Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Coca Cola Consumer Behavior
Coca Cola Consumer Behavior
ASSIGNMENT – 2
SUBMITTED TO:
SUBMITTED BY:
ANUSHKA DUDUSKAR
PRIYANKA RAJANALA
SHASHANK GUPTA
Coca-Cola was initially sold as a patent medicine for five cents a glass at soda
fountain in the United States because of the belief that carbonated water was
good for the health and could cure many more diseases.
Coca cola was invented by John Pemberton. It got known to the world due to
the marketing strategies of Asa Candler. Some people say it is an “American
dream” in a bottle. It is very important here to understand the hidden strategic
symbol making process, which portrayed as a symbol of spirit, vitality,
creativity and optimism.
It has been successful in expressing the American spirit and also the American
pop culture in front of the world. Also strategically able to position itself as a
cultural icon. It not only spreads and sells the American culture, but takes
different strategies to meet the varied taste preferences of consumers
everywhere. If coca-cola only limited itself on the expression of American
culture for its marketing, it would be impossible for it to become a brand that
can be recognized in the multicultural world.
Studies have shown that Coca‑ Cola is among the most‑ admired and
best‑ known trademarks in the world. In fact, it is documented that
“Coca‑ Cola” is the second‑ most widely understood term in the world, after
“okay.”
In 1886, Company accountant, Frank Robinson, named the drink “Coca‑ Cola,”
and thinking the two Cs would look well in advertising, pens the famous
Spencerian script logo.
Three core elements of its logo design made it possible to complete the visual
identity system of coca cola brand.
What’s there in the Name?
Packaging aspect:
Two decade old Brand Coca Cola India’s advertising journey has been full of
innovation and creativity. Coca Cola India made a consistent effort on its part
to align its product with the Indian Culture and tradition.
If you are going out in the sun, don’t forget your dark glasses.
Jo Chaaho Ho Jaaye, Coca Cola Enjoy was one of the company’s first campaigns
in India. It was remarkably well executed, and appealed both at a product level
as well as at an emotional level. These ads featured celebrities such as Hrithik
Roshan and Aishwarya Rai. The target segment for Coca Cola in its initial days
was the youth segment and this campaign clearly connected well with the
segment. However, the next advertising campaign of Thanda Matlab Coca
Cola was launched with an objective to have a mass appeal. The campaign
leveraged the product platform rather than the emotional platform that it had
established earlier.
Thanda Matlab Coca Cola Ad Campaign
It is however, important to note here that Coca Cola made some exceptions
for India. The company has similar marketing strategies across geographies
and usually doesn’t depend on celebrity endorsements. But given the great
fan-following, and in adapting to the Indian context, the company had to
initially deviate from its set charter. However with the current campaign
of Open Happiness, Coca Cola seems to have achieved both an emotional as
well as a mass appeal. There is a very natural connect with the target
segment, that of celebrating every day, and sharing small moments of joy
with our loved ones, irrespective of any barriers.
As much as the coca cola drinks enjoy popularity with the masses, the brand
has been under serious criticism owing to the health issues associated with
the consumption of Cola drinks. Health experts allegedly blame the cola
manufacturers for promoting child obesity and other lifestyle diseases.
Environmentalist has shunned the manufacturing practices of Cola giants as
they claim that cola manufacturing plants cause water depletion and
contamination.
Thus to counter all negative complaints coke Post 2009, Coca Cola adopted
the “Global happiness” campaign. It experimented with different kinds of
images of the year.
Coca Cola India campaign “Umeedon Wali Dhoop, Sunshine Wali Asha” ad
launched in the year 2012, sells hope for better tomorrow. The clearly gives
a message of hope and growth and shows that every and any dream is
achievable. Similarly the brand also roped in Sachin Tendulkar, as a
“happiness brand ambassador” to support various CSR initiatives the brand
is undertaking.
