E Marketing please do not copy and paste Analyze the IMC (especially online) ini
ID: 1164458 • Letter: E
Question
E Marketing please do not copy and paste
Analyze the IMC (especially online) initiatives of Coca Cola corporation (Pick any one of their brands – Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite etc) and write a detailed report on their strategies implemented using a) Paid Media b) Owned Media and c) Earned Media. Also mention what kind of online CRM measures have been utilized by the University to engage its target audience. Please be detailed in your report, highlighting what tactics are working and what are falling short based on YOUR opinion. Support your arguments using materials taught in this course.
Explanation / Answer
Types of Media used to Promote Coca-Cola
Distributed media incorporates daily papers, magazines, exchange and expert press, and additionally web. Visual and aural media, then again, incorporate TV, radio, silver screen, notices, announcements, and direct mailing. Different kinds of media are utilized as a part of request to promote the Coca-Cola mark by and large, and Coca-Cola drink specifically.
Newspapers are one of the most popular forms of media advertising that is widely used by Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola Company is one of the companies that has stared media advertisement in its earlier stages, and by now the company has been engaged in media advertising for more than 100 years.
Similarly, magazines have also been widely used at a global level in order to advertise Coca-Cola. The choice of magazines to advertise the brand has been undertaken according to their readability by the target customer segment of the company, and the Coca-Cola advertisements usually occupy the whole page of magazines in order to maximise the positive impact of the marketing initiatives.
Internet is another platform where the various forms of Coca-Cola advertisements are placed. Specifically, the brand online advertisement is undertaken through the extensive use of banners, pop-up ads, on-site sponsorships and various other formats of online advertisements in thousands of websites along the globe. Moreover, there are specific forums and many websites globally that are dedicated to Coca-Cola fans and where users share their stories where Coca-Cola is involved.
Coca-Cola has been advertised through television many counties as well with the company spending a considerable amount of financial resources for this purpose. Coca-Cola TV ads in different countries vary from each other and they have been prepared taking into account the characteristics of a local culture in order to avoid any misunderstandings due to cultural differences, and maximise the positive impact of the TV advertisement initiatives.
The Coca-Cola is also advertised in cinema and this is undertaken in two ways. Firstly, there are Coca-Cola video advertisements played in cinemas for selected movies before the movie starts. Secondly, Coca-Cola is widely advertised through product placement in movies, where Coca-Cola drink features somewhere during the movie and in order to maximise the efficiency of the product placement, the drink is usually consumed by the leading role during the movie.
While the number of usage and importance of product placement is increasing among the businesses with Coca-Cola being among the leaders, there is a place for misunderstanding and contradiction as well. Specifically, the movie Falling Down can be mentioned as an example, where the leading role played by Michael Douglas was a highly depressed man and in one scene places a can of Coca-Cola to his forehead in attempts to stop the headache. According to Yang et al (2004) this specific example of product placement was highly unsuccessful and counter-productive for Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola media advertisement through the radio usually does last only for few seconds, but nevertheless is considered to be highly efficient in terms of increasing the level of brand awareness and customer loyalty.
Posters and billboards are also widely used as an integral part of the Coca-Cola media promotion. Coca-Cola billboards are usually placed at the city centres around the globe as well as highways and some of the rural areas. Posters, on the other hand, are normally displayed at the public transport, some of the shops and restaurants.
Objectives of Coca-Cola Campaign
Coca-Cola advertisement campaigns have been launched in order to achieve specific objectives. It is clear that the main objective of Coca-Cola Company as a business entity is profit maximisation, and all of the efforts of the company are directed to the achievement of this primary objective. However, Coca-Cola advertisement campaigns contribute to the achievement of the primary objective of profit maximisation in several ways.
marketing communication campaign might have up to eight objectives. Each of these objectives can be analysed in order to identify if Coca-Cola marketing campaigns are aiming to achieve them.
Firstly, creating awareness of the company and its products. This specific marketing objective is pursued by Coca-Cola Company as a secondary objective. This is because the company already has a high level of brand recognition and its limited range of products is widely well-known within the countries the company is operating.
Secondly, informing and educating consumers and buyers. The relevance of this type of marketing objective to Coca-Cola campaigns is limited due to the fact that there are no positive informational and educational points associated with Coca-Cola drink, such as nutritional aspects and health benefits that could be communicated to the potential and existing customers.
Thirdly, encouraging a liking for the company’s products over those of the competitors of the company. This is one of the main objectives Coca-Cola marketing campaigns aim to achieve. Global market of beverage products is highly competitive, and of the main strategies adopted by Coca-Cola Company involves engaging in intensive marketing initiatives.
Fourthly, encouraging product trial among potential new customers. This form of marketing objective is pursued by Coca-Cola very occasionally and only in new markets the company is entering.
Fifthly, increasing short-term sales by the means of stimulating action. This specific marketing objective is often pursued by Coca-Cola. Accordingly, seasonal and other sales are often introduced in major supermarkets, and relevant information is communicated to the potential and existing customers.
Sixthly, reassuring customers and reinforcing their particular desirable buying behaviour. This type of marketing objective is pursued by Coca-Cola campaigns through integrating the consumption of the drink to the lifestyle of the customers, thus achieving their lifelong loyalty.
