Introduction:
Coke and CocaCoke has been in the wars for centuries now. It erupted 13 years after
the birth of CocaCoke by pharmacist Caleb Bradham, when Coke was created. This
made the twoCoke producers a direct competitor with one another.
Over the decades after the creation of the twoCokes‟, CocaCoke continuously evolved
its brand and expanded to Europe while Coke was struggling to keep track as it
suffered from bankruptcy a couple of times due to the WWI. In the 50‟s, both
companies were at their peak with advertising and expanding their business to other
countries. They had strategies to stay in the business competitively, both companies
embraced advertising platforms, celebrities endorsements, merging with other
companies; as Coke merged with Frito Lay in the 60s which created CokeCo which
hauled a great revenue for Coke until today (Bhasin, 2013).
Firstly, to compare the branding strategies of these two household brands, it can be
compared and discussed using the five levels of meaning for a product.
The core benefit
Coke and CocaCoke has the same core benefit for their products, which is to quench
the thirst of their consumers as well as selling a non-alcoholic soft drink. Core benefit
is the fundamental need or want that consumers satisfy by consuming the product or
service (Kotler/Keller 2012)
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The generic product
A generic product is the basic version of the product containing only those attributes
or characteristics absolutely necessary for it‟s functioning but with no distinguishing
features (Keller, 2012). Thus generically, both Coke and CocaCoke are both soft
drinks.
The expected product
The expected product is defined as a set of attributes or characteristics that buyers
normally expect and agree to when they purchase a product. When consumers get a
hold of a Coke product, they are expecting the sweet, citrusy flavor burst (Lubin,
2012) and when other consumers grab a CocaCoke product they await the raisiny –
vanilla taste of the soft drink (Gladwell, 2012). The CocaCoke products are constantly
produced in a red background with the iconic CocaCoke writing. Conversely, Coke
products are packaged in a can with their blue writing.
Augmented Product
The CocaCoke products would also feature the label and nutritional facts of the
product. It also provides the contact details of the manufacturer and place of
manufacturing for after sales service purposes. Other additional information such as
the website domain is given for product support.
Coke on the other hand may have some similarities to the cocaCoke product. Coke has
a great customer support as they offer easy accessibility and fast response as well as
Coke‟s availability for contact if an issue occurs (Sheikh, 2002).
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Potential product
Potential product is including all the augmentations and transformations that product
might ultimately undergo in the future (Keller, 2012).
As for CocaCoke, they pledge to help their consumers be active and make informed
nutritional choices (CocaCoke Company, 2012). CocaCoke is offering array of
products that would be hydrating and fitting for their individual needs and lifestyle
that offers low and no calorie beverages and regular calorie beverages packaged in
smaller portions (CocaCoke Company, 2012). This solution was made to address the
global problem of obesity as reported by World Health Organization statistics.
CocaCoke believes that the impact of obesity on the health of the consumer affects the
health of their business thus they became more concerned with the public health. A lot
of researchers and health advocates blame the consumption of sugar-sweetened
beverages as the cause of obesity.
Coke Co is also affected by the global issue of obesity and is taking an initiative to
help curb the situation. Coke Co is looking at lowering their salt, sugar and saturated
fats that is in their food and beverage products. The company will also increase whole
grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and low-fat dairy incorporated in their food products.
They are also looking at being environmentally conscious, for example the fully
compostable chip bag that will decompose entirely in 14 weeks (CokeCo).
Brand knowledge
Brand knowledge as explained as Kevin Keller, as the awareness of the brand name
and belief about the brand image (Keller, 1993). Branding is a potent element for a
product and between the two brands; Coke and CocaCoke; the latter is seen as a more
valuable brand (Lubin, 2012). It can be deducted that brand knowledge is important
for the health of the company. The CocaCoke brand is worth $79 billion in the year
2013 according to Interbrand in comparison of Coke brand, which is only $17 million
worth. Adding on, according to an article written in Interbrand titled
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“Best Global Brands”, the brand awareness disseminated by CocaCoke is a powerful
spread as according to a survey by Research Now, the company scored 90% in brand
awareness among the respondents from various countries such as Canada, United
Kingdom, United States, Germany, France and also Australia. The company scored
big when they sold millions of beverages during Olympics London 2012, but they
scored a bigger win with a high return of global viewership. The event also allowed
CocaCoke to solidify a powerful association in the minds of billions of people around
the globe. The company has used this event to also show their strong presence as a
sponsor and also as a strong brand. A consumer from a different country can identify
a CocaCoke product, even though it‟s in a foreign language and they may still
recognize the product immediately (Lauren, 2012). As for Coke, their strategy to
heighten their brand awareness was with multiple projects under the name “Coke
Refresh Project” as well as bringing back the old Coke Challenge where a blind taste
test is conducted against CocaCoke. The favorable outcome for Coke from these tests
is that the testers would always prefer Coke to CocaCoke. On a different point, the
availability of the two products worldwide could be a contributing factor to their
differences in brand awareness. CocaCoke is much more widely available than Coke.
