Marketing group assignment mkt101 topic marketing campaigns of coca cola and proposed solution

Coca Cola -MKT-Gr1 - Coca Cola
Marketing Principles (MKT101)

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MARKETING GROUP ASSIGNMENT
MKT101
TOPIC: Marketing campaigns of Coca-Cola and proposed solution

GROUP 1
Class: IB1710
Members :
Lý Thu Thảo HS170886
Nguyễn Quốc An HS173191
Trịnh Văn Lâm HS170983

Nguyễn Hồng Ngọc HS171227
Phạm Thị Thúy Lan HS170832
Vương Quý Dương HS170334

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OUTLINE:
I.

INTRODUCTION

a.

An overview of Coca-Cola

b.

The position in the market

c.

The popularity
II. THE MARKETING MIX OF COCA-COLA (4P)

●

Overview of the marketing strategy of Coca-Cola a. Product
b. Price
c. Place
d. Promotion

III.

SWOT OF COCA-COLA
1. Coca-Cola’s strengths
2. Coca-Cola’s weakness
3. Coca-Cola’s Opportunity
4. Coca-Cola’s Challenge
IV.

THE SOLUTION

V.

CONCLUSION

VI.

REFERENCE

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I.

INTRODUCTION:

a.

Overview of

The

Company is an American multinational beverage corporation, best

known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The sugary drink was invented in 1886 by
pharmacist John Stith Pemberton. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures,
sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and
alcoholic beverages.

At the time of its invention, the product contained cocaine from coca leaves and

caffeine from kola nuts which together acted as a stimulant. The coca and the kola
are the source of the product name, and led to Coca-Cola's promotion as a "healthy
tonic". The company largely produces syrup concentrate, which is then sold to
various bottlers throughout the world.
b. Position
As a leading company in the field of manufacturing and trading carbonated soft
drinks, despite facing the direct competitors - Pepsi, Coca-Cola still retains its
influence.

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c. Popularity
Coca-cola is a product that anyone knows, even though they have never tried once
in their life, they must have heard of this brand at least 10 times or more. About
94% of the world's population recognizes the red and white logo of Coca-Cola and
"Coca-Cola" is the second most widely understood word in the US, just behind the
word "OK". Because it is the first

carbonated beverage brand and the earliest to the market, reaching the youngest
customer group, Coca-Cola's coverage in Vietnam and international markets is
extremely large.

II.

THE MARKETING MIX (4P)
4P is considered an effective marketing tool for
expanding the market and promoting the brand. For

every business, the 4P strategy is the "magic wand"
that helps businesses create and maintain revenue
streams. The more successful the 4P strategy, the
more strength of the business is consolidated in the
market.

● Overview of the marketing strategy of Coca Cola
-

Focus on key markets, not invest in a spread and mass manner.

-

Focus on building advertising strategies, and improving products to enhance their

position and reputation in the traditional market.
-

Huge investment in quality advertising contracts to bring a strong impact to customers.

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-

Increase product volume, tighten costs, promote investment efficiency and consider

the traditional market as a development goal.

-

Constantly competing with competitors in the same industry, especially Pepsi.

a. Product:
Coca-Cola has created a variety of product
categories throughout the process of
formation and development. Currently, the
brand offers more than 500 brands of
carbonated water with more than 3,900
products. From the main product of
carbonated drink, now Coca-Cola has
diversified products with many models,
colors, and flavors such as Fanta, Maaza, Limca, sprite, Thums Up, Minute Maid, Nimbu
Fresh, and Nested Ice Tea. These are all beverage brands of Coca-Cola in more than 200
countries and territories around the world.
Some of the famous brands provided by Coca-Cola can be mentioned such as Sprite, Fanta,
Diet Coke, Dasani, Del Valle, Osewalle, Fuze Tea, etc.
These product lines all have their own characteristics,
creating variety and novelty of species. Coca-Cola's core
products are mainly in the form of plastic bottles, glass, or
cans with a capacity of 200ml - 2l. The company has
constantly researched and developed many new products
such as Joy bottled water, Samurai energy drink, and

Sunfill fruit powder, and added many new flavors to traditional products to meet tastes. In
2016, Coca launched a sugar-free Coke to compete directly with Pepsi, while responding
to the increasing trend of consumers using low-sugar beverages to avoid obesity and
sugar-related diseases are becoming serious.

