Faculty: Dr.

Namita Dixit
PGDM, SRMS IBS

PROMOTIONAL
STRATEGIES
By: Akash Deep Gupta, (T/200006)
PGDM (2020-22), SRMS IBS
PROMOTIONAL

STRATEGIES

OF
 Company Introduction

⚫ Coca-Cola was invented in May 1886 by Dr. John S. Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia.
⚫ Name "Coca-Cola" was suggested by Dr. Pemberton’s bookkeeper, Frank Robinson.
⚫ Currently offers more than 500 brands in over 200 countries and serves over 1.6
billion servings each day.
⚫ Company operates a franchised distribution system dating from 1889
⚫ It generates 80% of its profit from outside the United States. They have colossal brand
recognition across the world. 
⚫ From the survey, it is found that around 94% of people across the globe are aware of
the red and white logo of Coca-Cola

Brands under Coca Cola

Types of Media used to Promote Coca-Cola
Media can be divided into two categories, published media and visual/aural media. Published
media includes newspapers, magazines, trade and professional press, and the internet. Visual
and aural media includes television, radio, cinema, posters, billboards, and direct mailing.

Various types of media are used to advertise the Coca-Cola brand in general, and Coca-Cola
drink in particular.

Published Media:
1. Newspapers are one of the most popular
forms of media advertising that is widely
used by Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola Company is
one of the companies that has starred media
advertisement in its earlier stages, and by
now the company has been engaged in
media advertising for more than 100 years.

2. Magazines are widely used at a global level

to advertise Coca-Cola. The magazines are
chosen according to their readability by
the target customer segment of the
company. These advertisements usually
occupy an entire page of the magazine
to maximise the positive impact of the
marketing initiatives.

3. Internet is another platform where the

various forms of Coca-Cola
advertisements are placed. Specifically,
the brand’s online advertisement is
undertaken through the extensive use of
banners, pop-up ads, on-site
sponsorships and various other forms of
online advertisements in thousands of
websites along the globe. There are also
various forums and websites dedicated
to Coca-Cola fans, where users can
share their stories involving Coca-Cola.
Visual and Aural Media:

1. Coca-Cola has been advertised

through television in many countries. Coca-Cola
features different ads in different countries. These
ads are prepared considering the local culture to
avoid any misunderstandings due to the
differences in the culture of different countries.

2. Coca-Cola is also advertised

in cinema and this is undertaken
in two ways. Firstly, Coca-Cola
video advertisements are played
in cinemas before the movie
starts. Secondly, Coca-Cola is
advertised through product
placement in movies, wherein the
drink is featured somewhere
during the movie and the
efficiency of the product
placement is maximised by
showing the drink being
consumed by the lead role.

3. Coca-Cola radio advertisement usually lasts

only a few seconds, but is considered to be
efficient in terms of increasing brand awareness
and customer loyalty.

4. Posters and billboards are also widely used

as an integral part of the Coca-Cola media
promotion. The billboards are usually placed at
the city centres and highways around the globe as
well as some parts of the rural areas. Posters, on
the other hand, are normally displayed at the
public transports, shops and restaurants.
Promotional Objectives of
Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola advertisement campaigns are

launched to achieve specific objectives.
The company’s main objective is profit
maximization and these advertisement
campaigns contribute to the achievement
of this objective in several ways.

1. Creating awareness of the

company and its products.

2. Informing and educating

consumers and buyers.

3. Encouraging a liking for the

company’s products over those
of the competitors .

4. Encouraging product trial

among potential new customers.

5. Increasing short-term sales by

the means of stimulating action.
 6. Reassuring customers and reinforcing their particular desirable buying behavior .

7. Generating information from customers.

8. Creating sales lead.

Change in the Strategies of Coca – Cola with time-

Coca-Cola might be one of the best-known brands in the world today. However, that wasn't
always the case. When the company first started in 1886, it used coupons for free drinks to
raise interest in the product. In 1892, marketer Asa Candler finalized the purchase of
Coca-Cola from inventor Dr. John Pemberton. Candler's original advertising budget was
$11,000.3  He used items such as calendars, soda fountain urns, painted wall signs, napkins,
pencils, and clocks to advertise Coca-Cola. By 1895, Coca-Cola reports that the beverage is
sold and drunk in every U.S. state and territory, beginning its market saturation around the
world.

1900-1950s
The first celebrity to ever endorse Coca-Cola was music hall performer Hilda Clark in
1900.4  Since then, numerous celebrities such as Joan Crawford, Ray Charles, The Supremes,
Aretha Franklin, Arnold Palmer, and Joe Namath have attached themselves to the brand. By
the beginning of the 1900s, the marketing budget for the soft drink has already multiplied
ten-fold to $100,000.

Coca-Cola purchased space in national magazines for the first time in 1904. By 1911, the
company's advertising budget had skyrocketed to more than $1 million. In the 1920s, Coca-
Cola added outdoor billboards and radio program sponsorships into its advertising mix.
The famous Coca-Cola Christmas advertising campaigns began in 1931 with illustrations of
St. Nicholas drinking Coca-Cola.

