Promotion and Brand Leveraging of Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of soft drinks which was founded back in 1886. According to Vrontis and Sharp (2003) Coca Cola currently operates in over 200 countries worldwide. It occupies the largest (47%) market share in the global market. The reason behind Coca Cola’s success is their recognition around the world and it happens because of their successful promotional activities.

According to the blog 'Coca-Cola Targeting and Positioning' Coca-Cola use strategic positioning in order to retain same image around the world. Their motto is “Think global, act local”. That is why they are successful because it is perceived that coke is a part of our daily life. Coca Cola offer the same flavored coke to all the countries. But they adapt different offers to meet the local needs of the consumers.  For example they have different SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) of different sizes for different countries around the world. The can of Coca Cola in USA is different from the can of Bangladesh.

The positioning of Coca Cola is ‘Open Happiness’. Their all advertisements are based on this positioning. They also do advertisement according to the culture, customs and norms of the countries where they are operating. For example during the festival season like Eid, Diwali etc. in India Coca Cola broadcast advertise where they link the coke with the festivals. By this they are actually leveraging the happiness of the festivals to their brand.

Coca cola also undergo other promotion campaign like ‘Hug me’ where the cokes were kept in a refrigerator and the people who hug the refrigerator gets a coke.

In USA the demand of Coca Cola is huge and constant all around the year. But in South East Asia the

demand of Coca Cola goes very up during the summer season because at that time the climate becomes very hot. But during the winter season the demand falls down. But even that they keep their advertisement campaign running at that off season because their strategy is to keep people informed that they are always in the market.

Coca-Cola has leverage the image of a long list of celebrities around the world in their advertisement. For example few years ago Coca Cola came with an advertisement campaign “Bewajah khushiyaan lutao Coca Cola pilao” where they endorse Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Siddharth Malhotra who were the stars from the super hit movie ‘Students of the Year’. This movie was very popular among the young generation. So they endorse the actors and actress of this movie. This campaign was a huge success.

Coca-Cola has also leveraged the image of country of origin. It’s recipe was made in USA and coke around the world use this same secret recipe. USA is a symbol of quality. So people believe in the quality and taste of Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola is the most popular soft drink around the world. Their promotion and brand leveraging is an example for other competitors to follow. 

References

Coca Cola Targeting and Positioning (November 16, 2012) retrieved from http://softdrinkcolawar.blogspot.com/2012/12/coca-cola-targeting-and-positioning.html

Vrontis. D, & Sharp.I (2003). The Srategic Positioning of Coca Cola in Their Global Marketing Operation from The Marketing Review, 3, Pp. 289-309

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