Brand Strategy and Customer Response of Coca-Cola - Essay Example

? BRAND STRATEGY AND RESPONSE: MARKETING COCA-COLA Brand Strategy and Response: Marketing Coca-Cola Health and wellness is one of the more basic human needs that is essential to living a quality life, and it is included in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Schultz, 2013). This implies that for many people, it is essential to remain healthy in order to feel secure and fulfilled. As such, many products sold today can also be marketed to bring additional health benefits, as well as already catering or appealing to people of more basic needs such as food and water. One such brand that can be sold to people in having health benefits are product lines from the well-known Coca Cola Company, which boasts of more than 3,500 and continuously increasing number of products, and gains further brand strength due to its strong involvement with consumers through various media collaborations, well-established corporate social responsibilities, and continued expansion to many markets around the globe (The Coca-Cola Company, 2013). Coca-Cola’s placement in the security level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs comes as the result of combining a strong brand image along with health benefits apart from satisfying customers’ physiological needs such as food and water, which in turn gives it an edge over other food and beverage brands which may only advertise or give an impression of fulfilling basic physiological needs. While Coca-Cola may well be one of the well-established or the most-trusted brand targeting the customer demographic, various reasons for motivational conflicts or cognitive dissonance can arise among its customers. One of the biggest possible conflicts could happen to health-conscious consumers, who are fully-informed of the high-sugar content of most of the flagship carbonated drinks of the brand, as well as the use of artificial or alternative sweeteners originally-aimed at them. In addition, the issue of obesity among the said target demographic and even among consumers outside this group of people can also be affected in purchasing the product due to health reasons (e.g. physician instructions to reduce carbohydrate and sugar intake). These customers may become dissuaded to keep buying the product or reduce their consumption due to health reasons, despite being satisfied with their previous purchases, creating a conflict between their beliefs and what the product represents (Akers, 2013). Thus, while the brand may keep most of its loyal customers, other potential and past customers may not be easily shaken to keep on buying or consuming the product as they once did before encountering motivational conflicts in its purchase. In order for the brand to keep afloat, it must be able to provide something for customers who become dissuaded as a result of conflicts between the product’s content and their rationalized choices (Akers, 2013). This can either be done through marketing of health-conscious choices in drinks, or alternatively creating a product line showing an image of health and wellness. One thing that marketers can do is to present all of its products to consumers through advertisements using images of health and wellness, although at present such strategies may not be effective in the long-run due to the rise in meticulous and thoughtful consumers. Another stronger option to increase sales and consumer involvement with the product is to create a product line that targets the health-conscious consumer demographic. Marketable products may include carbonated drinks but instead of using alternative sweeteners, the product has lesser sugar content than the original product. Another example of a product for the health-conscious consumer is a wide selection of natural fruit juices, which also has less sugar added in comparison to other competitor products. By adding alternatives to pre-existing choices health-conscious consumers have more options in buying their beverages within the Coca-Cola product line associated with lesser motivational conflicts and thus retain their brand loyalty through continued involvement with the brand despite not buying the carbonated drinks at all. According to the company’s official report with regards to identifying the age group that strongly-responds to it, while the product lines are marketed to a wide age range from adolescent to retirement age and beyond (ages 13-60+), Coca-Cola’s primary target age group is the adult age group (ages 18-25) (Grimes, 2013). Based on this information, it can be expected that the typical consumers of Coca-Cola products are university students or young professionals. As such, due to the strong peer-relations within the 18-25 years target demographic, it can be expected that typical consumers will only read consumer reports and other articles on new products, but expected to compare other similar products from other companies, pay attention to product’s advertisements, talk about and seek advice from other people before purchasing the product, as well as taking into consideration many factors and allotting a long time in deciding whether to buy the product or not, especially when the consumers are strongly-conscious about the contents of their beverages. Using the above information, a potential involvement profile for typical consumers would rank the following attributes positively or neutrally: interesting; exciting; appealing; fascinating; and involving due to the brand’s catchy and thought-provoking advertisements and strong involvement with social media. Meanwhile, the following attributes will either be ranked neutrally or negatively: important; relevant; meaningful; priceless; and necessary, which can be attributed to a wide range and selection of other carbonated, fruity, and energizing drinks from other brands and companies that the target