Target Market

Question:

Discuss about the Integrated Marketing Mix of Coca Cola.

A successful marketing of a new product requires a targeted market strategy where the main goal will be to build a strong customer base and to generate revenue. It is important to identify the targeted market and analyzing the customer base who will purchase the products. By identifying the target market, it becomes easier to highlight the features and benefits of the product management. The companies use different value proposition statement which will benefit and increase the sales of the company as well as maintain an economic moat. The company promises the customers through this value proposition statement (Tedlow 2014). Marketing mix strategies are used by the company for the promotion of brand or product in the market. This will highlight the marketing mix strategies of diet coke. Diet Coke is a sugar free drink which was introduced by Coca Cola. Diet Coke do not use the modified formula of Coca Cola but entirely a different receipe. Diet coke is sweetened by aspartame,a n artificial sweetener and thus sweetener is available in United States to save money. It will make an in-depth analysis of the 4Ps of marketing mix. Further, value proposition and the targeted market of Coca Coal’s Diet Coke will be discussed in details in this paper (Aaron and Siegel 2017).

Market Segmentation refers to the process of dividing the market management of potential customers into different segments or group depending on different characteristics. The vital and the most important element of market segmentation theory is that the company will spend money on that customer group who are willing to buy the product. This segmentation may be positive or negative. Coca Cola in its first stage will establish the market and identify the targeted customers. This can be done through market surveys. Certain economic and demographic factors must also be taken into consideration for conducting market surveys. Coca Cola must also map the entire market. Retail, wholesale and logistic costs are the most important parameters which must be taken into consideration in this aspect (Ferrell and Hartline 2014).

Variable Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	Marked Breakdowns
1. Geographical
Region	Queensland (Far North & South), New South Whales (north coast & western), Lakes District- Victoria
City Size	5000 to 2,000,000 over
Density Climate	Sub-urban, Urban, Rural Western, eastern sea board, northern & southern(sales increase in Summer)
Variable	Marked Breakdowns
2. Demographic
Age	Ranging from 15 to 25 till age of 40  or more
Sex	It is an unisex product
Size of the family	5 and more
Lifecycle	All generations
Income	Variant targeted income levels
Occupation	All possible professionals of the society
Education	Colleges and Schools
Religion	Available for all
Nationality	Australian, Japanese, New Zealand, British and more

Variable	Marked Breakdowns
3. Psychographic
Socioeconomic	Various social classes
Status	Integration of valuables like education
Attitudes, values and lifestyle groups	Social awareness and achievements in society
Personality	Any pleasant and authoritarian in the society

Variable	Marked Breakdowns
4. Behavioral
Purchase occasion	Famous for both regular and customized occasions
Sought for Benefits	Standardized service and revenue gain
Status for Users	Any existing and potential users
Rates of Users	Regular or heavy users
Readiness level	Anyone interested to purchase
Reaction to the Product	Enthusiastic and supportive customers

A well defined and proper target market is the first and the vital element of marketing strategy. In target marketing, the business decides to direct its marketing effort within a particular serviceable area to a particular group of customers (Reed 2014).  Similarly, Coca Cola has also targeted a particular segment of customers for diet coke. Women of young and middle age who are trying to lose their weight are the main target segments of these product. Moreover, the company has also targeted the working people as its advertisement emphasizes on “taking a break” from the working days and also helps people to cope up with the hectic lifestyle. Thus, it can be said that Coca Cola’s Diet Coke targets the health conscious people who are sociable, lively, and independent and fun loving (Hutt and Speh 2013).

Market Segmentation

Positioning is a vital area for each business organization as transparent and advantageous position in the consumers mind will lead the business towards success. As mentioned by Blankson and Dai (2017), target market analysis is an effective tool for the business industries to understand their current market position. Coca Cola’s Diet Coke will expand in different countries and the women are the main targeted group. Advertisement of Diet Coke is an useful aspect to make a good position in the customer’s mind as ways of product advertising attract the consumers towards the product (Li and Lopez 2015). According to Kanwal, Samalia and Singh (2017), selection of right distribution channel is another crucial aspect through which an organization gets valuable position in the competitive market. On the other hand, positioning can be gained through the pricing strategy. On the other hand, positioning can also be gained through the pricing strategy. Coca Cola is offering Diet Coke at an affordable price. The business strategy of Coca Cola will help to achieve a good position in the market (Armstrong et al. 2015).