Coca Cola India Ad Campaign: Umeedon wala Dhoop, Sunshine wali Asha
An uplifting Coca-Cola film shows that what unites us is stronger than what
sets us apart. High-tech vending machines installed in two popular shopping
malls in Lahore, Pakistan and New Delhi, India – two cities separated by only
325 miles, but seemingly worlds apart due to decades of political tension –
invited consumers to put their differences aside and share a simple moment
over a Coke.
The television commercial titled 'Do diye zyaada jalaao', celebrates the joy of
sharing and spreading happiness. The TVC is backed by a sweet and happy
sound track that says 'Do diye zyaada jalaao'.
Coca-Cola, the universal icon of happiness, believes that happiness grows more
when shared with others. They have built their Diwali campaign based on this
simple proposition. Just as Diwali marks a new beginning and ushers in a
celebratory mood, it also gives a good reason to undertake a little act of
digging into our own happiness and sharing it with others, in turn making the
moment even more special. What better way to symbolise this act other than
by lighting diyas.
It is only Coke which can speak such a heartwarming language and talk about
happiness in such a simple, yet special manner. The campaign echoes the same
sentiment and encourages everyone to make Diwali more special and
memorable by the simple act of lighting two diyas for someone, extending
happiness and spreading joy.
All of us are fast becoming a society with growing levels of selfishness and
apathy, and are losing intrinsic values such as kindness and concern for others.
In such times, when you see someone being kind to strangers, it brings a smile
to your face. You feel positive and optimistic about the world we live in.
Spreading happiness brings joy to both the giver and the receiver.
Creativity/Freshness: Coca Cola always comes out with something unique in its
concept, however their campaign always focusses on spreading love and
happiness. This advertisement is also creative in its own natural way as every
character in this TVC is trying to shower happiness/ kindness through any
means. So it’s kind of something fresh idea to share your happiness even with
strangers.
Emotional Connect: It is at par in this TVC as one character is feeding stray
dogs and other tries to make security guard happy by giving him a bottle of
coca cola. Emotional connect is high as it is showing the height of peace you
get when you make other person happy.
Brand Association: Coca Cola beverages always revolve around its so strongly
created brand value. It has featured its beverages bottles with highlighting the
name Coca cola and thus brand association is kept intact.
Segmentation: This TVC has segmented people of all the categories still youth
is the main center of attraction in it as there is nothing wrong if I say that youth
are the main consumers of coca cola in India.
Relevance: Relevance of this TVC lies in the fact as Coca cola always try to
impart happiness through its campaign, this advertisement is also paving on
the same path with a new motto of spreading happiness in your own crazy
ways.
In this TVC they leveraged the star-cast of the movie ‘Student of the Year’, but
emphasized a strong message. We generally treat restaurant bearers as just
another set of non-existing servants and few end up giving money as tip.
However, this ad clearly emphasizes the humanitarian aspects of the bearer
and sends a clear message that even they work hard in their roles and we
should treat them as fellow human beings.
The marketing implications of this campaign are as follows:
1) Social Message: Even the most educated people these days have maids at
their place and many of them ill-treat these maids. The younger generation
(the major target audience of Coca Cola) is made to realize the importance of
humanity. It is a huge step by a global brand for a societal cause.
2) Target audience: Coca Cola is not only targeting now with their regular
customers but also trying to reach its non-consumers. Yes, there are many
people on this earth who haven’t tasted Coca Cola for variety of reasons. But, if
they get to taste this product through someone who cares for the society,
these non-consumers would be sampled. All this is happening without any
extra cost on part of Coca Cola, but at the cost of their regular customers who
are now brand ambassadors.
The first newspaper ad appears announcing Coca ‑ Cola as a “Delicious and Refreshing Beverage.”
Coupons are first used to promote Coca‑ Cola.
Everyone loves freebies so when Coca Cola wanted to do a Buy one, get one
promotion, they went about doing it, as they state it “The Coca-Cola Way”,
filled with surprises and happiness.
