MARKETING MIX OF COCA-COLA

1. Product:
As we all know, Coca Cola is a beverage company. Its final products not only consists of the
drinks, but also its many and varied packaging as well. As the main utility of a drink is to
satisfy the thirst (and sometimes cravings) of the end user, it offers very less on the service
portion apart from maybe convenience.
People buy soft drinks for many reasons. One may want it purely to quench his thirst, other
may want it as an accompaniment to snacks whilst many other buy it in large quantities to
serve in parties etc. Consumers may have particular tastes as well, some want cola, others
may ask for orange etc. Hence to match up and provide for all these different situational
demands of their product, Coca Cola has quite an extensive product line. They offer several
sizes of soft drink, juices, bottled water etc. Coca Cola has developed various sub brands as
well like Fanta, Minute Maid etc. to cater to all possible variations of demand from the
consumers.
These products broadly fall in the convenient classification, i.e. they are bought frequently,
with a minimum comparison and effort in buying. For that end, the appearance of the product
has to eye catching and they should be easily differentiable from their competitors products.
Coca Cola has a unique (and patented) curvy design that they use from their bottles. The idea
behind that is will help the people in holding and carrying the bottles more easily, plus it
makes Coca Cola bottles easily distinguishable. Also, Coca Cola is well known for its unique
logo and use of red colour in its brandings.
The product range of Coca-Cola includes:
1) Coke
a) Regular Coke

This is the flagship product of Coca Cola, or more popularly known as Coke. It is a cola
flavoured carbonated drink.
b) Diet Coke

It is a sugar free version of regular coke. It was introduced to target the health conscious
people who complained that regular coke was full of sugar and had too many calories in
its servings.

c) Coke Zero

After the introduction of Diet Coke, many people complained that it had lost its
signature flavour. To address that issue, Coca Cola brought out Coke Zero. It was
advertised as real coca cola taste with zero calories.

2) Fanta
Fanta is a sub brand of Coca Cola. It was introduced to target the consumers who didnt
like the cola flavour. It comes in two variants in Indiaa) Orange

It is an orange flavoured carbonated soft drink.

b) Green Mango

Launched in 2016, another flavour variation of the Fanta brand from the stables of
Coca Cola India
3) Sprite
Sprite is another sub brand from the stables of Coca Cola. It has a lemony flavour and it is
available in two variants.
a) Regular

b) Sprite Zero

Sprite Zero is a clear, lemon flavoured carbonated dink. It is a sugar-free

version of the regular Sprite

4) Thums Up

Thums Up was introduced in 1977. It was an Indian brand, acquired by Coca Cola in
1993. It tastes a little stronger than regular cola drinks, and is marketed as the macho
cola drink.
5) Maaza

Maaza is a mango flavoured non-carbonated drink. It was introduced in the 1970s and is
marketed as an all year round alternative for real mangoes.
6) Limca

Introduced in 1971, it is a lime flavoured carbonated drink brand of Coca Cola

7) Minute Maid
Minute Maid is another global sub brand of Coca Cola. It is a juice and juice drink brand,
introduced in 1945. It has many variants in India, such as
a) Pulpy orange

It is an orange juice drink. Its USP is that it also contains orange pulp, as in a freshly
squeezed orange juice.
b) Nimbu Fresh

Introduced in 2010 in south of India, it is a lime juice flavoured drink

c) Guava

Guava drink, launched in April 2013 in Delhi, Punjab, UP & Kolkata.

d) Mango

Mango juice drink, launched in 2012 in India. It is different from Maaza which is a
mango flavoured drink.
e) Mixed Fruit

Mixed fruit juice drink, launched in 2010 in India

8) Fuze Tea
It is a fusion of tea with fruit flavours and other natural ingredients currently available in
select markets of India (Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Noida, Goa and
Delhi NCR). It is available in Lemon and Peach flavours

9) Kinley
It is the packaged water brand from Coca Cola
a) Water

Regular packaged drinking water, boasting of reverse osmosis technology to ensure

purity
b) Soda

Packaged Soda water (carbonated water), launched in 2002

10) Schweppes
Schweppes is a premium brand, acquired by Coca Cola in 1999. The available choices
in this are - Ginger Ale, Tonic water and Soda Water

11) Vio
It is Coca Cola Indias entry in the value added dairy category. These are ready to drink
flavoured milk products. The available variants are Almond Delight and Kesar Treat.