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Coca-Cola's packaging is constantly improving to help prolong the product's life cycle in
order to give customers a new, eye-catching, optimistic and convenient feeling when using
(Every Tet holiday, Coca-Cola uses the image of a "swallow" to signal the arrival of spring
to create a good impression on consumers, helping to add value to the product, which is
very suitable for gifts and Tet gifts.)
Overall, in the product strategy, Coca-Cola has expanded its current product portfolio by
increasing the depth of a product line and increasing the number of product lines,
positioning products suitable for each market.

b. Prices:
Coca-Cola follows the principle of

price

discrimination 2. This means that the brand
will charge different prices for products
belonging to different segments. Each
Coca-Cola brand has a different pricing
strategy. This Coca cola marketing strategy
is based on the competitor format of Coca-Cola, in which Pepsi is the biggest direct
competitor of the Coke brand. So if Coca-Cola prices its product too high compared to
Pepsi or vice versa in a particular segment, consumers may be converted.

Coca-Cola has pursued 3P and 3A pricing strategies to gain an advantage and best
serve coca cola's target customers and consumers.

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●

3P strategy:
Price to value (from price to value): consumers not only have the ability to buy coca cola
but also get the benefits from the product.
Pervasiveness: consumers can buy coca-cola everywhere
Preference: make consumers not only love the product but also ensure that Coca is the
first choice when they look for soft drinks.

●

Strategy 3A:
Affordability: Coca-Cola's selling price is guaranteed to be suitable for all audiences,
anyone can afford it.
Availability: consumers must be able to buy Coca-Cola whenever and wherever
Acceptability: Coca-Cola must make customers love and accept the product, feel happy
when using the product.
Coca-Cola's differentiating strategy is to reduce the
price when users buy a larger size product. In addition
to setting relatively low prices to penetrate the market,
Coca-Cola also sets prices at a discount, adjusting
prices to reward customers who pay ahead of time and
buy products in bulk. In addition, Coca-Cola also uses
a strategy of price discrimination by product type.

c. Places:
Coca-Cola, which has been in business for more than 130 years and operates in more
than 200 countries throughout the world, has thus amassed a massive distribution
network. Their place strategy is highlighted by their extensive distribution network. The
Coca-Cola company manufactures the beverage using its patented formula and distributes
it to bottlers across the world.

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The company itself controls the brands and is in charge of consumer brand marketing
campaigns as well as manufacturing and selling concentrates, beverage bases, and
syrups to bottling plants. Their bottling partners then manufacture packages, merchandise,
and distribute the finished branded beverages to their vending partners, who finally sell
them to consumers.
Its products can be found in practically every retail shop and supermarket. Coca-Cola
products are sold at 2.5 million stores in India. Their products are also distributed in a
variety of hotels and restaurants around the world.

d. Promotion:
Coca-Cola is the gold standard in terms of advertising and branding. Coca-Cola’s promotion
strategy focuses on aggressive marketing through ad
campaigns using media channels such as television,
online commercials, print media, sponsorships, and so
on. Coca-Cola sponsors important events such as
American Idol, BET Network, NASCAR, NBA, NCAA,
Olympic Games, and FIFA World Cup, among others.

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Coca-Cola also airs commercials on television in a variety of national languages around the
world. Coca-Cola started the to remind people of the joy and happiness that Coke delivers to their life. Coca-Cola has
evolved into a mass-market product that is expected to be available at any time, anywhere.

III.

