Consumer Behavior and Marketing Psychology: A Coca-Cola Case Study

This report provides an overview of Coca-Cola's marketing strategies, analyzing consumer behavior and its impact on their marketing approach. It includes a critical evaluation of Coca-Cola's marketing mix and offers strategic recommendations for improvement. The analysis is based on previous assessments and a consumer survey, revealing that consumers primarily view Coca-Cola as a refreshment drink, often associated with celebrations and positive memories. While taste is a major factor, some consumers opt for substitutes due to price, quality, or nutrition. The report suggests incorporating nutritional information in commercials, stimulating impulsive purchasing decisions, and employing Marshallian economics with limited-time discounts to attract consumers from substitute products, aiming to retain them through effective strategies.

Running head: CONSUMER BEHAVIOR AND MARKETING PSYCHOLOGY
Consumer Behavior and Marketing Psychology
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1CONSUMER BEHAVIOR AND MARKETING PSYCHOLOGY
Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Coca-cola Overview........................................................................................................................3
Critical Analysis..............................................................................................................................4
Strategic Recommendations............................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

2CONSUMER BEHAVIOR AND MARKETING PSYCHOLOGY
Executive Summary
Coca-Cola is one of the most famous FMCG products in the world. Along with that, Coca-Cola
is one of the oldest and largest corporations in the USA. Currently, it has its distribution network
in more than 200 countries and production units in more than 30 countries. This report highlights
the overview of the company and critical analysis of its marketing strategies and marketing mix
for Coca-Cola and lastly, provides strategic recommendations for making further improvements
in its business. This report is based on the previous assessments of Coca-Cola as an FMCG
product and a survey to obtain the information on consumer behavior regarding the consumption
of the product. From the analysis of the consumption pattern and perception on Coca-Cola, it has
been found that, people mostly consider it as a refreshment drink and everyone in the most
families consume it during celebrations or on a regular basis. Taste and happy memories are
major determinants for influencing their purchasing decision. However, it was also found that
many survey participants also voted for substitute products due to price, quality and nutrition
factor. This report provides recommendations to Coca-Cola to incorporate the nutritional aspects
in their commercials to stimulate the rational action of the consumers. It is also suggested that
Coca-Cola must stimulate the impulsive purchasing decision of the customers also to increase its
market size. Lastly, it is suggested that the traditional Marshallian economics should be followed
in its marketing strategy and the company should offer sudden offers of lower price for a limited
period to attract the consumers of substitutes. Once they start purchasing coke at a lower price,
the company should implement ways to retain them.

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Introduction
This report provides an outline of Coca-Cola’s marketing strategy, marketing
communication mix and the impact of consumer behavior on the current marketing focus. The
aim of the report is to provide strategic recommendation to the world famous FMCG Company
to align their marketing strategy with the consumer behavior regarding their product. A study on
the consumer behavior regarding Coca-Cola was performed earlier and on the basis of the
findings, the critical evaluation of the product will be done, and recommendations will be
provided. The report commences with an overview of Coca-Cola, followed by critical analysis
of its marketing strategy and marketing mix and ends with strategic recommendations and
conclusion.
Coca-cola Overview
Coca-Cola is an American FMCG company selling varieties of non-alcoholic beverages
under the same umbrella. The coke was invented by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta,
Georgia, in 1886. Thus, the headquarter of the company was established in Atlanta. The
company has expanded its business in more than 200 countries across the world. The company
sells many other beverages but Coca-Cola is the flagship product that falls under the FMCG
category. It is the world’s biggest beverage manufacturer and distributor and one of the biggest
corporations in the USA (Britannica.com 2018).
The mission of Coca-Cola is to provide a product that will bring refreshment, to inspire
memories and moments of happiness and optimism and to create and deliver value to the
consumers, making a difference in their experience (The Coca-Cola Company 2018). Vision of

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the company is to provide a framework that will help it to achieve a sustainable and quality
growth. The Coca-Cola Company wishes to be a great workplace for the people, offer a great
variety of high quality products to anticipate and satisfy peoples’ needs and desires, create value
for the partners, implement sustainable practices for the benefit of the planet and community,
maximize profit while fulfilling the responsibilities and ensure high level productivity to achieve
further growth (Kenny 2014).
Critical Analysis
The business strategy of Coca-Cola is based on the values of the company, that focus on
the effective leadership within and outside the organization, collaboration with the best talents in
the industry, integrity, accountability, passion and commitments, quality and product diversity
(Aaker and Joachimsthaler 2012). The marketing strategy of Coca-Cola is highly aligned with
the business strategies. It keeps a focus on the market to meet the needs of the consumers,
suppliers, and franchise partners, and to do that, Coca-Cola follows the strategy of going out in
the market and listen to the consumers, observe and learn about their needs and desires, and be
insatiably curious.
The marketing strategy of Coca-Cola includes three fundamental factors, segmentation,
targeting and positioning (STP).
 Segmentation: It has a multi-segment approach which helps it to cater to a very broad
range of the global market with diversified product choices. Based on demographic (age,
gender, income, family size), psychographic (lifestyle, social class) and geographic
(region, climate) factors, Coca-Cola has segmented its market.

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 Targeting: It releases different advertisements under different brands of Coca-Cola,
which is meant for different market segments. However, for each of the category, it
mainly focuses on the age group of 10-30.
 Positioning: Coca-Cola has launched its one-brand strategy that positions it as one brand
with different variants of beverages. It promotes that all the variants, that is, Coca-Cola,
Coca-Cola Light/Diet Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero, Cherry Coke, Vanilla Coke, Coke
Zero Sugar Cherry, Caffeine-free Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Life, share the same values,
same impact on the feelings as well as visual iconography. The global campaign tagline
is also same ‘Taste the Feeling’ across all the variants (coca-colacompany.com 2018).
This positioning tells the users to enjoy any coke variant with the same great taste and
refreshment. The campaign aims to strike a chord with the emotional and functional
aspects of the consumers.
The marketing mix of the company can be illustrated through 4Ps of marketing mix.
 Product: Coca-Cola is a sweetened carbonated non alcoholic beverage. It has 8 varieties
of coke, that are divided into the classic, diet category, fruit based coke, and caffeine free.
Almost all the products are available in all the locations.
 Price: The Coca-Cola Company charges very less price for the coke products to make it
affordable to everyone, irrespective of the income status. For 73 years (1886-1959) the
price of a coke bottle was only 5 cents (Burnett and Burnett 2012). The price slightly
increased to maintain its quality and brand value when Pepsi entered the beverage
market. It offers discounted price for bulk purchase.
 Place: Coca-Cola is available in more than 200 countries and the distribution follows the
FMCG distribution pattern. Coke is shelved in all supermarkets and grocery stores,

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convenience stores, and even online retail sites in all the countries. It follows an
aggressive distribution strategy to make the product visible in every place to create an
impact on the consumers.
 Promotion: Coke follows an extensive promotional strategy. It changes the tagline in
every few years focusing on the emotional aspect of consumer behavior and delivering
the best value to them. Previously it campaigned with ‘open happiness’, which was
aligned with their mission, and currently it has the tagline ‘taste the feeling’, which is
aimed at provoking the emotions and memories of the consumers. It creates
advertisement commercials based on the cultures and festivities of the countries in which
it operates. Coca-Cola also sponsors different types of events to increase publicity. It has
kept its logo same to emphasize that its values remain same over the years. It also uses
social media for promotional activities.
The analysis of consumer behavior in previous assignments shows that majority of the
respondents said that they buy Coke for refreshment, followed by taste and price. People have a
positive perception about it before and after purchase, and associate a refreshing, energetic,
happiness and celebration with coke. Majority survey respondents reported that everyone in the
family consumes Coke. Regarding the value of products, people mostly voted for excellent and
above average and they prefer it over the rivals for better taste. Maximum participants consume
coke at special occasions and as a refreshing drink. Lastly, they highly relate with the brand and
likely to recommend to their friends.
Thus, from the analysis of the consumer behavior, marketing strategies and marketing
mix of Coca-Cola, it can be inferred that the company is successful in achieving what they have
aimed through its mission, vision and values. People prefer Coca-Cola in any celebratory

