Consumer Behavior

Consumer Behavior

A consumer is the ultimate end user of a company’s product or service. Consumer behavior refers to how consumers make a decision to purchase a particular product. Marketers of a company always strive to understand the consumer behavior to enable them to design effective marketing stimuli that will lead to an increase in sales and brand loyalty. Coca Cola is among the leading companies in the world in terms of marketing strategy. In order to maintain a high brand among its consumers, the company invests heavily in market research to understand the consumer behavior. This paper will address how Coca Cola Company utilizes marketing mix stimuli to influence consumer behavior towards the consumption of Coke brand and other products.

Coca Cola is one of the most recognizable brands in the world. The company has established a brand that attracts consumers and hence is regarded as a successful organization due to its high brand equity. One of the key elements for the company’s success is its branding strategies (Lopez, 2012).  Since 1866 when the company started its operations, the branding strategies have been raising consumer interest making Coca Cola to remain a highly competitive company. Through continuous reinvention of its brand has contributed towards making Coca Cola a leading non-alcoholic beverage in the world.

Coca Cola has adopted a strategy of global marketing where it considers the whole world as a single market place.  With this approach, the company uses a uniform marketing strategy that is applicable to all countries where the Coca Cola brand is sold. The use of marketing mix stimuli has seen the company use different marketing campaigns for the different regions of the world as determined by consumer behavior.

Distribution is about getting the products close to consumers in a strategic way. In 1919 Coca cola decided to expand to the global market. Thorough market research was conducted in Central America, China, and other countries in the world where Coca cola planned to introduced its brand. Due to efficient and successful marketing research, the company launched its product in the global market. There are various reasons why the company decided to venture into the global market. Coca cola is brand that can be consumed by many people irrespective of their age, gender, race, or other social affiliations. Marketing in the global market requires the company to have a marketing team that understands the consumer behavior.

With a presence in 200 countries, Coca Cola must have effective and reliable distribution channels. In order to reach out to all its consumers, Coca Cola Company has established extensive distribution systems that ensure constant supply of Coke brand products.  The distributors are also involved in the pricing of the Coke products in relation to the prevailing market conditions. It is also through these distribution channels that Coke is always available to its consumers. When consumers fail to get their favorite products from the market, they are likely to look for alternatives from the competing brands. This is the scenario that Coke has been avoiding by ensuring constant supply of its products. The company has established bottling plants in different regions of the world where it commands the market share. It is for this reason, that Coca Cola products are available in thousands of supermarkets and other sales outlets in the world.

After the company identifies its consumers it establishes a national bottling plant that is responsible for bottling of the Coca products in a given country. This brings the products closer to the consumers. Coca Cola does not have shares in the running of the local bottling plants. To ensure that the Coke products are distributed to various selling points, the company cooperates with the bottling plants to identify business people who can establish a reliable supply chain for the Coke products. It is for this reason that Coke products are found even in the remotest parts of the world. This has a positive effect in the consumer behavior since no consumer is denied a chance to get Coca Cola products due to their location. In regard to this, Coke has attained a status of a universal drink that is used by all consumers irrespective of their social status.

The change in marketing strategies for the Coke brand is driven by how consumers spend their time. In the earlier days when the Coca cola Company was established, the Coke brand had not been established because brand identity was not strong. Things have however changed and the company has focused in brand management that has made Coke to be an international brand that is almost synonymous with the Coca cola Company. The Coke brand just like the other Coca Cola products has remained consisted for the last 125 years when the company started its operations (Lopez, 2012).  The Coke brand is similar in all markets a move that have made consumers to develop brand loyalty over the years. The company has been involved in product innovation that has made it possible to retain the ingredients for its products even when it needs to introduce change. This is evident from the company logo that has remained the same despite some competitors making improvement on their logos as a re-branding strategy. The company has standardized its brand visions and architecture.

Coca Cola Company is aware that consumers can only buy its brands if they are aware of its existence. In relation to this, the company engages in brand awareness as a general communication for the promotion strategies. By enhancing brand awareness, the company hopes to influence its consumers to always think of the Coke brand whenever they are presented with options for quenching thirst or for entertainment purpose. Some of the common approaches used by the company for brand awareness include advertising, sales promotion, and personal selling.

Coke is in a category of products that are consumed daily, and hence it is necessary to have strategies of connecting with consumers. The marketing strategy for the Coca cola is to communicate to the consumers on a daily basis. Promotions for the Coke brand are done on regular basis and target specific market as determined by market demand. During sales promotions, the company uses various tactics to get the attention of the consumers. In most cases, discounts are used as the main aspect of promotion (Mantel & Frank, 2009).  For instance, a sales promotion for the Coke brand may introduce sports challenges where consumers get coupons where that they use for sending their details to be included in some competitions. The rewards for the sales promotions are determined by the marketing team based on the type on consumers being targeted in the promotion. If the promotion targets students, then it is held during schools opening periods or when schools have closed.

