Marketing Strategy Development: An Analysis of Coca-Cola Company

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Coca-Cola's marketing strategy, focusing on its operations within the food and beverage industry. It begins with an introduction to Coca-Cola and the industry, followed by an in-depth 5C analysis (Company, Customers, Collaborators, Competitors, and Context) to understand the internal and external environments. The report then explores methods for accumulating market information, including questionnaires, competitive analysis using the Porter Five Forces model, and macro/micro environmental analysis tools like SWOT and PESTLE. It also includes ABC supplier analysis to evaluate collaborators. The subsequent sections detail the development of marketing strategies, considering mass marketing, undifferentiated strategies, and the BCG matrix. Finally, the report outlines marketing tactics, including recommendations for the marketing mix and provides a conclusion summarizing the key findings and recommendations.

Marketing Strategy
Development

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Issue 1: Brief description of Coca Cola and food and beverage industry..............................1
Issue 2: Analysing 5C in respect of Coca Cola......................................................................2
Issue 3: Accumulating information........................................................................................4
Issue 4: Developing marketing strategy.................................................................................6
Issue 5: Developing marketing tactics....................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the process through which organisations promotes its products an services to
target customers by using different tactics. Marketing activities are undertaken by the firm in
order to obtain higher sales and profits (Grant, 2016). It is the process through which firms tends
to deliver precise information about the products and services to their target market. In this
context, the present report will focus on developing the marketing strategies for Coca Cola which
operates in food and beverages industry. With this regard, the brief description of cited firm and
the food and beverage industry will be provided in this report. Along with it, the 5C i.e.
Company, Customers, Collaborators, Competitors and Context will be evaluated in the study.
The way management could accumulate the information will be assessed and development of
strategies on the basis of analysis will be carried out. Eventually, the recommendation and
justification of detailed marketing mix will be provided.
MAIN BODY
Issue 1: Brief description of Coca Cola and food and beverage industry
Coca- Cola company specialises in producing, manufacturing and retailing non-alcoholic
drinks, beverage concentrates and syrups, whose headquarter is located in Atlanta, Georgia,
United States of America. It was founded in 1886 by John Smith Pemberton who was a
pharmacist by profession (Larivière and et.al., 2016). Coca Cola is leading organisation
operating in food and beverage industry. With presence in over 200 countries, the organisation
able to deliver its products to over 1.7 billion customers. Vision statement of firm is developed in
order to support the mission statement. The vision of coca cola is to work collaborative with
employees and stakeholders in order to increase its brand reputation and gain competitive
advantage within market place. Core value of coca cola guides company's actions and describe
organisation behaviour. Coca Cola products helps in developing the organisation marketing
strategies. The advertisements broadcasts by Coca Cola are unique and attractive which helps in
attraction of more and more customers towards organisation. The role of brand is to enhance the
customer attraction and retentions which helps in developting the organisational marketing
strategies.
Table 1: Coca Cola Company Values
 Leadership The courage to shape better future
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 Integrity Be real
 Passion Committed in heart and mind
 Quality What we do, We do well
 Collaboration Leverage collective genius
 Accountability If it's to be, it's up to me
 Diversity As inclusive as our brands
Marketing strategies of Coca Cola is similar in overseas market. They aim to target
young customers and their marketing campaigns and advertisements are specifically made to
attract youth only.
Coca Cola products and beverages are enjoyed by 1.9 billion consumers in more than 200
countries each day. The mission of Coca Cola is to provide products which helps in refreshing
the world in mind, body and spirit. To inspire the phenomena of optimism through its products
and actions and to establish unique value which certainly makes a difference (Our Consumers,
2018). The strength of company is the unique concentrated formula flavour and range of
products with the help of which the company is able sustain in the competitive environment.
Issue 2: Analysing 5C in respect of Coca Cola
In order to comprehend the internal and external environment of business 5C analysis is
considered as one of the best framework. It is the technique which is used to undertake
situational analysis of firm. To sustain in present competitive environment, it becomes necessary
for firm to identify and satisfy needs and expectations of customers. In order to do that, an
organisation must carry out situational analysis to understand the influence of different
environmental factors on the firm. The 5C analysis helps in scanning the environment by
focusing on 5 key areas these are company, customers, collaborators, competitors and context,
which are especially applicable to marketing decision. In order to understand the influence of
internal and external environment on Coca Cola, the 5C analysis is described below:
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Company
Coca Cola is one of the leading food and beverage organisation with presence in over 200
countries and territories. Its unique taste and flavour able to attracts billions of people worldwide.
