DIGITAL MARKETING ASSIGNMENT

“THE SUCCESSFUL DIGITAL MARKETING MODEL OF COCA COLA

COMPANY”

By: OLIVIA SANDY 3303018011

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

FACULTY OF BUSINESS
WIDYA MANDALA CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY SURABAYA
YEAR 2020
 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
The Coca-Cola group is an American international business, producer, seller, and marketer of
non-alcoholic soda drinks and syrups. The organization sells Coca-Cola, founded in
Atlanta
Georgia in 1886 by John Stith Pemberton.Since 1889, the firm is owned and operated in
Atlanta,
Georgia, but was founded in Delaware, has run an independently owned and operated supply
system. The business manufactures primarily syrup extract, which is then distributed to several
bottlers globally that operate licensed franchises. Coca-Cola, which has over 500 brands and
operates in more than 200 countries. Internet, social media, mobile apps, and other digital
communications technologies have become part of everyday life for billions of people around
the world. According to recent statistics for January 2020, 4.54 billion people are active internet
users, encompassing 59 % of the global population. Social media usage has become an integral
element to the lives of many people across the world. In 2019 2.95 billion people were active
social media users worldwide. This is forecast to increase to almost 3.43 billion by 2023.
Digital and social media marketing allows companies to achieve their marketing objectives at
relatively low cost. Facebook pages have more than 50 million registered businesses and over
88 % of businesses use Twitter for their marketing purposes. Digital and social media
technologies and applications have also been widely used for creating awareness of public
services and political promotions. People spend an increasing amount of time online searching
for information, on products and services communicating with other consumers about their
experiences and engaging with companies. Organizations have responded to this change in
consumer behavior by making digital and social media an essential and integral component of
their business marketing plans. Organizations can significantly benefit from making social
media marketing an integral element of their overall business strategy. Social media enables
companies to connect with their customers, improve awareness of their brands, influence
consumer’s attitudes, receive feedback, help to improve current products and services and
increase sales. The decline of traditional communication channels and societal reliance on
bricks-and-mortar operations, has necessitated that businesses seek best practices use of digital
and social media marketing strategies to retain and increase market share. This study brings
together the collective insights from several leading experts to discuss the significant
opportunities, challenges and future research agenda relating to key aspects of digital and social
media marketing. The insights listed in this paper cover a wide spectrum of digital and social
media marketing topics, reflecting the views from each of the invited experts. The research
offers significant and timely contribution to the literature offering key insight to researchers in
the advancement of knowledge within this marketing domain. This topic is positioned as a
timely addition to the literature as the digital and social media marketing industry matures and
takes its position as an integral and critical component of an organizations marketing strategy.
 CHAPTER 2
CONTENT
2.1 About COCA-COLA
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation incorporated under
Delaware's General Corporation Law[a] and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The Coca-Cola
Company has interests in the manufacturing, retailing, and marketing of nonalcoholic beverage
concentrates and syrups. The company produces Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith
Pemberton. In 1889, the formula and brand were sold for $2,300 to Asa Griggs Candler, who
incorporated The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta in 1892.
The company has operated a franchised distribution system since 1889.[2] The Company largely
produces syrup concentrate, which is then sold to various bottlers throughout the world who hold
exclusive territories. The company owns its anchor bottler in North America, Coca-Cola Refreshments.
The company's stock is listed on the NYSE and is part of DJIA and the S&P 500 and S&P 100 indexes.
2.2 COCA COLA Digital Marketing Strategy that make them success
1. Amazing Twitter profile
They have around 2.7 million followers all over the world. Since their registration on March 2009, they
have twitted 97.000 times. On August @cocacola tweeted about 2000 times.
2. Direct engagement with fans
Probably the most important thing for any brand is staying connected with the large audience. And
Coca-Cola does it extremely good, as almost 85% of their tweets aim at connecting with their fans.
This method aims to prove that they care about their customers and love them. This was the main
reason of their huge success on Twitter.
3. Encouraging sharing
Very similar to Starbuck’s Tweet-A-Coffee program Coca-Cola is using the power of social sharing by
giving users the chance to send a link to a friend with their Tweet a Coke campaign, which lets them
order Coke while in Regal Cinemas locations. The cost is $5, but you can send a multiple ones.
Currently, this campaign is only accessible in the U.S.
4. Coke Blog and ‘Stories’
These are light articles about different topics, like music, fun, food, health, sport and so on. These
articles are about more essential parts for human satisfaction. They are written to develop deeper level
of personal belonging and success. It is rather easy content to write, but certainly it has more effort than
tweets.
5. Coca Cola Opinions
These ‘opinions’ are written by experts outside Coca-Cola. The articles cover much deeper issues like
economics, politics, environment, law and rights, innovation and so on. These articles raise awareness
in the society and give an impression that Coca-Cola is not only busy selling its products, but also is
worried about more global problems for the entire population.
6. Influencer involvement
Coca-Cola has a tactic of engaging famous people like Ryan Seacrest. The campaign, during World
Cup, used people like him to get people to upload their pictures to their huge project. I know this step
can be very costly for start ups to engage Ryan Seacrest, but at least they can go with YouTube
celebrities, authoritative bloggers or local influencers.
7. Coca-Cola’s success on Tumblr
Once Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!, announced that Coca-Cola is the best and the most interesting
brand on Tumblr. She is definitely true, as the title of their Tumblr is “Where happiness lives online”
and it’s something true.
8. Mixed messages
Coca-Cola does a lot of efforts to balance product placement with pictures which aim to keep things
funny. It’s very important in social media. You can hardly find someone who enjoys the sales 7 days a
week and 24 hours a day. Weather it comes to their blog or social channels you can easily see this
balance that Coca-Cola keeps. The same applies for your star up as well. 65% of your audience are
visual learners so share some funny and interesting content and they will be attached to you.
9. Coca-Cola’s Instagram profile
Coca-Cola shares happiness in Instagram too. They post both images and videos. 6 of their latest 25
posts were videos and their engagement was very high. On Instagram, they have more than 300.000
followers and almost 320 posts and this is still the beginning!
10. Coca-Cola’s biggest fan page is on Facebook
Coca-Cola’s biggest fan page is on Facebook with nearly 90 Million likes. Their page includes stories
telling how many people from all parts of the world helped them to become what they are today. Coca-
Cola uses this page to promote all their campaigns.

