The Coca Cola Company Marketing Essay

The Coca Cola Company Marketing Essay 1.1 An overview of the company: The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) is the worlds largest manufacturer, licensor and distributor of non alcoholic beverages with over 500 brands worldwide. TCCC is a global behemoth and its presence spans over 200 countries with its head office based in Atlanta, USA. (thecoca-colacompany.com) The product portfolio covers over 3000 different beverages ranging from its flagship brand Coca-Cola, water, fruit juices, sport drinks to coffee including all types of non-alcoholic beverages (thecoca-colacompany.com). TCCC owns four out of the five biggest soft drink brands in the world namely Coca-cola, Diet coke, Sprite and Fanta.(Data Monitor,2009)According to the brand ranking by Interbrand, the company‘s brand value was worth USD $ 68,734 million in 2009. 1.2 TCCC in UK: Coca Cola entered UK in 1900 with its flagship brand, Coca-cola in late august when Charles Candler (owner of Coca-Cola then) brought a jug of syrup with him on a visit to London. TCCC has since then evolved into an international heavyweight backed by national partners. The companys presence in UK is represented by a management strategy that it calls the ‘Coca Cola System which is a combination of two separate companies-Coca-Cola Great Britain (CCGB) and the Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd (CCE). They serve different roles in the production-sales process of Coca-Cola and the other brands that fall under it. CCGB is a wholly owned subsidiary of TCCC responsible for marketing and development whereas CCE, an independent public company manufactures and distributes its products. CCEs product portfolio in 2007 included 20 brands and 100 products such as Coca-cola, Diet coke, Minute Maid, Powerade and so on. (Coca-cola.co.uk) 1.3 Diet Coke Diet Coke was introduced in USA for the very first time in 1982. Following its success, the brand then came to UK a year later. It was positioned as a lighter, sugar-free variant of Coca-Cola with a new advertising theme â€Å"just for the taste of it†. (dietcoke.com) Diet coke is now a international product available in over 173 countries and has a large loyal customer base who love the product. The success story continues till today. Diet Coke has various extensions in its product offerings such as Caffeine-free Diet Coke, Diet coke Lemon, Diet Coke Cherry etc. Diet coke celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2007 with the product accounting for a 40% share of the global diet sparkling beverage segment. (dietcoke.com) 2.0 Perception: 2.1 Semiotics in Advertising: When a consumer looks at an advert, he/she derives a certain meaning from it. To this purpose, marketers use a set of symbols or maybe even one that develops into a meaningful statement that the consumer relates to the product. And to achieve this meaning, the symbols have to precise, direct and should evoke a mental response to the imagery within. To understand how effectively symbols can be used is vital in marketing. For this, marketers turn to a field of study called semiotics which focuses on the co-relation between signs and symbols and their role in shaping a meaningful understanding by an observer. From a semiotic perspective, every marketing message has three components; An object; the product A symbol; the image/ statement that serves as an extension to the product. The interpretant; the message or the meaning derived from the advert. This relationship is described as the semiotic triangle. In relation to marketing activities, the advertising strategy incorporates semiotic symbolism by creating a relationship between the product and the desired attribute of the product. This strategy is usually long term as the message is constant and repetition helps to reinforce the meaning to the consumers. 2.2. Diet Coke Campaign-â€Å"Hello you†. Diet coke has changed its marketing focus to appeal to its female audience (FT, 2009). To this effect, the marketing team at CCE has been adapting its advertising approach and overall appeal to suit its target market appropriately. The latest campaign rolled out for Diet Coke is a multi-million push titled â€Å"hello you† featuring award winning Welsh singer Duffy, as a independent, confident woman who takes control of her life. As part of the campaign, outdoor publicity in the form of posters with the tagline Im no superwoman has also been advertised extensively (Image 2). The campaign on the whole â€Å"aims to represent confident young women taking a stand against the pressure of modern life†. (The Guardian 2009) The ads feature Duffy, 24 year old Welsh singing sensation who became a household name after clinching three Grammy awards including ‘Best British Female Solo Artist this year. The main advertisement is a 60-second TV advert. Duffy is seen taking a break during a live concert where the crowd asks her for an encore. But she gets onto to a bike cycles around for a bit whilst breaking into a cover of the hit song by Sammy Davis Juniors â€Å"I Gotta Be Me†. And yes, she takes a sip of diet coke before returning back to the stage to perform. This campaign marks a significant shift in Diet cokes marketing which in recent years saw the revival of the classic ‘Hunk advert in 2007. According to a company press release on the campaign, Catherin Sleight, Coca-Cola GBs marketing director, stated that the campaign aimed to show strong independent women taking control and saying no the pressures of modern day life.(coca-cola.co.uk) 2.3 Semiotic symbolism in the â€Å"hello you† TV advert: The semiotic symbolism is quite direct and tries to appeal to the ‘independent women that Diet coke wants to focus its marketing on. The campaign as a whole gives light to liberating women from pressures of modern- day life as explained by the marketing director for Coca-Cola GB ; Catherin Sleight. (18) The symbolism behind this advert can be represented with the semiotic triangle as given; Object/product Sign/Meaning: Message: 2.3.1. The Object/Product- Diet coke The product in itself is a global icon as it is one of the most recognizable brands in the world. It has been rated as the number one drink in the diet non-alcoholic beverage sector with a market share 0f 40% globally. The brand visibility is high globally being available in 173 countries as of 2007.The can and logo thus combines to produce brand recognition by any consumer viewing this advert. 