ASSIGNMENT ON Marketing Communication Materials

Prepared For: Professor Dr. A. K. Shamsuddoha Course Teacher MKT 511: Brand Management

Prepared By: Somaiyah Sarwar Class ID:2010-2-95-096 Summer Semester, 2011

Date of Submission: 12.08.2011

Marketing Communication are the means by which a firm firms attempt to inform, persuade and remind consumers directly or indirectly-about the brands that they sell. Main Marketing Communication materials used by a brand are as follows: Media Advertising Direct Response Advertising Online Advertising Place Advertising Point-of-Purchase Advertising Trade Promotions Consumer Promotions Event Marketing and Sponsorship Publicity and Public Relations Personal Selling

For this Assignment, the world famous brand Coca Cola has been chosen and marketing communication materials used by it have been tried to be identified.

Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke (a registered trademark of The Coca-Cola Company in the United States since March 27, 1944). Originally intended as a patent medicine when it was invented in the late 19th century by John Pemberton, Coca-Cola was bought out by businessman Asa Griggs Candler, whose marketing tactics led Coke to its dominance of the world soft-drink market throughout the 20th century.The company produces concentrate, which is then sold to licensed Coca-Cola bottlers throughout the world. The bottlers, who hold territorially exclusive contracts with the company, produce finished product in cans and bottles from the concentrate in combination with filtered water and sweeteners. The bottlers then sell, distribute and merchandise Coca-Cola to retail stores and vending machines. Such bottlers include Coca-Cola Enterprises, which is the largest single Coca-Cola bottler in North America and Western Europe. The Coca-Cola Company also sells concentrate for soda fountains to major restaurants and food service distributors. The Coca-Cola Company has, on occasion, introduced other cola drinks under the Coke brand name. The most common of these is Diet Coke, with others including Caffeine-Free Coca-Cola, Diet Coke Caffeine-Free, Coca-Cola Cherry, Coca-Cola Zero, Coca-Cola Vanilla, and special editions with lemon, lime or coffee. Coca-Cola's marketing communications mix consists of the following: Advertising: According to Gary Armstrong and Philip Kotler, "Advertising is any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor." Coca-Cola has used advertising to build an image for its company. Here are some of the types of advertising that Coca-Cola uses:

Magazines:The company has also used magazines as a form of advertising,

such as this 1950's ad in Time Magazine. By advertising in magazines, CocaCola can geographically and demographically select consumers that it wants to target. Media Advertising: Coca-Cola uses the television for advertisements. By using the television for advertising, Coca-Cola has gained good marketing coverage by appealing to consumer's senses. Coca-Cola's advertising has significantly affected American culture.Coke's advertising is pervasive, as one of Woodruff's stated goals was to ensure that everyone on Earth drank Coca-Cola as their preferred beverage. This is especially true in southern areas of the United States, such as Atlanta, where Coke was born.Some of the memorable CocaCola television commercials between 1960 through 1986 were written and produced by former Atlanta radio veteran Don Naylor (WGST1936

1950, WAGA 19511959) during his career as a producer for the McCann Erickson advertising agency. Many of these early television commercials for Coca-Cola featured movie stars, sports heroes and popular singers. The Coca-Cola Company purchased Columbia Pictures in 1982, and began inserting Coke-product images in many of its films. It uses movie stars, sports heroes and singers for endorsing their products. In mass media Coca-Cola has been prominently featured in countless films and television programs. It was a major plot element in films such as One, Two, Three, The Coca-Cola Kid, and The Gods Must Be Crazy. It provides a setting for comical corporate shenanigans in the novel Syrup by Maxx Barry.

Event Marketing and Sponsorship Coca-Cola was the first commercial sponsor of the Olympic games, at the 1928 games in Amsterdam, and has been an Olympics sponsor ever since. This corporate sponsorship included the 1996 Summer Olympics hosted in Atlanta, which allowed Coca-Cola to spotlight its hometown. Most recently, Coca-Cola has released localized commercials for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Since 1978, Coca-Cola has sponsored each FIFA World Cup, and other competitions organised by FIFA. In fact, one FIFA tournament trophy, the FIFA World Youth Championshipfrom Tunisia in 1977 to Malaysia in 1997, was called "FIFA Coca Cola Cup". [78] In addition, Coca-Cola sponsors the annual Coca-Cola 600 and Coke Zero 400 for the NASCARSprint Cup Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina and Daytona International Speedway in Daytona, Florida. Coca-Cola has a long history of sports marketing relationships, which over the years have included Major League Baseball, the National Football League, National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League, as well as with many teams within those leagues. Coca-Cola is the official soft drink of many collegiate football teams throughout the nation.