11. Accepting social challenges

When everybody including all your friends, colleges and acquaintances were posting their
#IceBucketChallenge videos Coca-Cola wore its creative hat and joined the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
too. Their vice president Wendy Clark accepted the challenge and not only she poured water on her,
but also she did everything to make their brand visible in many ways, from the Polar Bear to a Coke
towel.
 
12. Coca-Cola on Google+
During 2012 Coca-Cola had very active Google+ page and posted a lot of updates. Though, now, it
posts less than on Facebook, it still has more than 6000 followers and 3 million views.
13. Coca-Cola on Pinterest
Their Pinterest account is very interesting, while there are only 2-3 boards about their ad campaign,
while the others focus on specific themes. For example, they have boards like ‘be together’, ‘be active’,
‘be giving’ and so on. Another board is ‘Olympic Games Moments’, which contains a lot of images of
their sponsorship of that event.
14. Coca-Cola on LinkedIn
By entering Coca-Cola’s LinkedIn profile, one can find everything that is connected with their
employees and activities with them. They have 49.415 employees on their LinkedIn profile and they
update information about who they are hiring. So fans can see who create their ‘happiness’.
15. Coca-Cola on YouTube
You can spend your whole day in their YouTube channel and I bet that you won’t be bored. There are a
lot of videos, including their viral videos, for example happiness machine, World Cup’s videos and so
on.
16. Personalizing customer experience – Share a Coke campaign
Share a Coke is probably their most successful campaigns. It consists of bottles on which the logo is
replaced with the most popular names or other friendly identifiers, like ‘boyfriend’ , ‘girlfriend’, ‘bff’.
This campaign lets users to create virtual personalizes bottles and share them on social media sites, like
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

2.3 Strategic Actions On a wider scale

Coca Cola introduced five strategic actions to achieve its goals which are as follows:
1. Market segmentation
Market segmentation is a strategic method to divide the market based on volume and capacity
of buyers and using appropriate methods to maximise sales and thereby, earning profits from
each segment. Coca Cola used this technique to segment the market according to emerging
markets, developing markets and developed markets since every country in the 200 plus
countries play a crucial rolein the growth. In emerging markets, the primary focus was on
increasing the sales volume rather than profits so that it increased its customer domains and
make a strong foundation for future business. This was made possible by selling beverages at
economical rates so that higher no. of masses can enjoy it. In developing markets, a balance was
made between volume sold and pricing, whereas, in developed countries the focus was more on
profit making by offering more small packages and premium packages like glass and
aluminium bottles. In 2015, globally, price/mix rose 2 percent as did volume, helping increase
organic revenue 4 percent. Coca Cola also gained worldwide value share in their industry.
2. Brand establishment and Customer relationship
Brand establishment becomes vital while expanding an organisation‟s portfolio. Consumers
tend to trust a branded product and often spend an extra penny upon it rather than choosing an
unheard product. Brand name is also viewed as a status quo in developed markets. Coca Cola
made a right decision to invest in developing the brand value by improving and modernising the
advertisements by investing over $250 million. These ads focused on creating an impact upon
people and changed the perspective of Coca Cola from an occasional drink to an integral part of
people‟s life. At the same time, investment was made to improve the position in energy drink
category, juices and also healthy drinks by making strategic partnerships with Monster
Beverage Corporation, Suja (a line of premium organic juices), Fairlife ultra filtered milk etc. A
major breakthrough took place in 2015 when Coca Cola developed its first global marketing
campaign. The primary objective was to establish the „one-brand‟ strategy to bring all its sub
products under one brand name „Coca-Cola‟. The slogan „Taste the Feeling‟ launched in early
2016 emphasizes the refreshment, taste, uplift and personal connections that are all part of
enjoying an ice-cold Coca-Cola. For the fitness-oriented consumers, it sent a broader message
that they can enjoy Coca Cola by choosing an appropriate variety of drink with varying number
of calories in caffeine.

