Low Cost Strategy for Luring Customers

Management is a crucial component within the business activities. Exposing strategic approach towards management is effective in terms of systematizing the business operations. Adopting strategic management helps the companies and organizations in maintaining the competitive pace with the contemporary brands (Robson 2015). This research proposal attempts to peek into the strategic management of Coca-Cola in terms of maintaining effective relations with the customers. The main focus of the proposal would be on the relationship between the management of evolving products and the channels for communicating the customers about the products.

When Coca-Cola initiated their operations, low cost strategy was used for luring the customers. The offer was easily accepted by the customers, as Coca-cola was an innovation into their platter. With the passage of time, target marketing added value to the business. However, originality was maintained in the product, coke (Coca-cola.com 2018). Along with this, position mapping helped the company to gain awareness about the current strategic position in the competitive ambience of the market. Adherence to the standards and protocols of Ethical Code of Conduct helps in maintaining a fair relationship with the customers. Typical evidence of this lies in the undertaking of Responsible Marketing Policy in terms of advertisements (Coca-cola.com 2018). These advertisements make the customers aware of newly launched products and services. Community service enhances the corporate social responsibility of the company. Drive towards generating value for the communities, develops trust, reliance and indicates positive changes (Coca-cola.com 2018).

Rivalry with the competitors is one of the biggest challenges, which Coca-Cola is facing. Brands like Pepsi aggravate the difficulties for Coca-Cola in terms of achieving customer satisfaction. This is in terms of the dry taste of Pepsi, which the customer find more appealing. Moreover, carbonated drinks are adversely affecting the health of the people in the current fast paced life. Negative publicity and low profits in the strong areas necessitates the needs for effective communication channels (Coca-cola.com 2018). This research proposal would shed light on the need of social networking sites for increasing the sales revenue and profit margin for Coca-Cola.

In every business, products are the agents for luring the customers towards the brand image. At the initiation, certain kinds of products are developed for assessing the response of the customers. However, new products evolve for attracting certain kind of audience (Hill 2017). This is in terms of increasing the sales revenue and the profit margin. In most of the cases, it is seen that the companies and organizations, renovate the existing products for restoring the lost position within the markets. This is done through the means of technology, which brings automation within the services. Moreover, Hill, Jones and Schilling (2014) opines that technology helps in finishing the production process within the stipulated time, so that delay in delivering the orders can be averted.

Target Marketing and Ethical Code of Conduct

After the production of the products has been completed, they need to be delivered to the customers. There are various channels through which the products are delivered. This can be segregated into direct and indirect forms. According to the arguments of Wheelen et al. (2017), in direct form, the customers get the orders products directly from the manufacturers. In indirect form, wholesalers and distributors act as agent for delivering the orders to the customers. In the food and beverage industry, long distribution channels are used for delivering the goods to the clients and the customers. On the other hand, Rothaermel  (2015) is of the view that the organization hierarchy is three tiered, where the law entrusts the producer to sell the product to a wholesaler and then to a retailer. Finally the retailer sells the finished product to the customers.

Until and unless the evolved products are delivered to the clients, value is not generated to the business. Strategic approach is planning for the prospective delivery channel, as the product reaches the final stage. Keeping sufficient time for evaluation helps in the altering the delivery channel, so that the product reaches to the customer in a proper manner (Lasserre 2017). Here, Product Growth Theory can be brought. The main components of the theory are the time of initial purchase of the new products and growth rate behaviour. Morschett, Schramm-Klein and Zentes (2015) states that these components act assistance for the personnel in terms of estimating the channel, which would be prospective for increasing the sales revenue and profit margin. Moreover, it would also be productive in terms of widening the scope and arena of the supply chain network (Bettis et al. 2014).

Coalition theory is also relevant in terms of exploring the dynamics of distributing the newly evolved products. As a matter of specification, the theory projects the dominance of powerful channel entities (social media) on the weaker channel members (door to door marketing) (Trigeorgis and Reuer 2017).

The purpose of this research is to shed light on the importance of social media for Coca-Cola in terms of engaging with a large number of audiences at a single time. Along with this, the research proposal aims to suggest the means of campaigning on social networking sites for increasing the sales revenue and profit margin (Hill, Jones and Schilling 2014). Apart from this, the research proposal would suggest the production of drinks, which have low carbonate amount. This would be effective in terms of controlling the health conditions, especially, those suffering from diabetes and are fond of cold drinks (Hill 2017). Data collection would help in providing an insight into the approaches of the people regarding the use of different channels for distributing the newly evolved drinks. Analysis of the collected data, would further, be assistance in terms of deducing relevant results on supply chain network.

Rivalry with Competitors and Social Networking Sites

In the research proposal, deductive approach would be followed for gaining an insight into the channels adopted by Coca-Cola for delivering the newly evolved cold drinks and other beverages (Mackey and Gass 2015). Data for the research would be collected through secondary data. As a matter of specification, books, journals and company websites would be used for collecting relevant data. Themes would be developed regarding the evolving products and the distribution channels in case of brands like Coca-Cola. This would suffice the need for data analysis process (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault 2015). Along with this, other case studies would be referred for developing a competitive study between the brands of the food and beverage industry (Bettis, Gambardella, Helfat and Mitchell 2014).

Conclusion

This research proposal aims to excavate the impact of different distribution channels on delivering the newly evolved products to the customers. Purpose of the research clarifies the doubts of the readers regarding the need for strategic management within the current competitive ambience of the market. Background of the research is a base, which addresses the significance of strategic management in case of Coca-Cola for overcoming the weaknesses like weak publicity and low profit in the strong areas. Literature review enhances the knowledge, skills and expertise of the readers regarding the impact of different distribution channels on the effective use of the newly evolving products. Research methodology sheds light on the methods through which the collected data would be analyzed. Here, deductive approach is crucial in terms of deducing relevant results in terms of enhancing the supply chain network in case of brands like Coca-Cola. Using proper distribution channels would help Coca-Cola in enhancing their brand image in a global perspective.

References

Bettis, R., Gambardella, A., Helfat, C. and Mitchell, W., 2014. Quantitative empirical analysis in strategic management. Strategic Management Journal, 35(7), pp.949-953.

Coca-cola.com 2018. About us. Available at: https://www.coca-cola.com/global/ [Accessed on 6^th Nov 2018]

Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.

Hill, T., 2017. Manufacturing strategy: the strategic management of the manufacturing function. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Lasserre, P., 2017. Global strategic management. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Mackey, A. and Gass, S.M., 2015. Second language research: Methodology and design. Routledge.

Morschett, D., Schramm-Klein, H. and Zentes, J., 2015. Strategic international management (pp. 978-3658078836). Springer.

Robson, W., 2015. Strategic management and information systems. Pearson Higher Ed.

Rothaermel, F.T., 2015. Strategic management. McGraw-Hill Education.

Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R. and DeVault, M., 2015. Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. John Wiley & Sons.

Trigeorgis, L. and Reuer, J.J., 2017. Real options theory in strategic management. Strategic Management Journal, 38(1), pp.42-63.

Wheelen, T.L., Hunger, J.D., Hoffman, A.N. and Bamford, C.E., 2017. Strategic management and business policy. pearson.