Brand management

Group 2

Coca-Cola’s Brand audit

1. Brand History and Overview
Summarize the evolution of the brand (The summary should briefly
describe the brand organizational values, company, brand heritage, and a
company)
- The product was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886. Dr. John
Stith Pemberton, a local pharmacist, made syrup for Coca-Cola.
Carbonated water has been combined with a new syrup to create a
drink that was once "Delicious and refreshing.” In 1994, Coca-Cola
officially entered the Vietnamese market after lifting the US trade
embargo against Vietnam.
- In 2001, Vietnam became a 100 percent foreign-owned enterprise.
Since then, Coca-Cola progressively surpassed PepsiCo in market
share in Vietnam. Coca-brand Cola's awareness has grown in
Vietnam, and the company is rapidly gaining popularity. In 2021,
Coca-Cola’s brand was valued at 87.6 billion U.S. dollars.
- Coca-Cola has done activities that positively impact the globe, in line
with the company's commitment to sustainable development. There
are community campaigns, community activities, environmental
actions, and efforts to eliminate plastic trash in the ocean, a theme
that continues to resonate today wherever Coca-Cola is consumed.
Coca-brand Cola's heritage is synonymous with family get-togethers
that would be incomplete without Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola purpose: Refresh the world. Make a difference.

Coca-Cola vision: to craft the brands and choice of drinks that people love,
to refresh them in body & spirit. And Coca-Cola’s vision is done in ways that
create a more sustainable business and better-shared future that makes a
difference in people's lives, communities, and the planet.

Past and present positioning.

- Past: Coca-Cola, like gasoline, is an essential component of and
symbol of the American way of life.
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- Present: Brand positioning based on emotions. Coca-brand Cola's
positioning approach validates the "Taste the Feeling" slogan's
eternal original value through real-life stories and events because
Coca-Cola thinks that millions of people worldwide may enjoy a
refreshing bottle of Coca-Cola every day. Regardless of age, gender,
taste, way of life, or diet.

SWOT analysis

Strengths Weaknesses
- High brand identity and valuation: The - Unbalance dependence on the beverage
second most popular brand just after industry: Unlike others, there is an attempt
the “OK” symbol. to enter into other sectors.
- Impressive marketing and advertising - Nutritional value is low
strategy/campaign - Legal issues with tax evasion.
- Diversity of customer segmentation
- Professional distribution system
covering all over the world
- Own a variable number of sodas, and
other beverages
- There are numerous environmental and
community campaigns.
- Coca is preferred by Vietnamese
consumers, who utilize it at family meals
or on special occasions or parties.

Opportunities Threats
- Create more nutrition beverage choices - Different conversion costs of countries
instead of focusing on soft drinks. - Prohibition in advertising sodas in some
- Exclusive sponsorship for international countries
competitions, leagues and building - Increased demand for healthy and
brand awareness to customers. eco-friendly products.
- A strong customer relationship, stable - Strong Competitor with other beverage
and loyal companies: Pepsico, Red Bull, Monster, etc
- Local beverage companies.
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- Consumers have reduced their

consumption of carbonated soft drinks due
to the development of a variety of delicious
and nutritious soft drinks.
- After the pandemic, the tendency of
consuming domestic goods is rising.

Analysis:
- Coca-Cola has worldwide brand awareness and a history of customer
databases with royal ones. They have done a great job at promoting their
brand and products with excellent marketing programs. However, the
brand is associated with unhealthy assumptions and similar tastes to Pepsi.
They should come up with plans to differentiate themself from their direct
competitors - Pepsi, and indirect competitors - Nestle.
- Even though Vietnamese people love Coca-Cola, supporting local
businesses is something Coca-Cola has to look out for. Local beverage
brands could easily overshadow the brand, so they can have a penetration
strategy for the market, offer a more personalized experience, and localize
their products at a relatable rate to the customer.
- Company social responsibility programs of Coca-Cola are very famous and
influential; however, the tax evasion issues could cause some damage to
the brand. Coca-Cola should form a more robust legal team to deal with
this problem and strategize their next step on communicating with their
customers regardless of the situation. Since they have a strong customer
relationship, stable and loyal, the consumers could easily forgive this.
- Upgrading their line of Coke Zero or more healthy choices would imply
their responsibility for customer health. This is something other
competitors like Pepsi or Red Bull haven’t done before.

2. Key Challenges Facing Brand

Brand Portfolio:
● Carbonated Soft Drinks: Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero, Diet-Coke
● Carbonated Soft Drinks: Coca-Cola, Strike, Fanta
● Water & Tea: Dasani, Aquarius, Fuze Tea,
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● Juices & Fruit-Flavored Milk: Nutriboost, Minute Maid
● Sport & Energy Drinks: Thunder.

