Coca-Cola has managed to remain relevant in the beverage market due to its creative and effective promotional strategies. Over the years, the organization has utilized aggressive marketing tactics, releasing advertising campaigns in offline and online media and print advertisements (Anik et al., n.d.). In addition, the company has also been involved in multiple sponsorships over the years, such as the FIFA world cup, the Olympic games, and American Idol, among others (Anik et al., n.d.). In addition, Coca-Cola also strives to increase customer’s demands by using other promotional tools, such as public relations, sales promotion, and direct market. Sales promotion is particularly instrument during special events and holidays, such as Ramadhan. The organization’s advertising campaign not only focuses on customers, but also distributors, bottlers, and retailers (Anik et al., n.d.). The utilization of the push and pull strategy by providing incentives to distributors and retailers to promote their brands goes a long way in ensuring the creation of brand loyalty among consumers.
Coca-Cola utilizes the personal selling technique, which is a process involving sellers’ promotional presentation conducted on a person-to-person basis. The salespeople that represent Coca-Cola’s products in its personal selling process include order takers, order getters, and trade salespeople, among others. While order takers seek repeat sales and ensure customers have adequate product quantities, order getters sell to new customers and increase sales to existing customers. The personal selling technique used by Coca-Cola has seven steps: prospecting, approach, presentation, demonstration, handing buyer concerns, closing, and follow-up ( Paesbrugghe et al., 2018 ). Throughout the seven steps, a salesperson devises an approach plan, acquires customer interest by describing various features of the product, and gives the customer an opportunity to experience a product through a demonstration before closing the selling process when customers make a purchase ( Paesbrugghe et al., 2018 ). When making a direct sale, Coca-Cola supplies its products directly to retailers. However, when making an indirect sale, distributor agencies have the responsibility of availing Coca-Cola products to retailers and thus becoming part of the personal selling process.
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The company’s promotional strategy has resulted in consumer’s demand increment in terms of products, steering of sales, and creating brand loyalty. With more than 2500 promotional videos on YouTube and an advertising expenditure of about 2.6 billion dollars, Coca-Cola has successfully reached out to new and existing customers and thus ensuring consistent sales (Anik et al., n.d.). In addition, the company also utilizes corporate social responsibility to acquire sentimental benefits on customers’ minds. The engagement of consumers through various sponsorship and competitions has helped the organization achieve high levels of customer loyalty (Vasiliki, n.d.). Furthermore, the involvement of distributors and bottlers has resulted in the localization of multiple promotional activities, which broadens the company’s outreach. The promotional strategy has helped ensure that the company remains competitive across multiple countries around the world.
The effectiveness of the Coca-Cola promotional strategy has been key to its consistent success. First, Coca-Cola strives to maintain creativity in its advertisement campaigns. The promotional videos are always captivating, which facilitates the acquisition of new customers and retention of existing ones (Singaram et al., 2019). In addition, the company’s promotional activities involve its customers, and thus promoting the narrative of a company for people, by people. Aside from the sponsorship of major events, such as the FIFA world cup, the sales promotional events that provide customers with an opportunity to win rewards promotes customer loyalty (Vasiliki, n.d.). Furthermore, the advertising campaign has created a strong visual identity, with the Coca-Cola label design seen everywhere. The organization’s promotional strategy affects the Coca-Cola marketing mix in many ways. First, during sales promotional events, the prices of Coca-Cola products might be adjusted to appeal to more consumers. Elsewhere, the organization’s advertisement campaign also affects Coca-Cola’s packaging design, and distribution channels, especially when distributors and bottlers are involved. Coca-Cola has an effective communication marketing with the company having a constant knowledge of the market, its products, the stages in the product life cycle, prices, and the available funds for promotion.
In some instances, the organization utilizes different promotional and sales strategy depending on the region since the needs of a potential customer varies depending on climate, income level, and culture, among other factors (Singaram et al., 2019). Also, due to the existence of multiple media channels in today’s world, the organization incorporates multiple media, including TV, radio, print, online media, and billboards, among others, in its advertising campaign (Singaram et al., 2019). This ensures that it reaches out to potential customers irrespective of the type of media they use. Furthermore, depending on the product being promoted and the market niche, Coca-Cola uses either mass marketing or target marketing. Geographical and market segmentation and the integration of multiple media helps Coca-Cola to effectively reach out to its potential consumers and thus facilitating the success of its promotional strategy.
References
Anik, K.A., Khan, I., Habiba, W., & Ahmed, I. (n.d.). Marketing management practice of Coca-Cola. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340719956_MARKETING_MANAGEMENT_PRACTICE_OF_Coca-Cola
Paesbrugghe, B., Sharma, A., Rangarajan, D., & Syam, N. (2018). Personal selling and the purchasing function: where do we go from here?. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management , 38 (1), 123-143.
Singaram, R., Ramasubramani, A., Mehta, A., & Arora, P. (2019). Coca Cola: A study on the marketing strategies for millenniums focusing on India. IJARD, ISSN , 2455-4030.
Vasiliki, P. (n.d.). Marketing mix strategy of Coca-Cola & line stretching strategies adoption. Open University of Cyprus . https://www.academia.edu/37156869/Marketing_mix_strategy_of_Coca_Cola_and_line_stretching_strategies_adoption_MASTER_IN_BUSINESS_ADMINISTRATION_MBA_MODULE_MBA_61_MARKETING
