Jaidip C Hariharan 
Jaidip C Hariharan
Business Analyst 2 & Product Owner - Life Sciences Practice at Capgemini Engineering
Published Mar 6, 2019
Today, let’s talk about the marketing campaigns of the Coca-Cola Company. Coca-Cola, or co*ke, was first invented within an Atlanta-based pharmacy by Dr. John Pemberton in May 1886. Initially sold at local soda-fountain counters, growing demand and the idea of making the beverage portable led to bottling the sparkling drink in its first year.
Pemberton sold just 9 glasses of Coca-Cola a day for five cents a glass! Since then, the company has expanded ever-so-slightly, currently selling its products at an estimated rate of more than 1.9 billion servings a day—that's the equivalent of almost 1 in 4 people buying something from Coca-Cola every day! The Coca-Cola Company is one of the most recognized companies in the world and is certainly the world's biggest beverage company. They control more than half the global market in carbonated soft drinks,as well as a substantial chunk of the somewhat larger non-carbonated segment. It owns four of the world's five biggest selling soft drinks with Coca-Cola being the world's best-known and most valuable non-technology brand within its portfolio.The company holds more than 500 brands, including Fanta, Sprite, and they produce over three and a half thousand varied products spanning from sodas to bottled water to iced teas and coffees.
Despite an estimated 94% of the world's population recognizing the red and white Coca-Cola logo, nearly 10% of their revenue, 41 Billion dollars, was spent on advertising and marketing campaigns last year.This astronomical 4 Billion dollars were spent on a diverse range of campaign tactics across multiple geographic regions. As with many things in the world, ironically, the companies that are the most recognized possess the highest budget for their advertising and public image. Luckily, this hefty budget allows co*ke to experiment and get creative with their marketing, providing the opportunity to remind us why they're as successful as they are now.
What is the Coca-Cola brand built upon? Well, it's this secret that trains our brains to associate the brand with a good feeling —be that happiness, relaxation, friends, love—anything rather than the soda itself that makes them good at what they do.
Here’s an example- let's have a look at the 2016 Christmas advert (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inW_GcnCOgc). For many, the arrival of the iconic holidays is coming Coca-Cola truck. It’s a highlight of the period building excitement for Christmas.The original ad might be 21 years old, but interest in it shows little sign of diminishing as it brings out everyone's nostalgic side.The focus of last year's “A co*ke for Christmas” ad follows a young boy who aims to spread the joy by giving Coca-Cola to those who are making Christmas a reality, including a dad, a shop assistant, and Santa Claus himself. Now, the important aspect of the ad is that it targets the whole family. The ability to provide this experience to the entire family is essential. The commercial itself closely follows Coca-Cola’s primary principles in their advertising rather than attempting to sell it as a drink.co*ke focuses on selling an abstract positive concept, such as happiness, family, and sharing.
As we can see, co*ke has become an expert at selling these non-concrete concepts in this year's video like many before. They remain true to their core values, which they use in their marketing campaigns year-round.
The continued pursuit of alluring and revolutionary advertising tactics by co*ke is sure to assist the sales of their products worldwide. As you can see, Coca-Cola have shown that by engaging with their customers, and not just shouting from the rooftops about how great they are, they're able to grow year-on-year and build a brand loyalty and a brand awareness that you just don't see in many other sectors and it's a lesson that a lot of companies could do with learning.
FAQs
co*ke aggressively markets its product lines through advertising across multiple mediums and channels, including TV, online ads, sponsorships, etc. Coca-Cola's sponsorships include NASCAR, NBA, the Olympics, American Idol, etc.
What is Coca-Cola's overall strategy? ›
Strategic goals of the Coca-Cola Company
Moreover, its overall main objective is claimed to be growing the company, the industry, and crafting brands and drinks that people love. In 2021, Coca-Cola set up a pipeline to assess its level of innovation.
What strategies Coca-Cola used for selling their brand? ›
Portfolio Marketing:
The Coca-Cola brand grew by introducing multiple new products into the market. They managed to keep their portfolio limited to beverages like juices, teas, coffees, and soft drinks. This also helped them reach more customers with different preferences and tastes for soft drinks.
What is co*ke's marketing message? ›
The Coca-Cola Company purpose remains clear: To refresh the world and make a difference.
What makes Coca-Cola unique? ›
A significant part of Coca-Cola's success is its emphasis on brand over product. co*ke doesn't sell a soft drink in a bottle; it sells “happiness” in a bottle.
What makes Coca-Cola stand out from its competitors? ›
Coca-cola effectively uses a low pricing strategy a lot to penetrate new markets that are very price-conscious. They set the prices around the same level as the competitors to enable Coca-cola to be distinct but affordable. They do this to beat the competition on price and raise the awareness of the Coca-Cola brand.
What makes Coca-Cola so successful? ›
The power of advertising- Coca-Cola becomes a household name. A big part of Coca-Cola's success over the years has been its focus on innovative marketing and advertising campaigns. In 2020, Coca-Cola was ranked as the 6th most powerful brand in the world.
What was Coca-Cola's first marketing strategy? ›
Advertising Strategies
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.
What are the 4 marketing objectives of Coca-Cola? ›
Creating awareness of the company and its products. Informing and educating consumers and buyers. Encouraging a liking for the company's products over those of the competitors'. Encouraging product trial among potential new customers.
What is Coca-Cola's brand identity? ›
The visual identity of Coca-Cola portrays love, passion, purity and humility.
and 90% said coca cola is easily available in their approach and also 70 % people answer that they like coca cola due to its strong taste so the overall research survey for co*ke and Pepsi has revealed that co*ke is more adopted brand then that of Pepsi and recommendations are recommended such as perception leads to the ...
What is the major challenge Coca-Cola company? ›
The problems faced by Coca-Cola Company are high sugar harmful to health, increase in competitors, plastic bottle waste and water scarcity. These issues will lead to many negative impacts to social and natural environment.
What is the mission statement of Coca-Cola? ›
Our Mission
To refresh the world, To inspire moments of optimism and happiness, To create value and make a difference.
What are the 3 key strategies of Coca-Cola? ›
The Coca Cola marketing strategy primarily includes SEO, email marketing, content marketing, and video marketing.
What is the competitive strategy of Coca-Cola and Pepsi? ›
While Coca-Cola determines entertainment, optimism, and passion as the main concepts to promote the product, PepsiCo focuses on the other segment of the target audience, emphasizing the idea of the healthy lifestyle and high-quality nutrition.
What was Coca-Cola most successful marketing campaigns? ›
Taste the feeling campaign
This campaign creatively united Coca-Cola, Diet Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero, and Coca-Cola Life under one iconic slogan, 'Taste the Feeling'. This campaign was brought in to replace the 'Open Happiness' campaign which had run for seven years previously.
What are the 5 C's of marketing Coca-Cola? ›
This is a detailed 5C analysis of Coca-Cola which evaluates how five important factors i.e. company, competitor, customer, collaborator, and climate impact on the operations and strategies of the Coca-Cola company.
What are the 7 elements of the marketing mix for Coca-Cola? ›
Read the marketing mix of Coca Cola and its seven Ps – product, place, price, promotion, people, processes, and physical evidence.
What is one strategy with example Coca-Cola used to grow its market? ›
Coca-Cola Business Strategy - Key takeaways
The strategy of franchising to its global bottling partners has enabled it to grow quickly. By partnering with local small bottlers in under-developed markets, it is able to strategically merge or acquire these small local businesses to expand the local markets.