Coca-Cola values:
● Leadership: The courage to shape a better future
● Collaboration: Leverage collective genius
● Integrity: Be real
● Accountability: If it is to be, it's up to me
● Passion: Committed in heart and mind
● Diversity: As inclusive as our brands
● Quality: What we do, we do well
● Innovation: Seek, imagine, create, delight

Brand Positioning: Coca-Cola has become one of the world's most recognizable
and popular brands, and its beverage firm is one of the world's largest beverage
companies.

Brand Architecture: Hybrid brand

- Revitalization

+ Coca-cola Energy drinks

+ Coca Zero
+ The marketing campaign “One-brand.’
- Repositioning

+ “New” Coke
+ Packaging design: Holiday, classic design.

Key challenges:

- Coca-cola might face challenges from the market changes when new
kinds of products are launching, and other brands are innovating their
product every day.
- Even though Coca-Cola is a hybrid brand, some of its brands aren't named
after Coca-Cola. That's why marketing programs' budgets should be put
under consideration by managers to avoid withdrawal from some markets.
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- As a historic brand, Coca-Cola needs to keep its mind on the game not
being excluded from the market. They should keep coming up with ideas
for the revitalization and repositioning strategy to stay on top of its game.

3. Brand Inventory
Coca-Cola brand architecture:

- Brand architecture:

The Coca-Cola Company:

● Coca-Cola:
○ Coca Zero
○ Coca-Cola
○ Coca-Cola Energy
○ Coca White
● Sprite
● Fanta
● Dasani
● Fuze tea
● Nutriboost
● Minute Maid
- Coca-Cola's Extension:
● Coca-Cola
● Coca-Cola Zero Sugar: It is a sugar-free soft drink introduced by the
company in 2005 to target consumers who want to enjoy the taste of
coke but do not need the sugar due to health and other concerns.
● Diet-Coke: Diet-Coke shares the same purpose with Coca-Cola Zero
Sugar. However, Diet Coke has a lighter taste and the critical
difference between the two drinks is a single chemical.
- Coca-Cola's Affiliates:
● Spite: Sprite is a colorless, lemon and lime-flavored soft drink and
was intended to be a competitor to the similar soft drink, 7 Up,
Mountain Dew, Vĩnh Hảo.
● Fanta: Fanta is a brand of orange-flavored carbonated soft drinks
that intensifies fun, and its top competitors are Mirinda, Minute
Maid, and other fruit-flavored soft drinks.
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● Dasani: Dasani is the American national water brand, and it
combines the process of reverse osmosis filtration with a proprietary
blend of minerals to deliver a fresh, clean taste. Some of their
primary local competitors are Aquafina, Lavi.
● Aquarius: Aquarius is a sports drink that is a great-tasting, functional
water drink that simply couples hydration with essential mineral
intake to refresh your body and mind. Competitor of it is the drink
called Pocari Sweat from Japan.
● Fuze Tea: Independently certified to help the economic
development of local communities. Fuze tea shows a lot of
advantages with regards to its competitors in the ice tea market,
including Lipton.
● Nutriboost: Nutriboost - a milk-based beverage that appeals to a
broader audience, including children and health-conscious adults in
the Vietnam market.
● Minute Maid: Minute Maid is a fruit-based beverage, and its main
competitors are Tropicana and Florida's Natural.

Coca-Cola uses a hybrid architecture approach which can be beneficial in terms

of product development and brand strategy. Coca-cola will take advantage of
awareness, marketing costs, and when some sub-brand products/services go
through a risk, it can reduce negativity to the parent company.
However, the additional cost and management time can apply to the hybrid
brand model, together with some inflexibility and the risk of association. Another
significant disadvantage is that customers and brand managers can just become
lost in a morass of brands at various levels of association and dissociation with the
parent brand.

Coca-Cola's image:
○ Logo and symbols:
■ Spencerian Script Logo
■ Contour bottle
■ Dynamic ribbon
○ Colour palate: Red, White, Black, Silver
○ Typeface: Gotham/Arial
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○ Slogan: 2021: Open happiness
○ Jingles: Despite minor adjustments, Coca-Cola has had the same
jingle for years and is easily remembered by customers.
○ Packaging: Simple and clean with their iconic glass bottle.

