Chapter 7: Business Marketing

   Business marketing is the marketing of goods and services to individuals and organizations for purposes other than personal consumption.

I love going to the movies. I just do. Before every movie begins, the theater screens a clip that includes a group of young people that look very excited for their movie to start. These young people are becoming apart of the movie experience while holding a large cup of Coca-Cola. Another thing I've noticed when I go to the movie theaters is that no matter what beverage I chose to purchase, it always gets served in a Coca-Cola cup. Even if I may not be thirsty,Coca-Cola has sort of become part of the movie experience itself. This is a good example of the company placing themselves in a position where the customer could have an encounter with them, without necessarily it being direct. It is very important and a great benefit for this company when they are able to achieve this, while not having to deal directly with customers.


As the worlds largest beverage company, the Coca-Cola Company markets all over the globe to people, restaurants, theaters, supermarkets, large offices, airline companies, grocery stores, and etc. By marketing to these businesses, the Coca-Cola Company is able to indirectly reach the customer. This way, they are able to make new customers while still keep existing customers. They do all this without having to directly market, or promote to them personally. It also helps a lot when you're a company this known because you get contacted from other corporations who want to market your product.
Another good example are the bottling partners of Coca-Cola. They also extend from all over the world in places like; Africa, Eurasia, European Union, Latin America, North America, and the Pacific. These bottling partners manufacture the products and distribute them to places like restaurants, grocery stores, movie theaters, sports venues, and amusement parks.
The Coca-Cola Company has over 3,000 different products to offer in over 200 different countries. Coca-Cola's loyal customer-base is what has made them the number one seller of soft drinks, sparkling drinks and juice drinks. Not to mention #2 in the sales of sports drinks and #3 in the sales of bottled water.
As I've mentioned before, the Coca-Cola Company is an electronic commerce and mainly uses the internet to facilitate the exchange of goods, information between organizations and several services they provide.
In my opinion, business marketing sort of goes hand-in-hand with sales promotion and customer relation. When the Coca-Cola Company runs sales promotions, they do so in a way where customers connect with the company through their products they have purchased. Business Marketing is pretty everything the class has been able to cover throughout our blog post.

 

Dunkin dumps Pepsi Co.

I walked into a Dunkin Donuts this morning for my regular bagel with a Tropicana Orange juice, when I noticed all the Pepsi products were now replaced with Coca-Cola products. It seems like after a long partnership, PepsiCo is no longer the beverage provider for Dunkin Donuts. Another win for the Coca-Cola Company. I Must admit though, Im going to miss them serving Tropicana and not Minute Maid.

-- Uploaded from my Samsung Galaxy S II --

Coca-Cola Looks at the World a Little Differently

LIVE POSITIVELY.

Chapter 8: Segmenting and Targeting Markets

     

Many markets include groups of organizations or people with different product needs and/or preferences. That is why segmenting in the market industry is so important, because it helps define customer needs and wants more accurately. 

     I found a great example of market segmentation while reading Chapter 8 of our book where they stated a point that I also previously have. Before 1960, the Coca-Cola Company really only produced one very special beverage and they aimed that one beverage everywhere; nearly at the entire soft drink market. And now as we all now, Coca-Cola offers more than a hundred different products to market segments which they base off of a variety of customer preferences for flavors, calories, sugar, caffeine, & etc.

     I believe that in order to stay around for so long AND remain as relevant as Coca-Cola has through-out the years, then you must learn to adapt, and to market certain products towards specific segments. Marketing segmentation plays a key role in the marketing strategy of almost all successful organizations.

It's no surprise Coca-Cola's target market are teenagers from all parts of the globe. We watch the most television and Coca-Cola is mostly advertised on television. We want the coolest things available and we're willing to spending money for it, and so Coca-Cola is both seen and advertised as such a cool beverage to refresh ourselves with after a long day of doing whatever it is that we do. I think that the colors they use for their product helps is appeal even more to both sexes. Not red nor white can't nether be specified towards a certain sex and thats pretty cool. Teenagers are also more active then other age groups as they are more likely to be outside playing sports. Coca-Cola is known to sponsor many sporting events which also appeals to younger people because we are more likely to play these sports and have them as a hobby, that helps Coca-Cola define a target market. 