It offers nearly 3900 beverage choices to the consumers and is considered as one of the world’s
most valuable and recognizable brands. These brands include Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero, Fanta,
Sprite, Dasani, vitamin water, Powerade, Minute Maid, Simply, Del Valle, Georgia and Gold
Peak (De Mooij, 2013). Through the world’s largest beverage distribution system, Coca Cola is
number one provider of both sparkling and still beverages. There are wider growth opportunities
available to the company where they can expand in newer market to increase their profits and
revenue. The weaknesses of the firm are lack of innovations in the field of new product
development. Threats can be from competitors like Pepsi.
Customers
Coca Cola aims to provide its products to wide range of customers in domestic as well as
overseas market. Mostly youth segment is targeted by the company and marketing strategies
remain identical in all over the world. Consumer tends to purchase products of Coca Cola in
order to enjoy the moment of joy and happiness. Natural connection towards the products of
Coca Cola has been developed by the customers (De Mooij, 2013). However, despite of having
positive perception towards brand, customers also shown criticism against Coca Cola when news
spread that its products is harmful for health. In order to win hearts of consumers, Global
Happiness campaign has been embarked in which they demonstrate and share happiness by
delivering them information that the products are safe and healthy to consume. Through effective
marketing strategies, Coca Cola tends to influence diverse consumers in overseas market. The
motive of company is to share moment of joy and happiness. The core product of Coca Cola is
Coke which is consumed by billions of people worldwide (Richards and et.al., 2015). It is the
first product of the company which influences the taste and behavior of consumers. It helps in
developing the brand and helps the company to thrive.
Collaborators
The suppliers of Coca Cola help the organisation to thrive continuously in the
competitive market. With the help of effective supply chain management, the company able to
reach 1.7 billion people every day. It is essential for Coca Cola to have sustainable, sound and
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ethical supply chain which helps in growth and development of business (About Our Suppliers,
2018This lays great significance by establishing responsible workplace policies and practices
which are necessary to comply with.
Competitors
The emerging market has been dominated by Coke but with the increase in domestic
players the organisation is now facing stiff competition worldwide. The key competitor of Coke
is Pepsi Co. whose products are sold in over 200 countries (Voorhees, Calantone and Ramirez,
2016). There is potential threat for the company as with the increase in technologies and
globalisation, new beverages firms have now launched their products in global market.
Context
There are various factors that affects the productivity and profitability of Coca Cola in
domestic as well as overseas market. Political, legal, environmental, technological, economic and
social factors are different in different countries. Management of Coca Cola able to thrive in the
competitive market because of its unique and appropriate strategies which guide them towards
growth and development.
Issue 3: Accumulating information
To carry out extensive market research and developing marketing strategies, it is essential
for the management of Coca Cola to collect preliminary information about market segments
(Richards and et.al., 2015). There are numerous ways through which manager at Coca Cola
could gather necessary information. Below are some methods which can be implemented by the
management of organisation in order to accumulate precise data and information:
Questionnaire
Questionnaire research instrument is considered as one of the most effective method to
collect data from large population in shorter duration. In order to know about needs and
expectations of consumers, management could establish questionnaire and provide it to their
target consumers. Social media platform or online questionnaire platforms like
SurveyMonkey.com can be used. Questionnaire analysis on these platform helps in saving time
and cost of both consumers as well as management of Coca Cola. The questionnaire must be
constructed in the way which covers different aspects of customers’ needs from which adequate
information can be retained by the firm to develop new product strategies.
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Competitive analysis
In order to accumulate data regarding competitors and threats they give to business,
undertaking competitive analysis can be considered. Competitive analysis can be done by
utilising Porter Five Force Model (Larivière and et.al., 2016). The management of Coca Cola can
use this model to know about its competitive position and threats that competitors gives to the
company. By using Porter Five Force Model, the company can not only able to gather data about
its competitors but also retain information about threats of consumers and suppliers. This helps
in development of strategies and action plans through which the company can thrive in the
competitive market.
Macro and Micro Environmental Analysis
Macro and micro environmental analysis is undertaken when organisation needs to gather
information about the influence of internal and external business environment and factors. For
carrying out micro environmental analysis, management of Coca Cola could use various strategic
tools like SWOT, Value Chain Model, McKinsey 7S strategy, etc. These tools help the firm to
accumulate data about internal business context (Grant, 2016). For external analysis, firm can
use PESTLE analysis. Its stands for political, economic, social, technological, legal and
environment; which are the macro factors that impacts on business growth and development.
These strategic tools and techniques helps the firm to retain information and gather data about
environment through which can be manage and apply change within the organisation.
