The Role of both Motivation and Learning Purchase Decision Making Process

Discuss About The Emotional Attachment Of Social Media Users.

Coca-Cola has grown on to achieve an international presence. With its headquarters at Atlanta, Georgia, the company provides over 500 brands. Today, Coca-Cola sells to customers found in more than 200 countries around the world (Coca-Cola 2018).

Coca-Cola indicates on its website that out of 500 brands, it offers 19 brands with either low levels or no sugar (Coca-Cola 2018). Coca-Cola ensures that the target customers learn how to moderate the rate at which they consume added sugar. Some of the brands that have been added to the original Coca-Cola drinks include Zico coconut water, vitaminwater, Sprite, smartwater, simply juices, Powerade sports drinks, Fanta, Dasani waters, and among others (Coca-Cola 2018). Coca-Cola Ireland brand offers a wide management of four colas, still drinks, sports drinks, juice drinks, and waters. The company has continued to target audiences across all age groups and across the world using reduced or no-sugar and no calories beverages.

Every rational consumer goes through the process of making decisions before and after making transaction. Chakraborty (2017) explains that consumer behaviour explains the journey that a consumer goes through before and after buying products or services. Understanding the way consumers make decisions is not only important to companies but also how marketers align their marketing strategies.

Many brands try to enhance emotional connection with their targeted customers. Marketers do this with the understanding that emotional connection with their customers strengthens the loyalty as well as involvement of their customers (Durmaz 2014). According to figure 3 above, consumers are always influenced by several factors. All these can be grouped into social, cultural, psychological, economic, and demographic. Lichev (2017) supports this perspective and says that consumers condition and determine their behaviours through certain factors.

Motivation and learning are key elements that foster emotional development and involvement among customers. A motivation refers to something that begins within ourselves at the time when we seek to achieve what we want. Jadhav, Vyas and Manekar (2018) explain that motivation levels determine how consumers formulate their behaviours before and after making any purchase. Every person has different degrees of biological, social, or physiological needs. Durmaz (2014) goes ahead to explain that recognition of a need forms the starting point of a consumer purchase process. Hence, a need could represent something important that a customer lacks and would like to have. Durmaz applies Maslow’s theory of motivation (physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization) to explain that human needs occur in a hierarchical manner. When a consumer satisfies one urgent need, it becomes easier to a higher-level need. For example, in the first stage of a purchase process, a customer might be motivated by the need to purchase a drink that is sugar free. The next stage will involve using different media o search for information to assist a customer evaluate the best drink among the available alternatives. A customer might purchase Diet Coke brand sold by Coca-Cola against other brands to satisfy the need of sugar free drink.

Consumer decision making process

Learning explains changes in people’s behaviour determined by experience. Depending on a level of circumstance, customers condition their perceptions based on experience (Attri and Jain 2018). Attri and Jain posit that it is because of this that formulates an individual’s framework as well as expectations where to place and organise any new stimuli. Similarly, Lichev (2017) explains that customers learn from their earlier experiences. Consequently, they seek to keep consistency and balance by interpreting and relating to new stimuli through learned or past stimuli. The practical importance of learning theory of organisation is the capability to create customer demand through motivational cues, strong drives. Chakraborty (2017) argues that customers have a tendency of transferring their loyalty towards brands they are familiar with and already know than the dissimilar ones. During the information search, customers are likely to remember first brands they understand and know well than those they do not know. Similarly, during the evaluation of alternatives process, customers are likely to select brands from companies they know and are aware about.

Coca-Cola has succeeded in using advertising as well as branding to achieve a strong emotional attachment with its target audiences (the young, youths, and old). Coca-Cola understands that a majority of its customers whether young, youth, or old, have an urgent need of satisfying their physiological needs. Customers recognize the need for sugar free drinks and low in calories. Customers located across the globe in different markets depend on motivation and learning to strengthen their levels of involvement and emotion with Coca-Cola beverages.

