Fluent Essays

See the attachment for question Week5 Discussion main post, discussion 200 words with 2 APA References and 3 post responses Main post- This week's video on Coca Cola Strategy, discussing how Coca-Cola has built a staple for their marketing and branding over many years. After watching the video answer the following question: 1) What are 2 key competitive advantages Coca-Cola has in the market? 2) What marketing strategy do you think Coca-Cola needs to look at doing differently in the coming years with more health conscious customers coming to the market? Response? Post1 – Tiffany A competitive advantage is simply what a company excels best at. Coca-Cola exceeds the vision, by selling a variety of beverages daily. It “generates over 60% of its revenue and 80% of its operating profit from outside the United States” (Goldsmith, 2015). This could be the distinguishing factor as to why consumers purchase from this company and not the competition. Coca-Cola sells Sprite, Dasani, Powerade and Minute Maid and all Coke Products. Coca-Cola can also be understood from the perspective of quality that a business can create for the consumer.   One key competitive advantage is the brand’s extensive beverage portfolio. Coca-Cola offers approximately 3900 soft-drinks (Bloomberg, 2018)! It is continuously inventing and supplying new products in the market to keep pace with the trend. In 2015, it launched a drink named “Powerade” to win the sports drink market in Mexico. Coca-Cola also has a product line called “Simply Beverages” that consists of fresh, distinct flavored drinks with carafe style bottle packaging. These innovations resulted in a huge success and helped this brand to increase its market share and profit margin within the industry. Another key competitive advantage of Coca-Cola is Coca-Cola is their massive distribution system. Coca-Cola is currently operating in more than 200 nations globally. It has made its substantial presence in all of those countries equally. All this became possible because of its comprehensive supply chain management. It has reached to locations where no other companies couldn’t make themselves available.   Chief Executive Officer James Quincey, has pushed Coke to grow beyond its namesake brand to become a “total beverage company” (Bloomberg, 2018). Since consumers are becoming more and more health conscious, Coca-Cola should focus their efforts towards more social media marketing surrounding their Diet Coke and Coke Zero lines that offer lower to zero calorie options containing less sugar, as well as ramp up advertising around their relatively new product line called “Simply Beverages” that consists of fresh, distinct flavored drinks with carafe style bottle packaging. Reducing the company’s dependency on soda sales should be the focus going into the next decade and generation. The vast majority of these beverages are made with 100% juice and are infused with Vitamin C. An effective use of social media marketing could humanize the brand, create brand loyalty and increase conversions. Coca-Cola’s Simply Beverages line could grow to be an even bigger success and help Coca-Cola to increase its market share and profit margin within the industry. Response? Post 2- Dana Coca-Cola products are found in over 200 countries and the company has more than 400 brands that include soft drinks, energy drinks, bottled water, and juice drinks.  (Baah, 2015)  One of Coca-Cola's key competitive advantages is brand recognition.  The Coca-Cola brand is known and valued around the world.  Another key competitive advantage is the company's strong marketing strategies.  Coca-Cola targets people of all ages and backgrounds and makes sure the campaigns are diverse to appeal to customers globally.  (Baah, 2015) Today's market deals with changes in consumer outlook and desires as changes in lifestyle and society as a whole evolve.  Coca-Cola has seen a decline due to health and obesity concerns in the last decade.  (Baah, 2015)  In order to combat this, they have branched out into healthier options such as Vitamin Water.  (Baah, 2015)  The future marketing strategies of Coca-Cola will have to paint the addition of these healthier options in the same stroke of happy togetherness as past campaigns have done in order to remain successful and true to the Coca-Cola brand. Response? Post 3- Robert                 The Coca-Cola Company (CCC) is one of the largest companies in the world and a leader in the soft drink and beverage industry.  Additionally, the CCC is one of the most recognizable brands that controls more than half of the carbonated soft drink market.  Maintaining a competitive advantage in a dynamic environment is not an easy task for any organization.  If companies create an emotional connection for consumers, then products prompt reassurance and satisfaction for consumers (Hooley et al., 2020).  The CCC uses a variety of competitive advantages to create this emotional connection with consumers.  In particular, one competitive advantage of the CCC is selling consumers an abstract positive concept that promotes happiness, family, and sharing.  Additionally, the CCC’s branding offers a competitive advantage of loyalty and product awareness.  The CCC’s branding strategy also engages customers through various advertising techniques including a de-branding campaign that personalizes the Coca-Cola experience for consumers.  For example, the CCC removed the Coca-Cola name from its bottles while adding more than 17,000 names to its bottles to attract customers.             As more health conscious customers enter the market, the CCC must develop and implement an effective marketing strategy to ensure the new customer needs are met.  Perhaps the most important marketing strategy that the CCC must consider is market segmentation.  A market segmentation strategy ensures that the same customers, health conscious consumers, are grouped together within the target market.  This will allow the CCC to develop products based on generational and demographic analysis to determine the most effective approach to meet their needs.  According to Thomas (2021), building a market segmentation strategy includes setting an objective, defining the market, identifying market segments, evaluating and understanding the target market, building the marketing strategy, and evaluating the strategy’s performance. Response?