PROJECT

On

MARKETING STRATEGIES OF COCA COLA

Submitted By –
Name :BikashDaga
Roll No:12705012032

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 CERTIFICATION

This is to certifie that Bikash Daga student of BBA 3 r d year, bearing

registration no-121272010164, Roll No:12705012032,Narula Institute of
Technology under West Bengal University of Technology has successfully
completed his study paper titled MARKETING STRATEGIES OF COCA
COLA. This project is an outcome of his sincere effort , wishing him all the
best of his future endeavor.

Signature of mentor

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am sincerely thankful to Miss Anusri Mallik (Project Faculty Guide), under

whose guidance I have successfully completed this project and time spent
with her had been a great learning experience. I think her constant
encouragement, warm responses and for filling every gap with valuable ideas
has made this project successful. She made it possible for me to put all my
theoretical knowledge to work out on the topic:
“MARKETING STRATEGIES OF COCA COLA”.

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 TABLE CONTENT

1. TITLE PAGE
2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
3. INTRODUCTION
4. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
5. METHODOLOGY
 DATA SOURCE
 DATA ANALYSIS
6. FINDINGS AND CONCLUDING REMARKS

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 INTRODUCTION

COMPANY PROFILE

Coca-Cola Enterprises, established in 1886, is a young company by the

standards of the Coca-Cola system. Yet each of its franchises has a strong
heritage in the traditions of Coca-Cola that is the foundation for this
Company.
The Coca-Cola Company traces it’s beginning to 1886, when an Atlanta
pharmacist, Dr. John Pemberton, began to produce Coca-Cola syrup for sale
in fountain drinks. However the bottling business began in 1899 when two
Chattanooga businessmen, Benjamin F. Thomas and Joseph B. Whitehead,
secured the exclusive rights to bottle and sell Coca-Cola for most of the United
States from The Coca-Cola Company.
The Coca-Cola bottling system continued to operate as independent, local
businesses until the early 1980s when bottling franchises began to
consolidate. In 1986, The Coca-Cola Company merged some of its company-
owned operations with two large ownership groups that were for sale, the
John T. Lupton franchises and BCI Holding Corporation's bottling holdings,
to form Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. The Company offered its stock to the
public on November 21, 1986, at a split-adjusted price of $5.50 a share. On an
annual basis, total unit case sales were 880,000 in 1986.
In December 1991, a merger between Coca-Cola Enterprises and the Johnston
Coca-Cola Bottling Group, Inc. (Johnston) created a larger, stronger
Company, again helping accelerate bottler consolidation. As part of the
merger, the senior management team of Johnston assumed responsibility for
managing the Company, and began a dramatic, successful restructuring in
1992.Unit case sales had climbed to 1.4 billion, and total revenues were $5
billion
The Coca-Cola Company is the world’s largest beverage company. They
operate in more than 200 countries & markets more than 2800 beverage

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products. Headquartered at Atlanta, Georgia, they employ approximately
90500 employees all over the world. It is often referred to simply as Coke or
(in European and American countries) as Cola or Pop.

COKE IN INDIA

Coke gained an early advantage over Pepsi since it took over Parle in 1994.
Thus it had ready access to over 2,00,000 retailer outlets and 60 bottlers.
Thus Coke had greater than Pepsi because it had ready access to the Parle
network. For example in 1994 Pepsi had 20 bottlers to serve the entire
country while Coke had Parle’s 60 bottlers. In an important market like Delhi
Pepsi had just one bottler while Coke had four. On the other hand Pepsi had
taken over the Dukes Mangolaof Mumbai.
In 1993, Pepsi Foods Ltd. had control over the Rs. 1,100 Crore Indian Soft
Drinks market. At that time, the soft drinks tycoon Ramesh Chauhan, was
heading the Parle group and at that time was deciding to explore the
possibility of selling his best rolling brands to Coke, rather than to Pepsi.
Pepsi had entered the market 3 years before Coke did. Before the Coke-Parle
tie-up in '93- Ramesh Chauhan had 2 options before him- (1) to stick around,
fight it out again and hopefully, continue with his number one position. (2) to
sell out to Coca-Cola for a good return. This risk of losing out to one of the
multinationals, eventually, seemed to be throwing up the second alternative.
Ramesh Chauhan told business world (India's most popular business
magazine) that "it is better to seek a compromise than to fight a lone battle".
But he was wisely simultaneously taking steps to safeguard his market share.
In a few months, Parle's products will be launched in 250 ml instead the
current 200 ml. The indications are that the company will hold the price line.
Incidentally, both Pepsi and Coke (if it finally gets in) will cost more than local
brands because of the 300% duly on the imported ingredients. However, this
scenario was taking place pre-liberalization period and hence implied a very
high duty on imported items.