Coca-Cola implements different marketing campaigns that help attach the value of a specific brand to things that customers consider important. Coca-Cola designs programs that seek to provoke through personal dialogue concerning their needs and persuasive feelings. Such strategies have made it possible for the company to win the hearts of many customers in dynamic markets where there are other larger competitors such as Pepsi-Co and private labels. Coca-Cola- allows customers to make their own buying decisions according to how the feel about its products. In the recent past, the company design emotional campaign such as “share a coke”, “Open Happiness”, “Life Begins Here”, and most recent “Taste the Feeling”.

Coca-Cola uses above tactics of “Share a feeling” and “zero sugar” to motivate a need among customers that want to reduce the level to consuming natural sugar. According to Hepburn (2016), the company has also taken active role of encouraging more target customers including those that love Coca-Cola Classic, to select no sugar option. The company has continued to invest in development of new brands that arouses motivation among customers to satisfy their need for healthy and sugar free products. As indicated in figure 4 above, the company considered removing its iconic logos from cans and packaging it using unique names and emotional signs.

Coca-Cola’s Current Success in Achieving an Emotional Attachment with Its Target Audience

The personalisation it itself was found to have become attractive to a majority of customers. Besides, while the company has used characters, cartoons, and other things to appeal to the emotions of children, the company has since changed to other branding names such as one presented in figure above and “Share a Coke” to target a broader demographic such as adults, young adults, and children. Bachai (2015) explains that Coca-Cola has succeeded in personalizing its bottles to appeal to a larger audience that appreciates brand uniqueness. The company adopted the new way to increase volume of sales. The company uses this approach to forge a one-to-one connection with customers when it displays the names of people such as “James” or “Sophie”.

Coca-Cola also applies design to create memorable experiences among its customers. Gilliland (2017) maintain that it is not only personalised aspects that make customers develop experiences. Coca-Cola out-of-home advertising involves the use of headlines or weather-related imagery to reflect the surrounding context. Ding this helps creates an ever-changing visual that represents the brand of Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola marketing manager could start utilizing different social media platforms to increase emotional engagement with a wider demographic of its target customers. Even though the company has accounts on social media including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram, among others, it is critical for Coca-Cola to consider incorporating them into the daily life of customers. The target group should especially be the current digital generation. According to the recent report by Wang, Yeh, Yen and Sandoya (2016), the findings from a survey of teens shows that 92% now go online on a daily basis while 71% depend on more than one social networking platform to interact with their friends. Despite a smaller number of adults that depend on social networking sites (27%), the findings showed that this number is likely to increase by 2025. All these social media platforms have been found to form an integral part of people’s life. The company could contract an independent search engine optimization agency to create and share content as well as update content.

The initiative to adopt social media might make a majority of the teens and older customers to form positive attachments with their digital entities and transform them into self-concept. For example, the company will start to develop some of the emotional attachments like psychological effective bond with its target customers. Pentina, Guilloux and Micu (2018) argue that people should always do business with the people but not businesses, ideas, or brands. However, he mentions one of such exception as people doing business with companies they know they have personality.

Marketing Recommendations for the Brand to Increase the Emotional Attachment

Second, Coca-Cola management should also use emotional branding strategies to trigger emotional responses among customers. Consequently, this strategy will motivate customers to recognize the need to purchase beverages. Shaw (2017) explains that a brand is what separates a company from the masses. It involves having a brand image and associated messages that trigger customers to engage and built their loyal towards products. Management should consider prioritizing its customers. Management should spend time to understand what pains customers when they try to purchase products (Rossiter and Bellman 2012). One way of doing this could involve engaging with customers to execute sustainable projects. Doing this will ensure that the company develops projects that give people a chance to share their stories regarding some of the new sustainability efforts the company to make differences in communities.

The company should also walk with customers in changing their healthy living and empowering women. Through its corporate social responsibility department, the company should design programs such as Coke and the World”, “achieve you dream”, or “Walking with Coke”. The new personal community and well-being programs will attract a majority of customers to participate in empowerment and healthy living programs.

Management should tap into online survey platforms such as Mail Chimp, survey Monkey, or constant contact. The strategy will ensure that management asks and understand the thoughts of customers. In most cases, companies fail to listen to their customers. Torres (2015) explains that businesses that have taken initiatives to listen to their customers constantly and responding to information, has helped them record increased sales volume. The company should continue to rely on these three platforms to collect different sentiments from customers. For example, the company could star by asking a number of questions. The responses provided my customers will provide the company with an opportunity to understand the pains that customer’s o through. Consequently, management will understand the best way to respond to every question. Toker-Yildiz, et al (2017) reiterates that keeping a close eye to customers present the best opportunity for a company to demonstrate that it cares. Furthermore, the process of solving problems by listening to customers might help elevate different brands in the minds of customers.