Coca-Cola was one of the official sponsors of the 1996 Cricket World Cup held on the Indian subcontinent. Coca Cola is also one of the associate sponsor of Delhi Daredevils inIndian Premier League. In England, Coca-Cola is the main sponsor of The Football League, a name given to the three professional divisions below the Premier League in football (soccer). It is also responsible for the renaming of these divisions until the advent of Coca-Cola sponsorship, they were referred to as Divisions One, Two and Three. Since 2004, the divisions have been known as The Championship (equiv. of Division 1), League One (equiv. of Div. 2) and League 2 (equiv. of Division 3). This renaming has caused unrest amongst some fans, who see it as farcical that the third tier of English Football is now called "League One." In 2005, Coca-Cola launched a competition for the 72 clubs of the football league it was called "Win a Player". This allowed fans to place 1 vote per day for their beloved club, with 1 entry being chosen at random earning 250,000 for the club; this was repeated in 2006. The "Win A Player" competition was very controversial, as at the end of the 2 competitions, Leeds United AFC had the most votes by more than double, yet they did not win any money to spend on a new player for the club. In 2007, the competition changed to "Buy a Player". This competition allowed fans to buy a bottle of Coca-Cola Zero or Coca-Cola and submit the code on the wrapper on the Coca-Cola website {www.coca-colafootball.co.uk}. This code could then earn anything from 50p to 100,000 for a club of their choice. Introduced March 1, 2010, in Canada, to celebrate the 2010 Olympics, Coca Cola will sell gold colored cans in packs of 12 355 mL each, in select stores.

Outdoor advertising: Outdoor advertising is also a form that Coca-Cola uses.

According to allbusiness.com, Coca-Cola, among other business, ranks one of the top users of outdoor media (By advertising outdoors, Coca-Cola can strategically position it's advertisements and also achieve high repeat exposure. Online Advertising: Coca-Cola uses the internet to promote it's products. The company has it's own website, which is quite simple to navigate through. The website allows customers to become interactive through various games, contests, shopping, and through a special section of the website that enables consumers to find out how they can help their community. Public Relations: As stated by Gary Armstrong and Philip Kotler, "Public relations allows companies to build good relations with the company's public by obtaining favorable publicity, building good corporate image, and handling or heading off unfavorable rumors, stories, and events." Coca-Cola handles public relations by including a press center on its website: . This section of the website allows consumers to view press releases, executive speeches, and statements made by the company regarding current information. In the statements, Coca-Cola can address law suits, rumors, stories, new products, and activities. There is also a section of the website devoted to investors. Here, current, or future, investors can access financial statements and up-to-the-minute stock information. Personal Selling: Coca-Cola has many salespeople, who are individuals representing the company to communicate, sell, service, and build relationships with customers. These salespeople promote their product to different customers within their regions, and once they sustain a customer, they sell their products to them and service them many

times per week. These individuals form close relationships with the customers in order to continue business with them. Consumer Promotion: A sales promotion is an activity that is implemented to boost the sales of a product or service temporarily. Coca-Cola often runs sales with stores to quickly increase sales. Coke gives its product to the retailer for a lower price, and in-turn the retailer sells the product on sale. To advertise for these sales, the retailer generally runs an ad in their store sales circular at attract consumers. Direct Marketing Tools: Coca-Cola uses direct marketing in many ways. First, the company partners with various restaurants, movie theaters, ect. to carry it's product. This way, when a customer orders a drink, the only brand they are offered is Coca-Cola, which forces them to buy a drink from that brand. By doing this, Coke forces out other competition, and keeps the restuarants, or other businesses, purchasing their product over and over again. Coca-Cola also uses it's name for sporting events, like the Allentown Iron Pigs baseball field. The Coca-Cola Field offers a fun time for family and friends while only serving Coke products. This also allows for salespeople to invite retailers to one of the many Coca-Cola boxes for great food, fun, and some "business talk", as well. Next, Coca-Cola has begun to use mobile advertising. According to mobilemarketingmagazine.com, Coke uses mobile graphics and texts to appeal to markets on a more personal level. Point of Purchase: Coca Cola also uses point of purchase for selling its products conveniently to consumers

Last, Coca-Cola uses viral marketing. The brand became a giant because of individuals telling their friends, family, or coworkers about how great Coke products were. Today, the company can still use viral marketing to their advantage. For instance, when Coke produces a new product, and someone on their lunch break purchases that new product, and enjoys it, they will tell others in the office about how great the new product is. This will cause others to purchase the product, and in-turn increase sales.

Brand portfolio Name Launched Discontinued Notes Picture

CocaCola

1886

The original version of Coca-Cola.

CaffeineFree 1983 CocaCola

The caffeine free version of Coca-Cola.

CocaCola Cherry

1985

Was available in Canada starting in 1996. Called "Cherry Coca-Cola (Cherry Coke)" in North America until 2006.

New Coke/"Co 1985 ca-Cola II"

2002

Still available in Yap and American Samoa

CocaCola with 2001 Lemon

2005

Still available in:American Samoa, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, Denmark, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, France, Germany, HongKong, Iceland,Korea, Luxembourg, Ma cau, Malaysia, Mongolia,Netherlands,Norwa y, Runion, Singapore,Spain, Still available in: Austria, Australia, China, Germany, Hong Kong, New Zealand (600 mL only) Malaysia, Sweden (Imported). Was called "Vanilla Coca-Cola (Vanilla Coke)" during initial U.S. availability.