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Entry of Pepsi and Coke in India or their proposals were at that time being
opposed because of the impact of first - strike on the minds of consumers. If
Coca-Cola is allowed an easy and quick entry through a window established by
the government, there can be no justification for denying similar access to
Pepsi Co.
Basically what was wrong at that time with the Coke proposal was that while
the Pepsi deal could go through under the camouflage of horticultures and
agriculture development as their proposal stated, a pure soft drinks project
was not so politically palatable (as it would greatly hamper the indigenous
industry).
Coke had plans, to invest $ 20 million in India and Pepsi was going to pump
in Rs. 300 crore more. Ramesh Chauhan greatest compulsion, to 90 in for the
2nd option was that many of his biggest bottlers were preparing to desert him
for Coke, .since the bottlers accounted for nearly one-third of Parle's sales.
Parle's biggest bottles in the Easter region, Goenka, accounted for 80% market
share in Calcutta, felt that the future lay with Coca-Cola, no Indian company
had the financial muscle to take on Coke.
Also, there was the most convincing factor for the tie-up, that Parle's Position
in the Indian soft drinks market and Coca-Cola's marketing strengths and
experience would make an unbeatable combination. At that time according to
the world’s most popular and well known magazine, Fortune, had rated Coke
as the world's best brand. Even Coke would greatly benefit from the tie-up, as
Coke with Parle’s wide spread bottling and distribution network, which was
spread over more than a thousand towns and cities and the gradual withdraw
of Parle brand would ensure Coke would be the king. Parle's best known
brands include Thums Up, Limca, Citra and others were GOLD SPOT and
Maaza.
The biggest advantage to Parle from the tie-up would be an instant gain of $
40 million, which could be used profitably in other ventures.
According to a report the deal was that, Parle Exports had transferred the
rights of all its reputed soft drinks brands to Coca-Colacompany, USA. In
short, Coca-Cola Company became the exclusive owner of Thums Up, Limca,

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Gold Spot, Citra and Maaza and could therefore, withdraw them from the
market whenever it would want to.
Under the agreement, the existing bottlers of Parle Exports would continue to
produce Parle brands under the licence from the Coca-Cola company. The
U.S. Multinational proposed to introduce its international brands -Coke,
Fanta and Sprite at an appropriate time. The Parle bottlers will be bottling
these Coco - Cola brands also. The exact nature of Parle, Coca-Cola tie-up is
given below :
So, Ramesh Chauhan, sold his soft drink brands of the U.S. Multinational for
($ 40 million) and is presently a major Coke bottler. Delhi - based Parle
Chairman gave up his ownership of his soft drinks brand (Thums Up, Limca,
Citra and Gold Spot) and was awarded the bottling franchisee for Delhi,
Bombay, Surat and Ahmedabad. Coke depends on the 54 bottling plants which
it was inherited from the Parle by out.
So, logically all brands of Parle as well as Coca-Cola will be marketed together.
The only problem being that Parle bottlers would not be able to meet the
peculiar quality requirements of Coke.

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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

To study the marketing strategies adopted by Coca-Cola

To study the advertising effectiveness Coca-Cola on customer
To analyze the awareness of consumer regarding Coca Cola.

Research design
The Research available is descriptive so as to describe the complete qualities
of the product available in market.

Sources of Data collection

In this project we use two sources of data collection, Primary and secondary

Primary Source:
It is the source which collects the primary data through Questionnaire and
record the raw data for further analysis, Primary source is used by the face-to-
face survey with the customers of the company.

Secondary Source:
Secondary source is the internet, magazines, and old data files of the research.

Sampling Technique:
The sampling technique which has been used in this research is simple
Random sampling. This has been used in order to simplify the process of
sample collection and to use our own wisdom and parameters in relation to
selection of sample.

Sample size: 30

Sample Area: Kolkata and Gangarampur

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 LITERATURE REVIEW

MARKETING MIX

WHAT IS A MARKETING MIX?

It is a set of controllable tactical marketing tools - product, price, place &
promotion - that the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target
market.

THE FOUR PS OF THE MKT’S MIX

PRODUCT PRICE
Product Variety List Price
Quality MRP
Designs Discounts
Features TARGET Allowances
Brand name CUSTOMERS Pay Period
Packaging INTENDED CR Terms
Sizes POSITIONING
Services
Warranties
Returns PLACE
Channels
Coverage
PROMOTION Assortments
Advertising Locations
Personal Selling Transportation
Sales Promotion Logistics
Public Relation

Effective marketing would be blending the marketing mix elements into a

coordinated programme designed to achieve the company’s marketing
objective by delivering value to consumers.

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 MARKETING MIX OF

Coca cola is the brand with the highest brand equity. No doubt it has gone
through the ups and downs of business to reach that position. The marketing
mix of Coca cola has been changing over time with more and more products
being added such that today it has 3300 products. So what is the marketing
mix of Coca cola?

Product
The company has the widest portfolio in beverage industry comprising of
3300 products. Beverages are divided into diet category, 100% fruit juices,
fruit drinks, water, energy drinks, tea and coffee etc. As per Nielson’s data,
Coca cola is the No.1 brand in sparkling beverages, juice, and retail packaged
water in 2010. Coca cola has its market presence around 200 countries. Coca
cola brands in India are Fanta, Maaza, Limca, sprite, Thums up, Minute Maid,
Nimbu fresh, Nested iced tea etc.

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Product Lifecycle of Coke:

Product life cycle has four phases

1. Introduction
2. Growth The product range of Coca-Cola includes:
3. Maturity
4. Decline

Price
Due to the availability of wide range products the pricing is done according to
the market and geographic segment. Each sub-brand of coca cola has different
pricing strategy. Their pricing strategy is based on the competitors pricing,
Pepsi is the direct competitor to coke. Beverage market is said to be a
oligopoly market (few sellers and large buyers), hence they form into cartel
contract to ensure a mutual balance in pricing between the sellers.

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 Market shares of soft drinks companies in India 2010

Over all 100%

Coca cola 33.7%

Pepsi 24.2%

Others 42.1%

Based on Sales volume

Coca cola 33.7%

Pepsi 24.2%

Others 42.1%

Place
Coca cola is the world’s most favourite brand and is available all over the
world. The distribution system of coca cola follows the FMCG distribution
pattern. The effective distribution network of coke has almost eroded the
small and middle level players in the market. In India they have captured even
the rural market by extensive distribution and have eroded the market share
of Bovonto, Kalimark etc.

