Coca-Cola Amatil’s Product – Coca-Cola Drink (Coke)

Question:

Discuss about the Marketing Communications Coca Cola Amatil.

Coca-Cola Amatil, abbreviated as CCA is the leading soft drink dealer in Australia. The organization is among the five top branch companies of Coca-cola Company. It produces non-alcoholic drinks which are ready-to-drink beverages. The organization produces the common Coca-Cola products which include Coca-Cola drink (Coke), Sprite, Fanta, Kirks, Lift, Zico Coconut water and Powerade among many others. It handles the manufacture, the sales and the general distribution of these drinks.  Besides, CCA produces and sells some alcoholic drinks within Australia and other parts of the Asia Pacific region.

CCA has employed more than 35000 people across the entire Australia to handle the manufacture, the sales, and distribution of Coca-Cola products. CCA has much manufacturing located at various points in Australia. These areas include Moorabbin, Thebarton, Kewdale, Richlands and Northmead among many others. The manufacturing sites have played a critical role in placing the company at a better position to meet the needs of its huge Australian market. CCA is always keen to create and sustain a close relationship between the customers, the owners of the brand, the manufacture, sell and distribution of its products.

The Coca-Cola Amatil’s product chosen for this report is Coca-cola drink also called Coke. The product is one of the most iconic drinks of the CCA in Australia and other countries. Coke is a carbonated drink that has reached many people in the Australian market, and even beyond Australia, becoming the most dominant soft drink on the globe (Spurgeon, 2008). The drink is packed in cans and bottles which have variations as per the market needs. Currently, the CCA has produced various tastes of Coke drink to satisfy the market demand for the taste of Coke. Some of these include Coca-Cola Vanilla, Coca-Cola Cherry, and Caffeine-Free Coca-Cola among many others.

Coca-Cola Amatil has been one of the organizations on the front-line to adopt the best strategies to become the market industry leader. The company has worked to ensure that it satisfies its target segments for better service to customers. CCA works with a vision of ensuring that every person in Australia drinks Coke. Therefore, CCA does not target specific segments in the market but always makes attempts to reach anyone to drink Coke. Considering the psychographics, geographical and demographic segmentation, it is clear that coke targets all people in Australia and even in the entire world. These objective has made CCA come up with appropriate products to satisfy different kinds of customers in the market (Nagra, Kumari, Gopal, and Manjrekar, 2012, pp. 56-61).

Target Market of Coca-Cola Amatil

Regarding age, CCA targets people of all ages reaching both the young, the middle aged and the old population. The organization has grouped people into various age groups and is always making efforts to give them appropriate code products. However, it has been observed that CCA targets most people at a younger age. Also, the company does not have a specific gender; it targets people of all types of gender. Regarding lifestyle, CCA has portrayed interests in the mobile generation and the busy people (Gambetti and Schultz, 2015, pp. 1-4). The organization targets the m-generation segment and believes it an important for its business. The main occupation characteristic that the CCA targets is students and the family oriented people.

Concerning the geographic factors, CCA targets the entire market in Australia regardless of the specific geographical characteristics. The company does not have a specific target geographical location but aims at achieving the consumption of all the people regardless of whey come from. There are certain factors concerning the CCA’s customer’s media habits (Darakeva, 2013). Besides, the people who are connected and like surprises. In its strategy, CCA has integrated continuous market segment identification and satisfying their needs (Keller, 2008,  pp. 65-74).

CCA has highly positioned itself in Australia’s soft drink market. The company is a subsidiary of Coca-Cola company has adopted the positioning strategy of the main company. The organization is driven by the statement “Think global, act internationally.” Therefore, it is evident that CCA has incorporated a high level of the positioning of coke in its organizational culture (Coke Solutions, 2014). The company aims at producing high-quality products which are placed above any other soft drinks in Australia.  The organization works to produce products that meet international market requirements yet sold to the local market in Australia. Thus, this has enabled coke to stay leading in the soft drinks market in Australia. 

All the companies operating as subsidiaries of Coca-cola Company have adopted the strategic positioning strategy of the main company. The organization works to ensure that it gives a good image both in Australia and other parts of the world (Dudovskiy, 2015). It has ensured that all the people in Australia perceive it positively. The strategic positioning of Coca-cola has played a critical role in its sales since anyone want to be associated with Coca-cola (Vladmir, Miroslav and Papic, 2012, pp. 141-154).

Also, CCA uses the Coca-Cola Company’s positioning proposition which says “Live the coke side of life.” The proposition has helped the company to ensure that the people feel and desire to be associated with Coke. It brings about an aspect of joy and the happiness of life that may be obtained for those consuming Coke. Most customers tend to associate the brand with their emotions or feelings. The proposition has also played a critical role in increasing the loyalty of the customers to its products mostly because of their good perception of the brand. The CCA’s ability to move the emotions of the customers has been one of the key aspects for Coke’s broader market penetration. Therefore, CCA has effectively positioned Coke in the market more than any other player in the Australian soft drink industry.