Value proposition allows the company to convince the customers for a particular product or service. It is a promise of the value that is to be delivered by the company for business expansion. Coca Cola needs to attract the customers by introducing its new sugar free product which will be widely preferred by the health conscious customers. It will also help the customers in reducing their problem because there are no such products of other companies which is sugar free.  Value proposition canvas model focuses on the benefits, features and experiences of the product. Thus, by following this, Coca Cola will be able to design their new product i.e. Diet Coke based on the needs of the customers. In order to create an effective value proposition, it is necessary to understand what value proposition is (Foster et al.2014). Moreover, a strong and effective value proposition model is also important for online marketing strategy because this strategy is important for increasing the customer base of the company. The important value proposition that Coca Cola is delivering its customers is very specific. A successful value proposition has three important characteristics and it clearly outlines the benefits consumers will get after purchasing the product, a clear statement which will differentiate the product from its rival or competitive product and customer’s conviction that the product will solve their problem (McDarby et al. 2016). Coca Cola is such a brand which clearly states its values such as integrity, leadership, diversity, passion, collaboration and quality. The diet coke which was introduced by Coca Cola targets the health conscious women customers who expect better and healthy life. Coca Coal’s internal competitor, Coke Zero is creating competition with Diet Coke. There is a similarity between the two brands because they have appealed to the customers with changing lifestyle. They have also focused on the natural ingredient and have helped the health conscious customers (Davis et al. 2016).

Positioning

With the introduction of Diet Coke, Coca Cola has increased its sales volume and it has also helped in improving the brand value of the company. The product is sweetened by artificial sweetener aspartame and it had a different and unique formula for manufacturing. The recipe which the company used for Diet Coke was different from other Coca Cola brand. The calorie content of Diet Coke in a can of 330 ml was only 1.3 kilocalories. Diet Coke which contained no caffeine was launched by the company in 1983 and it contained no caffeine or sugar content. The company has launched Diet Coke with Splenda in 2005 which had 2.83 mg of caffeine content. It also contained Splenda Sweetner (Grewal et al. 2015). Another product i.e. Diet Coke with Citrus Zest was launched in 2007 and it is available in Bosnia and United Kingdom. Diet Coke Lime was released by the company in 2004 and it is available in Ireland, United States, Canada and United Kingdom. Another product i.e. Diet Coke Cherry was launched in 1986 and it is widely available in United States and United Kingdom in different tastes and flavors of cherries (Pride et al. 2015). In 2011. Diet Coke has surpassed Pepsi in its sales for the first time and thus it has become the second most preferred soda Coca cola. Finally, Coca Cola has introduced Diet Coke and it is a sparkling beverage which is available in a great flavor without any calorie or sugar content. In 2013, Coca cola has swapped its logo in United Kingdom with Coke Zero and Diet Coke cans and thus organized a summer long “Share a coke” campaign.  Diet Coke is an energetic drink with good taste. It is available in different sizes and is widely demanders by the customers. Diet Coke is available in two variants, one with vitamin B3, B12 and vitamin C. The other variants contain antioxidants with Vitamin C and green tea. The 350 ml bottle of Coca Cola will contain 52.5% of the daily recommended allowance of the vitamins and thus it will help to maintain a healthy immune system. Moreover, Diet Coke also offers consumers to enjoy their favourite Diet Coke while doing their regular work (De Mooij 2013).

Place plays an important role in the success and failure of a particular business. Diet Coke has created a niche market of its own. The product was first launched in United States in six markets. Diet Coke is one of the most successful brand of its parent company and its products are available in India, United States, new Zealand, Bosnia, Isreal, Austria and in many other countries. It has a proper distribution network that helps to market its product competently and easily. Coca Cola uses intensive distribution policy such that its products are easily available in different grocery stores, departmental stores and supermarkets. Moreover, it is also important that the company to make sure that its products is within the reach of every customer. Diet Coke also has a strong distribution channel. This product of Coca Cola is within the reach of the customers and it can be purchased easily from any stores (Bejou 2014).

