Brand Value Creation Plan of Coca Cola Company
In this assignment, you will provide a comprehensive report of a product and brand of your choosing. Since this report will require a comprehensive analysis, it is recommended that you select a brand for which there is a wealth of publicly available information.
This report has three primary components:
1. Brand Value Creation Plan. Please see below for the full description and outline for this analysis
2. Strategic recommendations for this brand. Here, you will provide an informed argument of specific actions the brand should take to improve it’s goals and strategies. Here, you will provide an informed, data-driven argument that the company should adopt your advice. You should select 2 of the following areas for the company to optimize:
A) A Brand Shift
B) New Product Launch
C) New Marketing Campaign
D) Other (if you'd like to select an option not listed here, please chat with me)
3. Video Executive Summary. Lastly, the report should contain a 2-3 minute Video Executive Summary. This is analogous to a written Executive Summary, but will be submitted as a separate video file. More information on the Video Executive Summary, as well as resources for recording and sharing video are included here: Additional Resources for Video Executive SummaryLinks to an external site..
Submission Requirements:
6-8 pages, double-spaced (You should consider this a suggested range. This is not a limitation, and you should feel free to exceed this if you deem appropriate)
11 or 12 point font
Graphs, charts, or other visuals are encouraged
Citations in APA Format
Link to video submitted in comments
Additional details about each of these options can be found below
1) Brand Value Creation Plan
A) Goals of The Brand
Monetary goals involve monetary outcomes such as net income, profit margins, earnings per share, and return on investment. Monetary goals are the primary performance metric used by for-profit enterprises.
Strategic goals involve non-monetary outcomes that are of strategic importance to the company. Common strategic goals include growing sales volume, creating brand awareness, increasing social welfare, enhancing the corporate culture, and facilitating employee recruitment and retention. Strategic goals are the key performance metric for offerings that have the primary function of supporting other, profit-generating offerings. For example, Amazon might break even (or even incur a loss) in making, promoting, and distributing its Kindle devices and yet view them as a strategically important platform for its retail business.
Portfolio position: Where does the brand lie within the overall brand portfolio? Do the goals of the specific brand (e.g. Jordan) differ from that of the superordinate brand (e.g. Nike), or organization?
B) Strategy (how the brand creates value)
In marketing, strategy outlines a company’s choice of the target market in which it will compete and the value it intends to create in this market.
5 Cs Framework
Customers are the current and potential buyers of the offerings furnished by the company and its competitors.
The customer value proposition defines the benefits and associated costs that the company’s offering aims to create for target customers. The customer value proposition answers the question:
How does the offering create superior value for target customers relative to the competitive offerings?
Who are the company’s target customers? Do they vary in their needs and behaviors? What are the opportunities and threats associated with these customers? Should the company continue to serve these customers?
Company the parent company, sitting at the top of the brand hierarchy
What resources must the company have in order to create superior value for its target customers? Does the company have these resources? Can the lacking resources (if any) be built/acquired within the time frame defined by the company’s goal?
Collaborators are entities that work or could potentially work with the company to create the offering, communicate its benefits, and deliver the offering to customers.
Who are the company’s collaborators? What are the opportunities and threats associated with these collaborators? Should the company continue to partner with these entities?
Competitors are entities with offerings that cater to the same customers and/or aim to fulfill the same customer need as the company.
Who are the company’s competitors? What are the threats that these competitors pose to the company? Are there any competitive opportunities that the company could take advantage of?
Context defines the environment in which the company and its competitors operate. This environment is defined by five factors: economic (economic growth, money supply, inflation, and interest rates); technological (the diffusion of existing technologies and the development of new ones); sociocultural (demographic trends, value systems, and market-specific beliefs and behavior); regulatory (import/export tariffs, taxes, product specifications, pricing and advertising policies, and patent and trademark protection); and physical (natural resources, climate, and health conditions).
What are the sociocultural, technological, economic, regulatory, and physical aspects of the environment in which the company operates? What are the opportunities and threats associated with each of these contexts?
C) Tactics
Tactics refer to a set of specific activities, also known as the marketing mix, employed to execute a given strategy. The market tactics define the key aspects of the offering that the company introduces and manages in a given market, from the benefits this offering creates and how much it costs to how customers will hear about and buy it. The tactics logically follow from the company’s strategy and reflect the way the company will make this strategy a market reality.
4 Ps Analysis:
Price
How is the product priced? Is it priced the same way for all customers, everywhere, or are there different prices for different consumers/times?
How specifically, do consumers pay for the product (e.g. cash, credit card)
What pricing system is used (e.g. freemium, subscription)
Product
How is it branded?
What is the product and how is it used?
How does it deliver unique value to consumers?
What is unique about the product above and beyond competitor products?
Promotion
How does the brand communicate about it's product?
How is the product advertised and how do marketing campaigns focus on it?
How is it branded? (include brand logo, slogans, and other brand iconography)
How is the product brand related to the company brand?
Placement:
How do consumers buy the product? Private retail, outlets, online?
How do consumers interact with the product?
What is customer service (and refunds) like for the product?
2) Strategic Recommendations
In this section, you are proving the company two persuasive, evidence-based recommendations which can further optimize their brands goals and/or profitability:
Choose your own (2 out of the following 3):
Brand Shift: The brand should consider shifting their brand positioning, brand iconography, and/or brand perception
Compelling case for why would this/these amendments help align the brand with their goals / their market etc.
New Product Launch: The company should consider launching a new product?
Complete a 4 Ps Analysis of this new product
Make a compelling case that this would align with brand goals / strategy / etc.
