product, its price and target audience. This helps in developing
best products for the consumers (Kotler et al., 2015).Coca cola has to continuously innovation in its
products through investing in research and the marketing function will have the responsibility to
provide information about the consumer preferences and consumer behavior so the new product
development will be hit in the consumer market and sustains the company’s goodwill and loyal
customer base in the market
M2 Analyze the significance of interrelationships between marketing and other functional units
of the organization
There are many roles and functions within a marketing department that are undertaken to support
promotion of the organization and its products. The marketing departments have a different structures
depending upon the requirements of the businesses. In a marketing team, the leader and managers
have a crucial role to play (Strauss & Frost, 2018). The marketing team is managed by marketing
department which plays a vital role in the team. Every department has its own team and responsible
for ensuring that their respective work is being done effectively. For instance, the production
department is responsible for developing the product as per the needs of the consumers. The key
functional units are described as follows:
Finance department- this department is concerned with keeping a record of all the finances of the
organization including profits and losses. The department provides necessary input to the marketing
department so that they can offer reasonable discounts.
HR department: this department is concerned with managing the human and other resources of the
organization. The HR department ensures that they provide appropriate assistance to the marketing
team in developing marketing campaigns and training the marketing personnel.
Technical department: The IT department is responsible for managing the technological aspects of the
organization. IT team provides a support to the marketing team so as to run different marketing
campaigns.
The structure of the marketing team varies from an organization to another. The figure below depicts
the structure of the marketing team in an organization.
8

Fig 2
Source: Strauss & Frost, 2018
In the figure above, the structure of marketing team of an organization is depicted. The director or
president of marketing has different directors working under him, who have a team under them. The
editorial director is responsible for managing the content and social media engagements of the
company. The team include blog editor, video editor, social media manager and community manager.
Then there is director of acquisition who oversees the traffic and analyse the pattern of the social
media. The director of monetization is responsible for email marketing and optimization of the
organization.
LO2 (Task 02):
P3. Compare the ways in which two organizations (Coca-Cola or any other organization of your
choice) apply the marketing mix to the marketing planning process to achieve business
objectives.
As per Strauss & Frost (2018), the marketing mix is used by marketers to acquire organizational goals
and objectives. The comparison of two companies is as under.
Difference Coca-Cola Pepsi
9

Use of marketing mix As far as Coca-Cola is
concerned, the beverage
company has become
successful due to its customer
focused strategies. Due to its
strategies, the company has
been able to evolve and build a
strong reputation for itself.
The strategies developed by
Pepsi are also customer-
focused but it still lacks the
efficiency to cope with Coca-
Cola in terms of popularity
Health issues The marketing campaigns of
Coca-Cola are developed
keeping in mind the health of
the people and the
advertisements clearly depict
the healthy quotient of its
product.
The marketing campaigns of
Pepsi are developed but these
are not health centered as in
case of Coca-Cola.
Caffeine level The caffeine level in Coca-
Cola is low.
The caffeine level in Coca-
Cola is high when compared to
Coca-Cola products.
Customer orientation As far as Coca-Cola is
concerned, the beverage
company has become
successful due to its customer
focused strategies. Due to its
strategies, the company has
been able to evolve and build a
strong reputation for itself in
the consumer market.
Pepsi is more profit margins
oriented and the focus of of
Pepsi is to increase its market
share by merging and acquiring
many companies.
Marketing mix Coca cola Pepsi
Product Coca cola has the largest
portfolio brand with 3900
beverage choices and 500
sparkling brands.
PepsiCo has its products as
beverages and snakes, distilled
water and the fruit juices.
Place Coca cola is in 200 countries Pepsi have a proper distribution
10

and coca cola has localized
distributing strategies and have
partnered with MacDonald’s.
channel, it uses same
distribution channel for its
beverages and snacks.
Price Price for coca cola is almost
same as the competitor Pepsi, as
the cost of manufacturing and
transportation is too high.
Pepsi has been known for its
discounts on high purchase of
its drinks.
Promotion Coca cola not only promotes
through all channels but also
uses MacDonald’s as its tool to
promote the coke.
Pepsi uses all promotional
channels.
The marketers should use different ways for developing efficient marketing mix in the organization.
The process of developing a marketing mix is dependent on the factors including market
demographics, products and services of the organization. With marketing mix, the marketers are able
to comprehend the product in a better way and it includes product, price, promotion and place (Strauss
& Frost, 2018). The marketing mix is also extended to 7Ps with the inclusion of people, processes and
physical evidence in the list as well. Coca-Cola is the beverage brand which is existing across the
world and not just in one region. Also, the marketers of the company have applied the concepts of
marketing mix thoroughly and due to this, the customers are able to engage well. As per Strauss &
Frost (2018), organizations, irrespective of its size invest hugely in the marketing process such as
advertisements, research and development. The key reason behind the success of the company is the
understanding of its customers and market through strategic tools.
M3 Evaluate different tactics applied by organizations to demonstrate how business objectives
have been achieved
Ansoff matrix-
11

Figure- Ansoff matrix
Source- HAW, (2019)
Ansoff matrix is a tool to decide the best strategy for the company and coca cola used ansoff matrix to
increase its goodwill and market share.
Ansoff matrix was introduced in 1957.
Market penetration – It refers to selling existing products in the existing markets, coca cola used its
brand image to penetrate the market with lowering its prices.
Market development- in this the company launches its existing product in the new market, as coca
cola is an American company and it has since launched its existing vanilla coke in every possible
country (200 countries).It has huge geographical distribution area and huge brand image which it used
to develop its image in different companies.
Product development- it is selling new product in the existing market here also coca cola used it
brand image and loyal customers to launch its new products, one example of launching Fanta for the
same market.
Diversification-it means launching the new product in the new market, coca cola have introduced diet
coke with zero sugar and also acquired glaceau and had spent 4.1 billion for expanding its portfolio,
coca cola also expanded in fruit juice market.
The marketers use different tactics to achieve the business objectives in an organization. The
organizations with their different organizational culture apply the tactics to acquire the business
objectives. Coca-Cola is a highly successful company since the marketers use 7Ps of marketing mix in
their efficient marketing planning process so as to acquire the organizational objectives. Coca-Cola
uses marketing segmentation process to target its audience effectively.
● Determine the market for the firm
● Developing the market segments
● Evaluating the different segments based on different segmentation criteria
● Developing an efficient segmentation process
● Evaluation of the market attractiveness
● Selecting the appropriate target markets
12