Marketing and Promotional Tools - Case Study Example

Marketing and Promotional Tools Marketing and Promotional Tools Ways of conducting business have completely been revolutionized. Globalization and advancement of technology are some of the factors that have significantly played vital roles in trends witnessed in the marketing arena. Companies are aligning and readjusting their marketing techniques to conform to these changes. These trends have impacted negatively to firms that are adamant to traditional strategies. Some of the companies that stuck with the traditional methods have sublimed in the thin air while those that have embraced the new trends and readjusted appropriately have harvested huge margins of performance in terms of profit making margins. This resonates well with the insinuation that if you don’t shape up you will be left with little or no option but to shape out (Rossiter and Percy, 2013). There are several media avenues or tools of marketing product or services. Some of these avenues are the use of posters, magazine adverts, TV and radio adverts, web profiles, podcasts, social media and blogs. Various companies have used these avenues innovatively to brand their products and services. These avenues are used to lure clients into purchase of product and services. The information painted to the prospective customers about the brands can be so tempting. The art of using nutritious words to the ears and eyes have been so wonderful. Some customers go to the extent of purchasing the branded goods or services without filtering the information embedded on the products on the screen of truth. Besides, the illuminated marketing techniques, there are several promotional tools that have been effectively employed for quite some times. Examples of the promotional tools are advertisements, sales promotion, publicity or public relation (PR) and sponsorship. The use of various media platforms and promotional tools are geared towards acquisition of customers not only for short term goals but also for long term purpose. In the twenty first century, most firms have realized that prioritizing in customer satisfaction is important for growth to be realized. All these have been made possible by the concept of marketing communication. It is for the above reasons that this research paper seeks to give an in-depth analysis of the media and promotional tools that have been used to market Coca-Cola(took full control of Innocent Smoothies) brand and Adidas -sportswear provider (Saviolo & Marazza, 2013). Coca-cola has so many brands-roughly more than five hundred. All the brands offered are beverages. Some of its popular beverages are Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Minute maid, and Dasani. They operate in approximately two hundred countries. Most promotional activities of coca-cola brands are geared towards masses of consumers through the use of mass media. All the mass media platforms that the company has used deliver consistent message to the target audience. The use of TVs and banners that are designed alongside sponsorship have effectively been utilized by the company (Coke, 2014).During world major events such as the world cups, IAAF athletic championship, Euro soccer cup, different soccer premier leagues, and African cup of nations among others have often been sponsored by the coca-cola brands. During these events coca-cola banners are usually displayed and on the other hand TV stations streaming these events advertise the brands. Television adverts are carried out intermittently during commercial adverts between programs and news bulletin (Hershey, 2012). Celebrities are more often used as brand ambassadors with the aim of creating awareness. This has played an important role in creating a consistent image and information thus promoting these brands. In addition, the company has embraced the use of social media as a marketing tool. Social media is increasingly becoming a tool for dissemination of information and communication as well. Various social media platforms are facebook, twitter, myspace, instagram, retwoo, whatsapp among others. The company has used social media to monitor the consumer behavior towards brands offered. Their spokespeople through this particular platform are well trained on handling techniques that uphold the image and perception of the company to the public. The strategic campaign of share the coke campaign has been branded a genius strategy of infiltrating the social media space. Sale of coca-cola brands have significantly improved since people has embraced the idea of their names being embedded on the branded products. The awareness of the brands improved as consumers were provided with an avenue of interacting with the brands by sharing with friends and relatives on their social media timelines (Dudovskiy, 2012). Besides, social media, the company also uses print media. They have some spaces on print media where they use to advertise their brands. In interesting stories or article, posters and pictures of the brands are normally attached to the stories. In addition, the use of direct marketing has also proved success. The technique involves partnering with other businesses such as restaurants, hotels to sell its products. When customers walk into these business premises the only products available to be offered are coca-cola products hence competitors finding it rough (Coke, 2014). The sales promotion techniques that the firm has employed are of two different approaches. One of the approaches is customer oriented approach while the other is trade oriented approach. In trade oriented approach, discounts are given to retailers and stores as well as free goods or free tours (Oswald, 2012). Innocent company, as noted earlier, was bought by the Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola has shares approximated to be ninety percent).The products offered by this company are smoothies, fruit juice and veg pots. In its marketing and promotional strategies the company strictly adheres to ethics of conduction business. In addition, the company prides itself in producing healthy products (BBC News, 2009). One of the main strategies used to promote Innocent brands is by interacting directly with the customers. The interactions are achieved through marketing fields and shows. During the events, banners and posters with consistent messages are circulated. In addition, TV adverts have been used to reach out widely and