SWOT:
1. Coca-Cola's Strengths
a. Famous brand:
Coca-Cola's strongest point is its brand identity, which is
widely covered around the world. According to Business
Insider, up to 94% of the world's population receives the
distinctive logo that is white and red of Coca-Cola.
Many people know Coca-Cola as a beverage company
with the largest amount of consumption in the history of
the world beverage market.

Besides, the Coca-Cola brand is also of
great value thanks to its unabated
popularity over more than a century of
operation. According to

Interbrand's

annual report, in 2021, Coca Cola ranks
6th in the ranking of the best global
brands. The brand's valuation reaches
57 billion US dollars. On top of that are
names like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft,
Google, and Samsung.

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b. Coca-Cola's competitive advantage:
Coca-Cola's

competitive

advantage lies in its product reach.
Present in more than 200 countries
and accounting for 1.9 billion daily
servings of its products, Coca-Cola
has

brought

more

than

500

products to global consumers.

Coca-Cola's product diversity is considered to be able to serve all audiences with different
lifestyles, interests, and characteristics. Thanks to that, this "all-people" product easily
conquers even the most demanding consumers.
A special study on Coca-Cola also shows the competitive advantage of this brand. It is CocaCola is considered the most emotionally connected brand in America. Users associate a
feeling of "happiness" when mentioning Coca-Cola and have high brand loyalty.

Besides, Coca-Cola's 136 years old age has also become a competitive advantage of the
brand. Many consumers admit that it is difficult to find a substitute for Coca-Cola because
they love and are so used to the taste of this brand.

c. Market share dominating the global beverage industry:
The above two strengths are enough to explain
the third strength of Coca-Cola's SWOT model,
which is having a dominant market share in the
global beverage

industry. In

addition to

Coca-Cola and Pepsi products, the two leading
names dominating the beverage market, the
Coca-Cola company also has a huge market share for products such as Coke, Sprite, Diet
Coke, Fanta, etc.

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This formidable position is maintained not only in some countries but in all countries where
Coca-Cola is present.

d. Wide distribution network:
With a dense presence all over the world, Coca-Cola also owns the most widespread and
effective distribution network in the beverage industry.
According to statistics, this company has cooperated with 225 bottling partners and
approximately 900 global bottling plants. Only this number can explain why Coca-Cola is
present in almost every "cave and alley".

e. Wide market penetration:

The beverage industry is considered a huge market. With a potential brand name for
Coca-Cola, it is not difficult to penetrate both domestic and foreign markets.
Not to mention Coca-Cola's acquisition policy also helps the company easily expand the
market. This brand has a long list of acquisitions and brings great profits including the
Costa coffee chain, Fuze Tea, …

2. Coca-Cola's Weakness
a. Competing with Pepsi:
The eternal story of the war between Coca-Cola and Pepsi probably never came to an
end. Because Coca-Cola and Pepsi have so many similarities, the competition between
the two brands cannot be reduced.

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No one can deny that Pepsi is Coca-Cola's biggest competitor. Without a rival, Pepsi,
perhaps Coca-Cola would have reached a dominant position in the entire beverage
market. Although overall, Pepsi can not compare with Coca-Cola, this obstacle will
become the first weakness for the brand that has been operating for 3 centuries.

b. Product diversification:
You may find it questionable when

diversifying the product portfolio
that is both in the strengths and
immediately "squeezing" into the
list of Coca-Cola's weaknesses.
Because product diversification is
completely a double-edged sword,
both bringing

advantages and

difficulties for Coca-Cola.

Specifically, Coca-Cola is currently only stopping at diversifying products in the beverage
segment. With many beverage categories, Coca-Cola holds the leading position that is hard to
beat in this "playground". However, this level of diversification remains low. The reason

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lies in the fact that Pepsi has "encroached" on the snack market share when developing
Lays or Kurkure and Coca-Cola is still struggling to come up with a clear position for itself.

c. Depends on the beverage market:
Given the low product diversity, the next weak point in Coca-Cola's SWOT matrix is its overreliance on the beverage market. Focusing on only one market helps Coca-Cola's beverage
products always be invested and meet the needs of all customers. However, this also makes
Coca-Cola lag in other product lines that the brand has the ambition to invest in.

