Assignment #1 - Segmentation and Targeting
Please read the following Case Study and answer the questions at the 4 questions at the end.
Segmenting and Targeting Markets: Case Study: Coke Zero
When a couple of marketing managers for Coca-Cola told lawyer Elizabeth Finn Johnson that they wanted to sue their Coke Zero colleagues for “taste infringement,” she was baffled. She tried to talk them out of it, but they were determined. They argued that Coca-Cola Classic should be protected from the age discrimination it would suffer with the introduction of a newer, younger soft drink that tasted exactly the same as the original. Frustrated, Finn Johnson held up the Coke can and shouted, “It's not a person! Title VII doesn't cover these
…show more content…
However, research showed that there was still a big demographic hole to fill as young men between the ages of 18 and 34 were abandoning the Coca-Cola brand altogether. They didn't want all the calories of regular Coke, but they weren't willing to make the move to Diet Coke, either, which has traditionally been marketed to women who want to lose weight.
Katie Bayne, chief marketing officer for Coca-Cola North America, says that the men who weren't put off by the “feminine stigma” of Diet Coke often rejected it anyway because of its aspartame-sweetened aftertaste. “What we were seeing before Zero launched was that more and more younger people were interested in no-calorie beverages but weren't going to sacrifice taste,” Bayne said. “So when they got interested in no-calorie, they were like ‘Forget it, I'm not going to Diet Coke.’”
Testing showed that the name “Coke Zero” would be an effective way to sell a low-calorie cola to men without using the word “diet.” And advances in artificial sweeteners made it possible for Coke to finally create a product that tasted more like the Real Thing. So expectations were high when Coke Zero was introduced in 2005 with a big marketing push, including a commercial that
However, Pepsi began to slowly catch up to their status and in the early 1980s, Coke had only a one percent lead over Pepsi in exclusive drinkers. Coke was very concerned with this because there product was more readily available than Pepsi’s and they spent more than $100 million more annually on advertising and they really didn’t want Pepsi to usurp their rank as the leading cola. However, Pepsi had been running commercials on television where they put Coca Cola and Pepsi head-to-head in a blind taste test that came to be known as the Pepsi Challenge. In this challenge, Pepsi had faithful coke drinkers take a sip from two different glasses and pick which sample they preferred. One of the cups was marked with a “Q” and the other was marked with an “M.” They consistently chose the cup marked “M,” which would be the cup holding Pepsi. When Coca Cola heard of this challenge, they immediately wanted to prove it to be false, so they conducted blind taste tests themselves. However, when their tests were performed, they got the same results as Pepsi, and the majority of the testers, 57%, preferred Pepsi over Coke. These results really concerned Coca Cola, and they began to do a plethora of other market research projects. They couldn’t figure out exactly what it was that made testers prefer Pepsi, but eventually decided that it must be the taste. From this came the creation of what came to be known as “New Coke.” Coca Cola had their scientists experiment with the secret
Watching Mean Girls has strengthened my view of Diet Coke as a drink for those who are in control of their lives and want to lose weight, thus becoming more beautiful, popular and successful socially and one of the reasons I consume this product is that I hope to emulate these characteristics, thus it is my beverage of choice.
Coca-Cola, as the leading brand in the world, has the highest position in soft drink industry. Its outstanding product “Coke” has been won the heart of everyone. However, in this case, we realize that they had a failed attempt at introducing the new product called New Coke in 1985.
There is a lot of High Fructose Corn Syrup, the sugar of choice, in regular sodas. People started finding out about how bad sugar is for them and how much sugar was really in their favorite every day drink. Everyone started turning against all of the soda companies and they had no choice but to come up with an alternative. So, instead of using natural sugar or High Fructose Corn Syrup in sodas, scientists invented artificial sweeteners, a way to keep the soda sweet yet contain no sugar. Artificial sweeteners like Aspartame that are added to diet soda are actually worse for us than the sugar that is in regular soda. This was proven by an Osteopathic Physician from the American Colledge of Nutrition who states, "While many of the artificial sweeteners have reportedly similar side effects, aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA" (Mercola).
Please answer the following case study questions using the knowledge gained in this course. Remember to cite your references in APA format. Answer the questions in complete sentences and spell-check your Assignment. Each question is worth 4 points.