CocaCola Vanilla

2002

2005

CocaCola C2

2003

2007

Was only available in Japan, Canada, and the United States.

CocaCola with 2005 Lime

Available in Belgium, Netherlands, Singapore, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

CocaCola June 2005 End of 2005 Raspberry

Was only available in New Zealand. Currently available in the United States in Coca-Cola Freestyle fountain since 2009.

Coca2005 Cola Zero

Coca Cola with no sugar.

CocaCola M5

2005

Only available in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Brazil

CocaCola Black Cherry Vanilla

2006

Middle of 2007 Was replaced by Vanilla Coke in June 2007

Coca2006 Cola Blk

Beginning 2008

Only available in the United States, France, of Canada, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Lithuania

Coca2006 Cola Citra

Only available in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, New Zealand and Japan.

EFFECTIVENESS OF COMMUNICATION MIX Most organisations will try to measure the effectiveness of their advertisement and evaluate to what extent they were able to communicate with their advertisement. And also the other factor they look at is that how their sales have affected with their communication strategies. From the points discussed above in marketing communication mix to check the effectiveness of the tools used can be checked as follows: 1) Message that audience get from the advertisement: This helps the organisation to check the, is that commercial able to convey the exact message that they wanted to share with the audience. In the strategies discussed above of Coca-cola where form time to time they come up with new products, are they able to able to tell the consumer that what that product is exactly. And we can see that the commercials of Coca-cola are much focused and convey what they wanted to say. 2) Knowing audience: For being successful in delivering the message to their audience, orginasation should first know there audience whom they are going to connects. This is exactly done by coca cola they come up with new promotions with time to time with the change in product or situation. 3) Relate all the strategies developed: The strategies developed should be very well interlinked to each other and known to all the departments. The efficiency of any communication strategy or tool can only be achieved if it is very well linked and known to each person working for its development. Likewise, if coca-cola budget department does not properly know the requirement of creative department, the budget declared by them would be unfruitful as they did not know the requirement in the first place. 4) To know what you want to say & what you dont want to say: This is one of the communication learning lessons. In our normal day to day life we expect better communication at home, workplace; if we dont communicate what we want, then how can we expect to get that thing. In the same way, if coca-cola doesnt succeed in communicating what their product is all about and what it is not? How will they manage their consumers to understand why they

should buy it. Its very important to deliver right message using- what you want to say and what you dont want to say 5) Test your communication mix tools in advance: While testing the tool simply means, whether such kind of marketing tool will be successful in the market or not. It depends on the culture, tradition and lifestyle of people; that which kind of advertisements appeals them. For ex: to gain hundred percent effectiveness, coca-cola should have and it has different marketing strategies for UK & USA respectively. 6) Dont allow your budget to run out of control: If a company has to enjoy the benefit of marketing communication mix and strategies it should always draw a limitation on the budget that is to be spend in various activities like promotion, sponsorship etc. The limitation to spend would always challenge to make the BRAND name profitable.

7) Niche marketing: Like coca-cola always use different marketing tools to cover specific
audience which is one of the best ways to market. By doing niche marketing it can portray its brand very well. This would help them to get best out of the talent spend on marketing the product in result of achieving the huge sales. As product will be familiar with the target audience whom they are targeting. 8) Evaluating the result: The strategies can be tested by caring small surveys by asking the people about their views after looking at the promotions. And following the survey required changes can be brought into the upcoming plannings. 9) Measures to be used for improvement in future: By looking and analysing all the above steps or processes, organisation can come with important measures that can be implemented for the future strategies and can get better result in the future. All the above mentioned measure is the key to look how the organisation is communicating with the targeted audience and are they getting the proper output of it. This can be seen in comparing it with the data of their sales that the company is making with the help of the communication strategies used.

CONCLUSION: The communication of the product to the consumer is nothing but spreading knowledge of the product stating its different purposes. Using correct marketing communication strategy is one of the USP of the company to mark its footsteps in the competitive market. But the marketing strategy should be finely merged with the appropriate communication mix tool to actually make the product reach at consumer doors. And this is what coca cola implies which has made it listed in fortune 500 and become one of the GLOBALLY known BRAND accepted by all countries having different cultures and ethnicity.

References: http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com www.news.bbc.co.uk www.reports.mintle.com http://tutor2u.net http://presscentre.cocacola.co.uk/viewnews/gb_first_tomarket_new_grab_a_taste_of_friday_global_campaign http://presscentre.cocacola.co.uk/viewnews/coca_cola_captures_passion_for_celebratio n_in_new_global_commercials_for_2010_fifa_world_cuptm http://www.thecocacolacompany.com/contactus/faq/advertising_marketing_children.html http://cokeusa.com/coca-cola-promotions/ http://www.mycokerewards.com/showLBE.do?id=sprite&type=brand&size=3&exp=html http://www.brandrepublic.com/Discipline/SalesPromotion/News/859400/Pepsi-campaignuses-QR-mobile-phone-codes/ http://warrington.ufl.edu/mkt/docs/sawyer/MrktgCommun.pdf http://www.oac.state.oh.us/resources/mediaresourceguide/evaluation.asp