Coca-Cola Strategic Communication strategy Plan

1 Executive Summary

The Coca-Cola Company is a beverage company and one of the leading supplier of non-alcoholic beverages in the world. The company has one of the most recognized brands with over 3,500 soft drinks, water, juices, sports drinks, coffee, and milk product and it is currently operating in over 200 countries across the world. However, in the course of the last two years, the company has witnessed a decrease in sales in the United Kingdom which has been the fourth largest soft drinks market in Europe. In order to increase its sales in the United Kingdom, the company needs to define a new communication plan. In this communication plan of Coca-Cola Company, PEST and SWOT analysis will be done to assess the situation. The communication strategy used in reaching to all the targeted audiences together with marketing and communication objectives will be determined. This communication plan will be explained in terms of ways of designing messages and choice of media and a summary of ways of evaluating desirable outcomes of the company out of the communication.

2 Situational Analysis

2.1 SWOT Analysis

• Strength
  • Coca-Cola is one of the leading brands in the world and generates about $8 billion net income every year (Mokhov and Ryabukhin, 2018).
  • Coca-Cola Company has been in the market for about 125 years and has loyal customer base due to its ability to build strong emotional ties with its customers through various brands such as Dasani, Coca Cola, Fanta, Coca-Cola Zero and Sprite (Mokhov and Ryabukhin, 2018).
  • Coca-Cola Company has one of the best distribution systems arising from good relations with its partners. Europe is one of the longest-serving partners of Coca-Cola Company and this has helped in enhancing its market share

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• Weaknesses
  • While some of the products of Coca-Cola Company such as Fanta, coke and sprite are well known in UK market, many of the Coca-Cola’s products such as ‘Appletiser’ and ‘Honest lemon flavoured herbal teas with honey’ are unknown (Gertner and Rifkin, 2017).
  • In the United Kingdom market, about 20% of the Coca-Cola products are not consumed at home (Skip Smith, 2002). This can be as a result of the criticism in the use of some ingredients to make its products
• Opportunities
  • Coca-Cola Company has Coca-Cola Ware based in the United Kingdom which design branded clothes according to urban street style (Skip Smith, 2002).
  • Coca-Cola Company has partnered with several schools, and clubs and to sponsor sports events.
  • Coca-Cola Company has partnered with Warner Bros, an international mass media and entertainment company. With the release of ‘Harry Potter’, Coca-Cola Company can take advantage of the partnership to reach out to the consumers (Skip Smith, 2002).
  • Coca-Cola Company has partnered with specific programs to create environmental awareness and has education programs for young people to equip with skills needed in the corporate market (Mokhov and Ryabukhin, 2018).
• Threats
  • Coca-Cola Company is facing a lot of criticism from government and other agencies over its water management issue and packaging controversy also known as ‘Cola war’.
  • Health concern arising from the intake of carbonated drinks is one of the controversial issue facing the company. Coca-Cola is finding it a challenge in its usage across the UK market due to health experts who have prohibited the use of these soft drinks as a result of their grave health issues such as diabetes and obesity (Gertner and Rifkin, 2017).
  • To the new generation, Coca-Cola is perceived to be an old brand which has been there for more than a century. As such, to the young people, it is old fashioned

2.2 PEST Analysis

PEST analysis will be used to analyse different influences facing Coca-Cola Company.

• Political
  • The operation of Coca-Cola Company is dependent on the governmental policies on caffeine and sugar consumption. Due to health complicated issue, the lawmakers are becoming stricter on caffeine and sugar consumption and in most cases, Coca-Cola Company is forced to alter chemical compositions of their drinks (Skip Smith, 2002). In the UK, the rise of taxes on sugar production is a threat to Coca-Cola Company.
• Economical
  • The global economic crisis has affected the operation of Coca-Cola Company to great extent. An increase in instability across the globe followed by a recession in developed countries including the UK has seen the cost of raw materials rising (Liu, 2018).
• Socio-cultural
  • The mentality change observed in consumer behaviour is one of the biggest social factor affecting the operation of Coca-Cola Company. The Millennial and Gen-X consumers are shifting to energy drinks rather than carbonated drinks because of the health issues such as obesity and diabetes associated with them (Gertner and Rifkin, 2017). The current generation of United Kingdom is more focus on healthy living.
• Technical
  • Coca-Cola Company leverage on the development observed in technology to create brand awareness and to reach its customers. Social media-based advertising is one of the platforms the company is using due to its highest followers across these platforms. It is currently having about 108 million followers on Facebook and 3.34 million on Twitter. In the UK, Coca-Cola Company has developed games like ‘Real Coke Rush’ for teenagers (Skip Smith, 2002).