Promotion for Coke products are often held during festive occasions such as Christmas, Easter, and New Year celebrations. Coke has been uses the image of Santa Claus while promoting its products during the festive season. Santa Claus is in nowadays an image that is associated with the Coke brand due to its white and red colors that are also present on Coke bottles. The use of this image has been successful in attracting younger consumers who get a feeling that Coke is an ideal drink to be consumed during Christmas season. This prepares consumers psychologically with some of them making purchases before Christmas to avoid last minute rush (Lopez, 2012). In other situations, the Coca Cola Company carries its promotions based on minority groups. As such, it may have promotions in certain regions in the world where there are local celebration. It is also within the company’s policy to recognize the national holidays for the countries where it is based. This makes the local consumers to connect to the company brands in appreciation of its involvement in local events.

Television advertising is one method that has been adopted by the company as a way of reaching out to the world market. All the Coke adverts are tailor-made to fit the local or the international market. To address the needs of the various regions, TV commercials are aired in different languages with English being the language with the largest following. The need to use other local languages was arrived at after it was realized that Coke was being consumed by customers from diverse backgrounds. According to market statistics, the advertising through TV commercials has been very successful in maintaining customers as well as in attracting new customers for the Coke product. According to the Company reports, a lot of money is spent for various forms of advertising with TV adverts taking the largest share. In TV, the company focuses on the 60-second commercials that are described as marketing strategist as effective.

Coca Cola has also introduced digital marketing with an aim of capturing the many consumers who use internet on daily basis. For instance, the company has established a website referred to as mycokerewards.com in USA that has more than 15 million people registered on that website. These people engage with the company on daily basis through blogs and emails. In this way, the consumers are given a change to raise their concerns to the company that are then addressed accordingly. This in return reinforces the love that consumers have for the Coke brand.

Another way that the Coca cola Company has enhanced digital marketing is through the social media. In Facebook, the Coca cola fun page that has more than 22 million followers. These are some of the consumers of the Coca-cola products who regularly post important information that is useful to the company for brand improvement. Very few brands, if any, have a following of 22 million fans on social media and hence this is a clear indication of the brand loyalty that consumers have towards Coke (Lopez, 2012). Company reports indicate there are more than one billion servings of Coke everyday and hence the people on the social media are just a small percentage of the total consumers for the Coke brand.

By looking at some of the posts on the fan page, it is possible to understand consumer behavior and expectation. There are some who show their love for the Coke brand by posting photographs showing houses furnished with Coke memorabilia. This is indeed a real passion for the Coke products. Studies have shown that people become fans of Coke on Facebook because they love the brand and want to find out how other consumers express their love for the brand. Consumer behaviors are also revealed on these sites as people post videos and photos of real Coke consumption occasions (Lopez, 2012). Through the customer relations department, the company engages with its consumers in the social media by regularly posting on the social pages as a brand. In addition, the company does not regulate what people can say in the social media and they sometimes post nasty things about the company. The strategy for dealing with the consumers from the social media is being open with critical information regarding the brand and to avoid being defensive.

It is of importance to note that all the adverting for the Coke brand is designed to make the consumers associate the brand with a sense of happiness.  Most of the Coke adverts are designed with the international audience in mind. Advertising ahs the greatest influence to the consumers where most of them start being loyal to Coke brand after watching beautiful advertisements (East, Wright, & Yanhuele, 2008). Advertising is supposed to persuade people into consuming a specific product in the market. However, some people may not be easily convinced to use the Coke product probably due to prior beliefs. The company tries to attract the attention of such people by including famous personalities in the advertisements. These may be actors, musicians, or professional models. Consumers form cognitive responses to these personalities which eventually lead to a change in attitude towards the ads.

Coca Cola Company has also been connecting to its consumers by sponsoring world events. The company has been consistent in sponsoring Olympics and FIFA World Cup events for more than 75 years. It is within the understanding of the company that such events attract millions of fans most of whom are consumers or potential consumers for the Coca Cola products. The advantage that Coca Cola has over other companies sponsoring the events is its huge network due to the many countries where the brand is consumed (Solomon, 2003). The company also creates an integrated communication program where it consolidates the world support for those events. The company benefits by tapping the consumer passion surrounding such events. During such international events, Coca Cola benefits by advertising its products to the fans attending the events.  It is also notable that the company gets more viewership during such events by introducing television adverts when important games are taking place. Although the company states that it spends a lot of money in sponsoring international events, it has always appreciated the consumer interaction.