Positioning Strategy of Coca-Cola Amatil

Coca-Cola applies Integrated Marketing Communications to achieve its objectives of communication in the company. The company has achieved the IMC by applying and combining various communication channels which work together to make an effective communication to the market. These channels include advertising, the public relations, personal selling, digital marketing and digital marketing among others. These marketing communication channels play a critical role in helping the company achieve its communication objectives.

The main objectives of the IMC program that CCA targets to achieve can be summed into three aspects which are to communicate, compete and convince. CCA uses IMC programs to communicate various aspects of Coke to its stakeholders. The company tries to communicate its information in a clear, truthful and accurate way (Jobber, 2007). This increases the customer’s confidence in the company brand. It targets to create awareness of the product, inform and educate the buyers on various aspects of the product. Besides, the company also targets back way communication through its IMC programs whereby they target to get feedback from its customers and then work towards improving them.

The CCA also targets to use the integrated marketing communication approach to convince its parties of interest. Through the IMC, CCA can convince the customers and make them like the Coke over other players of soft drink products in the market. Besides, the IMC targets to satisfy the new potential customers to try out Coke and thus, a way of convincing them. It is also clear that the CCA aims at using IMC to compete and beat its competitors in the industry (Solomon, Marshall, and Stuart, 2009). This is achieved by making a message that encourages the customers to buy and drink more of Coke more than other brands thus getting more sales than others. Therefore, with effective passing of message through the IMC and its ability to convince the many customers, CCA can get a competitive advantage over other players in the industry.

Coca-Cola Amatil has its goals in place that it tries to achieve from the integrated marketing communication. The company has achieved this by designing messages which convey certain aspects in the brand. These messages are then conveyed through images, words, audio sound, and the videos. The message of CCA regarding its product Coke attempts to bring out a message that Coke quenches the thirst, Coke is stylish and also that drinking of Coke is the best lifestyle (Foster, 2008). The message strategy brings about the customer’s perception that Coke is the best drink in the world to stop the urge for a drink referring to it as the thirst. Therefore, through its marketing messages strategies, CCA is in a better position to win many customers who want to ‘quench’ their thirst.

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Strategy of Coca-Cola Amatil

The IMC message of CCA on its products also attempts to explain to the public that Coke is stylish. Every human being has pushed them to pursue fashionable items in their environment. Therefore, emphasizing on the stylish aspect attracts many people to use the product (Lamb, Hair, Mcdaniel, Boshoff and Terblanche, 2008). Besides, the message is from CCA’s IMC, informs the user that consumption of Coke is part of the lifestyle. User get to perceive and adopt the drinking of soft drinks into their lifestyles as part of life. Therefore, the message helps the company to get more market, increase the customer loyalty to the brand and thus increase the organization’s profitability in return (Wilkin, 2009).

All the media channels the CCA all have a target of relaying the IMC objectives to the customers of the organization. The effective communication of the message has increased the profitability of the organization and also strengthened the brand loyalty of its clients (Strydom, Jooste and Cant, 2008). Therefore, the message strategy of CCA makes the customers believe that Coke is an essential commodity in their life (Verhoef, Kannan and Inman, 2015, pp. 174-181).

CCA has employed advertisement strategy for Coke in its business. The company has adopted various types of media to ensure that the information reaches most of its customers (Vantamay, 2011). Some of these media sources used by CCA in promoting Coke include the print where the company advertises using newspapers and magazines, the Television media, the radio among many others (Odden, 2008). CCA has also embraced public relations (PR) through corporate social responsibility. This has helped to increase the organization’s productivity and sustainability, especially in the long term. Other CSR activities include sponsorship in the community such as giving donations to the projects, helping upcoming musicians, events and many others.

The CCA uses direct marketing strategies to promote its products. The organization partners with other business such as hotels and restaurants as one of the IMC mix. Also, the company uses sales promotion in its marketing and advertising mix. These include discounts, offers, visibility in shelves among many others. Besides, the company applies interactive marketing and the social media. Some of these social media channels that CCA uses include Facebook and Twitter among many others (Tsikirayi, Muchenje, and Katsidzira, 2012). Thus, these promotional channels have helped Coke to make achieve an effective communication of its products.

Conclusion

In conclusion, effective marketing communication is key for the success of every business organization. It is a way to reach the market, speak to them, convince them and compete with other players in the industry. Targeting helps in satisfying the customers by segmenting them into portions and then delivering as per their needs. Also, business needs to position their brands above competitors for effective communication. The best way to communicate to the market starts by the formulation of the rightful message to be communicated to the audience. The company then delivers the message through a variety of promotional mix and media. It is important for the organization to evaluate IMC mix strategies that are likely to impact positively to the company. Therefore, when successfully, integrated marketing communication can positively impact on the productivity of the organization.

References

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Wilkin, R. N. (2009). Coca Cola’s Original Coke: Marketing Communication Mix. Retrieved Sept 12, 2017, from Blogspot: https://cocacolasoriginalcoke.blogspot.com/2009/04/marketing-communication-mix.html