Coca-Cola’s campaigns:

Coca-Cola is one of the brands that sell B2B but have their marketing
activities. They have one of the best marketing campaigns in the market.
Globally, they launched Taste the feeling in 2016, had a worldwide reach,
with a song with a cheery and appropriate tune for each nation, as well as
television ads in the style of simple everyday stories that brought viewers
closer together, sharing feelings and experiences when they were drinking
Coca-Cola (MacLeod, 2016). Following that is Real Magic in 2021, a
campaign introducing their new logo as a Hug”, and executing another
global campaign name, “One Coke Away From Each Other”. This activity
brought a new look for the firm. Still, it kept a consistency of their vision
and mission: to “connect and inspire everyone every day” (Tâm, 2021).

Besides those global campaigns, Coca-Cola also localized their marketing

program to match with Vietnamese cultures. Especially in Tet holiday, the
biggest holiday of Vietnam, they launched “Điều giản dị làm nên Tết diệu
kỳ” (Simple things make a fantastic Tet holiday) in 2020. The campaign was
like many other Tet’s campaigns with special edition packaging for a
holiday but they put out a message to inspire people to cherish the little
things, experience Tet from a different perspective (Anh, 2020).

In 2019, Coca-Cola experienced communication issues from their

marketing campaign to support the national football club. Though at first,
the audience was shocked and stood with Coca-Cola, rumors said that the
scandal was in Coca-Cola’s plan over time.

Competitors

- Direct competitor:
● Pepsi-Cola- 1994 PepsiCo entered the Vietnam market. In
2005, it became one of the biggest beverage companies in
Vietnam. In 2013, Suntory and Pepsico established a strategic
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alliance, and Suntory Pepsico beverage company was
established. Annual revenue is 39 billion dollar. Coke and Pepsi
have the same taste, same target audience.
● Chuong Duong was formerly the Usine Belgique factory
belonging to B.G.I group (France). Before 1975, it was the most
prominent beverage factory in the South. Won the title of
"High-Quality Vietnamese Goods" continuously from
1997-2014—Head office at 606 Vo Van Kiet, Cau Kho ward,
District 1, HCMC.
- Indirect competitor:
● Tân Hiệp Phát- Established in 1994, 2018 won the title of top 10
prestigious drinks announced by Vietnam Report. National
brand 2020. Address at 219 Binh Duong Boulevard, Thuan An
Town, Binh Duong.

4. Brand Exploratory
Coca-Cola Customer-Based Brand Equity:
Salience:

- Recognizable logo
- A well-known beverage company
- Carbonated soft drinks
- Accessible
- Hot seasons, fast-food restaurants, entertainment museums, parties.

Performance:

- Global soft drinks

- Convenience
- Unique flavor
- Affordable price
- Design and packaging: Red-coloured, iconic.

Imagery:

- Sincerity
- Excitement
- Happiness
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- Family and friend

Judgment:

- Dominant brand
- High quality
- Likability
- Trustworthy brand
- Loyalty
- Innovation
- A choice of the consideration during the purchase

Feeling:

- Sharing happiness, having fun, relaxation

- Enjoy moments
- Emotional bond with the customer
- Optimistic view of life

Resonance:

- A brand that creates community between customers.

- Strong attachment, involvement, and loyalty.

Customer’s journey:

The customer journey can be broken down into five stages: customers are
starting to aware of what is Coca-Cola (Awareness), they’ll then think about
Coca-Cola to quench their thirst, and they decide to buy it (Consideration and
Purchase), after drinking that, they compare the experiences to the competitors
and decide to buy again (Retention), finally when they are used to Coca-Cola,
they’ll become loving it.

At the awareness stage, consumers will be exposed to different stimuli like

banners on the street, ads on social media, or seeing their friends drinking
Coca-Cola. Customers from here might do some research or just simply crave for
some. So they’ll ask their friends, partners for recommendations, reviews, and
alternative options. This is where the customers are moving from being fully
aware of what Coca-Cola is to considering whether they should purchase the
product or not.
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After evaluating Coca-Cola the awareness they have been given, customers will
decide to buy it by going to the store, or eCommerce. During this, they can ask
the supermarket employee for recommendations and compare the product to
other competitors. Customers now will attain more knowledge about Coca-Cola
and will have a perception or review of the product and the brand itself. The
reviews are bad or good depending on their experiences with competitors. If it
was good, customers might go back and buy more. If it was wrong or just simply
like the competitors better, they’ll only drink Coca-Cola if it’s not optional.

If customers continue to enjoy the product and decide to buy more, this is the
retention step. They’d trust the brand and follow it on social media and interact
with the related topic. Sometimes, they could defend the brand if there’s a crisis.
As a result, customers will continue to rebuy the product and recommend their
friends, colleagues, family, etc.