2.3.2 Sign The message speaks for itself and is not rather complicated. There are two elements in the ‘sign leading to the creation of a meaning that the target consumer can relate to. The first element is the celebrity who endorses the product. Duffy has become a household name in Britain as well as internationally having won quite a few awards including three prestigious ‘Brit awards and a Grammy award (iamduffy.com). Cathryn Sleight, marketing director of Coca-Cola GB has reflected on the endorsement by saying that â€Å"Duffy as a young woman, who is in charge of her own destiny, perfectly embodies the independent attitude were championing† (coca-cola.co.uk). This could resonate well with their target market as she signifies independence and opportunism that women enjoy in todays world. The second element is the audio track used in the advert and its lyrics. It is a cover sung by Duffy of the old classic hit I gotta be me made famous by Sammy Davis Junior. It has a simple but moving depth to it that reflects well on a listener. It strongly reflects the new diet Coke campaign which celebrates womens right to express their individuality and take control. 2.3.3 The message: The advertisement gives out a strong message that tells the target consumer that Diet coke can you set free if you are an independent, ambitious young woman like Duffy. The advert along with the lyrics and the celebrity completes this meaning forming a symbolic message to the target female segment. 2.4 Evaluation: This television advert has a nice feminine touch to its portrayal and along with the lyrics drive the meaning home for consumers. Duffys voice is quite endearing and catchy adding to the recall value of this advert. Diet coke has used the study of semiotics to represent a deep meaning that most women can relate to. The product has successfully moved away from the ‘naughty girl staring at hunk to a more personal independent woman image. Diet cokes advertisement can further help the brand to establish a personal relationship with its consumers. 3. Reference Groups 3.1 Reference Groups A reference group is†an an actual or imaginary individual or group conceived of having significant relevance upon an individuals evaluations, aspirations or behaviour†. (Lessig Park1978) In terms of marketing, reference groups are relevant as they can provide important social cues that give insight into particular behavioral trends and associations with buying behavior. These cues extend to form an influence that is termed as ‘social power. Types of social power include information power, referent power, referent power, legitimate power, expert power, reward power and coercive power. Diet coke marketing utilizes the concept of social power in its new campaign using the referent power model. Referent power is the social power of a reference group that motivates a consumer to aspire to emulate the same behavioural patterns portrayed by the individual or group. This also leads to influencing the consumers purchase decisions. (Solomon 2008) 3.2 The Diet Coke Rebellion Diet coke has partnered with Company, a leading womens publication as part of its ‘Hello you campaign to motivate young women to join a rebellion against the pressures they face in a modern world. Company has a readership of 574,000 within the target segment. (NRS 2009) This partnership widens Diet cokes marketing to reach its target audience more effectively. The first issue of the ‘Rebel issue as it is called premiered in May and was designed exclusively keeping the target segments interests in mind. To maintain the campaigns visibility, two more issues were released in July and October. The magazine focused on topics of particular interest to women such as celebrity gossip, beauty tips, fashion etc with the rebel touch. This campaign was also supported by extensive online marketing through the cokezone website as well as getlippy.com. The campaign was designed as a follow-up to the Duffy advert encouraging independent women to break free of all the pressures they faced and to rebel against prejudices present in the modern day world in a positive manner. 3.3 The referent effect on Diet coke target market. Particular reference groups tend to have identifiable characteristics and unique forms of symbolic purchasing behavior, market segmentation in terms of such group characteristics as degree of exclusivity and formality is a useful means of pinpointing appropriate segment (Leigh et al 1992).Therefore the referent power of Diet Cokes target segment is further simplified as common behavioural characteristics are present in their target- female consumers. The cover story was the new face of Diet coke, Duffy the singing sensation and her rebellious ways helping women to identify with her as person more than a celebrity. Furthermore, the magazine established a common ground for the Diet cokes target segment to relate to their rebellious side. Diet coke thus engaged directly with its target audience reflecting its link with their lives with this tie-up. This encourages their consumers to relate to and emulate characteristics of the referent group- the modern women who wants to break free and be themselves. 3.4 Evaluation: In terms of referent power, the tie-up with Company magazine was an ideal choice. High readership of the magazine within Diet Cokes target segment would add to the success of this campaign. Diet cokes efforts to communicate it with its core target consumers will work provided that the PR activities support the marketing. Diet Coke has added value to its image with this partnership appealing to the hedonic side of young women. The cover story with Duffy is an excellent source of referent power especially with her star status as an award winning singer. 