Marketing Strategy Deployed by the Coca-Cola Company to Promote Coke Zero - Case Study Example

Coke Zero Introduction The success of an organization in the business environment mainly depends on its marketing strategy. The same aspect was highly taken intro consideration by the Coca- Cola Company as they were launching their new products into the market. This was mainly applicable in the introduction of their new product Coke Zero as they needed to get positive feedback from the consumers. The outcome of a marketing strategy will depend on how well it was executed by the company. The planning process is effective but it has to be executed appropriately in order to get the desired results. The Coca Cola deployed different strategies in the execution process that at some point proved to beneficial despite the many challenges faced in the process. The product coke zero mainly targeted the young men aged between 20- 29 (Quinn- Allan 1). However, the concept of dieting incorporated in the marketing process did not attract most of the consumers. Therefore, this paper will look at the marketing strategy deployed by the coca cola company to promote its product. Publicity of the Zero Movement The introduction of the product Coke Zero into the market had to be conducted diligently based on the past reception of the coke diet products. The Coca Cola Company had been depending on Coke Zero to bridge the gap between diet coke, which the consumers appreciated and the new coke which was rejected by the loyal customers. Hence, the main way to ensure that the company would receive positive results was by reaching out to the consumers through the creation of publicity for the product. This led to the launch of the Zero Movement as a pre- launch strategy for the coke zero products (Quinn- Allan 2). The Zero Movement was mainly targeting the media in order to reach out o the consumers as they were a market that based their lives on technology. The creation of blogging sites in order to interact with the consumers personally was launched in order to build the relationships. However, the plans were interrupted by the negative publicity that erupted in the process. This was triggered by the fact that the company had held back some information from the public concerning the involvement of the TCCC (The Coca Cola Company) in the zero movement. The consumers were to believe that the zero movement was being operated by genuine loyal coke zero fans but instead the operation was being operated by the TCCC employees. The negative publicity that followed was initiated by this factor as the consumers used the blogs available to post their comments. This factor may be looked at as a bad factor for the company but the negative publicity would have helped the zero movement in terms of publicity (Quinn- Allan 1). This is attributed to the fact that publicity draws attention regardless of whether it is considered to be positive or negative. The main aim of initiating publicity is to create attention to the product. The factors that attract the consumers to the product have to be quite innovative. Hence, in the vent that a negative aspect is discovered and negative publicity is initiated, the consumers will have their attention drawn to the product more. As much as negative publicity is a big risk for the product and company in general, the manner in which it attracts the people is what is important. In this case, the negative publicity that was faced by the Coca Cola Company was based on the Zero Movement but not on the product. The publicity would have been used as a point of research by the public as well as the competitors. The war launched was against the campaign but not on the product and the Coca Cola Company would have embraced this as a positive publicity for their drink. Before, the negative publicity, the company had been struggling hard to get the new product recognized. However, after the war erupted, the company did not need to make any effort in order to draw attention as many people learnt about the impact of the publicity. This is relevant in that the public and competitors would not have been able to talk about the campaign without reflecting on the product (Quinn- Allan 2). This simple aspect would have benefitted the market of the coke zero product greatly. Blogger and the Zero Movement When the public found out about the information held back by the Coca Cola Company regarding the zero movement, they used it as a platform to attack the company and its products. The blogging sites that had been created before so that the consumers can express their views were being used as attack centers with non- supporters taking advantage of the technology. The main factor that triggered the hostile reaction from the public had been the discovery of the involvement of the TCCC employees in the movement. However, with time the anti- supporters developed different reasons and used the blog site to post their comments and opinions. The bloggers felt cheated by the approach taken by the Coca Cola Company in their marketing. Their focus is based on the whole campaign including; the advertisements, the target market and the culture applied in the process. The members feel that the company does not get the point of launching a campaign. They claim that the campaigns are to be launched by passionate people who are able to deliver and spread the message to the public (Quinn- Allan 3). However, the company just launched a site and even paid other people to post supportive comments on the site. The bloggers view this as very insulting as the target market consulted before the launch of the product had been carefully selected by the company. The company wanted to target the youth market with their campaign but they used the wrong people in the process. The bloggers feel that one cannot reach out to the young men unless you can