Value Proposition

A perfect pricing policy is necessary and important for the success of any brand. It is also important for generation of revenue and profitability of the company. Diet Coke has used different pricing strategies for its brand. The price skimming policy of diet coke was used in beginning when the product was introduced. Later on Diet Coke has switched to competitive pricing strategy because there were many similar products which were launched by its rival company. Coca Cola also uses discount pricing strategy to increase the sales volume. This has helped the company in maintaining its customer base and also increasing the profitability of the company. The price of Diet Coke is similar and suitable compared to the products of its competitors (Boelsen-Robinson et al. 2015)

Diet Coke requires good promotional activities to be preferred by the customers. Coca Cola’s Diet Coke has targeted the health conscious customers. Moreover, it has also targeted the diabetic customers. The women of young and middle age are the main target groups of the company. The no sugar content of Diet Coke is a boon and thus it has helped the company to attain success and improve its profitability (Keegan and Green 2015).

Coca Cola has also followed aggressive promotional policy that has helped in expanding the market and thus increasing awareness and viability among the customers. Diet coke also invited different customers to “Get a taste” of the good life. Campaign. This television commercial took place in UK. Diet Coke has tried to project its product as a healthy choice to its customers. Advertisements were given on radio, magazine and television, newspaper and billboards to cover the maximum areas.

As part of the promotional activities different concert and movie tickets were also provided. The customers were also provided with attractive discounts (Davis et al. 2016).

Thus, it can be said that Diet Coke has considered the demand of the customers and it is widely accepted by them. Coca Cola as focused on the strength as well as it has tried to eliminate the weakness of the other products to fulfill the demands of the customers. The targeted customers of Diet Coke are the individuals with high income. Moreover, Coca cola has focused on place because this marketing channel will help in improving the distribution channel. This in turn will also improve the profitability of the company. The company has created such a product so that it can benefit the health conscious customers. It is important for Coca Cola to implement the marketing concepts successfully so that they can fulfill the needs and wants of the customers. The company has used different promotional strategies to attract the customers

References

Aaron, D.G. and Siegel, M.B., 2017. Sponsorship of national health organizations by two major soda companies. American journal of preventive medicine, 52(1), pp.20-30.

Armstrong G, Adam S, Denize S, & Kotler P, 2015, Principles of Marketing, 6th edn, Pearson, Australia

Bejou, D 2014, Capturing customer equity: Moving from products to customers, Taylor and Francis, Hoboken. (eBook)

Boelsen-Robinson, T., Backholer, K. and Peeters, A., 2015. Digital marketing of unhealthy foods to Australian children and adolescents. Health promotion international, 31(3), pp.523-533.

Davis, E.L., Wojtanowski, A.C., Weiss, S., Foster, G.D., Karpyn, A. and Glanz, K., 2016. Employee and Customer Reactions to a Healthy In-Store Marketing Intervention in Supermarkets. Journal of Food Research, 5(1), p.107.

De Mooij, M., 2013. Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes. Sage Publications.

Ferrell, OC and Hartline, MD 2014, Marketing strategy, South Western Cengage Learning, Mason OH.

Foster, G.D., Karpyn, A., Wojtanowski, A.C., Davis, E., Weiss, S., Brensinger, C., Tierney, A., Guo, W., Brown, J., Spross, C. and Leuchten, D., 2014. Placement and promotion strategies to increase sales of healthier products in supermarkets in low-income, ethnically diverse neighborhoods: a randomized controlled trial. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 99(6), pp.1359-1368.

Grewal, D, Levy, M, Mathews, S, Harrigan, P and Bucic, T 2015, Marketing, McGraw-Hill Education, North Ryde NSW.

Hansen, J.T., 2016. Constructing a Product Brand Identity: The Case of Coca-Cola.

Hutt, MD and Speh, TW 2013, Business marketing management: B2B, Cengage Learning, Mason Ohio South-Western.

Li, X. and Lopez, R.A., 2015. Do Brand Advertising Spillovers Matter?. Agribusiness, 31(2), pp.229-242.

McDarby, F., O’hora, D., O’shea, D. and Byrne, M., 2016. Taking the sweetness out of the ‘Share a Coke’marketing campaign: the influence of personalized labelling on elementary school children’s bottled drink choices. Pediatric obesity.

Pride, WM, Ferrell, OC, Lukas, BA, Schembri, S & Niininen, O 2015, Marketing principles, Cengage Learning, South Melbourne VIC.

 Reed, PW, 2014, Strategic marketing: decision making and planning, Cengage Learning, South Melbourne, Victoria.

Tedlow, R.S., 2014. 2 The fourth phase of marketing. The Rise and Fall of Mass Marketing (RLE Marketing), 25, p.8.

 Keegan, WJ and Green, MC., 2015. Global marketing, Pearson, Boston.