consumers may take into account before trying some of Coca-Cola’s products, such as students trying to stretch their budgets or young professionals choosing healthier options in the market. Such rankings of the product by consumers can be affected by their peers’ attitudes toward the product, how the advertisements appeal to them, or by the opinions of other consumers posted in various media forms such as print media, visual media, or social media. Product Personality: Coca-Cola As previously-mentioned, the target demographic population of Coca-Cola is within the adult age range, from 18-25 years, and as such it is important for the brand’s marketers to create an enduring product image and personality that would appeal and resonate with the values and beliefs of this particular consumer group (Monger, 2012). Possible theories or traits that can contribute to marketers in defining the brand based on their target consumers are the following: cognitive theories such as need for cognition and verbalizer versus visualizers, and trait theories such as consumer innovativeness. These theories are selected on the premise that the 18-25 year age group is composed of very conscious buyers who rely on various media sources and peers before choosing a product to buy, and as a result are quite informed about the products that they patronize or choose. Since the target age group is expected to be well-informed, have various peer relations, and has enough technology know-how in finding out more about the products that they know and love, it will benefit advertisers if their campaign ads contain thought-provoking themes and images, customer involvement such as promotions in their official websites or social media profiles, free product trials or samples, and sales or special discounts. Food pitches such as Subway’s Not Your Dad’s Breakfast (URL: http://beatthepitch.tumblr.com/post/20846880385/the-pitch-subway-12-38pm-est) appeal to the brand’s innovative and fresh image which differentiates the target age demographic from their predecessors while at the same time uses witty and thought provoking combinations of images and captions. On the other hand the advertisement of Lipton Iced Tea’s summer Teavolution (URL: http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1138739/lipton-ice-tea-teavolution-campaign) aiming to drive awareness of the brand and its products was launched using a combination of a catchy image appealing to visually-inclined customers and of providing a million free samples to consumers in certain areas in the UK, which also appeals to the target consumer demographic of ages 18-24 such as students or job applicants who also appreciate free items and giveaways. In the case of non-food items, due to greater participation in digital and internet advertising social media as well as inviting consumers to visit official sites and interact in social media profile pages, successful bike sales (URL: http://registermedia.com/case-studies/bike-world-case-study), and road safety campaigns in Australia that aims to prevent more road accidents in the future (URL: http://mumbrella.com.au/tac-targets-18-25s-with-confronting-social-media-campaign-roadtrip-forever-146720) were able to reach the target audience of 18-25 year-olds, which are again expected to be strong participants in internet and digital media and thus would be much more easily informed through such ventures. These examples of advertisements target the 18-25 year-old age group show how this age group can be beckoned to participate or even look at brand products by appealing to both their tech-savvy and cognitive abilities as well as marketers putting a familiar brand persona for each one. Coca-Cola marketers can benefit from using similar strategies in creating a brand personality for itself and its line of products, as it is known that the target demographic of 18-25 year-olds easily respond to an advertisement or a brand that reflect their values, beliefs, or ideas, (Monger, 2012). Marketers can create Coca-Cola to be either one of the following or a combination of the following characteristics that the target age group positively-values and perceives to be important: an inviting and engaging personality; a fun-loving personality that celebrates strong friendship ties; or a personality that values innovation and uniqueness. By attaching a characteristic to the brand, not only to Coca-Cola marketers would have to depend on their timeless red-and-white logo, but also allow their consumers, whether target demographic or not to respond to the brand positively and attach a special and unique trait to Coca-Cola as a brand to separate its identity from other similar products in the market. References Akers, H. (2013). What is cognitive dissonance in marketing? Retrieved from Small Business - Chron.com: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/cognitive-dissonance-marketing-55693.html Grimes, T. (2013, April 24). What the Share a Coke campaign can teach other brands. Retrieved from The Guardian - Guardian Profession: http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/jul/24/share-coke-teach-brands Monger, B. (2012, May 30). The personality of brands -using effective brand personality to grow your business . Retrieved from SmartaMarketing: http://smartamarketing.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/the-personality-of-brands-using-effective-brand-personality-to-grow-your-business/ Schultz, P. (2013). Marketing basics: putting Maslow’s hierarchy to work. Retrieved from Marketing Weekly: http://www.marketingweekly.com/content-management/marketing-basics-putting-maslows-hierarchy-to-work/?mode=featured The Coca-Cola Company. (2013, April 1). Coca-Cola - 2012 in Review - Company Highlights. Retrieved from Coca-Cola - 2012 in Review: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/annual-review/2012/highlights.html Read More