Coca-Cola Marketing Strategy: Segmentation and Analysis

Introduction: Coca-Cola's Global Presence

Coca-Cola leads the world's beverage industry with as many as 400 products and maintains a presence in more than 200 countries globally. In addition, Coca-Cola collaborates with approximately 320 licensees to produce more than 10,000 products in 57 countries. These products range from fashion apparel to holiday decorations and even a Coca-Cola Picnic Barbie doll. Every year, licensees sell 50 million licensed Coca-Cola products.

Internal Business Environment

Core Activities

For over 100 years, Coca-Cola has remained the world's largest producer of carbonated soft drinks. The company sells the iconic Coke® brand with the tagline "Always Coca-Cola," which remains the common consumer term for any carbonated soft drink. The company's signature Coke® brand is recognized by billions of consumers, and Coke is sold in almost every country in the world — more than 200 countries worldwide.

Customer Base

The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest beverage company and the leading producer and marketer of soft drinks. Consumers in nearly 200 countries enjoy Coca-Cola brands at a rate of more than one billion servings a day. In addition to its core Coke brand, the company also sells Dasani bottled water, Sprite, Minute Maid, and a range of other soft drinks. Drinks are sold both directly to consumers in cans and bottles, as well as in syrup form to bars, restaurants, and other commercial establishments.

Business Values

The reputation of The Coca-Cola Company is built on trust. Those who do business with Coca-Cola around the world recognize the company as being committed to managing its operations with a consistent set of values representing the highest standards of quality, integrity, excellence, compliance with the law, and respect for the unique customs and cultures of the communities in which it operates. The company seeks to develop relationships with suppliers that share similar values and conduct business in an ethical manner.

Core values include honesty, integrity, diversity, quality, respect, responsibility, and accountability.

Current Business Direction

Coca-Cola designated 2005 a year of innovation and launched several new drinks, including an energy drink called "Full Throttle" and a version of Diet Coke flavored with the Splenda artificial sweetener. Analysts noted that the way forward was to tap the growing trend away from fizzy, sugary drinks toward low-calorie, healthier options such as low-sugar orange drinks and bottled water.

Two major growth drivers were identified for Coke. The first was flavored colas, which the company had been launching over several consecutive quarters — including Vanilla Coke and Coca-Cola with Lime. These new flavors proved popular among consumers, and Coke leveraged its core brand to create instant recognition for these variants. These newer offerings were expected to help revitalize sales in developed markets.

Current Marketing Performance

The most noteworthy organizational change was the creation of a new position to oversee Coke's global marketing and advertising strategy, headed by Mary Minnick, who had served as president of Coca-Cola Asia for four years and was a 21-year veteran of the company.

Coca-Cola launched its 2005 American Idol campaign at 165 Simon Malls during January and February, featuring an Instant-Win Coca-Cola Vending Game. Prizes ranged from American Idol t-shirts to an all-expenses-paid trip for two to the taping of the American Idol finale. Coca-Cola also staged a multi-mall live performance event featuring past American Idol finalists exclusively at Simon Malls across the country. The event began on April 8 in Boston and concluded in Los Angeles on May 14, just prior to the May finale of American Idol's fourth season on FOX. In between, the event visited Simon Malls in New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Indianapolis, Dallas, and San Antonio.