Week 12 - Chapter 11: Developing and Managing Products

The product and brand development strategy of Coca-Cola has been far reaching and has managed to remain in the limelight ever since it became a favorite within the soft drink market. It has been noticed that brand loyalty is an important factor in maintaining the number one position. The Coca-Cola Company enjoys the status of being one of the biggest beverage companies of the world. It has a distribution system, which makes it unique from the rest of beverage manufacturers. Over the years, Coca-Cola has passed several tests of brand enhancement and the company makes it a point that the products under the banner Coca-Cola continue to invade the minds of the consumers.

The brand development strategy of Coca-Cola comprised redesigning of its brand development policies and techniques to keep up with the changing mindset of its consumers. In their preliminary stages this brand believed in the following:

    * Affordability

    * Availability

    * Acceptability

However, this brand development strategy of Coca-Cola was reworked to stress on managing the following instead:

    * Price value

    * Preference

    * Pervasive Penetration

The essence of brand building of the company lies in the fact that it wants its consumer’s accessibility to be “within an arm's reach of desire”. In an attempt to build its brand identity, as many as 20 brand attributes are tested every month involving as many as 4,000 customers. The brand development strategy of Coca-Cola is effective as it has been able to construct, manage as well as maintain its brand image since its introduction. Another reason why Coca-Cola has gained unanimous acceptance all around the globe is due to the fact that it has been able to connect very well with its consumers. They believe in shelling out the best so that the consumers are retained by default. A part of the brand building technique is also to enhance “purchase frequency”. The company has also invested in various advertisement campaigns often engaging the services of celebrities around the globe. In addition to normal consumers there are also those who not only buy the drink but they buy collectible products as well, many in which are extremely expensive.

Below is a video example of an ordinary store being transformed into a working Coca-Cola promotion. Seriously, it looks like a Coca-Cola bomb exploded in there.

Week 11 - Chapter 16: Integrated Marketing Communications

Integrated Marketing Communication is the idea that a company's promotional efforts should all be coordinated to achieve the best combined effects. Promotion involves a number of tools they can use to increase demand for our products or services. The most well known component of promotion is advertising, but the company can also use tools such as the following:

• Public relations - the company's staff provides information to the media in the hopes of getting coverage, whether it be good or bad...
• Trade promotion - the company offers retailers and wholesalers temporary discounts, which may or may not be passed on to the consumer, to stimulate sales. 
• Sales promotion - the consumers are given either price discounts, coupons, or rebates.
• In-store displays - companies often pay a great deal of money to have their goods displayed prominently in the store. More desirable display spaces include:  end of an aisle, free-standing displays, and near the check-out counter. 
• Personal Selling - a salesperson representing the company uses skills and techniques for building personal relationships with the consumer, which ends up with beneficial results for both parties... usually.
• Premiums, Samples, etc.

No company's promotional mixing is easy. But for the sake of stating the obvious in the case of what Coca Cola's AIDA model would look like, I think it would go something like this:

Attention - Typical promotion, commercials, print ads, billboards, contests, etc.

Commercials Like These:

Ok you have my attention, now what?

Interest - Making people buy their beverages by peaking interests, both emotionally (feel good commericals) and physically (makes you thirsty for a Coke)

I Feel Good & I'm Thirsty

Desire - convincing customers that they want and desire the product and that it will satisfy their needs. I don't know about you guys but after seeing those commercials, I pretty much want a Coke.

Action - leading customers towards taking action and or purchasing. If I wasn't so lazy I'd totally go out and buy some right now. I will most likely get some next time I'm outside.

Our marketing textbook only mentions attention, interest, desire and action. Now a days, some marketers have added another letter to form AIDA(S) The S stands for:

Satisfaction - making sure the customer is satisfied so they become a repeat customer and give referrals to a product.

Week 10 - Chapter 10: Product Concepts

In an attempt to not repeat the same old things that other Coca-Cola blogs have mentioned about their product concepts, I'm going to introduce a fan-made idea by a guy named Andrew Kim.

This Coca-Cola bottle concept takes up less space than traditional round bottles and comes with a cool collapsible design for easy recycling. As an added bonus, each bottle features an opening at the bottom that allows multiple bottles to be stacked. This increases efficiency during transportation and reduces the amount of space needed for storage.

Some comments on this idea from Coke customers claim that this was a "very neat and well thought out design concept." It is aesthetically more pleasing for some people as their taste are more contemporary. However, the shape of the bottle has become part of Coca-Cola’s identity. When you see that shape it automatically correlates with the Coca-Cola brand. They have changed it slightly over the years but stayed true to the overall shape and design. Changing this would be huge and may have a negative impact.

Innovative idea, yes... would it work, not really. Having the bottle be collapsible is great, but the bottle's rectangular shape would not stay that way for long because the carbonation or pressure of the soda would make the sides pop out and become rounded anyway.

Disclaimer: Coca-Cola did NOT come up with this concept. Follow the link for the facts. Andrew Kim's Site