References

Attri, R, and Jain, V. (2018) A Study of Factors Affecting Customer Shopping Behavior. IUP Journal of Marketing Management. 17(1), pp. 38-52

Bachai, S. (2015) Share A Coke: How Beverage Giant Coca-Cola Uses Emotional Marketing to Get Consumers to Make Unhealthy Choices [Online]. Available at https://www.medicaldaily.com/share-coke-how-beverage-giant-coca-cola-uses-emotional-marketing-get-consumers-make-unhealthy-293040 [accessed 16 April 2018]

Chakraborty, U. (2017) The impact of brand personality on consumer buying behaviour. CLEAR International Journal of Research in Commerce and Management. 8(11), pp. 83-87.

Coca-Cola (2016) Coca-Cola Zero Sugar launches in Ireland offering consumers a new no sugar option [Online]. Available at https://www.coca-cola.ie/newsroom/press-releases/coca-cola-zero-sugar-launches-in-ireland-offering-consumers-a-new-no-sugar-option [accessed 1 April 2018]

Coca-Cola Brandings (2016) Emotional branding – coca Coca-Cola cases [Online]. Available at https://cocacolabranding.wordpress.com/2016/09/01/emotional-branding-coca-cola-cases/ [accessed 1 April 2018]

Coca-Cola (2018) Brands [Online]. Available at https://www.coca-cola.ie/drinks [accessed on 16 Apr. 18]

Coca-Cola (2018) Brands [Online]. Available at https://www.coca-colacompany.com/brands/the-coca-cola-company [accessed 16 Apr. 18]

Coca-Cola (2018) Coca-Cola at a glance: Infographic [Online]. Available at https://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/infographic-coca-cola-at-a-glance [accessed 16 Apr. 18]

Durmaz, Y. (2014) The impact of psychological factors on consumer being behaviour and an economics application in Turkey. Canadian Centre of Science and Education. 10(6); 2014

Gilland, N. (2017) How Coca-Cola uses design to create a memorable customer experience [Online]. Available at https://www.econsultancy.com/blog/69082-how-coca-cola-uses-design-to-create-a-memorable-customer-experience [accessed 16 April 2018]

Hepburn, M. (n.d) The share a coke story [Online].  Available at https://www.coca-cola.co.uk/stories/share-a-coke [accessed 16 April 2018]

Jadhav, S, Vyas, D, and Manekar, S. (2018) Digital marketing consequences on urban consumer behaviour in Nagpur city. CLEAR International Journal of Research in Commerce and Management. 9(2), pp. 15-17.

Lichev, T.G. (2017) Psychological factors in determining consumer behaviour. Eastern Academic Journal. 4(1), pp. 8-16

Pentina, I, Guilloux, V, and Micu, AC. (2018) Exploring Social Media Engagement Behaviours in the Context of Luxury Brands. Journal of Advertising. 47(1), pp. 55-69

Rossiter, J, and Bellman, S. (2012) Emotional branding pays off. Journal of Advertising Research. 52(3), pp. 291-296

Shaw, J. (2016) Emotional Branding: 5 strategies to get and keep the right customers [Online]. Available at https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-shaw/emotional-branding-5-stra_b_11290244.html [accessed on 16 Apr. 18]

Toker-Yildiz, K, Trivedi, M, Choi, J, and Ryung Chang, S. (2017) Social Interactions and Monetary Incentives in Driving Consumer Repeat Behavior. Journal of Marketing Research (JMR). 54(3), pp. 364-380.

Torres, J. (2015) 3 Great Ways to Create an Emotional Bond with Customers [Online]. Available at https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243195 [accessed 16 Apr. 18]

Wang, T, Yeh, RK, Yen, DC, and Sandoya, MG. (2016) Antecedents of emotional attachment of social media users. Service Industries Journal. 36(9), pp. 438-451.