During this promotional period, the sales of Coke had increased by 1200%.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-78wuwEfzU
Irritated school, college students, professionals waiting at the bust stop for
hours see a bus approaching towards them. Coke arranges a bus ride for such
people as a part of their marketing campaign. They supplied the commuters
with free coke bottles. For entertainment they had an inbuilt TV as well as a
magician who would interact with them showing them varied tricks and gift
them Coke T- Shirts. This initiative was carried on by Coca Cola in order to
position it as a drink which would rejuvenate a person completely and thus
would make the person feel happy. This in turn would increase their sales.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x-rvhK-m1k
Coca-Cola creates Park Roll Out
In today’s competitive world where people are so busy competing with the day
– to – day life scenario’s, be it house related responsibilities, study load, or be
it work load, a person keeps striving hard to give situations a tough fight , but
in such a muddle he forgets to enjoy small moments of happiness, such as
sitting in park and relaxing . Therefore, Coke took an initiative to make people
realize what they were missing and to imbibe in them the thought to live like
there was no tomorrow and hence created a Roll out Park where people would
come and chill. They had come up with the concept of “To open happiness,
take off your shoe.” Where in if a person would unlace his shoes and stand in
front of the machine he would be gifted with a free bottle of Coca-Cola. When
more people came to know about this they started visiting this park getting
their near and dear one as well playing guitar, football, frezbie, flying kite,
catching up with friends etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ih0Drtuufc
Love Is In the Air: A Coca-Cola Valentine
This year on Valentine’s Day, Coke made arrangements to make people realize
that Coca-Cola would be present and be a part of their lives on special
occasions. In order to make the auspicious day more special the Company tied
few balloons to the coke cans and let them in the air. These cans flew in the
direction of the wind and landed in the hands of people, who were more than
happy to encounter something so celestial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtW2tw-OzL0
The Coca Cola Friendship Machine
The day when all the friends get together Coca-Cola created something very
special for them which would enhance their celebration. They created a
Friendship machine where in you pay for one coke and you get the other one
for free. In short you would get two bottles, even if you paid for one. In order
to avail this benefit the person was supposed to take help of your friends,
where in they would lift you in order to insert the money into the machine
which would be risen to a particular height which would be difficult to reach by
yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj3QLLTFDX8
Finals - Coca-Cola Commercial
In a TV commercial, a boy who has his history exam at 11.30 am is fast asleep
due to studying till late in the night .It is shown that the characters from the
history come out of the book and try to wake him up by firing at him, shooting
arrows at him, dropping a bomb on his forehead with the help of jet plane,
finally people travelling in the air balloon tries to open the cap of the Coca-Cola
bottle. The boy wakes up with that sound takes a sip and rushes to write his
exam. Taking this advertisement particularly in consideration, when you relate
it to happiness the boy is saved from missing his examination. This would
relieve him from the fear of not failing in the examination thus making him
happy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e099hgLQRs0
Coca-Cola Happiness Truck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0n2iKaF2rg
With the world flocking to the digital space, the way we connect has started to
change, and, it would seem, the more friends we gather online the fewer we
see in real life.
The campaign needed to make consumers see Coke in a way that would
encourage them to actually consume the product, not just love the brand.
Coca-Cola wanted a core idea that would reunite Australians with the idea of
getting together and sharing a good time over a Coca-Cola.
They wanted to jumpstart real conversations and remind people of those in
their lives they may have lost touch with, or have yet to meet.
Australians are known for calling each other by their first name, or ‘mate’ for
that matter. And, in order to bring people together, Coca-Cola needed to
encourage this on a more personal level… and what better way to spark
conversation than by using a first name!
Coca-Cola printed 150 of the country’s most popular names on labels of Coke
bottles for the first time in the brand’s history, to remind Aussies not only of
those people currently in their lives, but also people they may have lost touch
with, giving them a reason to connect.
