Analysis Paper Example on Marketing Mix and Four P's of Coca-Cola Company

Introduction

Coca Cola Company is one of the famous leaders in soft drink production in the world. The brand is sold in more than 250 countries around the globe (Jackson & Ahuja, 2016). This company has a large product portfolio of still and sparkling beverages. However, this soda industry has had a pinch of economic down surge since the end of the 2008 economic recession that has affected their profit margin (Jackson & Ahuja, 2016). Besides, there has been a decrease in sales of soda brands due to the growing popularity of health trends and health drinks. This company has high customer loyalty, strong brand image, and also a large market share. This company invests a huge sum of money yearly on advertisement and marketing for customer engagement and promotions (Gillespie & Riddle, 2015). Currently, this company is well known around the world. This paper purposes to discuss Coca Cola's marketing mix and its four P's such as promotion, price, place, and product.

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Product

Coca Cola Company is well known for various products. It had a large product portfolio that comprises of about 500 still and sparkling brands. The firm offers nearly 4000 beverages choices to its customers (Gillespie & Riddle, 2015). Coca Cola's leading product is one of the most valuable and recognized brands in the world. Coca Cola Company has about $20 billion brands in its portfolio and which most of them are available at lower prices (Gillespie & Riddle, 2015). This company uses its secret formula as its competitive advantage over its rival company. The reason is that Coca Cola products have a unique taste that can easily be recognized by increasing their sales.

As economic development and advancement of the growing proportion, this company focuses on activities to better their products and services (Koschmann & Sheth, 2016). For example, the physical characteristics of Coca Cola products are to focus on the wants and the needs of the customers and they usually pay more attention to its customers by listening to them and coming up with products that target various groups (Koschmann & Sheth, 2016). In 2016, the company introduced alcoholic drinks as an aim to increase its market among various consumers. Besides, they also came up with Coke zero that has no sugar (Koschmann & Sheth, 2016). The reason is that they were targeting the consumers who did not want sugar in their beverages. Thus, the company has been successful in its products.

Place

Over the years, Coca Cola has established an extensive system of beverage distribution. The reason is that its products are being sold in about 200 countries across six continents such as Africa, Europe, Pacific, North America, Latin America, and Eurasia. About 1.9 servings of Coca Cola are disposed of every day (Sheth & Koschmann, 2019). Additionally, this company has depended on its bottling partners for the distribution and packaging of its products.

Coca Cola has a practice that enables its system to operate through various local channels although many individuals still view the company like Coca Cola. This company sells and manufactures syrups, beverage bases, and concentrates to bottling operations (Sheth & Koschmann, 2019). Besides, the company owns its brands and is also responsible for the marketing initiatives of a consumer brand. Additionally, the bottling partners of Coca Cola distribute, merchandise, package, and manufacture the final brand of the company's product to the vending partners and customers who then sell or distribute these products to the various customers (Sheth & Koschmann, 2019).

Moreover, the bottling partners of Coca Cola work closely with its consumers that include amusement parks, movie theatres, convenience stores, street vendors, restaurants, grocery stores among others (Williams & Williams, 2017). All these openings work together to execute the localized strategies of Coca Cola. These vendors always sell the products of Coca Cola to their final consumers.

Price

Pepsi is one of the fierce rivals of Coca Cola and their closest competitor with regards to the beverages segment. Both organizations brands price their goods competitively (Williams & Williams, 2017). The prices of Coca Cola are not too high and there can be available to many customers even with their high quality. The pricing strategy of Coca Cola is focused on driving the loyalty of the brand (Williams & Williams, 2017). Additionally, due to the decreased demand of the soda products, the competition in price between Coca Cola and some of its rivals has become very intense. The Coca Cola prices always grow lower with the larger size of its purchase (Williams & Williams, 2017). Thus, the prices of Coca Cola are always set from the above and these products are always favorable to its customers making it affordable and increasing sales.

Promotion

Because there is an intense competition in this industry, Coca Cola Company spends a lot of money and time on advertisement and marketing to foster higher sales and revenue to its customers (De Mooij, 2018). For example, the company spent about $4 billion in 2016 on product marketing and promotion (De Mooij, 2018). The company uses both modern and traditional channels to market and promote its products and brand. Besides, the company came up with its Taste the Feeling promotion in 2016 that unites and brings together all its brands (De Mooij, 2018). This action is an example of a brand approach that Coca Cola took and it marked a significant shift in its past marketing strategy. The company uses TV ads, outdoor ad campaigns, internet, and social media to promote its products.

References

De Mooij, M. (2018). Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes. SAGE Publications Limited.

Gillespie, K., & Riddle, L. (2015). Global marketing. Routledge.

Jackson, G., & Ahuja, V. (2016). Dawn of the digital age and the evolution of the marketing mix. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 17(3), 170-186.

Koschmann, A., & Sheth, J. N. (2016). Do brands compete or coexist? Evidence from the cola wars. Kilts Center for Marketing at Chicago Booth-Nielsen Dataset Paper Series, 2-051.

Sheth, J., & Koschmann, A. (2019). Do brands compete or coexist? How persistence of brand loyalty segments the market. European Journal of Marketing, 53(1), 2-19.

Williams, R. L., & Williams, H. A. (2017). Vintage Marketing Differentiation Categories and Groupings. In Vintage Marketing Differentiation (pp. 19-29). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.