3 Communication Strategy

3.1 Target audience

Between the yea 2012 and 2017, the statistics showed that women became more users of Coca-Cola products compared to men. However, in 2019, the tendencies for Coca-Cola products were inverse based on gender. Considering the age demographic information, people in 25-35 and 45-54 age bracket observed increase in Coca-Cola products consumption over the years while those in the 15-24 group observing a decrease in consumption rate over the ten years (Skip Smith, 2002).

With all this information, it is evident that Coca-Cola brand needs to increase its sale to those in the 15-24 age bracket. These are the future consumers and will determine the market share of Coca-Cola Company in the coming years. Other than considering targeting the youth, women should equally be targeted in order to increase their consumption rate to attain their 2017 consumption rate (Liu, 2018). For those above 45 years, Coca-Cola Company should target them for short-term objectives. Considering the statistics presented, the 45-54 group is an increasing market and more in number. Analysis of impulse buying showed 25-34 group to be the relevant group and as such, they should be targeted in the marketing of Coca-Cola products.

3.1.1 Youths

To target the younger group, a pull strategy will be deployed. Through the use of art sponsorship, Coca-Cola Company will be able to change its corporate image and make its brand look younger to the millennial or Gen-X group (Hendry and Chen, 2018). This can be done by sponsoring new singer especially those known in the show-biz world. Singers like Avril Lavigne who is young can easily appeal to boys and girls should be sponsored by Coca-Cola Company and Coca-Cola be the only drink in her drink.

3.1.2 Males

Through sponsoring of sports such as Tennis, Football and Rugby in the UK, Coca-Cola Company should be able to reach to its male audience who are the major followers of these sports events (Hendry and Chen, 2018). So far, Coca-Cola Company is known for its sports sponsorship and it should enhance its advertisement through these events. This should be done through the use of banners placed around stadiums where the audience can view.

3.1.3 Young Adult

The use of push strategy is very critical to appeal to the young adult. Most of the young adult prefer to drink alcohol and most of their time they spend in clubs or pubs with friends (Hendry and Chen, 2018). Coca-Cola Company should, therefore, develop a joint venture with alcoholic brands such as Whisky brand and develop promotions. Using Whisky-Coke fashion in UK cities, Coca-Cola Company should be able to appeal to young adults.

3.1.4 General Public

For the young audience who are more attracted to the TV campaign, sponsoring TV programmes will help in reaching them. This is cost-effective media which allow the audience to establish associations between the program and the sponsor. The use of big cinema should be able to diffuse the new campaign and audience easily targeted.

3.1.5 Elderly

Through the use of the press, Coca-Cola Company should be able to target the young and old audiences. However, this approach is able to reach more female than male since they have more preferences for reading. Teenagers, on the other hand, f have a tendency of reading magazines for fashion and this can be used to reach them while old people can be reached through health magazines which they do read (Hendry and Chen, 2018).

3.2 Communication Objectives

The communication objectives of this strategy will be;

-To emphasis on the differences products offered by Coca-Cola Company compared to those offered by competitors such as Pepsi. This is to create differentiation awareness in the next 16 months by 25% through the different taste of Coca-Cola products and the image of the company.

-To increase the awareness of the Coca-Cola products by 4 % in the next 8 months. This will be done based on the target group. The low difference is due to the well-recognised Coca-Cola brand in the United Kingdom.

-To maintain the preference of Coca-Cola brand among UK consumers. While it is evident that Coca-Cola Company is a leading beverage company in the UK, it will not be able to stay strong unless it’s brand it’s reinforced especially with the competition from the like of Pepsi

-To reposition the brand for the millennial and Gen-X generation as younger and fun. This is because Coca-Cola Company need to target the current generation and the only way of doing this is by positioning itself as a brand for young people and with a lot of fun.

-To enhance brand value awareness by 25% in the next 16 months.

3.3 Designing Message

In designing the message to be used for the Coca-Cola Company campaign, it is important to consider the language, content and mood. However, the purpose of creating the message need to be very clear at the beginning (Shimp and Andrews, 2013). In this case, the company intend to increase its sale in the United Kingdom by creating brand awareness and reach out to more customers.  In crafting the message, one important element should be the target audience. For this communication strategy, content for the elderly should be factual while that of the youth should be visual. This makes the message to be effective and derive the intended purpose.

The emotion one intends to derive is very important in message designing. In order to strike the right balance for this campaign, different situation and sound will be chosen for different audiences (Argenti, 2013). Music of both the snowboarding such Slowburn by Moments of Clarity as and another for the beach such as Rockaway by Ramones will be playing to great the emotion of the youths. Anything which can evoke negative feeling should be avoided.

The language chosen for the message should be that which the targeted audience is able to understand. The United Kingdom understand English and therefore, for this communication plan, it will be used. However, the language will be formal and simple to reach to most of the audience (Argenti, 2013). The use of symbols such as a bear lying along the beach on a red towel its snowboard red. This is to help the audie4nce to easily identify with Coca-Cola Company which uses this symbol.