Despite investing in the snack market, almost no one knows that names like Plazma,
Wellness, Bambi Biscuits, etc. are also produced by the famous Coca-Cola.

d. Foreign exchange rate risk:
Foreign exchange rate risk is one of the weaknesses that most multinational companies,
with a large market share globally, will face.
Similarly, in the SWOT model of
Coca-Cola in Vietnam, it is completely
exposed to this type of risk if it is
affected by adverse fluctuations in
foreign

exchange

rates.

These

fluctuations will reduce the revenue
and profit of the business.

With Coca-Cola, a possible scenario due to foreign exchange rate risk is to buy raw
materials for production and business to pay in foreign currency or sell products and
collect money in foreign currency. These are both possible scenarios because with a scale

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spanning more than 200 countries, paying merchants and retrieving a currency other than
the one in the home country will increase exchange rate sensitivity. . At this time, the
capital spent to produce or the price of the product fluctuates in an unprofitable direction,
which will become a weakness for the brand.

e. Health-related issues
Soft drinks in general often cause consumers to have health concerns. Coca-Cola is no
exception when most of its products are high in sugar. When too much sugar is tolerated
in the body, consumers can experience serious problems such as obesity and diabetes.
Many health experts have banned the use of soft drinks and the daily effect of Coca-Cola
is significantly affected. However, the brand has yet to offer any reasonable alternatives.
Besides direct agents, Coca-Cola also has weaknesses in terms of indirect factors
affecting human health. As in the 2020 Tearfund report, Coca-Cola is one of four brands
that are contributing to global warming and carbon emissions by producing more plastic
bottles. Although the brand is trying to urge users to reuse these plastic bottles, the actual
effect has not yet achieved the desired improvement.

3. Coca-Cola's Opportunity
a. Product diversification:
In order to grow and expand faster to keep

pace with the

market, Pepsi

had to

constantly expand its product portfolio to be
more
market

diversified.
share

is

Although
vast,

Coca-Cola's

the

level

of

diversification is still modest. Therefore, in
addition to beverages, Coca-cola may consider shifting to other markets such as snacks …

b. Focus on healthy drinks, instead of soft drinks:

Coca-Cola's weakness is its dependence on the production of unhealthy sugary drinks.
But the opportunity for Coca-Cola also lies in developing a line of healthy drinks.

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Similar to Pepsi, Coca-Cola's matrix should focus on product launches in this nascent
beverage segment. With timely investment, joining the healthy product category can bring
Coca-Cola many benefits such as improving brand image and increasing revenue from
new product lines.
According to Coca-Cola's annual report, the company has reduced sugar in its drinks and
invested 28% of its sales in low-calorie or no-calorie beverages. This potential market will
bring more advantages to Coca-Cola if invested in the long term, as consumers are
gradually moving towards a healthier lifestyle.

c. Exploiting markets in developing countries
The characteristic of many developing countries is that the climate is quite hot. Therefore,
the demand for soft drinks in these countries is extremely high. With Coca-Cola's position,
it is not difficult to exploit these extremely potential markets.
For example, in the Middle East and Africa, Coca-Cola has exploited extremely
successfully and continues to lead here.

d. Bring an advanced supply chain system
Coca-Cola's business system is completely dependent on transshipment and supply chain.
Moreover, costs for transportation and raw materials always tend to increase. This difficulty

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opens up opportunities for Coca-Cola when it wants to apply a more advanced system to
improve the distribution process.

e. Continuous innovation
The rapid development and transformation of society lead to changes in customers'
consumption habits. So one of the ways to retain customers is to constantly innovate.
With Coca-Cola, a familiar beverage brand, innovation can lie in product packaging or
unique marketing and communication campaigns. These campaigns will contribute to
blowing a new wind into seemingly old products.