Lately there have been a lot of concerns on the health issues brought about by the consumption of soft drinks such as Coke. Many campaigns are held by health activists informing consumers on the dangers of using the soft drinks. If consumers were to listen to this, the implication would be drastic drop in sales (Mantel & Frank, 2009).  In the Coca Cola, the management has been concerned with the global health campaigns against the use of non-alcoholic beverages. The Coke brand has been a particular target with some rumors being spread that it causes cancer to consumers. This is a health scare that may lead to consumers seeking for alternative brands from other companies to avoid health complication. The company responded through international media and refuted the claims that the drink has cancer-causing elements. To achieve positive influence in this response, the company had to maintain its principle of letting consumers make a choice on the products they want to use. Other health concerns have been that Coca Cola products, and especially Coke, have tendencies of causing obesity if taken regularly. Although the company has not been keen in defending such allegations, it is a common knowledge that obesity may be caused by many other products that contain sugar. To deal with this scare, the company introduced many other brands that do not have a lot of sugar or have no sugar at all. Some of these brands include Soda water, Tonic soda, and bitter lemon. Lately, the company also introduced Coke Zero which is a brand that does not contain soluble sugar (Lopez, 2012).  This brand is gaining popularity in the market as its main target is men and other consumers who may be having diabetic problems.

In order to serve various consumer interests in beverages, the Coke brand has been keen in developing its packaging.  Under this circumstance, the company has introduced the multiserve packs that allow consumers to buy the drink and consume it at their comfort. Coke is an affordable drink that makes it possible for consumers to have moments of happiness with minimum expenses (Hawkins, Best, & Coney, 2003). This has made the brand to succeed as people can take the drink in restaurants, movie theaters, and from their homes after meals.

One of the main strengths for the Coca Cola Company has been its bottling system.  This permits the company to conduct business on a global scale while at the same time maintain a national approach. All the bottling plants are domestically owned and run by independent businessmen who are authorized by Coca Cola to sell its products. Since Coke does not have a total ownership for the bottling systems, its main source of revenue comes from the sales of syrup or concentrate to the bottlers.

Bottling plants located in different regions are responsible for making the packaging for various Coca Cola brands. In order to bring diversity and freshness to the Coke products, the Coke brand is packed in different sizes from 200 ml to 2 liters. The Coke bottle has a unique shape that is not easy to be imitated by competitors. As a way of targeting travelers, the company introduced plastic contour bottles for the 500ml and 2 liters (Murthi & Kannan, 2004). This was received well by consumers since the bottles are not returnable and therefore can be used for storing other house hold items. In reality, there are some consumers who buy the plastic Coke with an intention to reuse the bottle for storing water.

In order to target the youth and those consumers interested in sports, Coca Cola introduced the contour aluminium can to the market. This had a positive impact to the consumers who could use the cans to carry their drinks to sporting events such as football without being embarrassed. The cans are also used to put other fluids such as juice or water and hence making consumers to feel a real value for their money.

Another way that Coke has been using marketing mix stimuli to influence consumer behavior is through point of purchase display. The company applies specific patterns in displaying its products in supermarkets, shops and other selling points. The products are arranged in such a way that this can catch consumers attention due to the combination of white and red colors in the displays. In supermarkets Coke products are arranged together to create a feeling of plenty. Red and white banners may also be included in the display to add glamour. Positioning of the Coke products is normally strategic to ensure that all the consumers visiting a supermarket or a shopping mall can locate the products at ease. In most places, the display for the Coke products is situated near the points of sale to encourage consumers to pick the products when probably paying for their other purchases. The company also puts a lot of effort in ensuring effective display for its products by providing coolers to all sellers dealing coke products. This is done with the assistance from local distributors or the bottling companies.

Coca Cola has managed to remain a leading company in the sale of soft drinks due to its application of marketing mix stimuli to influence consumer behavior through cognitive responses. The company has been keen in establishing formidable marketing strategies to enable its products to reach out to the billion of consumers in the global market. The pricing of its products is affordable to many consumers. It is successful in the distribution of its products through collaborations with national bottling companies and distributors in the local markets. To create brand awareness, the company also holds regular promotions for the Coke products in addition to constant advertising. This has made its consumers to develop brand loyalty resulting to increased sales for the Coke products.

 

List of References

East, R., Wright, M., & Yanhuele, M. (2008). Consumer Behavior: Applications in Marketing.      New York: Routldge.

Hawkins, D.  Best, R., & Coney, K. (2003). Consumer Behavior: Building Marketing Strategy.     New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Lopez, D. (2012). Brand Development of Coca- Cola Company: Exploring New Branding.           London: GRIN Verlag.

Mantel, P. & Frank, K. (2009). The Role of Direction of Comparison, Attribute-Based      Processing, and Attitude-Based Processing in Consumer Preference.” Journal of         Consumer Research, 12(1), 58-63.

Murthi, B., & Kannan,  S. (2004). Consumers’ Extent of Evaluation in Brand Choice. Journal of   Business, 7(6), 112-145.

Onkivisit, S., & shaw, J. (2008). International Marketing: Strategy and Theory. New York:            Routledge.

Solomon, Michae,l R. (2003). Consumer Behavior. New York: Prentice Hall.

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