Problem Statement

How has Coca-cola been able to sustain the brand for the past 100 years in recent years?
Also to analyze how and why customers perceive Coca-cola.

Literature Review

India, which is renowned for its consumption of traditional hot beverages such as tea and
coffee, has now taken to cold drinks in a big way. Demand for cold drinks is witnessing
growth at a fast pace, especially among the younger section of the population. Though India
is a tropical country with long summers, consumption of carbonated beverages stands at
roughly 5-6 bottles per year compared to around 21 bottles in Sri Lanka and as high as 605
bottles in Mexico. Low advertising reach and lack of cold storage facilities are hampering the
demand for select segments of cold drinks in rural markets. Players are trying to penetrate
rural markets by offering low priced unit sized packaging formats along with introducing
initiatives towards environment conservation. The organized carbonated drinks market has a
large share of multinational players. There are also several small and regional players who
cater to the local market with cola and non-cola drinks. Coca Cola India and PepsiCo India
together account for around 85% of the overall carbonated beverage market in India, of
which Coca Cola accounts for over 55%followed by PepsiCo with a market share of around
35%.

similar probs in other comp quote - literature survey case details

Tropicana- In January 2009, Tropicana launched packaging for its best selling product,
within two months the sales dropped by 20% amounting to a loss of $30 million. Tropicana
pulled the new design off the shelves and went back to the old design. The following items
have been changed in the packaging of the new Tropicana. Labeling, Information Structure,
Tone of Voice, Typography, Imagery, color, Brand Speak, and Affordance. The customers
were confused with the new packaging and could not recognize the product.

Lessons Learnt: Consumer feels an emotional bond with the appearance of the product and
brand. One of the important principles of branding is that change should be progressive and
packaging does half part of the salesman

https://hbr.org/2009/02/tropicanas-marketing-folly.html

https://uxdesignstart.wordpress.com/2017/05/05/tropicana-case-study/

Crystal Pepsi- In 1990s PepsiCo launched Crystal Pepsi keeping in mind the growing
concerns among consumers for pure products. Pepsi was marketed as good for digestive
system and Coca- Cola was made with a dash of cocaine. Customers started associating
with brown with sugary cola sweetness and clear with lighter, citru-flavoured drinks. Pepsi
with the launch of this product went against the basic truth believed by consumers: Cola was
brown. It did not taste like original Pepsi, consumers did not like it and finally Pepsi had to
recall the product.

Lessons Learnt: Efforts should go into marketing the product and taking the pain to explain
the consumers clearly about the product. It is very difficult to change the perception of the
brand in the eyes of the consumers.
http://www.casestudyinc.com/pepsi-crystal-fiasco

VoC or laddering

1. What is your age?

24
2. Among both soft drinks,which one do you prefer?
Coca Cola
3. What appeals to you to buy Coke or Pepsi?
Don’t know. Always prefered Coke for some reason
4. Between Coke and Pepsi, which one is more accessible or easily available?
Pepsi
5. How often do you drink Coke?
Once a week
6. Which size of Coke do you usually purchase?
600 ml
7. Among both companies, whose advertisements are most impressive?
Pepsi
8. Does seeing celebrities in advertisements affect your brand preference?
Not much

9. Where do you see most Coke/Pepsi ads?

TV and Youtube
10. Do advertisements affect why you buy Coke over Pepsi or vice versa?
No
11. According to you, which tastes better?
Coke
12. What makes them different?
It is very difficult to tell. Coke is less sweet.
13. Do you think that Coca Cola is environment friendly?
No
14. Why do you think it is or it is not?
I can’t say.
15. Do you know about the steps that Coca Cola is taking to make it more sustainable?
I am not aware
16. Coca Cola is using means to cut down its plastic usage and is moving towards
reducing water usage. Does this make you more inclined to stick to Coca Cola?
Surely.

1. What is your age?

25
2. Among both soft drinks,which one do you prefer?
Coca Cola
3. What appeals to you to buy Coke or Pepsi?
The bite it provides
4. How often do you drink Coke?
 Occasionally
5. Which size of Coke do you usually purchase?
330 ml
6. Among both companies, whose advertisements are most impressive?
Pepsi’s advertisements such as Har Ghoont Mai Swag gives you a feeling of youth
7. Does seeing celebrities in advertisements affect your brand preference?
Neutral
8. Where do you see most Coke/Pepsi ads?
TV and Newspaper
9. Do advertisements affect why you buy Coke over Pepsi or vice versa?
No
10. According to you, which tastes better?
Coca cola
11. What makes them different?
Pepsi is really sweet. Can’t have much. Coca Cola- Dil mange More
12. Do you think that Coca Cola is environment friendly?
No , they use a lot of plastic in packaging. Don’t know about disposal system.
13. Why do you think it is or it is not?
14. Do you know about the steps that Coca Cola is taking to make it more sustainable?
No idea
15. Does it matter to you?

After response any improvement in questionnaire as the expectation Vs reality differs

1. We dropped question no. 4 in the Questionnaire since it was about the accessibility
and did not relate to the problem statement.
2.

Proposal for market study- using voc or laddering:

The Voice of the Customer is a market research technique that produces a detailed set of
customer wants and needs. We decided that VOC would not work for us since it deals with
understanding the product and would be helpful to provide inputs in the process of the product
development.

We believe that Laddering would be the better way to move forward as it probes the consumers
to better understand how they perceive a given product and what they like or dislike about it. This
will give us a better insight and will be more relevant to our survey.

Pre and post surveys along with reasons for change: