Coca Cola Marketing Mix Essay

Soft Drink demand market is very strong all over the world. Now there are 2 major Company of Soft Drinks †¢ Coca Cola †¢ Pepsi Co they are competitors to each other. The world’s largest beverage’s company Coca Cola began more than a century ago. The Coca Cola company world headquarter is at Atlanta Georgia, USA. Formation of Coca Cola company was in a simple way, but today it is spread worldwide. It has a Wonderful history and an exciting future. From sometime before 1970-s Coca Cola had started doing business in India. But due to changes in the policy of Indian Government, Coca Cola had to wind up its business from India in 1977. After 16 years, in 1993 it again started doing business in India through one of its subsidiary company Coca Cola India Private Limited. It gradually went in for merger by acquisition the various well known products to stop the direct competition from the local market. Coca cola is the brand with the highest brand equity. No doubt it has gone through the ups and downs of business to reach that position. The marketing mix of Coca cola has been changing over time with more and more products being added such that today it has 3300 products. So what is the marketing mix of Coca cola? Product The company has the widest portfolio in beverage industry comprising of 3300 products. Beverages are divided into diet category, 100% fruit juices, fruit drinks, water, energy drinks, tea and coffee etc. As per Nielson’s data, Coca cola is the No.1 brand in sparkling beverages, juice, and retail packaged water in 2010. Coca cola has its market presence around 200 countries. Coca cola brands in India are Fanta, Maaza, Limca, sprite, Thums up, Minute Maid, Nimbu fresh, Nested iced tea etc. Coca-Cola made its return to India COCA – COLA in 1993 and made significant investments to ensure that the beverage is available to more and more people, even in the remote and inaccessible parts of the nation. Sprite has not only established itself as a brand which successfully boasts it’s ‘cutthru’ perspective with an authentic, edgy, irreverent, urban and straight forward style, but has also achieved status of an undisputed youth ‘badge‘ brand. Fanta entered in the year 1993. Perceived as a fun youth brand, Fanta stands for its vibrant color, tempting Taste and tingling bubbles that not just uplifts feelings but also helps free spirit thus encouraging one to indulge in the moment. Limca has remained unchallenged as the No.1 Sparkling Drink in the Cloudy lemon Segment. The success formula is the sharp fizz and lemoni bite combined with the Single minded proposition of the brand as the provider of â€Å"Freshness†. Maaza has today come to symbolize the very spirit of mangoes. Universally loved for its taste, color, thickness and wholesome properties, Maaza is the mango lover’s first choice Price 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 coke. Beverage market is said to be a oligopoly market (few sellers and large buyers), hence they form into cartel contract to ensure a mutual balance in pricing between the sellers. Price strategies are important to Coca Cola because the price determines the amount of sales and profit per unit sold. Businesses have to set a price that is attractive to their customers and provides the business with a good level of profit. Long before a sale was ever made Coca Cola had developed a forecast of consumer demand at different prices which inevitably determined whether or not the product came on the market, as well as the allocation of adequate money and resources to produce, promote and distribute the product. Place Coca cola is the world’s most favourite brand and is available all over the world. The distribution system of coca cola follows the FMCG distribution pattern. The effective distribution network of coke has almost eroded the small and middle level players in the market. In India they have captured even the rural market by extensive distribution and have eroded the market share of Bo onto, Kalmar etc. Promotion Coca cola adopts various 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. You are more likely to see a coke ad individualised for a particular festival or in with a general positive message. Coca cola uses CSR as its marketing tool to gain emotional benefits in consumers mind. The current promotions through CSR include â€Å"Support my school† campaign with NDTV. It has many brand ambassadors like Shahrukh khan, Hrithik Roshan, South Indian Actor Vijay and Trisha , Ghambir, Aamir khan etc and has signed contract recently with Imran khan. It allows price discounts and allowances to distributors and retailers in order to push more products into the market. It employs both push  strategy through promotions and pull strategy through advertisements and campaigns. Company introduces 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. ïÆ'ËœBig names of Indian film industry mainly become the brand ambassadors of the Company. ïÆ'ËœThroughout the years, the slogans of the Coca-Cola have been memorable. For E.g. Thanda Matlab Cola-Cola Jo chaho ho jae Cola-Cola enjoy Coca-Cola-Piyo sir utha ke Brrrrrrr!!! Coca Cola on a regular basis Advertise through Billboards, Hoardings. They occupy the prime locations of the Urban and Semi Urban areas to advertise their products †¢ Bill Boards are used on Highways, main City roads, Across big buildings, Shops etc. †¢Also in India the Coca-cola can be seen painted on walls, bus stands, dhabas etc focusing in rural areas if India Coca-Cola uses direct marketing in many ways. First, the company partners with various restaurants, movie theatres, etc. to carry its product. This way, when a customer orders a drink, the only brand they are offered is Coca-Cola, which forces them to buy a drink from that brand. By doing this, Coke forces out other competition, and keeps the restaurants, or other businesses, purchasing their product over and over again. E.g. Mc Donald’s. 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 major sport events like Cricket, Football, Hockey, Olympic and Motor Racing etc. 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. ïÆ'ËœAlso 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 can’t afford to spend time on T.V and are always online