The Importance of Marketing in the Twenty-First Century - Case Study Example

The Importance of Marketing in the Twenty-First Century’ Marketing is used as a tool for public awareness. Its purpose is to let the people know that an organization exists and that they have a specific service or product they carry and offer to the market. Public awareness is a very important aspect in any organization that has a product or service, especially when they aim a specific target market or industry. As part of public awareness, information transfer that makes the product or service distinct and competitive bears a great deal of impact to its potential market. Marketing also targets the need specific to the product or service’s specialty, and sometimes, even creates the consumer or industry need for the product or service, why you need it and why you want it. But to be able to do this, marketing involves a lot of planning, product researches from research and development, actual market research, consumer and industry interviews, competition research and more. With all the data gathered in these particular aspects, an effective marketing plan can be structured as well as its strategic approach to the market. The Coca-Cola USA Company became a world renowned company because of its main product, Coke. This company has a classic history of rising to the top. The Coca-Cola Company was first established as an incorporation in the year of 1888. This was also the year that the product Coke was sold to the market under Coca cola Company USA. It was never thought of at that time that this experimental soda would turn out to be the world’s oldest known brand of soda. The marketing team of the Coca-Cola Company USA was responsible for making Coke what it is today. The marketing of the brand name Coke in its early years: Coca-Cola’s marketing history There are a lot of ways to market a specific brand, may it be on consumer products or services. But the real deal on marketing a specific product or service would depend on its market approach and how you promote its brand image. Marketing could be an individual department or sometimes is incorporated with the sales department in some private organizations. But one of the main objectives of the marketing department is to work closely with the sales department on obtaining each division or department’s goal. The sales department will only be effective if they can generate income in terms of revenue in sales. On the other hand, the marketing division can only be effective if they gain long term profit in a specific approach or project for brand exposure and public awareness (LaPointe 2005). During the early years of the Coca-Cola Company, market competition in terms of sales and preference wasn’t that difficult at all, business-wise and revenue-wise. There was a competitor who came a year after who also made a name in the market. Soda at that time was a unique drink that had a unique taste. It also contained caffeine that gives the drinker boosts of energy. It was a product that everyone would want. The product was also developed not only targeting adults but it was considered to be a drink that can be consumed by all age brackets. In the relatively early years of the Coca-Cola Company, marketing strategies would often target the want side of the end users or consumers that was, again, not so very difficult way back then. Because of the sweet and unique taste of the product Coke, people would always want to have it. In this way, people would be able to satisfy their wants (Byrnes 2003). The Coca-Cola Company would only have to worry about the supply and availability of their product in the market at that time. Let’s get it in to your head Coca cola Company, its marketing effort and strategies The red and white logo has been a popular trademark of the Coca-Cola Company making waves in the industry. They used a red and white logo attached in many of their marketing items like, clocks, billboard signs, trucks and more. It was visible everywhere you go. The red and white logo created a certain impact on the market. This is because it has been a fact that red, white and blue go better with lots of things (Pomeranz and Topic 2006). The Coca-Cola Company made it a point that when a person sees a red and white logo or sign, or whenever they see something in red and white, the first thing that comes into their head is the brand or product Coke. Having their logo on different things was a very good marketing strategy by the Coca-Cola Company. This truly paid out and even until today, this strategy is still being used. To reinforce their visibility efforts in the market, the Coca-Cola Company came up with various tag lines as part of their strategy for brand or product recognition. And again, this marketing strategy of putting up different tag lines was a success for the company. Various tag lines like “Image is nothing, thirst is everything”, “Just for the taste of it”, “Have a coke and smile”, “The pause that refreshes” had a great impact in the market. And finally, the Coca-Cola Company came up with jingles as part of their marketing promotion strategies. Jingles like “Always Coca-Cola”, “It’s the real thing”, “Coke is it”, and “Coca-Cola secret” are just a few to mention. Jingles like these were all over the place. You hear it in the airwaves, delivery trucks, convenience stores and more. One marketing success after the other and until today, Coca-Cola is still making waves in the industry through their marking efforts and strategies. Using image is a powerful tool in marketing strategy. This is the heart of the conviction marketing by which strong and powerful images are used to associate the brand or the product with what is happening in the everyday normal life of its market (Mercer 1998). The concepts are rich but simple and clear enough to communicate to people. Just the shape of the Coke bottle, even without the name, makes the market know what soda brand it is. This is also the reason why and how their commercials clicked in the market and brought significant impact in their sales. The Coca-Cola Company was able to make use of conviction marketing in its fullest, creating distinct, identifiable, clear and simple ads that convey the message to purchase their product. The Coc-Cola Company in the 21st century As the years passed by, the Coca-Cola Company expanded their territories in terms of brand or product availability. With the years came various competitors in both the local and international market. In this case a new level in business marketing arose. This time, it had to be taken into a much serious level and in-depth studies. As part of their promotional campaign in