Review the following case study and answer the questions for each part located at the end of the case. Submit as directed to the drop box.
This is not meant to hint that coke is a healthy alternative to diet coke because, truthfully, neither are the answer. The average diet in today’s society demonstrates the quick and substantial increase in obesity. People are eating dinner from gas stations rather than a home cooked meal, choosing soda over water and are snacking more often than ever. These everyday activities are what we call “predisposing factors” to health issues. The specific pre-disposing factors in question here may lead to type 2 diabetes, hypertension, lipid problems, heart disease, Fatty liver disease, polycystic ovarian syndrome, cancers and dementia. The sum of the costs for these 8 diseases accounts for 75% of global healthcare. In the film The Skinny on Obesity, Dr. Robert Lustig states that 2010 was actually the first year that data showed that there was a decrease in mean life span by three months, due in part to these conditions (Lustig 2012). That marks the first time in the history of the world that lifespan began to go down instead of up. One common misconception about our consumption is that fat is the worse ingredient in food. It is, in fact, sugar. Sugar is 50 times more potent than other calories and is partly fat in of its self. For this reason, it is wrong to think that 100 calories from Oreos are equal to 100 calories from carrots because the detrimental differences in physiological effects that they have. This may seem obvious but the fact that sugar
As the last assignment, this is an integrative case. Please refer to all previous chapters that may be applicable. The case analysis is worth 60 points.
1.The company I chose to research is the, Coca-Cola Company. Their company mission is to “refresh the world” and spread happiness, which can be seen in the media advertising. Although this company is sold in stores, there is the option for online buying as well. Its URL is, http://www.coca-colastore.com. While this URL, is the company’s actual website, http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company. This online website allows customers to buy Coca-Cola products “Share-a-Coke” and Coke brand merchandise (Moye, 2015).
According to David Cravens and others “Target market is a group of existing or potential customers within a specific product market towards which an organisation directs its marketing efforts”. Coca cola company follow Total market approach; therefore, company develops a single marketing mix and directs it at the whole market for their products.
A company must be in tune with what consumers want. Consumers get bored, and often want new products. In order to meet the wants and needs of customers a company must introduce new products or services (Bateman &Snell, 2003). Coca-Cola, in an effort to meet customer's needs, created C2 which is a low carb soft drink. This was in response to the low carb diets and the demands of consumers. They also intend to launch a new soft drink called Coca-Cola Zero. This is a zero calorie soft drink. Knowing the importance of innovation the Coca-Cola Company has always strived to create new products. They already have Coke with Lime, Lemon, Vanilla and Cherry. Raspberry will be the new flavor added to Coke coming soon. They also have plans to sweeten Diet Coke with Splenda, a sugar substitute that is safe for
Another important weakness is that the company’s products are seen as a major cause of obesity. (Melser, 2013) The beverage sales are affected by various factors including change in trends and preferences. Recently, beverage sales have fallen because of people’s increased preference for the health drinks. Around the world, obesity is a major problem and the Coca Cola products are seen as a major cause of obesity. As people are getting health conscious they are moving towards low calorie healthy drinks. This affects coca cola’s profitability and popularity. However, the brand can overcome this situation by increasing the number of low calorie products in its brand portfolio. It will need to add more healthy choices for its customers in its product portfolio.
The designed advertisement for Coke Zero focuses on the truth and facts provided by the industrial researchers and medical professionals. It provides the transparent information of how the products help to keep customers healthy and fit and will not incur any negative health effects. Different age of customers and different customer segments found it as the economic, easy to approach and handy products. There will not be any guilty feeling after they consume the products. The designed advertisement reflects a true and transparent information and fact and there is no ethical and legal concerns involved.
Refer to source and message, Coke Zero recruit real lawyers to sue Coke Zero that using an unexpected approach to reinforce the fact that Coke Zero tastes so much like Coke make people believe it is the same and influence consumers
Coca-Cola has been around for generations with the same iconic taste, logo and symbolism. Its brand has represented family and the memories of good times, celebrations and comfort of being with those we love. Unfortunately, the company has not made good marketing decisions in the recent past and has lost relevancy. The purpose of this essay is to assess the conditions that created Coca-Colas marketing problems, evaluate the future of healthy beverages and non-carb drink brand extensions, and provide recommendations to the management.