Prior to campaign launch, Coke bottles with names on them began appearing
in fridges across Australia, allowing consumers to discover the names on-pack
themselves, sparking online conversations and media interest.
The campaign then launched with a big bang across multiple channels.
First, the campaign story broke on page three of The Australian newspaper,
followed by a flow of marketing trade coverage.
The TVCs, which featured a montage of volunteered photos of real people who
shared that name, first aired across the biggest weekend in Australian sport –
during the AFL (Australian Football League) and NRL (National Rugby League)
grand finals, reaching 30% of the population.
Key media and celebrity influencers with a large social media footprint were
identified and sent personalised seeding kits with a Coke product bearing their
name, including campaign messaging to share with their network of fans.
Through a partnership with Austereo, 150 name songs were created and
broadcast on-air nationally. Consumers then used these songs as inspiration to
connect via Facebook.
Consumers were invited to SMS a friend’s name, which was projected live onto
the iconic ‘Coca-Cola’ sign at Sydney’s King’s Cross. They then received an
MMS enabling them to share their friend’s name up in lights, via Facebook and
email.
Still, requests kept coming in. They listened to their captive Facebook audience
and asked them who they wanted to ‘Share a Coke’ with most. After 65,000
people got their say, Coke bottles with 50 new names were released.
Traffic on the Coke Facebook site increased by 870% and the Facebook page
grew 39%. In Australia, we were the number one most talked about Facebook
page and 23rd globally. Seventy-six thousand virtual Coke cans were shared
online and 378,000 custom Coke cans were printed at local Westfield malls
across the country.
The campaign also changed attitudes: over the campaign, teens claimed it gave
them a ‘very positive’ impression of Coke. Scores on ‘always doing new things’,
‘is a brand I love’ and ‘for someone like me’ all improved with the young adult
audience.
June 2013, Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a so-called “anti-gay law”
which prohibited the promotion of “non-traditional” relationships to minors.
The move had cast a shadow over the forthcoming Olympics, with gay athletes
and sports fans fearful of arrest should they attend.
Coca-Cola, the than sponsorer of the Sochi Olympics, had come under
particular pressure for not protesting the law. A petition created by campaign
group All Out urging the brand to call for the repeal of the anti-gay law had
been signed by almost 360,000 people. 100 days from the start of the Games,
All Out held a demonstration at Coca-Cola’s Atlanta campus with trucks towing
22-foot-high billboards stating: “Coca-Cola don’t stay bottled up, speak out
against Russia’s anti-gay laws”.
The situation in Russia was regarded as a “sensitive issue” but it gave the brand
an opportunity to dial up its “work that matters” values-based marketing
proposition it presented at Cannes.
“It has been respectful of different cultures, Governments and policies because
they are none of that, but yet they put out more pointed messages about
Coke’s brand values. Coke as a brand has always believed the world is a better
place when you are accepting things as they come and they have always
brought people of different backgrounds together.”
Marketing around Sochi was about “insuring people came together and
enjoyed the event, respect the athletes and be respectful of their different
backgrounds. This strategy was “not reactive” to the protests around the anti-
gay law being passed in Russia, but the issue witnessed the actual doing of the
brand.
Recently they have realized that their marketing strategy that has worked well
for them for decades needed to evolve and as such they are moving from
“Creative Excellence” to “Content Excellence”
Creative excellence has always been at the heart of Coca Cola’s advertising and
they have decided that content is now the key to marketing in the 21st century
on a social web.
Content for Coca Cola is now the “Matter” and “Substance” of “Brand
Engagement”
Marketing Strategy
Coca-Cola has been able to create the most appropriate marketing mix.
Since its inception, Coca-Cola has built its business using a universal strategy
based on three timeless principles:
• Secondly, customers are unwilling to take risks and will therefore stay
with the main market player due to the comfort factor.
As also following the theories stated by Demetris Vrontis and Iain Sharpthat.