The Coke Company operates three primary delivery systems for its business
channels:
Bulk delivery for the channels of large Supermarkets, Mass Merchandisers
and Club stores;
For smaller channels Coke does advanced sale delivery for convenience stores,
drug stores, small supermarkets and on-premise fountain accounts.

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Full service delivery for its full service vending customers.

Key Channel Listing

Supermarkets
Convenience Stores
Fast Food
Petroleum Retailers
Chain Drug Stores
Hotels/Motels/Resorts
Mass Merchan-disers
U.S. DOD Military Resale retail commands: AAFES, NAVRESSO and DECA
Vending

Model of Brand Selection

Customer buys on value
Value equals quality relative to price
Quality includes all non-price attributes that count in the purchase decision
Product
Customer service
Quality, price and value, are not absolute, but relative to competitors.
Product
Quality Customer Service
Value
Price

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Promotion

Coca cola adopts various advertising and promotional strategies to create an

increased demand in the market by associating with life style and behaviour
and mainly targeting value based advertising. You are more likely to see a coke
ad individualised for a particular festival or in with a general positive message.
Coca cola uses CSR as its marketing tool to gain emotional benefits in
consumers mind. The current promotions through CSR include “Support my
school” campaign with NDTV. It has many brand ambassadors like Shahru
khkhan, Hrithik Roshan, South Indian Actor Vijay and Trisha , Ghambir,
Aamir khan etc. and has signed contract recently with Imran khan. It allows
price discounts and allowances to distributors and retailers in order to push
more products into the market. It employs both push strategy through
promotions and pull strategy through advertisements and campaigns.

Cola - Cola has always worked upon their marketing mix tools since its entry
into India and Coke’s objective has been to strengthen their brand in
important segments of the market and to gain a competitive edge over Pepsi
brands.

METHODOLOGY

PEST ANALYSIS OF COCA COLA COMPANY

As the leading beverages company in the world, Coca Cola almost monopolizes
the entire carbonated beverages segment. Beside it, Coca Cola also maintain
their reputation as the leading company in the world using PEST Analysis so
that Coca Cola can examine the macro-environment of Coca Cola’s operations.

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POLITICAL

When Coca Cola had decided to enter a country to distribute the products,
Coca Cola was monitoring the policies and regulations of each country. For the
example, when entering Moslems country such as Indonesia or Malaysia, Coca
Cola followed the regulation by adding “Halal” stamp in each Coca Cola’s
products. In this case, Coca Cola has no political issues in this matter.

ECONOMICAL

Coca Cola also has low growth in the market for carbonated beverages (North
America). The market growth was 1% in 2004. For stimulating the growth,
Coca Cola had spent high budget of advertisement to endorse the customers.

SOCIAL

Nowadays, customers tend to change their lifestyle. Customers more aware

about health consciousness by reducing in drinking carbonated beverages to
prevent diabetes or other diseases. As a result, Coca Cola’s demand for
carbonated beverages has decreased and the revenues also decreased. Thus,
Coca Cola diversify the products by adding production lines in tea (Nestea),
juices (Minute Maid), mineral water (Dasani and Ades), and sport drinks
(PowerAde), and others.

TECHNOLOGICAL

Because of the developing technology, Coca Cola has advanced technology in

producing the products. Then, Coca Cola made innovations by giving flavors
to the Coke, such as Cherry Coke, Diet Coke, Coca Cola Zero, Coke with Lime,
and others. But, the customers still prefer the original taste of traditional
Coke; it can be seen by the high demands in traditional Coke.

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 SWOT ANALYSIS
SWOT Analysis of Soft Drink Industry in relation to coke
Coca Cola SWOT analysis
Strengths
The best global brand in the world in
terms of value ($77,839 billion)
World’s largest market share in beverage
Strong marketing and advertising
Most extensive beverage distribution
channel
Customer loyalty
Bargaining power over suppliers
Corporate social responsibility
Opportunities
Bottled water consumption growth
Increasing demand for healthy food and
beverage
Growing beverages consumption in
emerging markets (especially BRIC)
Growth through acquisitions
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Weaknesses
Significant focus on carbonated drinks
Undiversified product portfolio
High debt level due to acquisitions
Negative publicity
Brand failures or many brands with
insignificant amount of revenues
Threats
Changes in consumer preferences
Water scarcity
Legal requirements to disclose negative
information on product labels
Decreasing gross profit and net profit
margins
Competition from PepsiCo
Saturated carbonated drinks market
 PROMOTION STRATEGIES

GETTING SHELVES
They get or purchase shelves in big departmental stores and display their
products in that shelves in that style which show their product more clear and
more attractive for the consumers.
EYE CATCHING POSITION
Salesman of the Coca Cola company positions their freezers and their products
in eye-catching positions. Normally they keep their freezers near the entrance
of the stores.
SALE PROMOTION
Company also do sponsorships with different college and school’s cafes and
sponsors their sports events and other extra curriculum activities for getting
market share.
UTC SCHEME
UTC mean under the crown scheme, Coca Cola often do this type of scheme
and they offer very handy prizes in it. Like once they offer bicycles, caps, tv
sets, cash prizes etc. This scheme is very much popular among children.
DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS
Coca Cola Company makes two types of selling
Direct selling
Indirect selling
Direct Selling
In direct selling they supply their products in shops by using their own
transports. They have almost 450 vehicles to supply their bottles. In this type
of selling company have more profit margin.
Indirect Selling
They have their whole sellers and agencies to cover all area. Because it is very
difficult for them to cover all area of Pakistan by their own so they have so

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many whole sellers and agencies to assure their customers for availability of
Coca Cola products.
FACILITATING THE PRODUCT BY INFRASTRUCTURE
For providing their product in good manner company has provided
infrastructure these includes:
Vizi cooler
Freezers
Display racks
Free empty bottles and shells for bottles
ADVERTISEMENT
Coca Cola Company use different mediums
Print media
Pos material
TV commercial
Billboards and holdings
PRINT MEDIA
They often use print media for advertisement. They have a separate
department for print media.
POS Material
Pos material mean point of sale material this includes: posters and stickers
display in the stores and in different areas.
TV COMMERCIALS
As everybody know that TV is a most common entertaining medium so TV
commercials is one of the most attractive way of doing advertisement. So Coca
Cola Company does regular TV commercials on different channels.
BILLBOARDS AND HOLDINGS
Coca Cola is very much conscious about their billboards and holdings. They
have so many sites in different locations for their billboards.

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 Coca Cola India Marketing Strategy

Two decades old Brand Coca Cola India advertising journey has been full of
innovation and creativity. Coca Cola India made a consistent effort on its part
to align its product with the Indian Culture and tradition.
The earliest of the ad campaigns shows the brand positioning itself as a
relaxing drink, fighting off the hot weather and humidity of Indian weathers.
Since rival Pepsi had already established a strong brand image based on first
mover advantage, Coca Cola adopted the dual strategy of Jingles and Celebrity
endorsements.
Some of the popular coke Jingles in first decade of its existence were ‘Always
The Real Thing’, ‘Pee Le Coca-Cola’, ‘Jo Chahe Ho Jaye…Coca-Cola Enjoy.’
Moving on to year 2003 we had the fun loving “Thanda Matlab Coca cola ad”
where the iconic star Amir Khan was presented in 6 different looks, working
on the simple philosophy of highlighting how Indian related to the brand as a
cool relief. Word “Thanda”in India has different meanings like cool, cold or
refreshing. If you meant refreshment you meant Coca Cola. This ad was
instrumental in establishing Coca Cola as a brand in India.

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 Porter’s five forces analysis

Michaelporters identified five forces that determined the state of competition

in a market. He added that these forces also influence the profitability of firms
already in the industry. The five forces analyses was identify as

Threat of potential entrants- the threat to industry here depends on the

barriers that survive in the market on the likely reaction of active competitors
to the entrant. Porter recognized six sources of barriers to entry. Namely,
economies of scale, differentiation of product, capital requirement of entry,
cost advantages, access to distribution channels and legislative intervention.

Threat of substitute products-this can bring change to the competitive

environment wherethe firm operate. A recent product may make the existing
one worthless. The fear of individual firm is how the substitute would affect
his activities. The firm can only be at the safer side by remaining at a low cost
point in the industry.

Bargaining power of the suppliers- supplier can crush industry profit

through raising prices or lessen quality of products. Porter states that a
supplier is powerful if only a small number of them exist in a particular
market, if there is no substitute product available, if the industry is not an
important customer of the supplier or the supplier product is an important
input to the buyer’s business.

Bargaining power of the buyer- in reality, the greater the bargaining

powers of the buyer, the better the buyer talent to demoralize industry
benefits. Porter identify a number of factors of bargaining power to includes,
the concentration and size of the buyer in cost terms ,the cost of switching
stuck between supplier and the extent of standardization of products. Buyer
should be treated as rival but should have pleasant rapport foundation on
performance and uprightness.

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Rivalry among existing firms- the degree of rivalry can determine the
competitive environment within which the firm operate. Porter refers to the
strategy use by the firm to get reimbursement over their competitor s as
“jockeying for position”. This usually takes the shapes of guidelines towards
pricing, promotion, product innovation and service level. Porter further states
that tactic formulation necessitate that the above forces be examine very well
to victoriously position the company for defense against competitive forces,
control the balance of forces through strategic move and anticipate changes in
factors underlying the forces and react to the.

STRATEGIES FOR GAINING MARKET SHARE

Strategy When Use How apply in Cost-Implications

Market Place
1. Price To gain share in a A. Set general Will lower gross
product line (a) market price level margin by decrease-
where there is room below average sing spread between
for growth : (b) in (“catch share cost and price for a
launching a new generally strategy) period of time.
product, preferably B. Lower prices at Will lower cost as
in a growth market. specific target cumulative volume
customer accounts increases and costs
where reduced move down the
prices will capture experience curve.
high volume
accounts and where
competition in
vulnerable on a price
basis : lower prices
enough to keep the

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 business
C. Lower Prices
against specific
competitions who
will not or cannot
react effectively.
2. New When a new product A. Develop and
Product need (cost or launch the new
performance) can be product (Generally )
uncovered and a new B. T
product will (a) target specific
displace existing customers and
products on a cost or market segments
performance basis. where the need for
or (b) expand the the product is
market for a class of strongest and
product by tapping competition most
previously vulnerable, and
unsatisfied demand. immediate large
gains in share can be
obtained.
3. To gain share for A. Improve service Cost of adding
Service specified product generally beyond capacity and/or
lines when competitive levels by bolstering service
competitive service increasing capacity systems.
levels do meet for specified product Cost of expanding
customer lines. the distribution
requirements. B. Target specific system, including
accounts where additional
improved service inventories required.
will gain share and
the need for superior
service is high

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 C. Offer additional
services required in
general or at specific
customers-
information,
engineering advice,
etc.
D. Expand
distribution system
by adding more
distribution points.
4. When a market A. Add salesmen or Salary and overhead
Quality segment or specific sales representatives cost of additional
/strengt customers are to improve call salesman or
h of getting inadequate frequency above representatives
marketin sales force coverage competitive levels in Cost of training for
g (too few target territories or retraining
calls/month) or at target accounts. Cost of incentive
inferior quality or B. Sales training program
coverage (poor programs to improve
salesmen or existing sales skills,
insufficient product knowledge,
information and territorial and
conveyed by customer
salesmen) management
abilities.
C. Sales incentive
program with
rewards based on
share increases at
target customers or
in target market of
products.

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5. Adver- a) When a market A. Select appropriate Cost of creative work
tising segment or specific media to reach to create campaign.
and sales inadequate exposure target customer Production and
pro- to product, service, groups. media costs
motion or price benefits B. Set level and
compared to frequency of
competition (b) A exposure of target
change in the customers high
benefits offered is enough to create
made and needs to adequate awareness
be communicated. of benefits and
counter level of
competitive efforts.

BRAND LOYALTY

From a marketing strategy viewpoint, brand loyalty is a very important

concept. Particularly in today's low-growth and highly competitive market-
place, retaining brand-loyal customers is critical for survival; and it is often a
more efficient strategy than attracting new customers. Indeed, it is estimated
that it costs the average company six times more to attract a new customer
than to hold a current one. Brand loyalty is often thought of as an internal
commitment to purchase and repurchase a particular brand. As a behaviour
phenomenon brand loyalty is simply repeat purchase behaviour.Both
cognitive and behaviour approaches to studying brand loyalty have value. We
define brand loyalty as repeat purchase intentions and behaviours. While the
major focus of our discussion is on brand loyalty as a behaviour, we want to
emphasize that cognitive processes strongly influence the development and
maintenance of this behaviour. Brand loyalty may be the result of extensive
cognitive activity and decision marking. Brand-loyal behaviour may occur
without the consumer ever comparing alternative brands. Decisions have to be
made about where and when to purchase the product; some knowledge of the
product and its availability must be activated from memory; intentions to

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purchase fit and satisfaction influence the purchase behaviours .The market
for a particular brand could be analyzed in terms of the number of consumers
in each category, and strategies could be developed to enhance ibex brand
loyalty of particular groups.
Undivided brand loyalty is, of course, an ideal. In some cases, consumers
may purchase only a single brand and forego purchase if it is not available.
Brand loyalty with an occasional Swatch is likely to be more common,
though. Consumers may switch occasionally for a variety of reasons: their
usual brand may be out of stock, a new brand may come on the market and
tried once, a competitive brand is offered at a special low price, or a different
brand is purchased for a special occasion.
Brand-loyalty switches are a competitive goal in low-growth or declining
markets. However, switching loyalty from one to another of the brands of the
same firm can be advantageous.
Divided brand loyalty refers to consistent purchase of two or more brands.
Brand indifference refers to purchases with no apparent repurchase pattern.
This is the opposite extreme from undivided brand loyalty. While we suspect
total brand indifference is not common, some consumers of some products
may exhibit this pattern. Developing a high degree of brand loyalty among
consumers is an important goal of marketing strategy. Yet the rate of usage by
various consumers cannot be ignored. For simplicity, we have divided the
dimensions into four categories of consumers rather than consider each
dimension as a continuum.

Brand Loyalty and Usage Rate

Brand Loyalty
Brand-Loyal, Brand - loyal,
Light Users Heavy users

Light Usage Heavy Usage

Brand- Brand-
Indifferent, Indifferent,
light users heavy-users

Brand
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Indifference
The above figure shows that achieving brand-loyal consumers is most valuable
when the consumers are also heavy users. This figure could also be used as a
strategic toot by plotting consumers of both the firm's brands and competitive
brands on the basis of brand loyalty and usage rates. Depending on the
location of consumers and whether they are loyal to the firm's brand or a
competitive one, several strategies might be useful;
If the only profitable segment is the brand-loyal heavy user, focus on
switching consumer loyalty to the firm's brands.
If there is a sufficient number of brand-loyal light users, focus on increasing
their usage of the firm's brand.
If there is a sufficient number of brand-indifferent heavy users, attempt to
make the firm's brand name a salient attribute and/or develop a new relative
advantage.
If there is a sufficient number of brand-indifferent light users, attempt to
make the firm's brand name a salient attribute and increase usage of the firm's
brand among consumers, perhaps by finding a sustainable relative advantage.
It is also important to plot consumers of competitive brands to develop
appropriate strategies. If a single competitor dominates the brand-loyal
heavy- user market and has too much market power to be overcome, then
strategies may have to be focused on other markets.

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 COCA-COLA INDIA TO HARDSELL ALL BRANDS

The CEO's business card is printed in English in one side and in the national
language, Hindi on the other, he talks of two of India's established soft drink
brands as "national treasurers". He launches a brand of canned coffee for the
Japanese market - not for sale is India - and call it the "third national
treasure", because the coffee beans are sourced from India and that it would
generate substantial foreign exchange for the country.Blowing the pipe on this
discovery of Indian treasures is President& Chief Executive officer, Mr.
Donald Wilson Short of Coca-Cola India (CCI), who is trying to project the
new patriotic face of the Coca Cola company in India. A query on how much of
this sudden change of face has to do with the attitude of the present
Government towards MNCs is met with a diplomatic. Mr. Short says I have
always been proud of India and have been open about it to the media". But
the bottom line is that the company has little choice, to save the option of
leaning on `India treasures', Thumps up and Limca. Mr.Short says that
though in the first quarter of this year advertising rupee spent on drink
Thumps up. He claims that in second quarters, it will be reverse, as more
money would be spent on promotion of Thumps up. The latest white water
rafting ad for Thumps up has costed them three times more than the cost of
the Cokead".The marketing boost for Thumps up has its basis in the fact that
Thumps up accounts for nearly 40 per cent of CCIs, soft drink sales while
Coke accounts for 25 per cent and the rest is accounted for by the other brands
of Limca, Fanta, Citra and Maaza.Also forthcoming are a few details of the
target consumers of the respective brands, Thumps up is a male drink, Coke
goes down equally with both genders, Limca act Citra are more for women,
Fanta is a youth drink and Maaza is for those who do not always go for the
fizzy carbonated drinks.Demographically, speaking, Citra is virtually non-
existent up north whereas in South India, Citra has a good market. Thumps
up is strong in the east and down south, Mr. Short justifies the limited
progress of Coke and fanta saying that the share of business from these two
brands is low because it is not available in half of India. So the immediate task

28
is to increase the search of the two core brands, Coke and Fanta to nearly
three-fourth of the country.
Also in line with competition soft drinks market dynamics are huge ad
budgets, the difference this time around would be that CCI is pumping money
into all its brands, New advertising for Citra is due while Maaza would be
pushed aggressively too. Thumps up, Coke and Fanta are already getting due
attention, one could perhaps say that the real Cola war with focussed
marketing is in the making, not just between the Colas Coke and Pepsi, but
between the other brands of the two companies as well. Mirinda Vs Fanta,
Limca Vs Team, Citra Vs 7up, Slice vs Maaza. Coca-Cola India is about to sign
a deal with Prakash Chauhan : New Delhi, Nov 20th. Coca-Cola India may
sign a deal with Prakash Chauhan within next 2-3 weeks for acquiring his two
bottling units in Mumbai, of the units, Prakash Chauhan owns one jointly with
his brother, Ramesh, and the other he owns exclusively it is expected that
Prakash will buy out Ramesh Chauhan's stake in the jointly owned bottling
unit before handing it over to the Colagiant.Prakash Chauhan confirmed that
the deal with Coca-Cola India would be signed shortly. "Earlier we were not
part of the deal that was being negotiated between Ramesh Chauhan and the
Cola firm. We have now sorted out the outstanding issues, and the two
Mumbai bottling limits would be sold to Coca-Cola, said sources. They did not
specify the price of the deal between Prakash Chauhan and Coca-Cola India.
With the important Delhi and Mumbai bottling units Owned by the Chauhans
in its bag, Coca-Cola India will find it easy to persuade the remaining bottlers
to sell out to it. The Cola firm has signed a memorandum of understanding
with Ramesh Chauhan to acquire his Delhi bottling units in September.
In early '96', both Coca Cola India and Pepsi Foods India launched high
decibel promotions aimed at increasing the visibility of their respective
brands. Coca Cola kicked off the current round in December '95', after it
pipped Pepsi to bag the status of official soft drink to the wills World Cup by
offering Rs. 13 crore. Coke's slogan then had been 'The official drink', Pepsi
then came out with their's - 'Nothing official about it'.Coke had bought up
Parle’s business, including the Thums Up. Gold Spot and Citra brands, for
$40 million - the company's overall marke tshare has dropped from 60% to

29
56%. Coca Cola's loss has proved to be Pepsi's gain, whose brands improved
from 30% to 41% in the same period (see table). Coca-Cola's problems don't
end there. In the Cola segment - which constitutes more than half the total
soft drinks market - Pepsi has dislodged, Thums Up from the top spot, and
now has a 40% market share. The former Parle brand still retains 30%, but
flagship Coke comes in a poor third, with only a 20% market share.
Other former Parle brands have also taken a beating. Cloudy lime drink
Limca, which commanded a 20% share of the total soft drinks market in 1993.
has seen its market share drop to 16% today. And Gold Spot, though still the
leader in the orange segment, has lost most of ILs fizz, with a mere 4.5% share
of the soft drinks market, compared to around 9% in 1993. Besides the
promotions Coca Cola has finally planned to launch The Real Thing in cans.
Priced at Rs. 15, the 330ml. cans were slated to hit the market by mid '96.
There rival Pepsi had set aside nearly Rs. 8 crore for his advertising
programme in the run-up to and during the World Cup. While this being only
a fraction of the Coca Cola budget.
Coca Cola had spent Rs. 26.99 crore on television sports in the first nine
months of 1995. Coca Cola has earmarked Rs. 40 crore to promote the brands
in the run-up to World Cup. Meanwhile Pepsi spent a piffling Rs. 6.98 crore
on television ads during this period.The apparent failure of marketing
strategies of Coke was reflected in a survey conduct by Marketing & Research
Group in September 1995 for the Delhi based advertising and marketing
magazine, A & M on the country's best marketing companies. Pepsi ranked
7th. While Coca Cola came in 13.While both Coke and Pepsi slug it out for
larger shares of the soft drinks market, apparently the market itself is growing
pretty steadily. Per capita annual consumption of soft drinks has risen to 3.5
servings today, as against 3 servings in 1993 when Coke was relaunched.
A third competitor Cadbury Schweppes, its Orange drink, Crush was confined
to Delhi and Mumbai and now is planning to expand operations nationwide by
the summer of 1996.
The following diagram depicts the cold war between the 2 Cola giants and
shows which one out of the 3 (i.e., Coke, Pepsi and Thums Up) is the strongest
brand and in which region.The results have shown that Thums Up is preferred

30
over Pepsi in major soft drinks markets including Calcutta and in major cities
of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
The brand tracking study covering Coke, Pepsi and Thums Up had taken into
account a combination of performance indicators, like advertising
persuasiveness, brand preference and purchase intent, apart from retail audits
that are there to measure the case stock in retail outlets.While advertising
persuasiveness measured the ability of the commercials to make the
consumers buy the brands at the next consumption brand preference
indicated toe choice over other existing brands. Purchase intent measured the
likelihood of purchase of each brand at the next consumption occasion.
A survey of a sample of 6000 consumers in 14 major Indian cities was
conducted and the results compiled in the middle of January.While Delhi was
a Pepsi stronghold, Calcutta was Thums Up's and Punjab, India’s largest soft
drink market, had Coke ruling the roost with a lead of 15 per cent.With an
investment of $740 million over the next 10 years in India, Coca Cola India is
giving a major thrust to the campaign for Thums Up with the new dynamic
advertising showing adventure sports like bungee-and heli-jumping.Colas
contribute to about 50 per cent of the Rs. 1,800 crore soft drink market. The
popularity of Thums Up is showing in its volume of sales and it has been
proved that there is room for more to feed the hungry soft drinks market.

31
 Cold war between Coca-cola vs. Pepsi

The ongoing cola war between global rivals Pepsi and Coca-Cola has taken a
weird twist in India with the former dragging the latter to court. The charge:
Coca-Cola has snatched employees, bottlers, and agents, all of whom are
bound to Pepsi by a contract.

Pepsi has charged Coke with having entered into a conspiracy to disrupt its
business operations by inducing key employees and associates to break
existing contracts illegally.

Pepsi has sought a permanent injunction and an ex parte order against coke,
restraining it from taking away Pepsi's employees and business associates.
Pepsi has also reserved the right to seek financial damages from Coke at a
later date if necessary.

Pepsi has claimed that a dozen middle-level managers and three territory
managers broke their contracts with Pepsi to join Coke in recent months,
while during the last year and half, seven managers quit Pepsi to join Coca-
Cola.

Justice C M Nair of the Delhi high court on April 17 issued notices and
summons to Coca-Cola and 15 others for May 6. However, Justice Nayar
refused to grant the ex parte injunction sought by Pepsi India to stop the
alleged inducements by Coke in offering employment to Pepsi's employees
while the suit was pending in court.

On behalf of Pepsi, Ashok Desai and Arun Jaitley contended that Coca-Cola
had been "rattled by the huge success of Pepsi in India entered into a
conspiracy during the last six months to cause loss and damage to Pepsi's
business interests by adopting unfair and illegal means."

It added that Coca-Cola had approached many key managers and had
successfully lured a commercial manager of its bottling business Gaurav
Duggal, and a manager in Surat Sailesh Joshi, besides others.

32
Pepsi charged that while initially these approaches were sporadic, over t he last
six months it is clear that Coca-Cola has changed its strategy and has decided
to consciously target and approach key employees of Pepsi at various locations
in India.

The company has alleged that in most cases, the employees have not been
given time to adhere to the 90-day notice period and the one-year
confidentiality agreement. The latter deal bars employees joining its rivals for
at least a year.

Desai claimed Coke's actions would directly harm the business interests of
Pepsi, which had invested over $300 million in the country in establishing
business infrastructure.

In its defense, Coke is expected to seek relief in the Indian Constitution which
states that there can be no restriction on the movement of labor. Besides, any
effort by a company to restrict its employees from joining other companies
might fall foul of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act as an
unfair trade practice.

Pepsi has cited the instance of Coke snapping up cricketer Javagal Srinath in
spite of the latter signing a contract with Pepsi's sports consultant, 21st
Century Media. However, media reports, quoting sources, said that Srinath's
contract had been only in the verbal stage.

Similarly, Pepsi has charged Coke with inducing the Board of Control for
Cricket in India to give the sponsorship of the recently concluded Pepsi
Triangular Cricket Series to Coke, as acknowledged in the BCCI submission
before the Bombay high court, even while a contract was signed with Pepsi.

Pepsi has listed the case of Coke trying to induce its music consultant DNA
Networks Private Ltd, which organized the Yanni show, to snap its ties with
Pepsi and join Coke.

33
Incidentally, in results announced for the first three months of the year, Pepsi
has swept Coca-Cola aside. Pepsi has reported a growth of 27 per cent
compared to Coke's 21 per cent during the same period. In the first three
months of last year, Pepsi grew by 18 per cent only.

Coca-Cola India chief executive Donald Short had announced that Coke would
grow by at least 20 per cent for the whole of 1998. Coca-Cola, along with the
Parle brands it acquired when it came into India -- Thums Up, Limca, and
Gold Spot -- continue to dominate India with a 55 per cent market share to
Pepsi's 43 per cent. But in the cola segment, Coke comes a poor third after
Thumps Up and Pepsi.

The current summer season is the most important for the cola giants, with
consumption at its peak.

Market share 2014

Cities Coke Thumsup Pepsi Others
Mumbai 35% 10% 25% 30%
Delhi 30% 4% 35% 31%
Chennai 32% 5% 23% 40%
Calcutta 38% 9% 21% 32%

45

40

35

30
coke
25
Thums up
20 Pepsi
15 Others

10

0
Mumbai Delhi Chennai Calcutta

34
 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

Have you ever tried the product (Coca-Cola)?

Yes 30

No 0

35

30

25

20

15

10

0
yes no

Figure:1
Out of the 30 people we surveyed, all of them said they had tried Coca-Cola at
least once. This explains the brand awareness of Coca-Cola.

Gender

Male Female
18 12

35
 20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
male female

Figure:2
Out of the 30 respondents, there were 18 men & 12 women.

Age groups

Age No. of people

51 + 4
36-50 6
20-35 14
10-19 4
< 10 2

36
 Age Groups

51 & above

36-50 yrs

20-35 yrs

10-19 yrs

below 10 yrs

0 5 10 15
no. of people

Figure:3
As represented in the chart, majority of the respondents were in the age group
of 20-35 years, the least of the lot being 2 kids who were also asked to
participate in the survey.

Do you enjoy the product (Coca-Cola)?