really understand their language. The zero campaign movement was structured in a manner that reflected the lifestyle of the target market. However, the information that the coke company had on the target market was based on what they had collected from a group of young people they had interacted with. The same did not apply to the rest of the public as they had different concepts of the product. The coke zero product is basically sugarless coke and it is aimed for the young men mainly (Quinn- Allan 3). Even though the main idea was not based on dieting, it was the main concept viewed by the target market. Thus, the bloggers feel the campaign did not define their concepts appropriately. This is attributed to the fact that a 27 year old man going to pick a sugarless coke will look queer and it is what the current generation is struggling to avoid. Coke Campaign a Good Example of IMC Campaign The Coke campaign mainly focused on the media in order to reach out to the consumers and the end users. On the other hand IMC is mainly based on the application of the communication tools in order to reach out to the consumers. The components of an IMC campaign were highly observed in the in the coke campaign as well making them highly related to each other. The foundation of the campaign was done by conducting analyses of the target market and the environment as well. The studies conducted indicated that Australia was going through a rough time trying to deal with the issue of obesity. Therefore, the market for sugarless drink would be on the rise. T he company also took a point of talking to the target market and having a preview of the reception of the drink. The advertising tools applied in the process were to mainly connect with the target audience. The campaign engaged in 30– 60 seconds advertisements mainly through the television on the free to air channels and the pay television as well (Quinn- Allan 3). This was they would cover all basic areas in the department. IMC components dictate that the advertising tools are vital in the process of communication. The most important aspect of the process that rates the coke campaign as an IMC campaign is the application of the integrated tools. The coke campaign embraced internet marketing through the creation of the blogging sites. The coke campaign wanted to get quite personal with the consumers by launching the blogging site as they would be able to understand what the consumers wanted. At the same time the site can be used as a way of marketing their products as all the information necessary is provided to the consumers. Trade Promotions The position occupied by Coca Cola Company in the market is very stable and gives it a competitive advantage. Hence, the coca cola has been rendered a must stock product by the retailers. However, despite this privilege the CCA still engaged in trade oriented promotions. This is attributed to the fact that after the negative publicity that the company faced especially through the internet, it was advisable to be very cautious with the orientations as well (Quinn- Allan 4). The advantage gained by the position occupied by the company could be easily taken by one of their fierce competitors. Thus, the trade orientations were very important in trying to maintain the position held by the company. This would also ensure the satisfaction of the consumers is achieved by ensuring that demand is always satisfied. Link between Coke Zero and Sports The link between coke Zero and Australian men’s love for sport continued being forged even after the launch. CCA and TCCC highly contributed in the process as this was viewed as a potential strategy for marketing the product. After the negative publicity most of the consumers had different opinions of the product and this might have triggered confusion in the market. The target market of the product is the youthful men and this aspect might have been misinterpreted during the launch. Coke Zero is a sugarless carbonated drink and it is highly associated with the diet coke. The society does not view men as the kind of people to highly engage in dieting aspects. Hence, some of the young men looked at it negatively rather than looking at it as a drink for men who were turned off by high sugar cola drinks (Quinn- Allan 1). That had been the initial slogan for the target market but it received a rather different perception once it was launched and during the campaign. Associating the product with sports is likely to be a successful strategy based on the fact that the target market is highly attracted to sports. Australian men are known to have a strong bond with sports and the more they see the product associated with the event, the more they are likely to gain a clear understanding. If the target market engages in the sport competitions they are associating themselves with the product. Other than that, associating sports to the product creates a different perception of the drink to the target market. Conclusion In general, the Coca Cola Company applied basic integrated marketing communications (IMC) in their campaign and it proved to be quite beneficial. The strategy adopted by the company in reaching out to the consumers was planned appropriately as they targeted the youthful zones. The zero movement campaign did not turn out quite the way it had been planned based on the negative publicity that erupted in the process. However, this did not stall the campaign for long as the company embraced the negative publicity as a way of promoting the product. The attention turned to the new product might have been beneficial based on the reception after the incident. Hence, the marketing strategy used by the coca cola company served its purpose as the company still maintains the position it had before. Works Cited Quinn- Allan, Deirdre. Case Study: Coke Zero. Australia: Deakin University, n.d. Read More