As a teenager myself, I love how fun Coca-Cola advertisements are and how happy everybody (or everything) in the advertisement is. They [the advertisements] significantly increase my crave for Coca-Cola at the moment and makes me forget just how bad for my health too many of those drinks can be. At the same time, their advertisements also remind me just how happy you should go on living your everyday life and not to always worry about the negative factors in things because the negativity may consume you.
And so as Coca-Cola says -- "Live Positive."

Drinking Coca-Cola still seems like the right thing to do.

I've noticed that Coca-Cola doesn't target market older women as much as they do to other segments. I feel thats because older women are now more focused on watching their weight, keeping their figure, and how much sleep they get every night. With Coca-Cola acknowledging that their signature product may bring a negative effect to those three focuses of women, they see women more likely to have their Diet Coke or caffeine-free cola in order for them to be able to maintain their healthy lifestyle.

Families are another target market for Coca-Cola, when the Holidays come around there many different offers surrounding Coca-Cola products that encourage families to not only buy one of their products, but two or even three. Their famous Polar Bear commercials involve a mother/father polar bear with their cub and the Christmas commercials have Santa Clause bringing the Christmas spirit to families, one Coca-Cola at a time.
Growing up there was always Coca-Cola in the fridge when the Holidays came around and as I grew older, I began to associate the holidays and my family with Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola reminds me of when I was still a kid during holiday seasons, enjoying myself with my loved ones and I'm sure other people make that connection as well. With feelings like that is how Coca-Cola has managed to build such loyal customers and continues to build them all across the world.

 I don't see why this commercial was banned! 
It has Phil Collins AND Polar Bears! 

What more could you ask for ??

Chapter 11: Developing and Managing Products

     In 1886, Coca-Cola sold for 5 cents per glass. It was just an experiment and sold for treatment for morphine addicts. Coca-Cola has grown throughout the years and has hit a peak where the company almost monopolizes the competition. It's the most famous beverage in the world. And even when the company has over 3,000 different beverages in over 200 different countries, consumers still believe that the Coca-Cola is the companies best product and the one they love the most. 

   The Coca-Cola bottle has such an elegant silhouette, its difficult to not love everything about it. Theres a different taste that comes from drinking Coca-Cola out of a glass bottle then drinking it from anything else, it just feels right. And that is what Coca-Cola Company wants. They represent timeless passions and want you to know that a holiday isn't a holiday without a Coca-Cola nearby. 

     

   But even with the success of Coca-Cola, the company still wanted to explore different fields of beverages, like Diet beverages for example. Beverages that would be low on sugar, calories and saturated fat. So that's exactly what they did, in  2005 the Coca-Cola Company introduced Coke Zero, a beverage that just yells -- "How about a little less fat and sugar with the SAME taste you all, folks?!"

Coke Zero is now available in 130 different countries and has sold billions of cases since its release.

With more and more people being stirred away from Coca-Cola, the company had to make moves in order to maintain their sales. They wanted a product that would be good for everyone and people wouldn't have to think twice about drinking it or not. It had to be a common beverage. What's a beverage most people reach for when they're at the market? Juice. The Minute Maid line was introduced for that purpose and also has many different lines of beverages under its belts. Flavors like Grape, Orange, Strawberry, Apple, Pomegranate, etc.. all also come in different options like "100%" or "Pulp/No Pulp" for the Orange Juice. Minute Maid is a big reason why the Coca-Cola Company has been able to remain at top.

     A few chapters ago, I mentioned the "Coca-Cola Freestyle" product which is a beverage machine that serves over 100 different Coca-Cola Products. They have been placed around NYC and other states in the country. It is another example of the Coca-Cola Companies ability to develop and manage new products in a way where they appeal to the audience. Whether its with sales promotion or personal selling, the Coca-Cola Company always makes suers they are staying one step ahead of everyone else. 

