STP OF COCA COLA

SEGMENTATION
Cola-Cola’s segmentation was done in the rural India on many basis. And because of their
effective segmentation they were able to attract consumers of every type, from every area and
from every age group. In short their segmentation was really good. They took care of what a
rural consumer looks for in their product before buying it and how they can make their
consumer realise that their product is worth their money. People in rural areas don’t live in
nuclear families like the people in the urban India, so there are mostly joint families in the
rural areas and Coca Cola knew this. So to attract a whole family and not just a particular age
group, Coca Cola introduced a family pack in the rural areas. Their idea was that when all the
members in a family sit together and spend some quality time with each other after a long
day, they would like to share something in common and every age group should connect with
each other, all the age groups could drink this, so from the youngest member in the family to
the oldest member in the family they all could enjoy something common. So their concept
was that if you want to spend some happy time with your family, then spend it with Coca
Cola and share your happiness. Income of the people in rural areas is not much, so they don’t
spend a lot on taste, fashion, trends taking place in the surroundings, etc. They spend their
minimal income on the basic goods which are important in their daily life. So taking this in
mind Coca Cola introduced a new segment i.e. the 5₹ bottle of coke in the rural areas for the
rural consumers, so that the people there can afford it and spend 5₹ from their income and
have a refreshing drink. This really attracted the rural consumers as this 5₹ glass bottle solved
many problems of the rural people. Like first, of course the people there could afford this
bottle and could enjoy a cool drink or the ‘thanda’ (coke was presented as the standard thanda
drink in the rural market). Second, there was no electricity in most of the rural villages
because of which rural people who could afford buy big or normal 1L bottles of cold drink
could not buy them because there was no electricity to keep their drink cool and ready to
drink but because of this 5₹ bottle people could then and there drink their cool drink, finish it,
refresh themselves and not worry about the drink getting wasted. So this 5₹ bottle was in a
way a break for them from the reality and they could enjoy something to relax themselves
which didn’t harm their pocket and was totally affordable by everyone in the rural areas. The
quantity of the bottle was around 300ml which is not much to drink in one go. This bottle was
made of glass so when the people used to consume coke inside it, they didn’t throw the
bottles away. Most of these used glass bottles were send back to the coke factories for reuse
or recycle so this reduced the waste produced by its consumption and also supported the go
green movement which was started by Coca Cola. Coca Cola has different types of coke
under them like diet coke but they didn’t introduce this segment in the rural areas because
they knew that the people of rural areas don’t care if their drink is diet or not. People of urban
areas are conscious about their health and the amount of sugar, calories they consume with
their drinks in their day to day life but the people in rural areas don’t really care about their
sugar in take. So Coca Cola did not even introduce this segment in the rural areas as they
knew this type of coke will not be able to survive and capture the rural market.
TARGETING
Coca Cola’s target was to capture the whole rural market and make their coke the standard
‘thanda’ drink in the rural areas. For this Coca Cola marketed the rural consumers according
to their needs and in ways to get their maximum attention. Coca Cola never marketed coke in
the rural areas only to the teens or to a particular age group, they marketed their product to all
the different age groups and payed attention to in fact those age groups which their
competitors didn’t pay attention to and thus they were successful in attracting all the age
groups. Coca Cola made many ads attracting only the old population of the rural areas which
were left out by their competitors. Amir Khan was their brand ambassador when they were
trying to enter, get hold and capture the rural market. Amir khan was very popular in the rural
areas at that time mainly because of his movie Lagaan (2001) because of which the rural
people could connect with him, so by taking Amir Khan as their brand ambassador coca cola
very smartly touched the emotions of the rural consumers and made many ads with him
showing the rural areas and the rural people with him and showing him as a rural person in
some. These ads did wonders for coca cola and in those few months coca cola was able to
reach in every rural market and make people aware about their drink. When rural people got
to know about their drink ‘coke’ Coca Cola was half way through in capturing the rural
market as they were able to enter the market and their half goal was achieved. People of rural
areas to some extent try to copy and adopt the lifestyle of the urban people and since coca
cola was already there in the urban market and had a good share in it. This mentality of the
rural people also gave coca cola a push in achieving their goal. In the rural India there are not
many resources available to the people there to keep themselves energetic, cool or to keep
them fresh, Coca Cola came as a saviour there. Since Coke was a cold drink people used it to
refresh themselves, used it to connect with other people and by which they could relax
themselves affordably. In short coke was like a small bottle of happiness to them which made
the rural people feel that they and the urban people have something in common as they both
drink it and it gave them a different sense of happiness. So Coca Cola was able to attract the
rural consumers and they were successful in making coke their standard ‘thanda’ drink in the
rural areas. They captured the rural market very beautifully and had the full control over the
cold drink demand of the rural people i.e. they were able to achieve their goal within few
years and since then coke is in the top products demanded by the rural people.

POSITIONING

Coca cola India began focusing on the rural market in the early 2000s in order to increase
volumes. This decision was not surprising, given the huge size of the untapped rural market
in India. Initially coca cola faced few problems like people in rural areas had a preference for
traditional cold beverages such as lassi and lemon juice. Further, the price of the beverage
was also a major factor for the rural consumer.
Coca Cola uses its 4 principles to position their product – Affordability , Acceptability ,
Availability and Attitude
Affordability - the price of Rs10/- per bottle was considered too high by rural consumers. For
these reasons, CCI decided to make some changes in the size of its bottles and pricing to win
over consumers in the rural market. In 2002, CCI launched 200 ml bottles (Chota Coke)
priced at Rs 5. It was widely felt that the 200 ml bottles priced at Rs. 5 would increase the
rate of consumption in rural India. The 200 ml bottles priced at Rs. 5 also made CCI
competitive against local brands in the unorganized sector.

Availability – Coca cola used the HUB and spoke model to distribute its product. Under the
hub and spoke distribution system, stock was transported from the bottling plants to hubs and
then from hubs, the stock was transported to spokes which were situated in small towns.
These spokes fed the retailers catering to the demand in rural areas. CCI not only changed its
distribution model, it also changed the type of vehicles used for transportation. The company
used large trucks for transporting stock from bottling plants to hubs and medium commercial
vehicles transported the stock from the hubs to spokes. For transporting stock from spokes to
village retailers the company utilized auto rickshaws and cycles.
After making the product available to each and every kirana store at cheap price , now the
coca had aim for Acceptability and Attitude of people towards Coke.

Acceptability and Attitude – Primarily, coca cola put up hoardings in villages and painted the
name Coca Cola on the compounds of the residences in the villages. Further, CCI also
participated in the weekly mandies10 by setting up temporary retail outlets, and also took part
in the annual haats11 and fairs - major sources of business activity and entertainment in rural
India.
But the most important campaign launched by Coca Cola which gave them maximum market
share was with Aamir Khan. The tagline of the advertisement was “THANDA matlab COCA
COLA “ which clearly shows that coca cola was positioning the Coke as a generic name for
Cold drinks.
As THANDA was India – centric phenomena , if one ever goes to any restaurant at that time,
they used to ask THANDA YA GARAM. Thus, CCI picked the word THANDA in each and
every advertisement with aamir khan to position their product .
Aamir khan was always shown in some rural areas playing the role of a shopkeeper , farmer
etc so that people in rural area can relate to the character of aamir khan and the product is
available everywhere as he was shown PUNJABI , HYDERABADI and even DESI in
different advertisements.
Therefore , with these successful advertisements, Coca cola was enable to position their
product as “THANDA MATLAB COCA COLA” which is available at EVERY CORNER
of the city and at ECONOMICAL PRICE.