ABC Supplier Analysis
In order to collect and evaluate the role of collaborators, the management of Coca Cola
could use ABC supplier analysis approach. It is the critical supplier management tool which
classify suppliers into categories on the basis of total spend over a period of time. From this
application, managers can segregate suppliers into three groups based on total spend of a
company. Group A suppliers represents 10-15% of total suppliers but represents 80% of total
company spend. Group B suppliers are 20-25% of total suppliers that represents 15% of total
spend of company and lastly, Group C suppliers who represents 60-70%of firm's total supplier
but only 5% of total spend (Bemelmans, 2012). Thus, by using this approach, managers at Coca
Cola could be able to gather data about role of suppliers and collaborators play in the growth and
development of firm. The role of collaborators is to provide assistance by delivering goods and
services to the organisation on right time and maintain peace and harmony within the firm.
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Distributors and collaborators plays vital role in maintaining the flow of goods and services of
the organisation which helps the firm to thrive in the competitive environment. Furthermore,
collaborators help in development of business by developing new market areas.
Issue 4: Developing marketing strategy
Through developing new products instead of targeting a specific segment, Coca cola
adapts their marketing strategy. In order to drive sales in competitive market they use
combination of mass marketing and undifferentiated strategies for certain products (Burns, Bush
and Sinha, 2014). All age group people like Cola products, like Coca cola is been targeted to
youngsters and diet coke is been targeted to health conscious segment of people. Company
captures growth in different market by offering wide and strong varieties of beverages to their
customers (Grant, 2016). Such as, carbonated soft drinks, energy drinks, iso-tonics and in some
markets like Brazil offers tea, coffee, and also beers.
BCG Matrix for Coca-Cola:
Based on demand and competitive position of company's trademark brand scores a
different position in BCG matrix (Larivière, 2016). Products like Sprite, Thumbs-up and maaza
have a great market share and competition in their segments. Coco cola's main product have a
greater earning and have wide presence in market as they have only single or few competitors in
market that is Pepsi. Some of the products such diet coke, tea and coffee are under development
process as they are new and innovative items introduced by beverage company, which would
attract more customers and would run in a long term.
Potential market segments:
 Geographical segmentation: They segment their customers on the basis of different
geographical aspects such as age groups, culture, lifestyles, etc (Achrol and Gundlach,
2014). Example- Coca cola's main segmentation is based on age groups. They mainly
concentrate on younger ones who likes flavour of their energy drinks. For adults or much
older groups, who are conscious about their health, company came up with diet variant of
the product. For kids they have other products like Maaza, Minute Maide, etc. They also
segment on basis of climate conditions. Most products are sold in summer, so they will
focus on hotter regions of Australia for selling their most items.
 Demographic segmentation: Products are segmented on basis of demographic aspects
of a region such as age, gender, income, etc (Fan, Lau and Zhao, 2015). Company
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concentrate on targeting market or regions where there are age groups of 15 to 25 years
are more. For their diet variant they target market where there are more customers of 40
and above age groups. On various income level of customers, they target and segment
their items differently. Where there are more low income segments they provide coke in
returnable glass bottles and in tin cans for high income groups.
 Psychographic segmentation: Buyers of Coca cola are divided into various groups on
basis of personality, lifestyles and values of customers. Company designs and develop
their products according to suitability of consumers’ personality. Goods and services are
being influenced by persons’ attitudes, activities and interests (Richards and et.al. 2015).
Organisation launched various products that are suitable for persons with engaged
lifestyles (having less time), modern and mobile generation Cultural values of particular
segments are also determined for targeting different products. They consider cultures that
are present in Australia.
Coca Cola can target their market on basis of demographic segmentation. Using factor for
segmenting their customers. They can segment their products on basis of age groups. As youths
are the one who consumes most of cokes. It would benefit them most as age group from 18 to 25
covers around 40% of total age segments. They have strategically positioned themselves in world
of soft drink market. Company have adopted principle of “think global, act global”. They adapt
to offer to local needs while willing to keep same core product. Organisation uses strategic
positioning in order to retain same image all around the globe.
Issue 5: Developing marketing tactics
Marketing Mix for Coca Cola:
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Marketing mix refers to placing right products at right place and time at right price (Chatfield,
2018).
 Product: A product is an item that is built or produced to satisfy the needs of a certain
group of people (Knowles and Gomes, 2015). The focus of firm is on innovating different
types of beverages by analysing needs and wants of buyers. Company has large product
portfolio made of 500 sparkling and still brands. They offer nearly 3900 beverage
choices. Its leading product Coca Cola is one of the world’s most recognized and
valuable brands. There are 21 brands in its portfolio, of which 19 are available in low or
no calorie choices.
Below are some of the most known brands:
◦ COCA-COLA: Most popular and highest selling soft drink in history and also one of
the most recognizable brands in the world.
◦ Sprite: A popular lemon lime flavoured soft drink introduced in 1961.
◦ Fanta: Second oldest brand from Coca Cola, introduced in 1940, comes in orange
flavour.