For example, at the end of 2021, Coca-Cola in the US collaborated with TikTok to launch
the brand's first challenge. This is considered a great innovation move to help improve the
company's brand awareness.

4.

Coca-Cola's Challenge

a.

The threat of competition is very high

The biggest challenge of Coca-Cola's SWOT
matrix probably lies in its direct and indirect
competitors. Although obvious direct competitors
like Pepsi often make the biggest impact. There's

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also no denying that there are countless smaller companies waging an indirect, silent war
with Coca-Cola.
Starbuck, Tropicana, Lipton's juice, and Nescafe all have a strong foothold, a certain
level of popularity, and a significant share of the market. This can completely become a
challenge and affect Coca-Cola's market position.

b. Many products are outdated
If continuous innovation is an opportunity,
the reverse side can also be a challenge
and difficulty for Coca-Cola. At 136 years
old and known for its main product
Coca-Cola soft drink, it is inevitable that
customers will

feel

its

products are

outdated.
This challenge requires Coca-Cola not
only to improvise and innovate but also to
force the brand to develop more trendy and new products.

c. Demand for health-friendly products
As modern society develops, consumers will become more conscious of the use of
healthful products. This has created a trend away from harmful products such as sugar in
soft drinks. The common sense of society will have a negative impact on sales and profits
of Coca-Cola when consumers switch to healthy drinks or give up the habit of using readyto-drink beverages. This can be a fatal challenge for a brand that relies heavily on readyto-drink soft drinks like Coca-Cola.

IV.

Solution:

1. For competition issues
-

In marketing activities:

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+

Coca-cola is "firmly in the market", focusing on the main product line, focusing on key

markets, not spreading out and then not gaining anything for the whole year.
+

The company needs to make significant acquisitions in the non-carbonated beverage sector

to strengthen its presence in the emerging market segment.

+

Marketing campaigns need to cover

more points related to consumers such as using new marketing technologies from 3D advertising to
online long-term customer programs to connect with consumers, and attract teenage customers.

+

Development of distribution channels: Coca-cola must focus on building for itself a more

widespread and strong distribution system to spread its products to all classes of consumers.
Combined with services, the marketing team of coca cola must be more agile to find new
opportunities

2. For the problem of obsolescence
In production activities, it is necessary to improve technology to meet customer needs and
compete with competitors inside and outside
the industry. Changes are needed to meet the

characteristics

and

weak

markets

of

consumers. It is necessary to find new
sources of raw materials to help operate
efficiently

and

save

production

costs.

Outdated products need to be improved in
both image and quality if it is found that those

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products are still able to stay in the market. On the contrary, products that are no longer
able to bring in revenue need to be eliminated and new products developed to suit tastes.

3. For safety and health issues
Currently, Coca-cola has succeeded in developing low-calorie, low-sugar drinks such as
Coca-Cola Zero, Coca Cola Light, ... for those who are concerned about the calories in
sweet
drinks. It is necessary to actively apply this
method to many other products of the company
while maintaining the desired taste. It

is

necessary to develop an array of healthy drinks
that bring the necessary nutrients to the body. An
example that Coca has done is the Coca-Cola Plus product which allows the drink to
provide more fiber to the user. It is necessary to effectively recycle soft drink cans to help
protect the environment.

V.

Conclusion:
From the analysis of the matrix of Coca-Cola
above, it can be concluded that Coca-Cola
has endless advantages in the beverage
industry. But that does not mean that there
are no weaknesses or challenges.
Even if you've been driving your business for

136 years, there are tips you can use to keep it going. For example, it is advisable to invest
more aggressively in the snack market or the food segment in general or focus on solving
health-related problems or follow the trend that almost every business is pursuing today,

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