SUSTAINABILITY MARKETING OF COCA COLA

ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY MARKETING:

Sustainability marketing is recognized as a process/branch of marketing that “meets the

needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs”. It is also said as “doing business keeping in consideration about the environment
detrimental likelihood issues which could result from our business/production.

Every form of business utilise some form of natural resource (such as water, air, land and
heavy metals like copper, iron, silver etc) in some way or other. So sustainable marketing
gives utter importance to the natural resources, its conversation, measurable steps to protect
and optimise its use and eliminate or mitigate all such steps/reason which is causing or can
cause natural resource depletion.

Sustainability marketing seeks for alternative options in order to reduce environmental

hazards.
Sustainability marketing is concerned with using natural resources in such a way that it least
impact the environment for which it looks for various alternative options in order to minimise
the likelihood damage to nature due to its production/business. Some of the areas where
company/businesses could mimimise environmental damage are:-
 Energy use
 Water use
 Transportation
 Material used in packaging
 Use of renewable energy/material

Sustainability marketing can be used as a strategy or strategic/competitive advantage

for the company
Sustainability marketing can be used as a strategy or strategic advantage for a company
against its competitors and to create distinctive, valuable and fair image in the eyes of its
stakeholders. Companies which are aggressive in this marketing always enjoy an edge over
its competitors. For example, PepsiCo and CocaCola are very aggressive in sustainability
marketing and always compete with one another in terms of having better performance
in the issues of climate change, water scarcity and public health issues. Better they are in
mitigating these issues, more they have competitive advantages over others.

Sustainability marketing integrates with HR department to ensure sustainable

development happening, its existence and its future adoptions.
Company cannot sustain this sustainable practice until and unless it has in its core values.
Therefore it needs to inculcate sustainable habits into company’s core values and policy and
through which it inculcate it in its employees. For example, General Electric is using its
human resource department to integrate sustainability into the company’s culture,
ranging from hiring practices and training to employees wellbeing programs.

Sustainability marketing in designs and looks of the product.

Sustainability marketing is also seen as a process of decision making in design and structure
of the product in a way that it least cause the harm to the environment and natural resources.
Some technological upgradation, innovative ideas and engineering processes make it happen
in reality to construct such a design that it least impact the nature. For example, Nike
integrates sustainable design across its product portfolio and created the Making app in
2013, allowing the data in its materials sustainability index to be public. This lets
designers from across the industry and beyond make more sustainable design decisions
and ultimately lower impact products.

ABOUT COCA COLA

The world famous leader in soda beverages does not need an introduction. The brand is
nearly omnipresent with its products being sold in more than 200 countries. It has a large
product portfolio of sparkling and still beverages. The soda industry has felt the pinch of
economic slow-down and since the recession was over, currency fluctuations have affected
its profits. Some of the popularity of soda drinks has also been affected by the growing
popularity of health drinks and other health trends. Apart from the large market share Coca
Cola brand is also known for its strong brand image and high customer loyalty. The brand
invests a very large sum each year in marketing and advertising for promotions and customer
engagement. Today, it is a well-known name in most corners of the world.

Marketing Mix of COCA COLA

Here is the marketing mix of Coca Cola and its four P’s – product, place, price and
promotion.
Product:-
With the biggest and a very huge market portfolio of nearly 3900 drinks and beverages
choices the product of coca cola are mostly impressive. Now when it comes to choices the
most leading brand has 19 to 21 choices in the range of low or no calories choices to offer
within various segments.
The most common known brands which they offer are:-
 COCA-COLA
 SPRITE
 FANTA
 DIET COKE
 COCA COLA ZERO
 COCA COLA LIFE
 MINUTE MAID
Rest there are many other products which are offered across various countries as these
different products offer different choices to every customer. They are:-

 Ciel
 Powerade
 Powerade zero
 Simply orange
 Fresco
 Glaceau vitamin water
 Dell valle

Place:-

Coca cola has a large distribution chain to sell their products in more than 200 countries
which include Europe, latin America, north America, pacific, Eurasia and Africa. There are
bottling partners of coca cola for packaging and distribution.