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occasion, as a refreshing drink, better in taste, thereby implying its positioning success. It is also
successful in attracting everyone in the families implying it is successful in its segmentation on
demographic and psychological factors and targeting. However, it should be noted that some
percentage of the survey participants rated it low for value for money, rated it unhealthy, and
have preference for the rival product due to price and taste. Some have also responded that they
are neutral about their preferences.
Strategic Recommendations
Based on the critical analysis of the marketing strategy and marketing mix of Coca-Cola,
the following recommendations are made to bring further improvements in their product and
strategy.
1) Firstly, the company should focus on promoting the health aspects of the coke. As coke
seems unhealthy to some consumers, the company should issue statutory warning for
over consumption of the beverage. The Engel, Kollat, Blackwell (EKB) Model of
consumer theory can be applied in this. This theory is based on the reasoned action which
influences the consumers while making a purchase decision. This theory states that
people absorb the marketing materials and process the information, and compare their
expectation with past experience (Lin, Li and You 2012). Hence, as the scientific studies
show that too much consumption of these beverages is not good for health, the parents
are concerned about it. Thus, coke should apply the EKB model in their marketing
strategy and accordingly design the commercials with nutrition facts of coke to make the
consumers aware. This can influence them to purchase coke for their children.

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2) Impulse buying is a major consumer behaviour that significantly influences the sales and
profits of the FMCG companies. According to the Hawkins Stern Impulse Buying
theory, there are four categories of impulse buying behavior. Those are purely impulse
buying, reminded impulse buying, suggested impulse buying and planned impulse buying
(Amos, Holmes and Keneson 2014). Till now Coca-Cola has been focusing on triggering
the emotional aspect of the consumers by advocating happiness and memories. However,
to improve its sales and market position, it should attempt to stimulate the impulses of the
consumers. Coca-Cola can change of its shape of the bottle to catch the eyes of the
consumer and will stimulate their impulses. During the festive season, it can change the
logo temporarily to a new innovative one to invoke the interest among the customers.
These moves are aimed at triggering the impulse buying of the customers, which will be
based on purely impulse buying, reminded impulse buying and planned impulse buying.
Customers on an average already have a positive perception about coke and to bring a
sudden impact on their purchase decision, Coca-Cola must consider the impulsive buying
behavior.
3) Lastly, Coca-Cola can follow the Marshallian Economics of consumer behavior while
influencing the customers. According to this theory, consumer behavior is largely
dependent on law of demand and supply, that is, lower price leading to higher demand
(Reisman 2013). Thus, coke can give sudden discount offers for limited period to give a
boost in its sales. During the lower price offers, its demand will increase and some
customers who prefer local substitutes can shift their focus towards coke and this may
persist in the future also, resulting in a bigger market share for coke.

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Conclusion
From the above analysis of Coca-Cola, it can be stated that, although it has successfully
captured a large market share across the globe, yet there are scopes of improvement. Like other
FMCG products, Coca-Cola applies various marketing techniques. However, to bring further
improvements in its business, it should apply new techniques aligned with consumer behavior
theories. It should focus on the attitude of impulsive buying, reasoned action by the consumer
and lastly, the classic nature of preferring the lower priced product and formulate strategies to
utilize that for increasing its sales.

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References
Aaker, D.A. and Joachimsthaler, E., 2012. Brand leadership. Simon and Schuster.
Amos, C., Holmes, G.R. and Keneson, W.C., 2014. A meta-analysis of consumer impulse
buying. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 21(2), pp.86-97.
Britannica.com, 2018. The Coca-Cola Company | History, Products, & Facts. [online]
Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Coca-Cola-
Company [Accessed 30 Sep. 2018].
Burnett, P.J. and Burnett, J., 2012. Liquid pleasures: a social history of drinks in modern Britain.
Routledge.
coca-colacompany.com, 2018. Coca-Cola Announces New 'One Brand' Marketing Strategy and
Global Campaign. [online] The Coca-Cola Company. Available at: https://www.coca-
colacompany.com/stories/taste-the-feeling-launch [Accessed 30 Sep. 2018].
Kenny, G., 2014. Your Company’s Purpose is Not Its Vision, Mission or Values. Harvard
Business Review. Sep, 3.
Lin, S.J., Li, C.H. and You, C.S., 2012. Consumer behavior and perception of marketing strategy
for amusement parks: A case study of Taiwan. African Journal of Business Management, 6(14),
pp.4795-4803.
Reisman, D., 2013. The Economics of Alfred Marshall (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.

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The Coca-Cola Company, 2018. Mission, Vision & Values. [online] The Coca-Cola Company.
Available at: https://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/mission-vision-values
[Accessed 30 Sep. 2018].