3. Increasing financial efficiency

For any business, the ultimate goal is to have maximum returns for the investments with
maximum productivity. In order to achieve this, financial efficiency plays an important role.
Coca Cola made efforts to achieve financial flexibility by implementing a solution known as
„zero-based work‟- wherein annual budget is revised from zero and must be justified annually
at the end rather than simply carrying over at levels established in the previous years. Marketing
Strategy Of Coca Cola ADMIFMS International Management Research Conference 2018 79 |
Page Also, savings mere made by choosing to advertise carefully and cut down expenses in
non-media marketing like in-store promotion. Overall $600 million were realised by
productivity improvement in 2015 which were further used in brand making, business
improvement and providing decent dividends to shareowners. The organisation plans to use the
same process to further increase the productivity and make continuous savings, and treat it as a
day-by-day process of becoming leaner and better.

4. Increasing process efficiency

An organisation can be termed to be fully efficient when its process time is minimised without
affecting the quality. Process time plays an important role when the demand is suddenly
increased. Inefficient pre-planning and process planning will lead to disruption in supply of
high demands. In a continuous evolving market with highly volatile consumer demands both in
quantity and preferences, innovative supply chain markets, speed, precision and empowered
employees decide the winner. Coca Cola took steps to reshape their business processes and
searched for redundant areas. It removed a layer of functional management and connected our
regional business units directly to headquarters. Further investigation led to removal of process
roadblocks and barriers which finally made it faster, smarter and more efficient. Focus was also
made to interact more with employees to make work a fun-filled, exciting and career fulfilling
environment. Employees were motivated to nourish curiosity, learning, innovation and growth.

5. Focusing core competencies and business models

Coca Cola has developed a business model with portfolio including more than 500 brands
ranging from sparkling beverages to value-added dairy and many more. Over a billion dollars
annually are generated together by few of these in retail sales. It has managed to gather a variety
of consumers thereby generating profits from all segments irrespective of market conditions. Its
primary core competency has been the ability to manage a huge system of independent bottling
partners and also acquiring a number of bottlers under its own. The primary aim has been to
improve performance of bottling partners by increasing productivity, performance, optimizing
manufacturing and distribution systems and finally refranchising the independence of bottling
territories. All this effort finally creates value for retail and restaurant customers. In 2015, the
organisation took major steps in North America to make company-owned bottling territories
independent. The plan was to refranchise the North America bottling system by end of 2017. A
new unified bottling partner was planned to set up in Western Europe and accordingly, a
transaction was announced. Further, improvement and refranchising has been planned for
bottling system in Southern Africa, East Africa, Indonesia and China. Coca Cola plans to
reduce company-owned bottlers to 3 percent from 18 percent of the global volume
 CHAPTER 3
CONCLUSION
Coca cola keep up their marketing strategy by following the trendiest marketing strategy which is
digital marketing, they promote their product online, and gain customers attention by maintaining
customer relationship online. Probably the most important thing for any brand is staying connected
with the large audience. Digital and social media technologies and applications have also been widely
used for creating awareness of public services and political promotions. People spend an increasing
amount of time online searching for information, on products and services communicating with other
consumers about their experiences and engaging with companies. Organizations have responded to this
change in consumer behavior by making digital and social media an essential and integral component
of their business marketing plans. Organizations can significantly benefit from making social media
marketing an integral element of their overall business strategy. Social media enables companies to
connect with their customers, improve awareness of their brands, influence consumer’s attitudes,
receive feedback, help to improve current products and services and increase sales. So Coca-cola
connect with their customers and promote their product online.
 References:
Anik, Khairul & Habiba, Warda. (2020). MARKETING MANAGEMENT PRACTICE OF Coca-Cola.
Singaram, Rukmani & Ramasubramani, Athul & Mehta, Aaditya & Arora, Pari. (2019). Coca Cola: A
study on the marketing strategies for millenniums focusing on India.
https://www.incredo.co/blog/coca-cola-marketing-success-16-easy-steps/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coca-Cola_Company