Abstract
Shopper marketing examines how brands by implementing and integrating their particular strategies by focusing on the customers at the point of sale. Shopper market strategy directly influences the behavior of the consumer immediately he is purchasing a product. Various techniques are deployed by the company to create impressions by changing some aspects of the product such as color, packaging, size as well as language. Advertisement in the stores where these products are sold is also a technique of capturing the attention of customers. To help persuade the customers, manufacturers need to reconsider the design of their products through packaging and in-store adverts which capture the attention of the customers. Promotion in marketing is intended to spread the word about the changes that have been effected to a product to consumers and the broader public. This happens after the target market has been identified. Promotion can be achieved through advertisements, referrals, sales promotions as well as public relations.
Introduction
Coca-Cola uses advertisement and promotional strategies that aim at increasing the demand of their products in the market, putting into consideration the behavior and lifestyles of its consumers. The advertisement targets values with positive motives. The company continues to use the CSR as a marketing tool that aims at capturing the emotional benefits of its consumers. The company also has ambassadors in various designations, and gives their distributors some marketing incentives and allowances and allows price discounts to its retailers. The company uses the push strategy during promotions and the pull strategy during campaigns and advertisements (Hartline p.232). Is considering the “One Brand” marketing strategy that Coca-Cola adopted to go global along with the “Taste the Feeling” campaign. This strategy encompasses 4 variants of products which are Diet Coke, Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Life and Cola Zero (Hepburn p.1). This strategy focused on marketing of Coca-Cola master brand to replace the traditional marketing that sold products as separate. It was first launched in the UK in March this year. It has proved to be a successful trial (Maila et al, p. 163).
The Analysis of the Campaign
The One Brandy strategy with the Test The Feeling theme was to be implemented to extend the iconic appeal as well as the global equity of Coca-Cola across trademark. This also unified the Brand. It utilized the daily moments of consumers that connect with the other customers around the globe. It features creativity and celebration of the experiences and steers the company’s commitment to availing broad choices for the consumers to choose from (Gupta p.121).
The final frame of the TV adverts featured in all the four variants of Coca-Cola and the packaging cans have brief descriptions about each of them. To distinguish between the variants in the bottles and cans, the company has used different colors for each.
In order to support the globalization of the campaign, the company is working with four different agencies which are Santo, Mercado-McCann, Mather New York and Ogilvy. It has launched about ten TV adverts until now across the whole world which are designed to give the intimate glimpses into people’s experiences while they share drinking the brand’s products (Hepburn p.1). The campaign jolted with a spot TV anthem that went global showing the impact of the products on the social experiences of diverse people like a first date, a first love, first kiss and ice-skating with friends (Maila et al, p.328). The stores where the products were sold played anthem songs and new signature of audios that were inspired by the sounds of the popping of the bottle cap and the fizzing of Coca-Cola. In the UK, the advert kicked off with a TV advert with the title ‘Brotherly Love’
'Anthem' created by Mercado-McCann (Buenos Aires)
Under the #TasteTheFeeling hashtag, customers can get the scenes on the microsite personalized to match the real-time feelings as well as share the same via social media utilities (Hepburn p.1). These storytelling and universal moments which were depicted in the campaign were intended to reverberate with the customers of the company in the whole world. The TV advert was spread to other parts like Japan, Mexico, Italy and other parts of the world which consume the products of the company (Nielsen p.1). Due to the global crackdown on sugary products, the company had a responsibility of offering health choices to its consumers and hence the one brand campaign strategy provided them with more choices to take. The products were in categories of cold Coca-Cola with and another without calories or caffeine.
Analysis of the context
The company has aligned the packaging of the variants with the One Brand strategy. The new design in the packages has incorporated the red disc that has been in existence for the company in a long time as a strategy of maintaining the signature of the brand. The signature of the brand is the great taste, refreshment and uplift. Packaging as asserted by the company’s CMO remains to be the most valuable and visible asset of the company (Robinson p. 73). A bold application of the same in the packaging of the company catapults the company forward towards achieving a unity of the Coca-Cola family that is having a single visual identity. This also makes it easier for the consumers to make choices of the product, with or without caffeine or calories (Hepburn p. 1).
The One Brand strategy with the theme of Taste The feeling as well as redesigning their packaging promotes the choice of its consumers and greatly aid in the reduction of the intakes of sugar and calories towards a healthy living. To cater for the low living population, the company has also introduced smaller packs and the company is slowly rolling out a new recipe of the Coca-Cola Life that has 45% less sugar relative to the regular colas. The rollout to sugar free products was not enough for the company to steer forward. To keep on speeding up the responsibility of the company, there was a need to shift another strategy, one brand. The new brand has a different personality and brings in new values. The traditional method the company used of generating sub brands created distortion of the original brand. One Brand strategy instead focuses on a single brand with multiple variants and hence maintains the value of the original brand (Hepburn p.1).
Flagging sales can be revived through the combination of the One Brand strategy campaign and the ‘Taste the Feeling’ campaign. One Brand strategy has more focus on quality rather than quantity. The marketing team is fueling growth from the combination of the two. The CEO of the company said that the company now will focus on building a strong brand and enhance customer relations. The sales of Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola zero rose by 1 and 7 percent, respectively within a span of three months. Taste The Feeling campaign is a new approach in business that celebrates the brand of the company since the consumers are enjoying the product with simple pleasures. The new imagery of the campaign featured in print media, in stores, in out-of-home billboards as well as in the digital media (Swift et al, p.92).
Works Cited
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