Product Lifecycle of Coke:

Coke is a dominant player in USA, Europe, Asia and Africa, but it is in different stages of the
PLC phases in these locations. Coke is in its maturity stage in USA and Europe, as it has
very little scope of growing its market further, whereas Coke is still in its growth phase in
Asia and Africa as there is a lot of potential to expand its market.
2. Price:
As expected from a company who has endured about one century of competition, Coca Cola
has always been very much fluidic in their pricing strategies. They have made numerous
changes in their pricing strategies but one can see that their main objective was to establish
itself as the strongest rand in the beverage market. As we have seen earlier, cola consumption
in the western countries had decreased leading to a saturated market, companies realized the
untapped potential of foreign markets.
While formulating a pricing strategy, the following key points are of the utmost importance
a) The demand usually determines the price. One can charge a premium if the demand is
high enough.
b) The determined price should allow maximum revenue/profit for the company.
c) Price should be competitive otherwise the customers may migrate on to the
competitors products.
d) Price must be keeping the view of your target market.
In the early 2000s, both Pepsi and Coke had a huge presence in the Indian beverage market.
Both of them had a 300ml bottle in their line-up. But a survey in 2001 said that the then
current price of Rs 10 for the 300ml bottle was quite unpopular in the rural areas of India.
Hence Coca Cola came up with a new SKU at a reduced price, they introduced a 200ml bottle
for Rs 5. Companys main motive behind this was to get the people in rural India used to
this packaged beverage. This step proved of great importance of further solidifying Coca
Colas market share in India.
There are several text book pricing startegies, which companies usually apply. Some of them
are
a) Psychological pricing-

In international markets, price of a 2ltr Coke bottle is $2.49. The prices ending in a
9 usually makes the customer round it off $2.40 rather than $2.50.
b) Promotional Pricing
Coca Cola indulges in promotional pricing quite a lot. Usually during festive season
they reduce the prices of some of their high priced SKUs to woo in the consumers.
c) Discriminatory PricingThis is when the company charges different prices from different customers. One may
have a reduced price for those who buy in bulk viz. wholesalers, supermarkets etc.
d) International PricingProducts have an inherent cost attached to them required for their production. This
may vary from country to country, hence the prices also tend to be country specific. A
2ltr bottle of coke is comparatively much cheaper in India as compared to USA.
e) Market penetration Pricing
Indian consumers tend to be price-centric, that is they usually move towards a
cheaper products if they find the quality comparable. Hence Coca Cola tends to keep
its prices at par with Pepsi.
3. Place:
The most common ways of entering a foreign market is direct exporting, licensing and
franchising. Coca Colas go-to strategy is to supply the required drink concentrate to
licenced bottling partners and they do the rest.
Coca Cola uses a manufacturer sponsored wholesaler franchisee system.
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There are different types of franchising. The type that is used by Coca-Cola Company is
manufacturer sponsored wholesaler franchise system. It is very comparable to licensing but
the only difference is that the finished products are sold to the retailers in local market.
Coca Cola has managed their companys marketing and sales strategy within channels. Have
you ever considered the significance of the Coke vending machine to the success and
profitability of the Coca Cola Company? This channel is direct to consumer and vending
machines often have little to no competition and no trade or price promotions.
The Coke Company operates three primary delivery systems for its business channels:
Bulk delivery for the channels of large Supermarkets, Mass Merchandisers and Club stores
For smaller channels Coke does advanced sale delivery for convenience stores, drug stores,
small supermarkets and on-premise fountain accounts.
Full service delivery for its full service vending customers.
Key Channel Listing
Supermarkets
Convenience Stores
Fast Food
Petroleum Retailers

