Sunday 7 October 2012

Promotional Mix



Analysis of Coca Cola 


Company Introduction

Coca-Cola was invented in May 1886 by Dr. John S. Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia. The name "Coca-Cola" was suggested by Dr. Pembertons bookkeeper, Frank Robinson.Coca-Cola currently offers more than 500 brands in over 200 countries and serves over 1.6 billion servings each day.The company operates a franchised distribution system dating from 1889 where The Coca-Cola Company only produces syrup concentrate which is then sold to various bottlers throughout the world who hold an exclusive territory. Coca-cola was asked by the Indian government to leave the country along with I.B.M in 1977 due to investment violations. It re-entered India in 1993. Since then its operations have grown rapidly through a model that supports bottling operations, both company owned as well as locally owned and includes over 7,000 Indian distributors and more than 1.3 million retailer. The Brands under Coca Cola are:


Promotional mix
Earlier the concept of having the right product at the right time in the right place right place was important to ensure the success of the product in the market. But in today's global competitive environment it still may not be enough to achieve the success.One needs to ensure effective communication with the target market, product and business in order to attain a prestigious position in the market. Promotion of a product is done to persuade customers to try a new product or an older product.
The diagram below gives a list of IMC tools that a company uses to promote its brand. Further analysis will be done on the below mentioned framework.

Advertising

Coca-Cola uses the concept of aggressive advertising to promote its products. It acts as a very important tool to cater to mass-markets. Coca cola mainly does national advertising. They introduce different themes and concepts to sell their product and advertises mainly in electronic media and out of home advertising. These advertisements build brand image and create awareness. They use big names of Indian film industry as the brand ambassadors of the Company. they have created memorable and catchy slogan since years. For E.g. Thanda Matlab Cola-Cola, Jo chaho ho jae Cola-Cola enjoy, Coca-Cola-Piyo sir utha ke, Brrrrrrr!!! 
The mediums of advertising used by coca cola are :

Print Media:
Coca cola is said to have a different print media department. Some of the new as well as old print ads are below.






















Coca Cola advertisements all over the world are creative so at to appeal to the mass media.

Point of sale Materials: This includes Posters and stickers displayed in different areas. Also includes points like : Vizi coolers, freezers, Display Racks.The images  below shows how they use the point of sales in order to advertise their product.



TV Commercials: Coca Cola does regular Tv Commercials on different channels. it focuses on both rural as well as urban crowd. They feature diffrent brand ambassdors from time to time by the help of Tv commercials. They try to connect with the crowd by the help of their TV Commercials.

Some examples are :





Outdoor Advertising

Coca cola is very much conscious about their billboards and hoardings. They have so many sites in different locations for their billboards. Billboards are usually found at cross roads, buildings, shops.Also in India the Coca-cola can be seen painted on walls, bus stands, dhabas etc focusing in rural areas of India. 




Direct Marketing

Coca-Cola uses direct marketing in many ways. It partners with various restaurants, movie theaters, etc. to carry its product. Bu going through this path, when a customer orders a drink, the only brand they are offered is Coca-Cola, which forces them to consume that brand itself. By doing this, Coke forces out the competitors, and keeps the restaurants, or other businesses, purchasing their product over and over again. Eg. Mc Donalds, Dominos. According to mobilemarketingmagazine.com, Coke uses mobile graphics and texts to appeal to markets on a more personal level.Coca Cola also sponsors various sporting events in India and around the world in events like Cricket, Football, and Motor Racing etc. Currently it is sponsoring the London games.



Internet Marketing

Coca-Cola uses the internet to promote its products. The company has its own website, which is quite simple to navigate through. The website allows customers to become interactive through various games, contests, shopping, and through a special section of the website that enables consumers to find out how they can help their community.Also in the modern era of communication and networking, the company uses various social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter to connect with the consumers.The internet marketing thus helps to reach to those consumers who cant afford to spend time on T.V and are always online.


Sales Promotion

A sales promotion is an activity that is implemented to boost the sales of a product or service temporarily. Coca-Cola does sales promotion in two ways to quickly increase sales.
1. Consumer - Oriented sales promotion:
Getting Shelves
Eye Catching Position
Under The Crown Scheme
2. Trade - Oriented sales promotion:
Discounts to retailers and stores
Return back allowances
Merchandising assets
Free goods or free tours 

Public Relations

Publicity refers to non personal communications regarding an organization, product, service or idea not directly paid or run under identified sponsorship.Today, the company can still use word of mouth advantage. For instance, when Coke produces a new product, and someone on their lunch break purchases that new product, and enjoys it, they will tell others in the office about how great the new product is. This will cause others to purchase the product, and in-turn increase sales.Public relations is defined as “the management function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an individual and organization with public interest, and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance”.Coca-Cola can address law suits, rumors, stories, new products, and activities. There is also a section of the website devoted to investors. Here, current, or future, investors can access financial statements and up-to-the- minute stock information. The Coca-Cola India is also undertaking some projects as a part of their social cause and part of the corporate social responsibility.The support my school campaign along with NDTV has Sachin Tendulkar as the brand ambassador.The project Unnati focuses on more yield of mangoes to farmers.Coca Cola also Sponsors events in cricket and music. 


Personal Selling

Coca-Cola has many salespeople, who are individuals representing the company to communicate, sell, service, and build relationships with customers.These salespeople promote their product to different customers within their regions, and once they sustain a customer, they sell their products to them and service them many times per week.These individuals form close relationships with the customers in order to continue business with them.Thus though minimum, the company also thus have many sales people for personal selling. 

Conclusion

From our study we can conclude that:For any company to reach the peak in today’s competitive era, has to use each and every component of the promotional mix.By understanding Coca-Cola we can say it the company is using its promotional mix in an effective and efficient manner.That is the reason why Coca-Cola is the market leader and one of the most valuable brands in the whole world.Apart from being the most valuable brand, it also gives importance to CSR activities.


4 comments:

Unknown said...

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