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Illustration 1: 4Ps in Marketing
Source: (The marketing mix, 2018)

◦ Coca Cola Zero: This zero sugar brand gained the status of a million-dollar brand.
◦ Diet Coke: Known as Coca Cola light in many markets. It's a sugar and calorie free
soft drink.
◦ Place: Positioning of a product is very much important part in a marketing mix.
Company have to distributes products at places that are accessible easily (Voorhees,
Calantone and Ramirez, 2016). Coca Cola has an extensive beverage distribution
system. Its products are sold in more than 200 countries across 6 operating regions
including Europe, Latin America, North America, Pacific, Eurasia & Africa. An
average of 1.9 billion servings of Coca Cola are sold every day. Traditionally, it has
relied on its bottling partners for the packaging and distribution of its products.
◦ Price: Company price their products competitively. Such that it is not too high to be
beyond the average customers’ reach and nor too less to give an impression of low
quality (Dangelico and Vocalelli, 201). Coca Cola’s pricing strategy is aimed at
driving brand loyalty. Moreover, price competition between Coca Cola and Pepsi has
got even intense due to the decreasing demand for the soda products. The prices of
products reduce with the size of purchase. Bulk purchasers of the product may have
to pay significantly lower prices than ones buying single Coca Cola products.
◦ Promotion: Due to heavy competition in soft drink industry, their main focus is on
promoting their products through advertising for driving greater sales and revenues
(Cobb, Brookover and Cobb, 2015). Both modern and traditional methods are used
for promoting their brand and products in Australian market. They spend a heavy
some on various advertisements and campaign.
CONCLUSION
From this report, it can be concluded that organisation uses various marketing strategies
for having competitive advantages. Organisation designs their mission, values and slogans for
communicating purpose or goals to their customers. In order to comprehend the internal and
external environment of business 5C analysis is considered as one of the best framework. For
sustain in present competitive environment, it becomes necessary for the firm to identify and
satisfy the needs and expectations of customers. To carry out extensive market research and
developing marketing strategies, it is essential for the management to collect preliminary
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information about market segments. Organisation target their customers through demographic,
Psychographic and geographical segmentations.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Achrol, R.S. and Gundlach, G.T., 2014. Network organization and systems competition: A
marketing analysis. The Antitrust Bulletin, 59(4), pp.743-768.
Burns, A.C., Bush, R.F. and Sinha, N., 2014. Marketing research (Vol. 7). Harlow: Pearson.
Chatfield, C., 2018. Introduction to multivariate analysis. Routledge.
Cobb, N.K., Brookover, J. and Cobb, C.O., 2015. Forensic analysis of online marketing for
electronic nicotine delivery systems. Tobacco control, 24(2), pp.128-131.
Dangelico, R.M. and Vocalelli, D., 2017. “Green Marketing”: an analysis of definitions, strategy
steps, and tools through a systematic review of the literature. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 165, pp.1263-1279.
De Mooij, M., 2013. Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes. Sage
Publications.
Fan, S., Lau, R.Y. and Zhao, J.L., 2015. Demystifying big data analytics for business
intelligence through the lens of marketing mix. Big Data Research, 2(1), pp.28-32.
Grant, R.M., 2016. Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley & Sons.
Knowles, P. and Gomes, R., 2015. The Advantages of the Customer Value/Mission Matrix for
Strategic Nonprofit Marketing Analysis. In Proceedings of the 1997 Academy of
Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 126-126). Springer, Cham.
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shareholder value linkage: a cross-industry analysis at the customer and firm
levels. Journal of Marketing Research, 53(1), pp.91-109.
Richards, Z. and et.al., 2015. Corporate Social Responsibility programs of Big Food in Australia:
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Voorhees, C.M., Calantone, R. and Ramirez, E., 2016. Discriminant validity testing in
marketing: an analysis, causes for concern, and proposed remedies. Journal of the
Academy of Marketing Science, 44(1), pp.119-134.
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Online
About Our Suppliers. 2018. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/suppliers/suppliers>
Bemelmans, Y., 2012. ABC Supplier Analysis: A Critical Supplier Management Tool. [Online].
Available through:<http://www.procurement-academy.com/abc-supplier-analysis-a-
critical-supplier-management-tool/>
Mission, Vision & Values. 2018. [Online]. Available through:<https://www.coca-
colacompany.com/our-company/mission-vision-values>
Our Consumers. 2018. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/our-consumers>
Staff, J., 2017. The Coca-Cola logo story. [Online]. Available through:<https://www.coca-
cola.co.uk/stories/the-logo-story>
The Marketing Mix. 2018. [Online]. Available through:<http://marketingmix.co.uk/4ps-in-
marketing/>
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