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CocaCoke creates a sort of convenience for consumers for being widely available thus
getting the loyalty of the consumers. There is a higher demand for CocaCoke than
Coke thus the monopolization in restaurants are more favorable towards CocaCoke.
For example, McDonalds, Subway, Nando‟s are all providing CocaCoke as a
beverage in comparison to KFC as one of Coke‟s territory (Lin, 2012).
According to an article by Design Council UK regarding „The Power of Branding‟,
the brand association with CocaCoke and its product would be that the brand
promises their consumers the great same taste; with the original recipe which is
branded as The Real Thing, and also happiness, youthfulness, classic, energetic, and
refreshing. In comparison, Coke also associates themselves with these keywords; fun,
refreshing, youthfulness. Coke would appeal to the younger generation with the usage
of celebrity endorsers. A great list of famous celebrities such as Michael Jackson,
Britney Spears and most recently the singer Beyoncé as the brand‟s endorsers was
used to gain vast attention from all ages of consumers (Johnson, 2011). The usage of
celebrities as endorsers of the brand adds to the brand image (Erdogan, 1999). Apart
from that, the visual for CocaCoke adds to the association of the product as the
familiar red and white colors of the brand as well as the iconic CocaCoke writing
complemented with the unique shape of the bottles represents the brand itself
The brand image helped the associations of this brand in the minds of their
consumer. Brand image is consumer‟s perception about a brand as reflected by the
brand associations. As for CocaCoke, their logo is an iconic logo that has been
consistent throughout the years (Emily, 2013). Thus, when a consumer sees the brand,
they have the perception of devouring in a classic, great tasting soft drink that is
refreshing. Equally, Coke bears in mind that CocaCoke tries to be “timeless” so Coke
goes to be “timely” meaning they would be in the now, being a modern and edgyCoke
brand (Colom, 2012). Therefore, consumers perceive the brand as the current and
younger brand to consume.
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Product Class
Information
Beverages
Water
Product Category
Information
Flavored
NonAlcoholic
Milk
Juices
Alcoholic
Hot
Beverages
Wine
Soft
Drinks
Pepsi Cola
Distilled
Spirits
Product Type
Information
Beer

Brand Information

Coca Cola
Product Category Hierarchy
Above is the product category hierarchy for the two brands. Both brands have the
same product class information which is both brands selling beverages. Categorically,
both brands are focused to selling flavored drinks more than water, although Coca
Cola has a mineral water branded as “Dasani”, CocaCoke‟s company reels in most of
its revenue and market share with their soft drinks; CocaCoke and Diet Coke. Moving
on to the third level, the product type information groups the two brands under the
same category, which is non-alcoholic that reflects all of the products under the two
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brands that offers non-alcoholic beverages. Finally, the lowest level is the level that is
regarding the brand information, which describes what are the types of product under
the brand.
Brand Positioning
Ideally brand positioning is the act of designing the company‟s offer and image so
that it occupies a distinct and valued place in the target consumer‟s minds (Kotler and
Keller, 2006). It is also a way to delicately position the brands in the minds of
consumers so that they think of the brand in the right or desired manner, which will in
the end, maximize potential benefit to the company. TheCoke wars between the two
name brands has been started for centuries, they are well aware that they are in
competition with one another and at multiple occasions have directly compared
themselves publicly; The Coke Challenge. To distinguish themselves, they have
targeted different audiences, as Coke has always had the younger generation in mind.
