Marketing Mixes For Coca Cola Marketing Essay

Marketing Mixes For Coca Cola Marketing Essay Sustainable competitive advantage is the focal point of a corporate strategy. It allows the maintenance and improvement of an enterprises competitive position in the market. It is an advantage that enables business to survive against its competition over a long period of time. A competitive advantage is an advantage over competitors gained by offering consumers greater value, either by means of lower prices or by providing greater benefits and service that justifies higher prices. Porter identified two basic types of competitive advantage and cost advantage. See (Appendix 1). When an organisation introduces a product into a market they must consider: who is the product aimed at, what benefit will customers expect, how does the firm plan to position the product within the market and what differential advantage will the product offer over their competitors. Kotler suggested that a product should be viewed in three levels, see (Appendix 2) The concept of the products life cycle is rooted in the fact that technology and consumer tastes take time to adapt to new products and are always changing. As such, when a new product is introduced, it takes some time to be widely accepted, at which point its sales and revenues will begin to grow. This will attract other competitors into the market, cause the market to mature. Finally, the market will saturate and decline as companies begin to introduce the next product, and consumers switch to that product. See Coca Cola product life cycle in (Appendix 3) Coca Cola the market leader in providing different soft drink products like Coca Cola, Diet Coke, Fanta etc. there are no competitors in this sector. There good image makes the organisation more strong. Coca Cola is providing good taste, quality products with qualified staff, good atmosphere and hygienic environment. They are specialised in soft and fizzy drinks. They have created good image in customers mind, their image is reputable and reliable, which took them years to build and it has been one of the most popular soft drinks available. Their brand and logo are never mistaken, which is why consumers feel comfortable in purchasing Coca-Cola products. Coca Cola can market too many different segments. For example, Coca Cola can market to teenagers much easier than older people. Distribution in marketing acts importantly to attract customers convenience therefore; the system of distribution of an organisation can show the key ability for the organisation. Two types of channel of distribution methods are available. Indirect distribution involves distributing product by the use of an intermediary. Direct distribution involves distributing direct from a manufacturer to the consumer. Distribution is beneath the group of place and therefore organisations build-up an accurate distribution method so that its easily accessible to the customers and it can improve possible sales for an organisation. See Coca Cola distribution channels in (Appendix 4). The Coca Cola Company sells its products by bottling and canning operations. The distributors reached the Coca Cola to the wholesalers and the wholesalers reached it to retailers, and at last the customers buy Coca Cola from retailer shop. If Coca Cola does not work on its distribution services and Coca Cola bottles are just accessible at their factories then consumers might not be enthusiastic to get them. Its more suitable for the consumer to purchase Coca Cola from a close by retailer as compared to getting it from factory. Therefore distribution system of an organisation can be both its weakness and strength. Companies make sure the availability of their products at retailer shops and stores where customers can easily purchase it. One of the aspects in the marketing mix is pricing. This part of the 7 Ps are the one creating revenue and which is also why it is important that an organisation chooses the correct price. Pricing is one of the most important elements of the Coca Cola marketing mix, which generates a turnover for them. Coca Cola can adopt a number of pricing strategies. The pricing strategies are based much on what objectives the company has set itself to achieve, see (Appendix 5). Due to the availability of wide range products the pricing is done according to the market and geographic segment. Each sub-brand of coca cola has different pricing strategy. Their pricing strategy is based on the competitors pricing, Pepsi is the direct competitor to Coca Cola. The first thing that the Coca-Cola Company must do is select the pricing objective they believe will be most effective in distributing their brand to consumers. Coca-Cola use market-skimming pricing to do this. They use marketing-skimming as there is a sufficient number of buyers that have a high current demand, also Coca Cola sets an initial high price and then slowly lowers the price to make the product available to a wider market. Coca Cola Company has adopted penetration pricing strategy as they want to hold maximum share of the market by maximum profit. Coca Cola use discount pricing, where their products are often market down during sale periods and special occasions. Also Coca Cola use competitor prici ng, where to meet the competition pricing, their products pricing are set around the same level as it competitors. Promotion being a feature of marketing mix consists of communication among the consumer and supplier of that product. Promotional activities are important factor because, these activities are performed in order to awake and aware the consumers about the product and it cover personal selling, adverting, publication relations, sales promotion, direct marketing etc. An advertisement, for instance helps a buyer to get to know about the company and it is products, this can be done by bill boards, banners or posters. The benefit of advertisement is that it informs people about different products and services, their utilities, cost and other requirements. The disadvantage is cost because advertising is more expansive. Personal selling is where businesses use people to sell the product after meeting face-to-face with the customer. Personal selling is one of the ways to keep good customers relationships, but this method is expensive. Sales promotion directly stimulates sales. It includes trade shows, contests, games ect. The advantage is that sales promotion can help companies to provide right information to customers, also it encourage repeat purchases and customer loyalty, but the advantages are that it increase price sensitivity and it is generally for a short duration Public relations play an important role in promotion. It can be used to create a good image of the company for example magazines, TV or radio etc. PR is inexpensiveness of the cost, but it is hard to predict about the responses and it increase the risk. Direct marketing is where a company selling their products directly to people such as fliers or street advertising. It allow to target specific customer and it