The bottling partners of coca cola work very closely and directly for their customers which
have a list of grocery stores, restaurants, street vendors, convenience stores, movie theatres
and amusement parks, among many others. These are also a type of a localised strategies for
coca cola. These indirect customers sell the product to direct customers as this is a part of
strategies based system in coca cola.

Price:-
Coca cola always has a trend to set competitive pricing because of its rival and closet
competitor Pepsi. Prices cannot be set too high for the average customers and has to set a
impression for high quality also. The soda market has fallen and the market for product
demand has decreased due to stiff competition. The price also go lower with the large size of
product purchase. For the bulk buyers and wholesale ones the prices will be less as compare
to the ones buying only the single products.

Promotion:-
Coca cola has a marketing expenditure of 4 billion in 2016 and faces a intense competition in
soda industry to drive more sales and revenue out of it. It has both traditional and modern
methods to utilise channels to promote brand and product. There was also a campaign to to
unite all its brand. From various tv ads to banner promotion and to outdoor campaigns and
digital marketing the brand has done everything across the internet. The social media acoount
are used to connect with people and loyal buyers of coca cola across the world to have a
interactive customer engagement. It also runs a youtube channel for various promotion offers.
 SUSTAINABILITY PRACTICES BY COCA COLA
Energy Conservation and Climate Change

Coca cola has a goal to reduce the carbon footprint in the operations by 15 percent by 2020
when compared to the 2007 baseline. With this goal the company also plans to convert an
energy efficient lighting system that uses 50% less energy and 50% more light. This operates
on motion sensors for great savings. The company also has installed 2000 ems55 energy
management. These lightings give energy efficiency by upto35 percent. Company has also
installed a large number of 1400 climate-friendly coolers at 2010 Olympic Games to not have
a huge greenhouse gas effect which will be reduced by 5600 metric tons which is equivalent
to taking about 1200 cars. The most preferred step taken by the company is to use a 37 hybrid
trucks and tractors. They are installed by the organisation to improve the fuel consumption
and reduce fuel consumption by one third when in traffic.

Water Usage

When it comes to water operation challenge the water sustainable operation is used to have a
neutral impact on local people by returning the half water which is not utilised. This is done
for the local consumers and for environment as well. This technique proved right as it leads
to a reduction of 20% in water use with a ratio of 1.62 liters between 2005 and 2007. The
main focus of the operation was to reduce the water use ratio and recycling the water used for
operations.
To save more water and to continue with these practices the company started using water
conservation toolkit to identify actions to conserve more water. It also implemented recycle
system to have a water loop through plants membrane unit to rehab tat the water loop system.
It was designed to have nearly more than 11 million liters of water pre stored in its
production chamber to have more water storage plant. In addition water based container
rinsers were replaced with ionized air rinsers and the lubrication system on all production
lines was retrofitted to discontinue water use, saving approximately 28 million litres of water
annually.

Sustainable Packaging and Recycling

The goals for sustainability management were:-

 Avoid the use of 100,000 metric tons of packaging materials between 2007 and 2010
 Recycle or recover more than 90% of waste materials at production facilities by 2010
increase recycled content in plastic (PET) bottles to an average of 10% by 2010

For goal (1), Dasani PET bottle weight was reduced by 30%, saving 493 metric tons of PET.
Plastic twist-off closures were designed 24% lighter, saving 235 metric tons of resin.

Also, lighter fibreboard was developed for Minute Maid products saving 124 metric tons of
fiberboard annually. The company also launched the Plant Bottle, a 100% recyclable
packaging made with up to 30% plant-based waste materials.
Goal (2) was achieved in 2009, ahead of schedule. The team also implemented a centralized
recycling initiative that captures broken, damaged or expired product packaging from satellite
facilities to be baled and sold to an industrial recycler.
There were also a lot of investments made for green innovations in various recycling
technologies and packaging materials, vending and cooling technologies and design of hybrid
trucks. There was also a tool for proprietary management of database for future packaging
materials to set a benchmark against the global coca cola system. This comes under
sustainable packaging and marketing of various products. The most appropriate example for
this can be the coca cola plant at Brampton which has a advantage of managing and thinking
outside the box. Because earth has a limited source of earth water and resources within it is
having a innovative business practices and contributing for the practices and sustainability of
communities to meet the expectations of the stakeholders.