Their advertising and marketing strategies are fixed to target teens aged 14 or even
younger with a fun and most often interlaced with music. This is evident over the
years as Coke had musical celebrities like Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and now
Beyoncé (Vendredi, 2012). In contrast to CocaCoke, their target audience is wider but
ensuring the products pleases the generation Y as well as the older generation. They
achieve this by trying a fresher new image to reach the younger generation but
maintaining the originality of the cans and bottles as well as taste for the older
generation. Adding on, CocaCoke also targets diversifying their audience and taking
geographical aspects in high consideration as they target the world filled with
different cultures (Lyle, 2010). CocaCoke also positions themselves as a drink fit for
the entire family while in contrast Coke aims to reach the teens (Vendredi, 2012).
These brands position themselves also knowing their indirect and direct competitors.
OtherCoke beverages in the market are their direct competitors and between the two
they are the most competitive with each other. Indirect competitors are other produces
of beverages such as juices, teas or coffee (Dixon, 2009). Coke and CocaCoke falls
under the same product category, which is beverage, they however have some
similarities; points of parity and differences; point of differences. The potent
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differences are the taste, ingredients as well as the branding between these two brands.
As mentioned before in this study, Coke has a taste of citrust in the drink while
CocaCoke has a more raisin and vanilla in their product. The ingredients of these
products also can be differentiated as Coke has slightly more sugar, caffeine and
calories while CocaCoke has slightly more sodium (Lubin, 2012). CocaCoke is a
much fizzier drink due to its high percentage of carbonation in comparison to Coke.
Other than that, according to an article written on Soft Drink Face Off website, on the
surface the product looks different with CocaCoke using the familiar red label with
the iconic CocaCoke writing and Coke with the blue, white and red stripes as the
background with a Coke writing (2013). Both brands also have different bottling
packaging, which each company has patented. For example CocaCoke‟s iconic
contour shaped bottle that was patented in 1915. Not to mention the company of Coke
does not only focus on beverages but has reaping in revenue from their flagship food,
mainly chips products. Despite the differences, vast consumers lean towards
CocaCoke more than Coke which can be concluded that CocaCoke‟s branding is
much more valuable (Lubin, 2012). On another note, the similarities of these two
brands are that they have a wide variety of soft drinks beverages that enter the market
and of course the basic of the products being soft drinks. Other more straightforward
similarities are that they are both soft drinks and non-alcoholic that was created by
southern pharmacists. Other than that, both brands offer a product that has the same
core value that is to quench the thirsts of consumers with aCoke carbonated drink.
Aligning the company’s workforce to new priorities
The company’s structural changes will result in the reallocation of some people and
resources, which will include voluntary and involuntary reductions in employees. The
company is working on this next stage of design and will share more information in
the future.
In order to minimize the impact from these structural changes, the company today
announced a voluntary separation program that will give employees the option of
taking a separation package, if eligible.
The program will provide enhanced benefits and will first be offered to approximately
4,000 employees in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico who have a mostrecent hire date on or before Sept. 1, 2017. A similar program will be offered in many
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countries internationally. The voluntary program is expected to reduce the number of
involuntary separations.
The company’s overall global severance programs are expected to incur expenses
ranging from approximately $350 million to $550 million.
Brand elements
Brand elements are implemented to distinguish one brand from its competitors. It
consists of the brand names; what does it mean and why it was named that, its logos
and symbols, the URL it may use to help consumers get to the website of the brand,
the slogans the brands use to describe their product, packaging of its products,
characters that goes along with it as well as jingles. Starting with the CocaCoke brand,
it evokes images of the red CocaCoke logo with a red and white themed advertising
and packaging. The logo itself is distinctive enough to help consumers identify the
brand (CocaCoke UK). The name came about by the creator, Dr John Stith Pemberton
who decided that two c‟s would be great on a label thus created the brand name. In
comparison to the typical look of the cans, the packaging of the products can be better
distinguished by their iconic contoured bottles. They also introduced the six packs
carriers to encourage people to bring their drinks home, which was a huge success
(CocaCoke UK). According to their website, CocaCoke have used slogans as a part of
their advertising or marketing purposes thus it has changed over the years from 1886
to 2006. Their famous ones are from the year 2001 which Life Tastes Good, 1963;
Things go better with Coke, 1969; it‟s the Real Thing and the recent one “The Coke
Side of Life” (2012). A part of their advertising efforts,
a jingle was created to accompany most of their commercials and it became
synonymous with the brand as written on Wordlab website (2005). Adding on to their
brand elements, the URL for the company is easy enough to be retrieved by memory
as its just the brand name; www.cocacola.com. Other than that, it is evident in their
advertising that the polar bears are the characters they use in those advertisements or
billboard posters. The creator of the character, Ken Stewart wanted to depict a
character that is cute and innocent, fun and also reflects human attributes (2012).