New Marketing Campaign: The company should consider embarking on a new marketing campaign
Who is the campaign focused on, and how will this communicate product / brand values in a desired way?
Provide a full description of the campaign itself, across all mediums (television, digital, experiential etc.)
“Other”*
Examples include:
The company should alter their pricing strategy
The company should expand into a new market
*“Other” strategic recommendations require approval; please reach out to discuss
3) Video Executive Summary
Again, the report should contain a 3-minute Video Executive Summary. This is analogous to a written Executive Summary, but will be submitted as a separate video file. More information on the Video Executive Summary, as well as resources for recording and sharing video are included here: Additional Resources for Video Executive SummaryLinks to an external site..
Marketing Analysis and Strategic Recommendations
Student Full Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Full Title
Instructor Full Name
Due Date
Marketing Analysis and Strategic Recommendations
Brand Value Creation Plan
Goals of The Brand
The monetary goals of the Coca-Cola brand revolve around tangible economic objectives, including increasing organizational revenue, generating higher profit margins, and earning a return on every investment. Other monetary goals or primary performance metrics used by the for-profit company are improving overall cash flow, increasing the profit margin, reducing overall operational expenses, investing more into the company, and optimizing specific product pricing and revenues. The strategic goals of the Coca-Cola brand include developing new products and features, building online brand recognition, increasing customer satisfaction, heightening operational reliability and compliance, increasing the company's market share, increasing customer conversion rates, and offering excellent customer value. Other strategic goals of the brand are increasing employee retention, increasing social welfare, attracting the best global talent, reducing employee turnover, enhancing the corporate culture, improving cross-functional productivity, increasing workplace safety, and increasing overall staff engagement scores.
The Coca-Cola company has over 200 brands within its portfolio, including hydration, sports, tea, coffee, nutrition, dairy, juice, sparkling flavors, and soft beverages. The classic Coca-Cola beverage is the flagship brand of the company. It is sold in all market segments across the world. Soft drink makes up 26% of the brand's stock value as one of the most widely recognized beverages. While the beverage accounts for the most significant share of Coca-Cola's overall brand portfolio, other specific brands in the sports, juice, and sparkling flavors like Diet Coke, Coke Zero Sugar, Sprite Zero, Powerade, and Barq's will soon supplant the classic Coca-Cola drink in terms of stock value. For instance, while Coke Zero accounts for a smaller share of the brand's revenues (Coke Zero Sugar makes up less than 14% of total revenues compared to Coca-Cola's 26%), the drink is expected to become the company's most significant source of revenue growth in the coming years. The goals of the classic Coca-Cola differ from that of the superordinate brand Coke Zero Sugar in that unlike the latter, which is geared towards health-conscious consumers by leaving out sugar, the former is meant to serve as the brand's signature drink and communicate the experience and lifestyle associated with the coca-cola brand.
Since its inception in 1886, the classic Coca-Cola has been the company's primary product within its brand portfolio. It has even helped the brand gain global recognition with its distinctively refreshing taste and iconic contour-fluted lines. However, the renowned beverage (which bears the same name as the company) will likely take less prominence in the company's stock value as more consumers opt for healthier beverages like Coke Zero.
Strategy
The Coca-Cola company was founded in 1892 after businessman Asa Griggs Candler bought the rights to the formula for the classic Coca-Cola drink developed by John Pemberton at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta. Candler sold the rights to bottle the beverage, thereby launching the current franchise partnership that the company has with its more than 250 bottlers worldwide. The company manufactures and sells its syrup and concentrate for its classic Coca-Cola beverage to bottlers across the globe. However, introducing the signature Coca-Cola contour bottle in 1916 helped drive worldwide brand recognition and popularity. Coca-Cola has diversified its brand portfolio over the following decades by including additional hydration, sports, tea, coffee, nutrition, dairy, juice, sparkling flavors, and soft beverages in its product range. With more than 200 brands available in nearly all countries, Coca-Cola is the world's leading beverage manufacturer and distributor. The company has leveraged its global brand recognition to drive revenue generation. For instance, its median revenue from 2018 to 2022 was $37.26 billion. Coca-Cola's revenues peaked in 2022 when it generated $43 billion, an 11.25% increase from the $38.65 billion it recorded the previous year.
However, the company has recently been criticized for environmental damage with plastic waste, animal testing, health effects, and water scarcity. The company's collaborators include bottling partners, distributors, investors, content creators, and suppliers. For instance, Coca-Cola has over 250 independent bottling partners spread worldwide: together with its bottling partners, the brand is responsible for creating over 700,000 employment opportunities. The company partners with suppliers to provide the syrup and concentrates needed to craft its beverages and distributors to ensure its products reach final consumers. Coca-Cola has also partnered with industry partners like content creators to market its products. More importantly, the brand has ties with many local and global NGOs across several areas like social and economic improvement and environmental protection issues like water scarcity, carbon footprint, and sustainable packaging. The company's primary target market includes young and middle-aged people between 10 and 35. This target market is looking for intense flavors that embody their lifestyle and largely drive the company's global reach and popularity. The company also targets older adults over 40 who are diabetic or health-conscious with its zero-sugar beverages.
Coca-Cola's biggest competitors are other global non-alcoholic beverage companies like PepsiCo, Unilever Group, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Monster Beverage Corp., Red Bull, Nestle, and Danone. While the company holds the largest market share in the USA, some of its competitors have an edge in other geographical segments. Some external factors outside Coca-Cola's control but that influence its financial and strategi...