wildly to customers (BBC News, 2009). Innocent Company also sponsors other project as a promotional technique. For instant, Innocent Eyes project is a fully sponsored project by the company to reach out and appease their audience .The other technique has been the use of social media just like other Coca-Cola brands to harness its customers. Interaction with clients and incorporation valid opinion from these customers has enabled the company to readjust as per the customers’ expectation and as well monitor prevailing behavior of prospective clients. Other media sources such as Newspaper, Magazine has also been used by the company though to a limited extent because they don’t cover a wide range of clients (Innocent Eyes, 2015). Adidas is an international corporation that majorly deals with sportswear. The company faces stiff competition from other companies such as Puma and Nike. Some the products that Adidas offer to its consumers are footwear, clothing and accessories. The different brands of the company are Reeboks, Adidas, Taylor made- Adidas golf, and Rockport .The brand name Adidas have been synonymous globally especially sports lovers. The company has remained relevant in the competitive dynamic market for quite some times. This section of the papers seeks to explore the various marketing strategies that have enabled it to survive and maintain the value of the brand (Adidasboost, 2014). Just like Coca-cola this company strategies are customer oriented. The products offered are geared towards meeting customer expectations and satisfaction. The company has perfected two strategies of promotional marketing. During last Olympics held in London, the company employed the techniques. They were the above the line and below the line promotion. In above the line technique they used TV adverts. TV adverts provide wide coverage to a mass of consumers. These adverts illuminated sport talented individuals across the United Kingdom. Some of the renowned sportsmen who featured as celebrity ambassadors to the brands were David Beckham and Derrick Rose. Various athletes were also featured where they would recount their goals and fears. This provided a platform for the support for the Great Britain team. Huge sales of different brands were realized from this strategy in UK market. During the event billboards were also employed as a promotion tools (Borowski, 2013). The company also uses the sponsorship technique in major world events. For instant, during the Olympics they were one of the sponsors of the events. In addition, they sponsor major sport teams in the world who in turn help in promoting their image and the brands of the companies. Example of such a team is the Chelsea Football Club. In this club all the players’ jerseys are products of the Adidas Company. Huge amount of money are normally invested in sponsoring the clubs. The celebrities used during the promotion are paid handsomely. Fans to the clubs and the celebrities normally download videos entailing their preferred celebs and clubs. When so many people view the videos and pictures of the celebrities promoting the brand, then it creates and maintains awareness of the brands (Kaufmann & Panni, 2013). Social media too has played an integral part in promoting Adidas brands. The social media spaces have enabled the company to maintain close interaction with the consumers hence the ability to monitor the behaviors of the consumers and readjust appropriately. Moreover, when consumers share their perception on the brands with friends and families, it increases wide and wildly awareness of the products to consumers. In the last Olympics there was a twitter handle through Adidas that was used to rally everybody in UK behind the Great Britain’s team. In addition, the company has also partnered with other recognized sports associations such as UEFA, NBA, and FIFA to promote their brands. Other promotional tools that the company uses are the print media-newspapers and magazines, web profile, blogs, posters and banners and direct sales (Trost, 2013). It is evident that appropriate media and promotional tools have been used effectively by Coca-Cola and Adidas companies in promoting their brands. The tools have enabled them to speak to their targets by understanding the target audience need analysis. These firms have conformed to the trends and dynamics of the competitive market to not only make huge sales but also to maintain relevance in the competitive market. For instant, Coca-Cola Company has maintained a competitive age over other company offering beverage products such as Pepsi cola. The techniques used especially the use of mass media and sponsor methods to reach target audience are costly. Reference List Rossiter,J.R.& Percy,L.( 2013).How the roles of advertising merely appear to have changed.International Journal of Advetising, 32(3) 391-398. Borowski, A. (2013). Adidas marketing strategy - an overview. S.l.: Grin Verlag. Kaufmann, H. R., & Panni, M. F. A. K. (2013). Customer-centric marketing strategies: Tools for building organizational performance. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference. Trost, E. (2013). Social media marketing in BRIC countries: Examining case studies of BMW, Adidas and NIVEA. Saviolo, S., & Marazza, A. (2013). Lifestyle brands: A guide to aspirational marketing. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Oswald, L. (2012). Marketing semiotics: Signs, strategies, and brand value. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Adidasboost ( 2014). Adidas Energy boost. Retieved on 10th Feb 2015 from http://matiesmarketing244.com/2014/09/17/adidas-wait-for-it-energy-boost/ Coke (2014). “Coke’ share coke campaign” An Integrated Marketing Success. Retrieved on 10th Feb 2015 from http://incitrio.com/cokes-share-a-coke-campaign-an-integrated-marketing-success/ John Dudovskiy (2012).Coca-Cola Marketing Communications: A Critical Analysis. Retrieved on 10th Feb 2015 from http://research-methodology.net/coca-cola-marketing-communications-a-critical-analysis/ Top of Form Information Resources Management Association. (2012). E-marketing: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference. BBC News (2009)."Coke buys into Innocent smoothies". Retrieved 10th Feb 2015 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7986901.stm Innocent Eyes (2015). Innocent Project. Retrieved on 10th Feb 2015 from https://innocenteyesproject.org/help/corporate-sponsorships/ Read More