Conversely, Coke brings an image of the predominantly blue colored Coke logo with
its red, white and blue background that was a patriotic approach by the company
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(Bhasin, 2013). Its brand name on the other hand, was a brainchild of the creator
Caleb Bradham, whom at first regarded the drink as “Brad‟s drink”, he then named
the product something that had to do with the ingredient of the product; which was
Coken andCoke. Overtime the product was branded as Coke as reported by the
website Coke Store. An article from Timetoast that was written regarding Coke‟s
packaging and logo stated that, its logo has been the writing of Coke which underwent
drastic facelifts over the years however today the logo are represented only by the
three colors of the brands which are the iconic blue, red and white (2013). Adding on
to the brand elements of Coke, the company also generates their slogans that would
give a younger feel and targets the younger generation. Their slogan “The Coke
Generation” and the year 2000 slogan, “For those who feel young” clearly depicts
their brand that attempts to attract more younger audiences (Mary, 2012). Other than
that, as reported by Giant Bomb, the mascot for Coke is the Cokeman, a well-known
character in Japan that was created in 1990s. Another part to the brand element of
Coke would be its URL. The company uses www.Coke.com as its main website
which a simple method of connecting the consumers to the brand. The same as
CocaCoke, both brands continue to create their own packaging. Over the years Coke
has patented their bottles, this goes for CocaCoke as well, and it has become their
distinguished differences that helps consumers identify the brands involved. Adding
on, Coke recently has created a bottle that could secure favorable aromas as when the
bottle or can is opened, it releases these favorable aromas to enhance the drinking
experience (Wagner, 2013).
The positioning and brand management strategy of the Coca-Cola
The positioning strategy used by Coca-Cola has allowed them to paint a suitable
image of themselves in the mind of their customers as the only “Real One”. They
have designed their positioning strategy so as to draw an effective picture of their
products offered for their customer. Once they had decided the market segment they
wanted to target and compete in, they clearly developed a picture of that targeted
market segment and properly defined their products as part of their positioning
strategy. Through their positions strategy they emphasized on their distinct and unique
characteristics with relation to their competitive brands stressing on their
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individuality. They associated their product with the customer’s values and
knowledge highlighting their benefits. Their positioning strategy also included
comparison of Coca-Cola’s products with those of their rivals, like Coke, so that drive
their customers to believe that Coca-Cola’s products had higher quality and standard.
The Coca-Cola brand has turned out to be one of the most recognizable and a popular
brand of all times and their beverage company is among the world’s largest beverage
companies. They have become a successful brand since they have used a number of
different brand management strategies depending on the market situation and target
market. The strategies include hybrid, manufacturer, individual, private, family and
generic brand management strategies. However, the most utilized brand management
strategy she used is the individual brand management strategy since all of their major
products have individual brand names, like Sprite and Fanta. Coca-Cola’s world-wide
recognition comes from the fact that they have spent billions of dollars to promote and
develop their trademark and brand name. Due to this today more than 95% of our
global population recognizes Coca-Cola along with their special writing and their
prominent red and white color.
As a matter of fact, Coca-Cola Company came into being in 1986 and within the past
2 decades, it has been able to establish itself as one of the leading beverage companies
in the world. At the beginning, Coca-Cola has used modern marketing techniques and
she is even viewed as the “founding father of our present day marketing model”. The
brand used a number of modern marketing techniques which has immensely benefited
the business. This includes aiming their marketing concept totally towards their
customers and allowing the focus of their customers to percolate trough almost every
department whether human resource, production or finance. Another beneficial
modern marketing technique includes taking of all of their important decisions with
relevance to the existing market considerations, position and segmentation. Apart
from placing importance on market implications, there are 3 techniques of modern
marketing which the company can highly benefit from – focusing on customers,
coordination and profit orientation. The company’s focus should always be on the
consumer’s viewpoint so that they can totally understand which product or service the
buyer needs. Since the marketing mix is an interconnected system, the entire
marketing program needs to be considered and designed as a whole.