doing business in new sites where the brand Coke has never been before, The Coca cola Company had research and study market trends and consumer behavior. The goal of these studies is to gather information on how the brand or product will be positioned. Brand positioning is always important in marketing a product, this is where marketing and advertising turn the situation around, making the want much more a need and vice-versa. Positioning means emphasizing the distinctive characteristics of the product when compared to its competitors (Kapferer 2008). It is guided by four basic questions: what benefits, reason for the benefits, for whom and against whom. Positioning is important as it creates the reason for the choices that the consumer has to make because of the variety in the market. By studying customer behavior, the Coca-Cola Company has been able to counterfeit their product to the needs of the consumers, mainly targeting their thirst, taste and activities. One good example of product positioning is the development of the product containers. Coke was more commonly stored in breakable bottles which they had to make durable incase people would drop it. As a result, it made the container heavy, particularly for children and aged people. Continuous research proved that if Coke containers were light and easy to carry around more people who were on the go would buy Coke. As a result, a new container was designed to cover these types of people. Brand or product development came up with aluminum cans as Coke containers. They were light and convenient to carry everywhere you go. And again with the urge and goal to be always the leading brand in the market, continuous research and study was made to further position the brand or product Coke to best fit the activities of the end users or consumers in various markets. This time around the product was positioned to be more convenient and ready for consumption all the time anytime, whether people are walking, driving or standing on a bus. Coke was positioned this time with plastic container bottles. They were still light in terms of weight and the container is re-sealable cap to avoid spilling. This packaging is also designed to consume the product in not just one sitting (Stahl 2007). This is how the Coca-Cola Company marketed and positioned their product. This will not be made possible without extensive research including competitor study, interviews and surveys. The marketing of the new and developed containers was a success for the Coca-Cola Company. Their main objective now it to position their brand on suiting their consumer’s needs and lifestyles, making Coke the first choice in the market. The importance of marketing in the 21st century Today there are a lot of competitors dealing and making business in the international market. A lot of products were launched, not only new sodas but apparently there were non-soda brands and products that were in the market taking a relatively number of percentage of the soda market. New products with aggressive marketing strategies were created, positioning their product to be better than soda and at the same time taste just like soda. These new products were also positioned and marketed as brands and products that are good for the body and would have healthy effects. Marketing is often mistaken to be sales or advertising by most people, marketing actually has more into it. Marketing is a process in which an organization utilizes research to develop their products or services and how it is introduced to the market based on consumer needs and preference. Marketing is also responsible on how the product will be positioned in the market, and also, along with it establish the image for its users and other potential users or consumers. Marketing is the art of conveying information and benefits to the market (Pride and Ferrell 2007). In today’s current globalization, the potential for an organization’s market can have no boundaries. World marketing is one of the most recent technologies used in providing information about an organization’s product, positioning, endorsing and selling throughout the World Wide Web. This is also one good tool for end-users or consumers to get information about a specific product or service they would want or need. With this new technology, it is very clear that a lot of competitors will be visible as well. And since the opportunities for marketing is broad, the factor of cross-culture marketing and consumer relations should also be considered in this division of marketing. Cultural information is one good information to have in marketing and positioning a specific product or service. With this, you will also be able to understand some of their outputs on the use and the importance of a product. From here on, the marketing department can develop a more personalized approach to these potential markets (Keillor 2007). Aside from getting the market’s attention, marketing strategies in terms of promotions and events should also be visible. These activities can also help build up the brand’s or product’s image in the market. The Coca-Cola Company has been very aggressive in such marketing programs and activities. Considering all the aspects of marketing, combining activities and promotion, and the right advertising and product positioning, the Coca-Cola Company has been and still is one of the most preferred brand or product in the world market today. The Coca-Cola Company has been effective in maximizing and utilizing marketing and advertising tools to its full potential. They have billboards, radio and television advertisements, souvenirs, sponsorships and more. By understanding all the marketing aspects and its components, the Coca-Cola Company will continue making Coke the preferred brand in soda today and the years yet to come. References Byrnes, W. (2003). Management and the arts, 3rd ed. Elsevier. Kapferer, J. (2008). The new strategic brand management: creating and sustaining brand equity long term, 4th ed. Kogan Page Publishers. Keillor, B. (2007). Marketing in the 21st century: new world marketing. Greenwood Publishing Group. LaPointe, P. (2005). Marketing by the dashboard light: how to get more insight, foresight and accountability from your marketing investments. Marketing NPV. Mercer, D. (1998). Marketing strategy: the challenge of the external environment. Sage. Pomeranz, K. (2006). The world that trade created: society, culture and the world economy: 1400 to present, 2nd ed. Sharpe. Pride, W. and Ferrell, O. (2007). Foundations of marketing, 2nd ed. Stahl, J. (2007). Lessons on leadership: The 7 fundamental management skills for leaders at all levels. Kaplan Publishing. Read More