Introduction
Over the recent past, marketing has grown to become one of the key functional areas of business organizations. This growth has come in the wake of the realization that the traditional business practice methods are no longer relevant in the modern day business environment (Michael & Saren, 2010).
For a long time, business managers ignored the aspect of marketing and paid much emphasis on the production of goods and services. However, in the current day business world where competition is a major determinant of the adoptability of a product by the consumers, marketing has become an inevitable functional area of most organizations.
The importance of marketing comes in that the various products; both goods and services offered by an organization ought to be presented to the target consumers. More so, due to the availability of competitor products and supplementary products, marketing is necessary so as to help push the products to the consumers (Richard, 2009). Marketing therefore takes different forms and the final aim of any marketing activity is to enable the product being marketed to get adopted by the target consumers.
The success of a marketing strategy and subsequent marketing activities is judged by the increase in the amount of sales generated from the marketing activity (Marian, 2010). This essay presents and explains the four elements of marketing mix; Product, Pricing, Promotion and Place. The Coca cola Company will be analyzed in this essay.
Coca Cola Company
Coca Cola Company is the world’s number one manufacturer, marketer and distributor of non-alcoholic drinks. It is a multinational giant that has headquarters in the United States of America. The company has managed to produce top brands in the beverage industry such as Fanta, Coke, and Sprite and so on. Its main objective is to maintain its global leadership in the production and distribution of the soft drinks.
This objective has largely been achieved because most of the coca cola company products are house hold brands and continue to be used by many. The challenge is however maintaining this status and in order to achieve this, the company has come up with ways in which it can effectively use the 4 Ps of marketing to ensure that its brand remains visible all over the world. The following text discusses how the different P’s of marketing have affected the Coca-cola company marketing strategy.
Product
Product is one of the four main elements of marketing mix that concerns with the product itself. A company’s product is the sole reason for the existence of the company. This is because it is what meets the customers’ needs (Michael & Saren, 2010). There are various attributes of a product that help in marketing. These include the product lifecycle, product line and the product mix. A marketer should be able to manage the product in such a manner that its relevant to the consumers’ needs remain unaffected (Richard, 2009).
Coca-cola Company has managed to incorporate this marketing element to be able to achieve some marketing objective. One way of dealing with the product is through having a continual reinvention of the product that makes sure that the consumers continue to enjoy and derive benefits from that particular product.
The other way is by extending the product life cycle. The company has managed to continually re-invent its products over the years and this has offered a great deal of help in retaining the brand visibility among majority of consumers in the world.
The various Coca-cola Company products such as the Coke, Fanta, and Sprite have maintained their visibility among the consumers over the years. These products have been regularly associated with the young people and as such, the marketing strategy for these products revolves round the young people. This has been a successful strategy since the products have remained house hold brands among many individuals.
Promotion Strategies
Promotion is the other marketing mix element that deals with a company’s act of driving the products to the consumers. This is achieved through employing marketing activities that convince the consumers to purchase the particular product (Christ, 2011). There are various available promotional strategies. The most common ones are the push-pull strategy and the message & media strategy.
The push-pull strategy deals with the manufacturer promoting the product to the retailers directly so as to ensure that they keep the goods in their stock. The message & media strategy deals with the manufacturer performing the promotional activities independent of the retailer and this is aimed at creating a demand for the product among the consumers such that the retailers will act on the demand and therefore stock the product (Richard, 2009).
Coca-cola Company has majorly employed the message & media strategy. Their products are marketed via the different media such as the televisions, bill-boards, Social media, and so on. This element of promotion has affected the company’s marketing strategy since the company majorly employs promotion as the key marketing activity for its products.
The company gains a lot from this strategy since the consumers who regularly see these promotional messages in the mass media become accustomed to the products and as such, develop loyalty on the products. The brands that have managed to achieve success through this method are Coke and Fanta.
Pricing methods
Pricing is another element of marketing mix that deals with the setting of the product price. Price is usually the factor that determines the consumers’ willingness and ability to pay for the particular product (Christ, 2011). This is because of the fact that money is usually a scarce resource and as such, the available limited disposable income is allocated to the unlimited competing needs. Companies therefore ought to have a pricing strategy that does not exploit the consumers hence scaring them from purchasing the products.
The Coca-Cola Company effectively employs the pricing strategy and as such, it is able to gain a competitive advantage over other competitors’ such as Pepsi. The Coca-cola products are sold at relative lower prices comparing to the competitors. this has been achieved through the ability to gain on the economies of scale therefore having low products cost per unit.
The strategy that the company has used in this area is through having a suggested retail price. This prevents that consumers from being exploited by the retailers and also helps maintain the confidence the consumers have on the brand.
Place
This marketing element has to deal with the businesses’ act of ensuring that the products are presented at a convenient location to the consumers. Place also forms a type of utility where the consumer needs the product being offered by the business to be in an accessible location or a convenient one (Marian, 2010).
This is done either through transporting the products to the areas near the consumer or carrying out production near the consumers. The boon in this is that the consumer is allowed is able to purchase the product without major logistical issues.
Coca-cola Company has been able to put this element into consideration when coming up with marketing strategy. The company has expanded its tentacles to almost all the countries of the world and as such, it is able to carry out production and subsequent distribution to the consumers at their convenience.
Companies that have moved their products closer to the consumers not only enjoy brand visibility and recognition among the consumers but they also incur fewer expenses during production. The advantage of this is that the company is able to sell at lower prices and thus attract more customers who result in growth in the revenues.
Coca-cola Company has set numerous bottling plants in many countries and this has greatly helped in achieving low production costs. This has also ensured that the consumers purchase these goods at their own convenience. The strategy involved by Coca-Cola Company in this case is referred to as exclusive distribution.
This is where the company opts to solely and exclusively carry out its own distribution process without engaging other third parties. This helps in the consumers’ appreciation of the products and also increased the brand value of the company among the various consumers.
Conclusion
The importance of incorporating the 4Ps of marketing in crafting the marketing strategy cannot be overemphasized. Once a company has fully articulated the requirements of the 4ps of marketing, the marketers need to incorporate the customer focus marketing approach that leads to the 4Cs of marketing mix. These are the Commodity, cost, channel, and Communication. Once all these factors are put in place, the marketing strategy can be said to be complete and as such positive results can be expected from such an approach.
References
Christ, P. (2011). Principles of Marketing. New York: Butterworth- Heinemann.
Marian, B. W. (2010). Essential Guide to Marketing Planning. New York: Pearson Publishers.
Michael, J. B., & Saren, M. (2010). marketing Theory. London: Sage Publishers.
Richard, H. (2009). Brilliant Marketing: What the Best Marketers Know, Do and Say (3rd Edition ed.). New York: Pearson.