Economics Pick a Marketing Environment and a

Economics Pick a marketing environment and a popular brand of your choice. Then discuss the potential impact on the brand of trends that are observable in that external environment. How will they impact the demand for the product? How will they define who the competitors are? What recommendations would you make to the brand to prepare for the changes your see coming from the environmental trends you observed? I choose Coca-Cola as the brand of choice. I choose the macroenivronment as marketing environment.

The macro environment constitutes influences from the much larger global society. These include culture, political issues, technology, the natural environment, economic issues and demographic factors amongst others. The Coca-Cola beverage, produced by the Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia is sold in more than 200 countries. The Company produces the Coca-Cola (otherwise called Coke) beverage which is then distributed to licensed international Coca-Cola bottlers. It is perhaps one of the most well-known beverages in the world and is synonymous to the American name.

Its category is a carbonated soft drink drunk for pleasure. Its target age group is 18-25 that covers around 40% of its total age segments (Marketing week. Coca Cola). Coca-Cola is already being impacted by the demands of the macroenvironment as evidenced by a news report that appeared just yesterday. Coke's latest innovation is a pocketbook drink called Dasani Drops.

These are drops carried in one's handbag that people can carry wound with them in a compact way and then drop into water when that water is accessible turning the liquid into a healthy, tasty drink. The aim of the new drink is to use artificial sweeteners (that are considered healthier) and to lower the calorie counts in soda. By introducing this drink, its aim is to best its perpetual competitor, Pepsi, that has preceded it with the 60-calorie Pepsi Next.

The sweeteners that Coca-Cola has experimented with Coke are -- according to the trade publication Beverage Digest - a combination of sugar, the stevia-based sweetener Truvia and erythritol, a sugar alcohol that has virtually no calories and does not cause intoxication. The sweeteners that Pepsi uses are a combination of high fructose corn syrup; aspartame; acesulfame potassium, a no-calorie sweetener; and sucralose, better known as Splenda, in Pepsi Next.

Constantly attempting to woo the growing health market, Coca-Cola is attempting to target the "consumers who want a lower-calorie soft drink but have shunned diet sodas" (Strom, 2012). I think this drink reflects the issues of the macroenvironment in two ways: a. It represents people's larger interest in health and health-related matters, b. It represents people's growing tendency for time compression in a way that even dominates their interest in food.

Coca-Cola has been impacted by this environment: the popularity of carbonated drinks has been declining and the company has earned criticism regarding its health portfolio. It has, therefore, produced non-carbonated drinks that include Dasani, Powerade, Odwalla and Minute Maid. The introduction of the drink reflects more than one macroenvironemtnal issue.

It reflects social as well as political issues in that not only has obesity become a growing concern of the nation, but that government and certain powerful corporations have been accused of propagating the epidemic for their own greedy concerns (namely making a business out of the disease). To counter that, Coca-Cola produced its innovative drops -- and it is not the only company to do so.

According to Strom of the NY Times: Soda companies are experimenting as never before with new sweeteners and sweetener combinations, hoping to stem a slide in sales of carbonated beverages and combat criticism that their marquee products contribute to the nation's obesity crisis. Coca-Cola's competitors consequently will be anyone who can best supply the market's desires for a healthy beverage that takes them as least time as possible to consume and/or is portable. My recommendation to Coca-Cola is to retain their traditional beverage despite the observed environmental trend.

They have achieved their reputation only due to their classic drink that has become synonymous with the United States itself and, partially, for that reason has become the intentional well-known drink courted in many countries. It is the traditional Coca-Cola that the Coca-Cola fans go for. In fact, coke's identification with American culture has led to the pun "Coca-Colonization" (McKay in Whiteley, 2008).

Whilst it is true that studies point to Coca-Cola's negative impact on health due to its high calories if consumed too often, the drink is still a popular one, consumers.