Thirdly, due to the influence and dominance the leader has in the market it is
able to use its position to negotiate lower pricing with suppliers and to
command higher market price for its products.
The fourth reason is that the market leader has in place excellent
management teams and it has successful procedures and processes developed
throughout the organisation.
Coca-Cola's marketing focus changed in 2007 when Mr. Tripodi came on board
from Allstate AdAge.
Diet Coke is now the Number Two brand of soda, leaving Pepsi in its dust.
The Coca-Cola Company added two billion-dollar brands to the product mix:
Del Valle and Minute Maid Pulpy, which was the first of Coca-Cola's billion
dollar brands to launch in an emerging market.
These are the reasons which sum upto the reason as to why Coke is leading the
growth of the company with global sales volume up by 3 percent every year.
The reason for The growth in its success is due to the Coca-Cola's Three-
Pronged Approach
Over the next 10 years, Coca-Cola is hoping to duplicate the efforts of 125
years of product developing and customer wooing.
Recently, The company’s CEO Muhtar Kent on(18 February) stated that it plans
to make an extra $1bn in productivity savings by 2016 - the majority of which it
will reinvest back into marketing - to overcome its “speed bump” year and
achieve its plan to double revenues by 2020.
The company plans to build on its marketing, in both quantity and quality,
which it believes will restore “steady momentum” in 2014 and beyond.
The turnaround plan covers five areas: accelerating growth of its sparkling
portfolio, strategically expanding the profitable still portfolio, increasing media
investments by maximising systems optimisation, making improvements to
point of sale and investing in the next generation of leaders.
Those savings will be invested into global brand building initiatives with
increased consumer-facing media spend.
The global increase in marketing and every country we operate in, large or
small, in which the company works. When they invest in marketing, their
global partners invest in feet on the street, more coolers, more trucks…that’s
what will be happening and that’s what is going to happen in their business as
they restore steady momentum in 2014 and beyond.”
“In many markets around the world, brand Coca-Cola is monadical but the
company needs to work harder to enhance the romance of the brand over the
world.”
The global Share a Coke campaign, which originated in Australia and New
Zealand in 2012 and was executed in the UK in 2013, as an example of how the
company will look to invest in the brand going forward - including a return to
the activity year.
The activity was much more than a marketing campaign, but rather a “system
wide collaborative effort to engage with consumers in a meaningful and
effective way”. Coca-Cola stated that the effort helped increase volume sales,
household penetration and brand love scores over the 20-plus markets it has
appeared in to date.
In order to create value in stills categories, it has taken a step forward by move
to taking a majority stake in the Innocent juices and smoothies business last
year.
The trend forecasters state that for the next 10 years, people are going to
spend more time at home, work more from home, so home is going to be an
even more important place for consumers and we need to be present there
with different technologies, packaging and different ways to present our
brands.”
Aaker (1998) points out that there are several approaches a firm can take to
become a low cost producer, which can be used in isolation or as a
combination.
From the time of its inception Coca-Cola, a single core product, geographically
located in the US has become established in its home market by increasing
market share and product usage using the Market Penetration Strategy. Coca-
Cola was launched into foreign markets and competed within the international
arena. This Market Development Strategy was undertaken by targeting new
geographical areas and target segments. As these foreign markets developed
further, the Coca-Cola Company had faced many turmoil’s with the problem of
how to further penetrate them. The solution was simply to develop new
products (Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite), which over time have also become core
products into the competitive market.
Coca-Cola’s core ‘global’ brands are mainly standardised, but with a number of
adaptations taking place. Although the company may strive for a completely
standardised strategic approach, drawing on the associated economies of
scale, in reality they are following the Integrated Adapt Stand approach as
advocated by Vrontis (2003).The company’s effectiveness and profitability is
well supported by their strong competitive position and market share in their
primary product market – Coca-Cola.
Cultural Leadership.