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In addition, the marketing techniques used by Coca-Cola allow them to listen to the
needs and demands of the people all over the world who want beverages that extend
over a wide variety of occasions and tastes. Their marketing strategy has allowed
them to produce great beverages which contribute towards each and every community
of our world. Their marketing techniques display their commitment towards diversity,
health, education and wellness, thus establishing them as one of the most successful
and powerful brands of all time. Coca-Cola’s marketing techniques consists of an
extremely efficient marketing mix strategy combining product, price, promotion and
place. They not only provide the customers with their products, soft drinks, but also
several services, like movies and holidays, allowing the consumers to be completely
satisfied. Their main pricing strategy includes penetration pricing which has allowed
them to grab a footing in their target market by winning a major part of the market
share. After establishing customer loyalty, Coca-Cola then slowly raised their product
prices. Coca-Cola has always been among the fore-runners in gimmicks and
advertising styles and techniques which fall under promotion of marketing techniques.
They have effectively use their promotional strategies for persuading their customers
into buying their original products and trying the new ones. They have used a
combination of public relations, advertising, personal selling and sales promotion as a
part of their marketing techniques. Coca-Cola have also carefully chosen the place or
distribution techniques for their company. Their techniques include direct, selective,
intensive and exclusive distribution. It is completely apparent from their widespread
popularity and reputation that these marketing strategies used by Coca-Cola has
helped them establish themselves as among the most powerful and successful brand of
modern times, one which will fortunately be a complex yet vital part of our modern
world culture.
In a highly competitive world such as ours effective branding and positioning
strategies are extremely essential since it plays as a major force for the company and
allows it to retain its stronghold all over the world. The branding strategies of a
company accurately define the individuality of the company, its products and
services. Every company, whether small or large, consider their branding strategies to
be an important part of the entire business. Through their branding strategies they
establish themselves as a brand name which represents quality and standard to their
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customers. A brand name helps the differentiation among customers based on their
unique qualities from other similar products.
Additionally, the positioning strategy of a company helps it to establish the
profitability of their various products and services. In order for a company to be
successful simply having a quality product is not enough in our capitalistic world
economy. The products and services must have a distinct and clear image and should
be offered to the target customers at competitive prices. This is what a positioning
strategy creates. Therefore, positioning strategies helps companies create a useful and
desired image of the product for the customers, producing a direct contact between
them and the company.
Recommendations
This report also provides a number of recommendations for Coca-Cola, which may
help the company, come out of the economic recession. It strongly advices the
management to adopt a broader perspective and develop a long-term strategy instead
of focusing on short term plans. The declining nature of sales curves, profit margins
and decreased rate of growth can be attributed to the recession and may be consider
being quite natural in the present instable economic conditions. However, this should
not be a reason to panic and make hasty decisions, which may bring about adverse
effects and outcomes and may ruin the company. On the contrary, it should be seen as
an opportunity to strengthen and stabilize the company right from its roots. Indeed,
recession can be considered an opportunity to innovate, utilize, and take advantages of
the openings created by the economic slump. (Dobrev 2008) Investing in emerging
markets like India and China, which demonstrate significant growth opportunities, is
surely a viable option for the company. It increases the customer reach and enhances
the brand diversity. Capitalizing on the openings, which these emerging markets offer,
can be a boost to the company, particularly when domestic markets in the United
States are not performing so well. As a result, the company must pay more importance
to its brand position and brand management and redeem the low revenue due to the
recession from these emerging markets.
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Conclusion
The argument that the brands or brand names along with its brand position and brand
management of a business like Coca-Cola, under which its goods or services are
marketed, embodies as much an asset as their tangible counterparts, is increasingly
gaining momentum. Realizing the requirement of implicating the value of brands in
the accounts, some large corporations in the UK have initiated the capitalization of the
value of their brands in their documented financial declarations. The issue logically
crops up with regards to whether the implication of this entity as an asset in the
financial documents serves any real significant function or is merely another effort by
the brand accountants to create more opportunities for themselves.
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