 Chain Drug Stores Hotels/Motels/Resorts

Mass Merchandisers
U.S. DOD Military Resale retail commands:
AAFES, NAVRESSO and DECA
Vending
In 2006, the Company began changing its delivery method for its route delivery system.
Historically, the Company loaded its trucks at a warehouse with products the route delivery
employee would deliver. The delivery employee was responsible for pulling the required
products off a side load truck at each customer location to fill the customer's order. Coke
began using a new CooLift delivery system in 2006 in a portion of the Company's territory
which involves pre-building orders in the warehouse on a small pallet the delivery employee
can roll off a truck directly into the customer's location. The CooLift delivery system
involves the use of a rear loading truck rather than a conventional side loading truck. Coke
will continue to rollout this program over the next several years since they expect such
significant savings and more efficient deliveries. This is a huge investment for Coke. The
company works through independent bottlers of Coke. They work in coordination with the
Coke Company which produces the 'secret formula concentrate' and ships to the distributors
and bottlers for final processing and packaging prior to shipment to the stores. Coca-Cola
floods all possible retailing stores in satisfying the third part, place. In supermarkets and
convenient stores, Coca-Cola products are always easy to identify, and usually make up the
greater proportion of options
4. Promotion
To gain market share, promotion of the products is of utmost importance. Creating a brand
image and recognition is the major part of that, and visibility is the most important factor to
achieve it.

It is said that Santa Clauss red attire was a marketing tactic by Coca Cola so that the
everyday consumer can make the easy association between being happy and Coca Cola.
The brand awareness of Coca Cola is very high, as various surveys tell us that Coca Cola is
the 2nd most recognized word across the world.
The various ways in which Coca Cola promotes its products are
a) Advertising
It is defined as a paid form of communication with the masses about any specific
company and/or its products. Coca Cola generally employs the tactic of aggressive
marketing to constantly increase its brand awareness, which later on translates into sales.
Coca Cola has forever been engrossed in the cola wars with Pepsi, the other worldwide
dominant company. Each has come up with many ad campaigns besmirching each other,
directly or indirectly, but both of them take it quite sportingly.
Coca colas main advertising agenda always has been to increase its visibility and
associate itself with happiness. Hence their tagline has been open happiness for quite
some time now. This kind of aggressive ad campaigns make it easier for the customers to
make that association easily. Talking of associations, in India soft drinks are widely
known as cold drinks or Thanda, so Coke came up with a ad campaign which was
Thanda matlab Coca Cola, which solidified the association of a cold drink and Coca
Cola in the minds of the Hindi speaking population of India
b) Direct Marketing

Every company uses direct marketing in numerous ways. Usually Coca Cola enters into
an exclusive contract with any establishment where soft drinks might be served, such as
movie theatres, restaurants, bars etc. That way, when any customer asks for a drink, they
have only one choice. As said earlier, people spend bare minimum effort in selecting and
buying such items, a sale is sure to happen in most cases. In this way Coca Cola
eliminates the competition in that particular establishment, hence increasing its own sales.
c) Interactive Marketing
In this digital era, one has to have a sufficient presence in that space to ensure maximum
market coverage. Coca cola has its own website which acts as a window into the company
for the people who are interested in knowing about the company and their products. The
website has all their product catalogue, ingredients and nutritional values of each product,
their press releases etc.

Apart from that, targeted digital marketing is one more area in which companies need to
be proficient in this digital age. People spend most of their time online, generally on

social media sites like Facebook, Twitter etc. Buying ad space on these kind of websites
ensures companys visibility to even those people who dont read newspapers etc. and
dont watch TV either.
d) Sales Promotion
Sales promotions are used to temporarily boost up the sales of any product. Coca Cola
does this in two ways
Consumer Oriented This mainly includes increasing visibility in stores buy getting
shelf space and putting them up in eye and easy to grab positions. Coca Cola also
sometimes comes up with promotional schemes where they declare prizes under caps.
Trade oriented This mainly includes coming up with promotional schemes for
wholesalers and dealers etc. Coca Cola usually declares prizes and other remunerations
such as sponsoring a holiday trip etc. for the best performers in each territory.
e) Corporate Social Responsibility
Large companies partake in Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) activities because it
is also another medium of promoting a brand, and also increasing its goodwill among the
general public of the target demographic.
Coca Cola India has helped setup many water treatment plants across India which has
increased its standings among the general public quite well. In this way, they also get
free media coverage which goes a long way in increasing its general visibility in the
market