1950s-1990s
The first television commercial for Coca-Cola premiered on Thanksgiving Day in 1950.
By this point in time, advertising already accounts for a significant portion of the company's
expenses. In 1956, McCann-Erickson, Inc. replaced the D’Arcy Advertising Company as the
official ad agency. The latter had a history of more than 50 years advertising Coca-Cola,
marking a shift in strategy. Sales outside the U.S. already accounted for about 33% of
revenue.3

By the 1960s, the company had begun to diversify its product lines, acquiring The Minute
Maid Corporation and introduced Sprite in 1961. In 1971, the famous "I'd Like to Buy the
World A Coke" television commercial was launched. To this day, it remains one of the most
popular and successful ads for Coca-Cola.5
1990s-Present
One of the most memorable Coca-Cola TV commercials was 1993's "Northern Lights,"
which marked the debut of the Coca-Cola polar bears. However, not all of Coca-Cola's
marketing ideas have been hits. In 1985, in an effort to compete with Pepsi, the company
decided to change the formula for Coke for the first time in 99 years. The new drink was
called "New Coke." The reaction to the new flavor was overwhelmingly negative, and Coca-
Cola went back to the original recipe in just 79 days.

Joe Tripodi, chief marketing and commercial officer for Coca-Cola, said the company had
more than $4 billion for its marketing budget in 2011. The major spending paid off as
Coca-Cola was named Marketer of the Year in 2011 .

Analysis of Message conveyed through Coca-Cola

Advertising
Coca-Cola marketing campaign materials have been devised according to the messages they
aim to convey, and images, words and sounds featuring within them have been perfected by
marketing professionals to serve the same purpose.

Messages sent to promote Coca-Cola can be classified into three categories:

1. Coca-Cola helps to best satisfy the thirst

Coca-Cola tries to communicate that it satisfies the thirst in the best possible manner.
However, a range of scientists as well as marketing authors cast a doubt about the ability of
Coca-Cola to satisfy the thirst efficiently and argue that ‘thirst’ for Coca-Cola has been
created by the company’s marketing professionals. In other words, ‘thirst’ created for Coca-
Cola is fundamentally different from the natural thirst for water, and the ‘thirst’ for Coca-
Cola is more a want than a thirst in a virtual meaning of the word.

2. Drinking Coca-Cola is stylish

Kotler and Keller states that the most effective marketing messages are presented by
companies as a solution to a problem potential customers experience.

According to Freud, in whatever they do

people are motivated by the willingness to be
great.

This can be viewed as a problem and a need that needs to be satisfied. Specifically, some
people aim to satisfy the need of the willingness to be great by trying to be stylish and trendy
and associating themselves with established, famous, and successful personalities. Coca-
Cola uses this fact by paying famous individuals perceived to be successful to publicly
associate themselves with its products. As a result, people purchase these products to satisfy
their desire to be trendy and stylish.
3. Drinking Coca-Cola is part of a lifestyle.

Coca-Cola tries to make the customers believe it is a necessary component of everyday life.
This is done by exposing the potential and existing customers to intensive marketing
campaigns through various channels.

Analysis of Success Associated with Coca-Cola Marketing

Initiatives
There are various criteria against which the success of a marketing campaign can be
assessed. One of them is through customer loyalty, market share, and the amount of revenue
that were generated because of the marketing campaign.

Evaluating from the criteria of customer loyalty, Coca-Cola marketing initiatives can be
considered to be highly successful. There are millions of people worldwide who consume
Coca-Cola regularly.

Every second of every day, people everywhere –

13,000 of them – pop open a Coca-Cola
product’.

Interbrand has rated it as one of

the most valuable brands in
2017. It ranks 3rd among product
brands with the most Facebook
fans as of April 2018 with 107.42
million fans.

When evaluated based on market

share criteria, the company is
selling its products in more than
two hundred countries, employing
61800 employees and is a market
leader in most of these markets.

From the point of view of

profitability, Coca-Cola was able
to generate 35.41bn USD from
operations during 2017, partially
because of its effective integrated marketing strategy.
Company Handling Coca-Cola promotion and marketing-

As one of only three agencies authorized to place media on Coca-Cola’s behalf and
one of only five agencies trusted to work on creative, digital, and social media
projects, SASSO has become one of Coca-Cola’s chief marketing allies. Whether it’s
pillar campaigns throughout the year like Share a Coke, football or holiday campaigns,
or new product launches like Coca-Cola Orange Vanilla, the SASSO team works with
this iconic brand to deliver growth across multiple regions throughout the US.

Conclusion
Having an effective integrated marketing communications strategy and the efficiency to
implement it are necessary for a company’s long-term growth. Coca Cola relies on media
extensively to conduct its integrated marketing communication strategy. The choice of media
used by the company includes newspapers, magazines, internet, television, cinema, radio,
posters and billboards.

Analysis of images and words used in Coca-Cola marketing campaigns has identified that
these marketing efforts aim to communicate three types of messages; Coca-Cola helps to
best satisfy the thirst, drinking Coca-Cola is stylish, and drinking Coca-Cola is part of a
lifestyle.

However, all these benefits that Coca-Cola is offering its customers are only perceived
benefits. The statement that Coca-Cola satisfies thirst better than any other drink is
justifiably under high degree of suspicion. It is also clear that Coca-Cola does not make
anyone stylish, trendy and cool in reality.

Even though Coca Cola offers mainly perceived benefits to its customers, with the effective
choice of components of integrated marketing communication and their efficient use, the
company was able to become one of the most successful multinational corporations in the
world.