Southampton Institute                                                                           Business School

1.0        Introduction

As a Marketing Consultant I have been asked by a client company Coca-cola LTD who wish to enter the developing market with a new product to compile a report on their new product in the adult soft drink industry.  I will be including an analysis of the coca cola market in terms of their product brand width and depth, brand leadership, market segmentation, price positioning and distribution channels.  In order to find out what customers want and if the product would be a success I will be compiling a questionnaire which will help us understand what the customer wants.  I will then be discussing the new brand, what our target market will be, product positioning and market strategies.    

  1. History of coca cola

Coca-Cola is the most popular and biggest-selling soft drink in history, as well as the best-known product in the world.  

On the 8th May 1886 Coca-Cola was invented in a pharmacy in Atlanta Georgia, USA by Dr. John Styth Pemberton.  It was marketed as a "brain and nerve tonic" in drugstores. Sales averaged nine drinks per day.  The first year's gross sales were $50 and advertising costs were $73.

Coca-Cola was first offered as a fountain beverage by mixing Coca-Cola syrup with carbonated water.  Coca-Cola was registered as a trademark in 1887 and by 1895 Coca-Cola was being sold in every state and territory in the United States. In 1899, the company began franchised bottling operations in the United States.   Today, you can find Coca-Cola in virtually every part of the world.

  1. Analysis of the Market

The first step in doing market research is to decide what you really need to find out. The kind of information you are seeking should determine the type of research you will do.

Do you need to obtain a general feel for how key target buyers think about your product category and its various types of items, brands, and buying occasions? If so, interviewing groups of target buyers in focus groups may be the way to go, even though this type of research indicates only directional trends and may not be statistically reliable. Or is the confirmation of general trends in your industry sufficient? In that case, reading information from outside information services, industry trade associations, and industry experts may be all that you need to do.

  1. Product Brand width and depth

Coca cola has extended their range of products extensively, in the last few years.  Coca cola have products which some people do not even know exists, the following are products that coca cola have launched, Coca cola cans and bottles both plastic and glass, diet coca cola, lemon coca cola, cherry coke, fanta, lilt and a vast amount of other soft drinks and fruit drinks.

Coca cola have also launched a clothes range, which include jeans, t-shirts, caps, bags, scarves and many more accessories.

Coca cola always aim to bring out as much merchandise as they possibly can in order to gain money not only from the coca cola drink and other coca cola drinks which I mentioned above, but to make a profit from merchandise as well.  Coca cola will not run out of ideas, every year they bring out a new form of accessories or merchandise which attracts customers to them.  

Coca cola has a wide variety of clients and so must make sure that they are catering for all ages, genders and generally all the public.

  1. Brand leadership

Brand leadership is very important for companies to have, in order to gain a high place in the market.  In order for companies to do so they must make sure that they satisfy their customers to their highest standards, this will lead to them having a successful product in the market and gaining brand leadership.

Coca cola is the most recognised trademark, recognised by 94% of the world's population and is the most widely recognised word after "OK". Coca cola is the only brand in the soft drinks industry that has gained such high brand leadership.

Coca cola has more than 500 brands available around the world including diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite and there are more than 1200 bottling plants around the world. There are nearly 10,450 soft drinks from the Coca-Cola Company consumed every second of every day.  

By the facts given above it is obvious that coca cola has high standards for their product and always aims to please the customer as much as they can, by producing their product at high standards, but at the same time bringing out new products which attract their existing customers.

Coca cola is very successful as they always look to have the highest standards for not only the drink but for the label to be well known, therefore they make their branding totally different to other soft drinks in order to be distinguished from its competitors.

  1. Market segmentation
Join now!

Market segmentation is the selection of groups of people who will be most receptive to a product. The most frequent methods of segmenting include demographic variables such as age, sex, race, income, occupation, education, household status, and geographic location; psychographic variables such as life-style, activities, interests, and opinions; product use patterns; and product benefits. Much segmentation involves combinations of these methods. No matter how segments are defined, however, they are characterized by considerable change over time.

Large companies segment their markets by conducting extensive market research projects, consisting of several rounds of exploratory research:

  1. Customer ...

This is a preview of the whole essay