Coca Cola has been carrying out responsibility strategy since many years.
The Responsible Marketing Strategy is a set of principles that guides the entire
approach to marketing and establishes firm rules for what they should and
shouldn't do. They use independent auditors to check that they are complying
with the principles set .
• They don't market any drinks to children under 12 because they believe
parents should choose the drinks that are right for their families. They help
parents make informed choices through better consumer information
• They have decided to not associate themselves with cinema films where
the core audience is under 12.
In order to reinvent itself in the changed world, Coke has undertaken few
steps.
• Consumer Provocation
• A still-frame from the forthcoming ‘Just Add Zero’ Coke Zero ad.
• Coke Zero, or “Bloke Coke” as it was often referred to, was relaunched
on 13 January with an integrated marketing campaign and a new visual identity
that featured a red circle icon, appearing across all marketing touch points
such as outdoor, POS, digital and limited edition packs.
• It then takes a twist when the protagonist’s love interest turns one
attractive man into 10 - which Coca-Cola says demonstrates its efforts to
broaden Coke Zero’s launch target market of men to appeal to women too.
On a social web people can easily share ideas, videos and photos on social
networks such Facebook.
The next part of the equation is to ensure that these ideas create content that
is innately relevant to
• The brand
• Your customer interests
Ensure that the content communicates your message that is congruent with
your mission and values.
Coca Cola has realized that the consumer creates more stories and ideas than
they do so the goal is provoke conversations and then “Act” and “React” to
those conversations 365 days of the year.
Don’t just publish but interact with your audience and tribe.
On traditional media in the past, storytelling was static and a one way street.
Television and newspapers shouted at you with no means of interaction.
Coca Cola has come the realization that to grow their business on the social
web they need to move on from “One Way Story Telling” to “Dynamic Story
Telling”
This means you need to allow the story to evolve as you interact and converse
with your customers. You need to converse with your customers in many
media formats and social networks.
Part of the new Coca Cola content strategy is applying a 70/20/10 Investment
principle to creating “Liquid content“.
• 70% of your content should be low risk. It pays the rent and is your
bread and butter marketing (should be easy to do and only consumes 50% of
your time)
• 10% of your content marketing is high risk ideas that will be tomorrow’s
70% or 20%, be prepared to fail
Coca Cola has come to the conclusion that the world has moved on from the
30 second TV ad. So has the Old Spice brand and many other businesses who
are embracing social media as part of their marketing strategy.
Learning how to fuel the conversations, act and interact has never been more
important.
Consumers’ ideas, creativity and conversations have been set free with the
evolution of social networks, learning to leverage and wrangle those
conversations to increase your brand visibility is now a vital part of your
marketing.
Conclusion
This analysis led to some interesting insights. For a start, the image of the
brand must be consistent not only with its identity, but with the value system
of the target segment. It is, in fact, the complexity of the value system of the
target segment of Coca Cola that allows for such a contrast in advertising
styles. Furthermore, the race for prime position involves a well thought out
strategy with clear cut roles for each of the brands in a portfolio. Advertising is
indeed both an art and a science. The shift from information to image displays
the rich potential of the advertising space. The exhilarating pace of evolution
from the simple creative to the strategic takes your breath away. Definitely not
for the faint hearted.
References
http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/america-is-beautiful-and-coca-
cola-is-for-everyone
http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/brands/coca-cola/coke-crowdsources-
world-cup-anthem/4009515.article
http://www.forbes.com/sites/avidan/2013/10/07/just-how-does-coca-cola-
reinvent-itself-in-a-changed-world/2/
http://www.afaqs.com/advertising/creative_showcase/index.html?id=24513
&media=TV&type=Indian
http://www.coca-colacompany.com/topics/sports?rest=true
http://action.sumofus.org/a/coke-russia-lgbt/
http://www.coca-colacompany.com/coca-cola-unbottled/cokes-small-world-
machines-from-pakistan-with-love