can be measureable, but it is hard to get as immediate of an impact when using direct marketing and it can be quite expansive. Coca Cola use many methods of advertisement and the company spends a significant amount of money in order to be seen on billboards, radio, magazines, television, and on the internet. Coca cola adopts a range of advertising and promotional strategies to create an increased demand in the market by associating with life style and behaviour and mainly targeting value based advertising. The Coca cola Company uses advertising as its main source of increasing consumer awareness. It mainly uses the television; this source allows the companys products to reach a large audience. Coca Cola also uses the radio as another source of advertisement and this is a cheaper source then TV. They also use personal selling. The company has a highly trained sales team, which acts as a representative of the company to the retailers. This strategy helps to maintain service and product loyalty. Marketing mix has three additional elements: People, Process and Physical Evidence People are one of the elements of service marketing mix. People define a service. This refers to the people who are in direct contact with the customer such as staff. One of the crucial parts in selling a product is the staff and its service as lot of people rely on a good service before buying a product. Example, the employees in Coca Cola Company have a standard uniform. The company specially focuses on friendly and prompt service to its customers from their employees. The employees are part time workers and full time workers. The process of the product is essential in marketing. This determines the capability of the product to supply the demand of the consumers. The process at Coca Cola Company is transparent and hidden (the whole process is not visible to the customers). Coca Cola has a number of processes which is involves bottling and labelling solutions. The most important stage that Coca Cola consider is control of the company to get products at the agreed time and good quality, and the last step they consider is, the selling of beverage for target customers of distributors. Physical evidence: This is an important part where consumers will base their decisions based on the service which intangible. Companies physical evidence is supported by signs, symbols and artefacts of the business itself. Examples of this would be the signage in Coca Cola which reassures the consumer through branding. Coca Cola Company is focusing on target market; when it markets a product it mainly consider on demographic and physiographic segmentations; where demographic segment before it markets it identify the consumer groups in: age, sex, education, race, and occupation, and in physiographic it divides the market into different levels as: lower class, middle class, and upper class to identify their customers. Coca Cola segments different ages. The company focus on whole population in the world, but young generation is the target marketed of the company. Also Coca Cola segments different income levels by packing. For small income people it has small returnable glass bottle, for middle people it has small non returnable bottle and for higher income people it has Coke Tin. Marketing mix for Diet Coke: Coca Cola developed a new product. This product is a diet drink by the name of Diet Coke. They have designed the marketing mix of product which is in detail below: Product: Diet Coke is a very fresh and tasty diet drink. This new and fresh drink is made to provide the consumers with energetic feel with taste as well. Diet Coke is available in different sizes of which start from 330ml 2L bottle. This drink is mainly for the female teenagers from age 16 24. Price: Price of Diet Coke is very reasonable as compared to its major competitors. Its 330ml bottle is for 65p and 2L bottle is for  £1.98 in Tesco. Place: placement has an important role to play in the products success and failure. That is why the company makes sure that the Diet Coke is place in such a way in market that its in reach of every customer. They have very strong distribution channel and their product is available on maximum stores in the city. Promotion: For a product of such high standards like Diet Coke it requires good promotional activities. For this purpose the Coca Cola Company have chosen following promotional tools: for advertisement the company have use different types of media like television, newspaper, magazines, internet and radio. There are some characteristics to a service such as: lack of ownership, intangibility and inseparability. Each of these taken into account when marketing a service, see (Appendix 6). A product is something which is tangible where as a service is intangible. A product is much easier than the service because after marketing and selling a product there is something tangible to be seen by the customers for they are satisfaction but in services they cannot because its intangible. Basically, the marketing of product is particularly focused on 4Ps in marketing mix namely product, price, place, and promotion. The Coca Cola Company analyse the major demand of their customers in order to find out a product that can respond the market demand. Firstly, Coca Cola Company focuses on the strength as well as eliminates the vulnerabilities of marketed products in order to improve products to meet customers demand as much as possible. Secondly, they focus on the pricing factor in product marketing because the price must be set to match with the purchasing power of a target group. The Coca Cola know the nature price of selling products. Thirdly, the Coca Cola focus on place because place of product marketing refers to distribution channels to deliver and sell the product to customers. Lastly, they create the promotion on the product in order to persuade customers and motivate the sale in a short term. On the other hand, a service is the action that provide for customers. The service marketing is generally use 7Ps which is extended from 4Ps by adding people, process and physical evidence. It is important for any service industry to employ appropriate staffs or people. Employing and training of staffs have good impact that is why the Coca Cola Company gives training to their staffs because most of customers will judge the quality of their service from staffs. Therefore, Coca Cola employ staffs that have good and interpersonal skills. The essay shows that marketing mix (4Ps and 7Ps) is a very important aspect of creating marketing strategy, also it is essential for a company to implement their marketing concept successfully. The Coca Cola Company develops their product or service to meet the customers needs and wants; then they seem into determining how their consumer going to receive the product and they consider direct or indirect channels of distribution. The Coca Cola Company will decide a price for their products that ensures a profit. Finally, they promote their product by using different advertising methods to attract customers.