Yes No
23 7

no
23%

yes
77%

Figure:4
37
From the analysis, it was found that majority of 77% (23 people) respondents
said they enjoyed drinking Coca-Cola as against 23% (7 people) who said they
preferred other drinks.

What brand would you say is more popular among the

public?

Coca cola Pepsi Others

17 11 2

Others
7%

Pepsi
37% Coca-Cola
56%

Figure:5
As seen in the chart, out of 30 people, 17 respondents said, in their opinion,
Coca-Cola was more popular while 11 respondents said they preferred Pepsi as
a popular brand.

38
Do you enjoy Coca-Cola’s advertisements on TV?

Don’t like them Not bad Good but I really like

nothing special them
2 people 4 people 13 people 11 people

I don’t like them

not bad

they are good but nothing special

I really like them

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Figure:6
The chart represents that a majority of people thought the Advertisements
were good enough & they like what they see.

Do you think the price for a can of Coca Cola is cheap or

expensive?

Expensive Slightly overpriced Cheap

6 23 1

39
 expensive

slightly
overpriced

cheap

0 5 10 15 20 25

Figure:7
As seen in the above figure, a majority of 23 people out of the 30 respondents
thought that the Coca-Cola Cans are slightly overpriced with a few people also
rating it as expensive.

If you were to see the Coca-Cola logo somewhere would

you recognize it?

Yes 30

no 0

40
 no
0%

yes
100%

Figure:9

It is understood from the fact that the Logo of the Company still has its image
in the minds of the people with all the respondents saying they would
recognize the “Coca-Cola” Logo.

How often do you buy the product?

Every day Few times Few times Few times Never

in a week in a month in a year
1 14 13 2 0

41
 everyday

few times in a week

few times in a month

once/few times in a year

never

0 5 10 15

Figure:10
As it can be seen in the figure, it was concluded that majority of the
respondents bought the product quite frequently. This shows the brand loyalty
of the customers towards Coca-Cola.

Where do you buy Coca-Cola products the most?

Restaurants Generals store Super markets

10 18 2

Percentage

Restaurants 33%

General stores 60%

super markets 7%

Figure:11
42
 Super market

general store
Column1

Restaurants

0 5 10 15 20

Figure:12

As seen in the above chart, customers usually preferred to buy Coca-Cola in

General store.The second largest option was restaurants like KFC, McDonalds,
Sub-Way etc.

43
 CONCLUSION

It was observed that Coca-Cola has been perceived quite positively as it has
been projected. People are aware of the Brand & Awareness of Coca-Cola is
quite high in the market. When a product is launched, avid Coke drinkers
choose this soda over any other competitor simply because it's a Coca-Cola
product and they trust it.
Although Coke has been into controversies, people still prefer to stay loyal to
the Brand with Coca-Cola being termed as a more popular brand than Pepsi.
Coca-Cola products would appear, on the shelf, to have the most expensive
range of soft drinks common to supermarkets, at almost double the cost of no
name brands. This can be for several reasons apart from just to cover the
extra costs of promotions, for which no name brands do without. When
people buy Coca-Cola they are not just buying the beverage but also the image
that goes with it, therefore to have the price higher reiterates the fact that the
product is of a better quality than the rest and that the consumer is not cheap.
In supermarkets and convenience stores Coca-Cola has their own fridge which
contains only their products. There is little personal selling, but that is made
up for in public relations and corporate image. Coca-Cola sponsors a lot of
events including sports and recreational activities.

44
 ANNEXURE
Questionnaire

1. Have you ever tried the product (Coca-Cola)?

a) Y es

b) No

2. Gender

a) Male

b) Female

3. How old are you?

a) Below 10

b) 10-19

c) 20-35

d) 36-50

e) 51 & Above

CLASS TALLY FREQUENCY MIDVALUE(X) FX

1-10 || 2 (1+10)/2=5.5 (2*5.5)=11
10-20 |||| 4 (10+20)/2=15 (4*15)=60
20-30 |||| |||| || 12 (20+30)/2=25 (12*25)=300
30-40 |||| 5 (30+40)/2=35 (5*35)=175
40-50 ||| 3 (40+50)/2=45 (3*45)=135
50-60 |||| 4 (50+60)/2=55 (4*55)=220
Total 30 fx = 901

45
Mean= fx/N
Mean=901/30=30.033

4. Do you enjoy the product?

a) Y es

b) No

Do you No. of Calculation Percentage

enjoy the people
product

Y es 23 23/30*100 77%

No 7 7/30*100 23%

Total 30 100%

5. What brand would you say is more popular among the public?

a) Coca-Cola

b) Pepsi

c) Other

BRAND NO. OF PEOPLE CALCULATION PERCENTAGE

(A)COCA COLA 17 17/30*100 57%

(B)PEPSI 11 11/30*100 37%

(C)OTHERS 2 2/30*100 7%

TOTAL 30 100%

46
6. Do you enjoy Coca Colas advertisements on TV?

a) I really like them

b) They good but nothing special

c) Not bad

d) I don't enjoy them

7. Do you think the price for a can of Coca Cola is cheap or expensive?
a) Cheap

b) Slightly over priced

c) Expensive

8. If you were to see the Coca Cola logo somewhere would you recognize it?

a) Y es

b) No

9. How often do you buy the product?

a) Everyday

b) Few times a week

c) Few times a month

d) Once/few times a year

e) Never

10. Where do you buy Coca-Cola products the most?

a) Super Markets

b) General stores

c) Restaurants (McDonald's, Subway, KFC etc)

47
 Like to buy No. of people Calculation Percentage

Restaurant 10 10/30*100 33%

General store 18 18/30*100 60%

Super market 2 2/30*100 7%

Total 30 1005

48