Learn From The Experts - Coca Cola's Marketing Strategies

PHILIPPINES-Last Year, Coca Cola Int. acquired its local operations. A reason behind an acquisition this big could be that [educated guess] Coca Cola was not happy with it's local operations. Several surveys last year stated that Coca Cola's beverage market share was declining and was being grabbed by several "more healthy" drinks such as ready- to- drink tea.

I am always on the lookout for mergers and acquisitions because after such big events, I am sure to witness intensive marketing programs. From these programs, I learn a few important things. So, since Coca Cola's acquisition, I have been a very keen observer of their new marketing strategies.

Last year the company hired a number of account developers. Their goal was apparently to make their products more available at retail. The bulk of sales of Coca Cola products do not come from planned purchasing but rather on instantaneous purchses made at the retail store upon seeing Coca Cola products. What usually happens is that when a person feels thirsty, he/she heads for a store to buy a beverage. Most of the time, they do not have a particular beverage in mind.

A New Target Market

Coca Cola recently released new ad campaigns promoting a Healthy and Active Lifestyle. It stressed out that coke was not the main culprit of several illnesses such as diabetes and obesity. It further stressed out that anything taken in excess can be bad for you. Further, it promoted a healthy and active lifestyle so people can drink any drink they want. Excercise was promoted witht the use of the usual coke's bottle image, taken into the likeness of a person's body[curves]. Also, several FAQ's, such as body fluid intake and absorption, were discussed.

When asked about the issue about their declining market share, they brushed it off with the statement that the market simply wanted more choices.

A New Product for a New Target Market

After the Healthy and Active Lifestyle campaign. Coca Cola introduced a new product: Coke Zero. Its features were zero sugar, zero calories and zero fat.

Those observing Coca Cola's recent marketing strategies were apprehensive about this product. Coca Cola already has two products that were in the market, that, addressed the "more health conscious" market segment. However, just as people were starting to wonder, Coca Cola seems to have an answer for everything. A week after Coke zero was launched, another ad circulated. It showed Coke zero in the usual packaging: 8 oz, 12 oz and the 1 liter bottles.

Coke Light and Diet's inability to capture the "more health conscious" market segment may be that both products were not readily available at retail, at the local stores. It was only available in cans, which is a little higher priced, and in 1.5 PET bottles and, usually not available at the local sari-sari stores.

This time, I could not agree more with Coca Cola's efforts for Coke Zero to capture the "more health conscious" market segment.

Impressive Marketing Strategies

What I like about Coca Cola is that it spends good money for intensive marketing programs. They address every part of marketing: from new product launches, packaging, pricing and advertising. Also, they seem to come up with the most effective advertisements; stressing family values. Last December, they promoted good family values with an ad where an estranged father was invited over for a coke drink stressing that he was still family to their daughter.

Coca Cola also gives equal weigh to sales promotions with effective sales promotions for market intermediaries. They know that advertising is just a part of promotions. Also, they know that promotions is a part of a more bigger picture, a complete set of marketing plan/strategy.

A good marketing strategy addresses every aspect of marketing: product, price, promotion and place. It is best to segment the target market when faced with every marketing decision to give what the consumers want/need-lower price or a new product, and in turn, for the consumers to buy your product. These marketing strategies however, must be constantly updated to address competitor strategies and changing consumer purchasing behavior and product preferences.

Top 5 Benefits of Article Marketing

The primary concerns of a newly-established online business are building credibility and driving site traffic. There are many methods to use: paying for ads, submitting site maps, SEO and article marketing, to mention a few.

Article Marketing is creating original articles about your trade and publishing them online through various article directories. Part of the article is a resource box where author information: name and website link, can be found. Article marketing is a good method to use, whether you provide a product or service. Here are the top five benefits of article marketing.

Establish you an expert on your niche. The articles you submit and publish provide helpful tips about your products or services, allowing you to share knowledge and provide solutions to your readers. This establishes you as an expert on your niche, eventually, building your credibility.

Helps pre-sell the product/service. Before anyone buys a product or avail of a service, they would want to know more about the product/service. They eventually turn to search engines and article directories to read related articles. Since your article is not a sales pitch, your readers are more likely inclined to buy your product or avail of your service, thus pre-selling.

Increase Site Traffic. If you include a teaser on the resource box and or write your content in a way that will make your readers want to know more about your product/service, your readers will visit your site. The more readers you have, which is the case in article directories, the more people will visit your site.

Increase ranking with search engines. Article directories allow publishing of your articles on other websites as long as the whole article including your resource box is unchanged. If you create quality and solid content, your readers would want to share your article by putting it up on their site. The more people use your articles, the more links to your websites there are. Ranking with search engines is determined by the number of quality links to your website.

Article marketing is free. Article directories offer free membership. The only investment you need is time to create your quality and original content.

Market Segmentation-A Power Tool

A product’s success can be attributed to it’s delivery to the right market. The right market or your target market is the set of buyers where a product is perceived to have more profit and potential growth. The product’s promotion, price and delivery should be considered within the target market’s preferences.

Selecting the target market and delivery of the product is not a one-step process but a sequence of processes that needs to be done every so often. The first step involves market segmentation. This involves dividing the broad market into segments according to their needs and behaviors. Let us say, hypothetically, that a company is involved in the manufacture of apparel for women-the broad market. Since apparel style preferences of women differ, it is decided to segment the market by classes that have purchasing power-college students, working women and housewives. After research and profiling, it is proven that the college students segment is less broad and where competition is lesser. So, it is perceived that the college student segment has more potential in profit and is established to be the target market.

The next step involves deciding on the quality and price of the apparel. The research and profiling showed that the target market is sensitive to price and quality. Two segments-one that requires cheap apparel and the other, quality apparel, were formed. With this, it is recommended to product development to produce two kinds of apparel, cheap apparel and a higher-priced quality apparel.

The last step involves advertising and distribution. Again, research showed that the target market has different shopping behaviors. The market was divided into segments-mall/store shopping and online shopping, this point according to shopping behavior. Percentage for online shopping showed to be material so, online advertising and distribution were done aside from the traditional mall distribution and vicinity advertising.

Segmentation is a powerful tool if used correctly. However, it does not follow that each segment of the target market must be addressed. This should depend on the company’s resources and goals/visions. Moreover, segmentation and target marketing should not be done as a one time process because of changing needs and competitor strategies. It should be done often to adapt to these changes for the product to obtain a large share in its target market.

Online Advertising: To Do or Not To Do

Companies advertise to increase sales. Advertising involves a large amount of money and is always a big risk because it either makes or breaks your business. To lessen that risk, companies should consider well the form of advertising that will be most effective: through magazines, newspaper or the internet.

Advertising online is essential. This is because target markets-the young or old and male or female are spending more time online compared to watching TV, reading magazines and listening to the radio. Furthermore, recent studies show that there has been a 9 percent decline in print advertising in newspaper while online advertising rose to 21 percent. This has even led four major newspaper publishers to diversify to online advertising.

Moreover, online advertising is effective because it allows direct response that is beneficial to both the consumer and seller. The consumer can just click to learn more about the product and even allow buying the product online.

To advertise online, there must be a website with an effective copy. The copy must not only have an attentive headline but listed under a captivating title for it to be picked up in the listings on search engines. However, precaution must be taken because online advertising can be risky if you do not know much about the internet market. To help you, there are many websites that provide useful information on internet advertising. Look up Internet Advertising and you’ll be provided with a list of websites of search engine advertising specialists, copywriters and web developers. So, be on the know-how. Start advertising online and boost your sales!