Chapter 16: Integrated Marketing Communications

    Countless numbers of companies have now explored the world of Social Networks. Whether it may be Facebook, Twitter or Google+, companies now see the importance of communicating with their customers and the younger generations. The Coca-Cola Company is no different. With over 54 million subscribers on Facebook, 2 million on Twitter, and 600,000 on Google+; the Coca-Cola Company continue their growth through online social media that have been developed to help empower their associates to participate in the new frontier of marketing and communications, represent the Company, and share the optimistic and positive spirits of the Coca-Cola brands. 

The vision of the Company to achieve growth online and offline is guided by certain shared values that the Coca-Cola Company live by as an organization and as individuals:

• LEADERSHIP : The courage to shape a better future
• COLLABORATION : Leveraging their collective genius
• INTEGRITY : Being real
• ACCOUNTABILITY : Recognizing that if it is to be, it's up to me
• PASSION : Showing commitment in heart and mind
• DIVERSITY : Being as inclusive as their brands
• QUALITY : Ensuring what they do, they do well.

  

That's Wendy Clark, she's the senior vice president of Integrated Marketing Communications and Capabilities of the Coca-Cola Company. Her role is to look over global design, marketing communications, media, sponsorships, interactive marketing and marketing of the Companies "Live Positively" platform. Since joining in 2008, Clark has done a lot already for the Company but probably her most known achievement of her and her team was the launch of the "Open Happiness" campaign, which now deployed in markets representing 100% of Coca-Cola's volume.The main idea of that campaign was to encourage people to stop every once in a while and refresh themselves with a Coca-Cola beverage. That way they'd be able to enjoy and share the happiness that it brings them. Wendy Clark and her team carry a "Fan-first" mentality that helps them come to more of an understand of digital media and it's importance in marketing now.

Coca-Cola run's many promotions year-in and year-out. They give away tickets, they run sweepstakes and even fly people across the world. Their forms of promotion includes Television, Radio, Bottle designs, news papers, magazines, bus stops, bill boards and everything else you can think of. During the holidays, its almost impossible to not see some sort of promotion by one of the worlds most recognized companies, Coca-Cola.

 

Chapter 10: Product Concepts

     I always saw Coca-Cola's product & marketing concept to be a very simple, yet solid and consistent one. The concept of their products usually are more based for the younger generations because Coca-Cola wants to represent youth and energy in their products. Their products come in classic packaging, the Coca-Cola can and elegant bottle shape are both recognized globally and when you see a soda can or bottle, you usually think of Coca-Cola. I also think that we as consumers would all like a product that both represents us as people and where we are from, what we enjoy as well as our character. The Coca-Cola Company always finds a way to relate their advertising to us and make us feel like its the right thing to drink a Coca-Cola. Although the Coca-Cola Company mainly focuses on the younger generation, they do also try to market the older generations with certain advertising and by paying for their commercials which show how classic their signature beverage Coca-Cola is.

Over 100 years of service at your door. 

     Energy drinks, coffee, fruit juice, soft drinks, water, teas and sport drinks. 3,500 products are available in over 200 different countries. These are all products made for and sold to satisfy an  individuals personal wants. If you'd like a coffee with little/no sugar; a soft drink with less than 800 calories; or maybe you quench some sparkling water instead of spring water. Whatever kind of beverage it is that you'd like, the Coca-Cola Company offers it. 

     Something I really like about Coca-Cola is that they aren't only about making great drinks but they also want to contribute to communities all around the world. They intend on doing so through commitments to education, health, wellness and diversity also. The Coca-Cola Company never forgets how important it is to have friends around the globe and never forgets their social responsibility as one of the biggest companies in all the world. 

It is very important to have an idea of your products concept when marketing it. I say this because product concept comes down to the owner thinking on how to convince the consumer to buy the product because of its quality, the affordable price and its benefits. One example is the beloved "Coke-Zero" which represents a re-mixed version of the original "Coca-Cola" but is advertised as a healthier option for the customers. The objective of product concept is to increase sales, product efficiency and to continue building relationships with both old and new customers.