Seventhly, generating information from customers. Such type of marketing objective is not very popular with Coca-Cola marketing campaigns due to the size of the company as well as the nature of the business.
Eighthly, creating sales lead. The marketing objective of creating sales lead is popular with the types of businesses that operate with the push strategy, i.e. the companies that direct their marketing initiatives mainly to the distributors and wholesalers, not the final consumers. Coca-Cola Company, on the other hand, operates under the pull strategy and directs its marketing efforts and communication to the final consumers, and therefore, does not have a necessity to generate sales leads.
Analysis of Images and Words used in Coca-Cola Advertising and Their Appeal
Coca-Cola marketing campaign materials have been devised according to the messages they aim to convey, and images, words and sounds featuring within them have been perfected by marketing professionals in order to serve the same purpose.
Messages sent through images, words and audio materials promoting Coca-Cola can be classified into three categories: Coca-Cola helps to best satisfy the thirst, drinking Coca-Cola is stylish, and drinking Coca-Cola is part of a lifestyle.
Marketing initiatives, words, images, audio and video materials Coca-Cola employs tries to communicate a message that this drink satisfies the thirst in the best possible manner and partially for this reason Coca-Cola is consumed by millions of people per day
The coca cola company wants to be globally known as a company that conducts its business responsibly and ethically and to accelerate sustainable growth to operate in tomorrow’s world.
How Coca-Cola Used Social Media
Coca-Cola has done well digitally also, their social media marketing campaigns and ad campaigns have played great role for e.g their share a coke campaign was a great hit , Coca-Cola also had a couple of Facebook apps like ‘when will happiness strike’, and another called ‘aah giver’.
Coca-Cola is an internationally renowned brand and its Facebook page has attracted 93 million fans which is not a surprise considering how big and popular the brand is. but if you analyze its Facebook page you’ll see that there are not many regular day-to-day updates as compared to other brands such as red bull that push out updates daily. Coca-Cola goes more than a week without posting anything. Coca-Cola doesn’t have its own stores so its social media marketing strategy isn’t focused on driving people to its shops or to an e-commerce platform, instead its all about maintaining brand image and raising awareness of its ad campaigns compared to other brands the level of engagement is very low, it generally attracts a few thousand likes and around couple of 100 comments. Coca-Cola also has fan pages for its other products like Coca-Cola Zero, diet coke. Diet coke has around 2.5 million fans and Coca-Cola Zero has around 6.8 million fans despite the fact that it is updated very rarely.
Coca Cola’s main twitter feed has 3.11 million followers and has tweeted 143 thousand times which makes it a very active brand amongst others. It also has dedicated pages for various products and sub brands including diet coke, coke zero, etc. The social team at the company rarely post any straightforward marketing messages and instead primarily use twitter to respond to @mentions. It responds to a lot of complaints, requests, compliment, etc. But not all mentions are answered many of the mentions go unanswered but this is a nice strategy rather than pushing out marketing messages. Compared to their main Coca-Cola page their diet coke page adopts a different approach and is mainly used for tweeting marketing messages,asking questions, etc. Coca Cola’s twitter handle is the most happening and interesting of all specially if you compare it with its Facebook page which rarely pushes out posts but still it has got around 93 million fans. Twitter has more of customer engagement.
Conclusion
Having an effective integrated marketing communications strategy and efficiently to implement it is one of the necessities for companies in a modern business world without which the chances for company’s long-term growth will be compromised. In order to be successful the components and all elements of marketing campaigns, including images, texts audio and video materials need to be effective.
The company relies on media extensively in order to conduct its integrated marketing communication strategy. The choice of media used by Coca-Cola includes newspapers, magazines, internet, television, cinema, radio, posters and billboards.
Marketing campaigns initiated and conducted by Coca-Cola has a range of objectives to achieve that include encouraging a liking for Coca-Cola, increasing short-term sales, forming buyer behaviour and others.
Analysis of images and words used in Coca-Cola marketing campaigns has identified that these marketing efforts aim to communicate three types of messages. Firstly, Coca-Cola marketing initiatives aim to communicate a message that this drink is a best solution to satisfy the thirst. Secondly, Coca-Cola marketing campaigns aim to communicate a message that drinking Coca-Cola is associated with style, being ‘cool’ and trendy. Thirdly, marketing campaigns devised by Coca-Cola aim to communicate the message that drinking Coca-Cola is a part of everyday life and that the drink is a part of a lifestyle.
However, the most interesting part is that all of these three types of benefits that Coca-Cola is offering its potential and existing customers are only perceived benefits. Specifically, the statement that Coca-Cola satisfies thirst better than any other drink is justifiably under high degree of suspicion. And it is also absolutely clear that Coca-Cola does not make anyone stylish, trendy and ‘cool’ in reality and all the promised benefits of such a nature are only perceived benefits.
The above stated facts reveal the huge amount of potential of marketing in a way that Coca-Cola Company offers mainly perceived benefits to its customers, however, with the effective choice of components of integrated marketing communication and their efficient use the company was able to become one of the most successful multinational corporations in the world.
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