3.4 Choosing Media

3.4.1 TV and Cinema

Coca-Cola Company will use TV as a base for its communication strategy. The theme should be to reposition the Coca-Cola image as a fashion and fun. A mockery campaign will be used with white bear symbol commonly associated with Coca-Cola being deployed as the campaign’s major character. Among the objectives of this campaign is to enhance impulse buying and in order to achieve this, it should be done during summer.

The use of cinema campaign will be employed to run a burst strategy with the aim of placing the white bear in a funny context.  To do this, the bear will be placed on a red towel lying on the beach with its snowboard red. At the background, the music of both the snowboarding such Slowburn by Moments of Clarity as and another for the beach such as Rockaway by Ramones will be playing. This advert should run for 45 second on television. This will be able to bring out the idea of Coca-Cola targeting the millennial youth and that it is a refreshing drink.

3.4.2 The Press

During the end of summer and spring, the use of the press should be the burst campaign strategy. This is the period when most people have time to read magazines since it is holiday time. Using this choice of media, young and old people can be reached through magazines and journals. To attract the young, the media should be full of colours to bring out visual effects. The old people, on the other hand, should be given facts and this can be done by illustrating advantages of drink against others. The advertisement for the young people should be on the last page while that for the elderly should be placed on the right page of the beginning of the journal.

3.4.3 Banners

The use of banners should be done during March and April to mark the beginning of the campaign through sponsorship of singer’s concerts such as Avril. While the banners used should be the same as that used on TV, it should, however, be more detailed.in this case, the bear should have sun-glasses while lying on the beach with a bottle of coke with ‘Reposition the Coca-Cola Image as a Fashion and Fun’ slogan. This banner should be displayed on buses to target students and around the stadium to target the young adult.

There will be a banner with a bear having sun-glasses while lying on the beach with a bottle of coke with the theme of the campaign. This banner is currently being displayed on buses to create the same awareness. The message of donation and grants done to the music artists for the sustainability of this state of art will be captured.

3.4.4. Sports

Coca-Cola Company will develop sports sponsorship for the scholar year. During these events sponsored by Coca-Cola Company, there is will be banners insider the stadium. For the beginning of this campaign drive, national football teams and rugby will be sponsored.

3.4.5 Joint Venture

Coca-Cola Company will do join venture with whisky brand and these events will be done in clubs and pubs. As such, Coca-Cola Company should establish specific relationships with clubs and pubs within the cities of the UK. For whisky, a joint venture with J&B is appropriate because of its ability to make cocktails. This strategy aims to come up with a new fashion in whisky-coke for young adults who have a preference for alcoholic products. The use of T-shirts and caps should be deployed and these should be distributed in the clubs and pubs targeted.

3.4.6 Online promotion

To target young people, having competitions which are online based should be developed. The games should be able to stimulate awareness and have the ability to be downloaded and where possible be used as screen-savers.

4 Summary

In order to determine whether the deployed communication strategy is achieving its desired outcome, an evaluation will be done. In case one objective is not be achieved, then a new plan should be devised. For this communication plan, pre-evaluation should be done after 4 months to check on whether the objectives are being met and amend the plan where necessary for the success of the campaign. The use of surveys, done through personal interviews, postal surveys and telephone will be used to assess the progress of each strategy. A corporate image evaluation is one which should be done regularly by the management to get the feedback of the people in regards to the performance of the company.

5 Element B – Press Release

TV Ad Script

Bibliography

Argenti, P., 2013. Corporate Communication. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Gertner, D. and Rifkin, L., 2017. Coca-Cola and the Fight against the Global Obesity Epidemic. Thunderbird International Business Review, 60(2), pp.161-173.

Hendry, H. and Chen, R., 2018. Consumer Behavior based on APP use for Food and Beverage Consumption. AITI, 15(1), pp.1-13.

Liu, H., 2018. Foreign Direct Investment And Strategic Alliances In Europe. Florence: Routledge.

Mokhov, V. and Ryabukhin, M., 2018. Sustainable development program «COCA-COLA HBC RUSSIA». Investment and innovation management journal, (4), pp.68-72.

Shimp, T. and Andrews, J., 2013. Advertising, Promotion, And Other Aspects Of Integrated Marketing Communications. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Skip Smith, D., 2002. Interview with Robert A. Lindsay, Vice President, Public Affairs and Communication for Coca-Cola Africa Group, United Kingdom. Journal of African Business, 3(2), pp.137-141.

Webb, C., 2006. Avoiding ageism and promoting diversity at Coca‐Cola. Strategic HR Review, 5(5), pp.8-9.