4. Motivation Involvement 4.1 Involvement Involvement is the degree of influence that a brand has over a consumer and how it motivates them to form a strong bond with the brand. It can be either cognitive or physical and the factors that affect it differ from one consumer to the other. The degree of involvement i.e. high or low, will determine the motivational drive of a consumer to connect with a brand and its marketing activities. It can be broadly classified into three classifications; Product Involvement, Message- Response Involvement, Purchase Situation Involvement. (Solomon 2008) Message- Response Involvement† refers to the consumers interest in processing marketing communications.† (Solomon: p168) It is also known as advertising involvement. Marketers try to involve consumers to participate in the exchange of marketing information and publicity through various media outlets utilizing this model of involvement. To this effect, they experiment with ways to increase consumer involvement by testing various approaches such as contests, reward schemes and so on. To appeal to the growing number of mobile phone users, marketers use mobile phones as a tool to get them to participate in the advertisement. This method of marketing is known as interactive mobile marketing. The content and method of advertising ranges from the simple text message format to a graphic website interface that consumers can access through internet on their mobile devices. Diet coke has utilized the message-response type of involvement through the use of interactive mobile marketing in its ‘Silver Room campaign. 4.2 Diet coke campaign- Silver Room The ‘Silver Room is an interactive mobile marketing campaign that was designed exclusively for Diet Cokes target segment of female consumers in the age group 16-24. Consumers logging onto the mobile website had access to content such as celebrity news, gossip, fashion, music, films, interactive games and more on their mobile phones. This campaign sought to involve the younger, tech-savvy female generation to connect with a brand whilst offering them content of value to them. The ‘diet Coke Silver Room is fronted by Australian singer Gabriella Cilmi, who is young and fits in well with the target audience.The campaigns content tries to appeal to young females who sought hedonic value in brands. It featured content and promotions born out of several key partnerships such as celebrity news from Heat magazine, fashion tips from Get Lippy, music with singer Gabriella Cilmi, film updates with Fox and Paramount, as well as environmental content from Green Thing. The highlight of its content was the Music Mobcast , a 2 minute voice call that covered music news and information in Gabriella Cilmis voice. The content is updated every three weeks. To access the ‘Mobcast consumers were asked to log onto the site, enter their number and receive a ‘Mobcast call. 4.3 Enhancing the level of Involvement : As Solomon (2008) suggests, marketers must enhance a consumers involvement in the marketing activity by using certain techniques such as appealing to hedonic needs, providing interesting stimuli, including celebrity endorsements or by building a personal relationship with the consumer. 4.4 Evaluation: The silver room campaign by Diet Coke has satisfied all the criteria with respect to enhancing the level of involvement of its target market. It appealed to the hedonic side of its young female consumers by its varied and value-added content. They also partnered with well known brands. The campaign prominently featured Gabriella Cilmi, a well-known female Australian singer who added value being a celebrity that young woman could relate to. This also adds to the image that Diet coke has built around music. Diet coke has also created a forum for their consumers to interact with each other and share their opinion as well as personal experiences thereby building a relationship with the consumers indirectly. The success of this campaign is yet to be seen as it was launched recently. Recommendations: Diet coke is one of the worlds top five best sellers in the non-alcoholic sparkling beverage sector. However, a news story published in the Financial Times has reported that the UK sales of Diet coke have fallen sharply despite their big budget advertising spend to reposition its offering to a female market(2009). It is recommended that Diet Coke must tackle a few issues that could be the problem behind this. A quick look at the figures comparing the number of unique visitors to cokezone- the UK website and dietcoke.com-its American counterpart has painted a dismal picture. It has been found that site traffic in to the cokezone website was considerably lesser than its American counterpart (refer appendix 2). It is recommended that an online portal designed for women in UK should be started to engage Diet cokes core consumer target. This would help them to relate better to the brands marketing activities. It would gradually enhance the involvement of the target market with the product. It is also recommended that brand should connect more personally with the consumer with the help of direct sales promotions, events for women. Diet coke in the US provides consumers with value added functions like cook shows, celebrity events on a regular basis on its website. It is recommended that a similar innovative campaign should be run in UK particularly appealing to the women here. An extension of the Silver room would be in the best interests of the brand. It has been noted in my research that silverroom.co.uk and dietcoke.co.uk still remains unofficial and unused. It is recommended that Diet Coke in UK must go beyond regular advertising and create another phenomenon like the ‘hunk advertisement. Conclusion: Coca-Cola is a global behemoth and the largest beverage company in the world (Interbrand 2009). This report has been directed towards analyzing and evaluating the aspects of consumer behaviour in relation to marketing. The report has scrutinized data with regard to Diet Coke, its main competitors such as Diet Pepsi, marketing activities and its response. Diet Coke spends extensively on its marketing and has created many a loyal fan amongst its consumer base worldwide. The new marketing strategy is sound but requires higher brand involvement from its chosen target consumers. Females consumers today are not entirely stereotypical, evolve continuously and not all women are lured by the idea of a rebellion. Diet Coke has to work on reworking its current marketing activities and attempt to connect to consumers more personally.