ZMET’s research:

After two rounds of interviewing 6 participants, 4 out of 6 said Coca-Cola Iconic

with a classic look and a dark brown drink, 3 of them told Coca-Cola was
unhealthy and typically represented for fast food and obesity, 6 of them said
Coca-Cola is related to friends and family as they gathered together and drank it.
The feeling of refreshing to support digestion with carbonated drinks was also
reported.

- From the zmet observations, leadership in coca-cola in the customer’s

mind is always the first choice. The first choice is when they need to drink
soft drinks. Coca-Cola has built many related and collaborative images for
the target. When customers look at a glass of brown water or eat a fried
dish, they all think of a cup of coke.
- Coke got caught up in bad news about unclear taxes. And they did not
clearly state that issue, did not stand up to talk about that responsibility.
Customers see many different images in the zmet table but still guess
and associate Coca-Cola. Using coke because of its passion for its
sweetness, because of its long-standing product quality, and coke itself
also has a wide variety of products.
- Through ZMET research, the main problem that we realize is that
consumers tend to be concerned about health and obesity when using
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Coke. Opportunity to improve judgment: High quality, Likability,
Trustworthy brand, Loyalty, Innovation, A choice of the consideration
during purchase. The chance to correct the errors that zmet has shown

5. Reflections and Recommendations

Goal: Increase brand loyalty by 50% for 18 months.

Reason: We discovered that Coca-Cola is facing various issues in terms of brand

image and how to manage it based on SWOT analysis, brand hierarchy, CBBE
model, and Zmet. The majority of those polled stated they prefer Pepsi to
Coca-Cola because of its taste and image. As a result, Coca-Cola needs to
increase its market presence and develop more engaging customer activities.
From there, it builds trust and establishes itself as the customer's first choice.

6. Bibliography

References
(n.d.). https://en.cocacolavietnam.com/company/purpose-and-vision
(n.d.).
https://www.foodnavigator-asia.com/Article/2019/05/13/Coca-Cola-Fonterra-
alliance-New-Nutriboost-dairy-products-launched-in-Vietnam
Anh, L. (2019, June 29). “Mở lon Việt Nam”: Không mở lon thì là gì? VOV.
https://vov.vn/van-hoa-giai-tri/mo-lon-viet-nam-khong-mo-lon-thi-la-gi-926
633.vov
Anh, N. (2020, December 21). Đón chờ những thông điệp Tết ý nghĩa từ “cánh én
vàng” của Coca-Cola. Advertising Vietnam.
https://advertisingvietnam.com/don-cho-nhung-thong-diep-tet-y-nghia-tu
-canh-en-vang-cua-coca-cola-p15820?fbclid=IwAR0m7atSTG35JU3FiXXxV8
MKJ0g3P5FxapduIw1rdKqqIAn6ROZp3oDzsX0
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E. J. Kahn, Jr. (1959, February 14). The Universal Drink. The New Yorker.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1959/02/14/the-universal-drink
GILLUM, B. (2018, July 17). Branded House vs. House of Brands. Willow.
https://willowmarketing.com/2018/07/17/branded_house_vs_house_of_bran
ds/
MacLeod, D. (2016, January 24). Coca-Cola Taste The Feeling. inspiration room.
https://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2016/coca-cola-taste-the-feeling/
Pandey, M. (2021, June 2). What Is Brand Hierarchy? How To Develop One?
Feedough.
https://www.feedough.com/what-is-brand-hierarchy-how-to-develop-one/
Tâm, T. (2021, Octorber 11). Coca-Cola® ra mắt chiến lược thương hiệu toàn cầu
mới. Advertising Vienam.
https://advertisingvietnam.com/coca-cola-ra-mat-chien-luoc-thuong-hieu-t
oan-cau-moi-p17948?fbclid=IwAR3jdpXHXxG89sDg5o5lC5O9Oeb7oRN-tVi2
19pe7PWiv4votc_QxPW6iYI

7. Appendices

Appendix 2.1: Coca-Cola positioning

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Appendix 4.1: The Coca-Cola Company’s brand architecture

Appendix 5.1: Customer-based brand equity pyramid

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Appendix 5.2: Customer journey for Coca-Cola

Appendix 5.3: ZMET map for Coca-Cola

Group's members

Student name Student ID Class

Trần Hồng Ngọc 197QC03575

K25DB-PR1
Đỗ Hồng Ngọc 197QC03542

Đặng Quốc Trọng 197QC04328