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Cherry Zhao
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................... 1
1.0
Introduction.......................................................................................................... 2
2.0
Methods................................................................................................................. 2
3.0
Findings................................................................................................................. 3
4.0
Discussion ............................................................................................................. 6
5.0
Conclusions and Recommendations .................................................................. 7
Reference List ................................................................................................................ 8
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Executive Summary
The purpose of the research is to find out a more effective marketing mix of Sprite by comparing with its key
competitor—7Up’s marketing mix. The statement that the second marketing mix (Table 3) is more
competitive is supported by this research. By searching online, the marketing mixes and SWOT analysis are
found and contrasted in order to elaborate a better one for Sprite. The ranking of soft drink brands are included
in findings to compare the effectiveness of two brands’ marketing mix. In discussion part, the main findings
are analyzed and the improvements like more detailed website, more adequate price and better advertisements
and promotions are added to the second marketing mix of Sprite and its predominance over its competitor is
outlined. The second marketing mix is more effective for it surpasses its competitor in lower price, more
attractive promotions and reputation.
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1.0 Introduction
Coca Cola is the worldwide well-known company of soft drinks with extraordinary social popularity and long
history. Being a part of food industry, its market is targeting at almost people all over the world. Sprite is one
of Coca Cola’s most successful and popular products spreading over 190 countries’ around the world. Owing
to its clear color and refreshing taste, easily-accepted price and its characteristic that can be purchased easily,
Sprite is the bestselling noncoke product in Coca Cola Company. 7Up, another famous soft drink of PepsiCo
Company, has considerable popularity and shares some similar features with Sprite. The objective of the
report is to analyze and improve Sprite’s marketing mix by comparing and contrasting with its competitor,
7Up. The reason for choosing these two products is because the competition between Coca Cola and PepsiCo
remains a heated issue and Sprite and 7Up each are their leading products with a number of similarities.
Their SWOT analysis, marketing mix, sales volume and other factors are included in the report for further
discussion and conclusion. SWOT analysis includes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats while
the marketing mix consists of product, price, place and promotion information of the chosen product,
therefore they are all necessary indicators of a product. It is expected that Sprite’s marketing mix is more
successful than 7up.
2.0 Methods
To complete this research, the marketing mix and SWOT analysis of Sprite and 7up are collected from
relevant marketing websites and reports. To gain a more convincing and reasonable result, statistics like sales
volume of Sprite and 7Up are collected. By compare and contrast those statistics, the effectiveness of two
product’s marketing mix is more clear and measureable. The strength of two companies, Coca Cola and
PepsiCo, will also be considered, for it may influence the marketing of Sprite and 7Up. After comparison and
contrast, the conclusion about which product’s marketing mix is more successful and the improvement of
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chosen product—Sprite will be gotten and the conclusion will be drawn.
3.0 Findings
The key competitor of Sprite is PepsiCo’s 7Up; they have some similar characteristics and strength that they
are both clear, lemon-lime flavoured, caffeine free soft drinks (Olivia, 2011). While there are still some
differences embodying in there marketing mix.
Table 1: 7Up’s marketing mix:
7 Up is clear, lemon-lime flavored, caffeine free soft drink. Since 2006, all artificial additives
and preservatives had been removed. 7Up has more fizz and less lemon and sugary taste than
Product
Sprite. And the ingredients of 7Up contain carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup,
natural flavors, citric acid, and natural potassium citrate. (7 Up, the Making of a Legend,
2007)
Price
1L: £1.39
6×330mL: £3.19
2L: £1.89 (7 Up, 2012)
7 Up can be found in countries where PepsiCo factories are located. It is also easily available
Place
in big and small shops, vending machines and even online shops.
In 2012, 7Up has several promotions.
1. By collecting the limited edition player cans, customers may have chance to meet Dream
Promotion
Team.
2. Every bottle wins Facebook credits. (7Up Promotions, 2012)
A SWOT analysis of the chosen product—Sprite is listed below:
Strengths
Manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company therefore are very well funded.
It has clear color (good for people with braces or dental appliances) and it is caffeine-free,
which means Sprite will not bring harmful influences to human body because of caffeine.
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It is versatile: can be mixed with other juices to create different taste sensations.
Weaknesses
Contents of the product are all chemical based which may cause health conscious people to
avoid it. 7UP’s (major competitor) website is far more informative than that of Sprite. It
offers nutritive facts and answers to frequently asked questions which the Sprite website
lacks. Sprite has infrequent promotional campaigns and a mixed up voice of communication.
Opportunities People tend to believe that high amount of bubbles in Sprite settles down stomach; People
who limit their caffeine intake prefer lemon lime soft drinks.
Threats
7UP (major competitor) has recently been made a healthier soft drink. As well as
competition from other brands in the lemon lime soft drink field such as Sierra Mist and
Bubble Up. Increasing people start to consider about health issues brought by soft drinks.
(Bhasin, H.,2011, Available at: http://www.marketing91.com/swot-sprite/)
The original marketing mix of Sprite can be found and listed below.
Table 2: Original Marketing Mix of Sprite
Sprite is a transparent lemon-lime flavored non caffeine soft drink. It comes in a primarily
Product
silver, green, and blue can or a green transparent bottle with a primarily green and blue label.
Price
500mL: £1.38
6×330mL: £3.35
2L: £1.3
Can be purchased in over 190 countries by various ways, for example: in supermarkets,
Place
small shops, vending machines and e-shops.
Street basketball competitions in 2009.
Promotion
Get different prizes by buying Sprite. (like: popular electronic products, trips and another
bottle of Sprite)
Comparing and contrasting with 7Up’s marketing mix, Sprite has some aspects to be improved. In order to
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widen the gap between 7ups, following factors should be considered in the following marketing mix.
Table 3: Improving Marketing Mix of Sprite
Use the natural and healthy substitute instead of artificial additives in ingredients.
Product
Design different and special packaging and bottles of Sprite in special holidays and
anniversaries to draw customers’ attentions.
Price
1L: £1.08
6×330mL: £3.18
2L: £1.6
Can be purchased in over 190 countries by various ways, for example: in supermarkets,
Place
small shops, vending machines and e-shops.
Frequent advertisements on TV with pop stars and creativity.
Street basketball competitions in 2009.
Get different prizes by buying Sprite. (like: popular electronic products, trips and another
Promotion
bottle of Sprite)
Promotions should be clearly mentioned on the well-designed official websites. Provide
chance for customers to meet popular stars.
To compare whether the Sprite or 7Up marketing mix is more effective, their sales volume in 2003 and soft
drink ranking in 2007 and 2011 have been collected for analyzing.
Table 4: Top 10 Soft Drinks in the US, 2003
Rank
Brand
Cases Sold (millions)
Market Share
Share Growth
Share Point Change
5
Sprite
601.4
5.9
-5.0%
-0.3
10
7 Up
126.3
1.2
-27.6%
-0.5
(Source: Beverage Market Corporation. This table is for US market, 2003)
Table 5: Top 10 Soft Drinks
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2007
2011
1.
Coca-Cola Classic (Coca-Cola)
Coca-Cola Classic (Coca-Cola)
2.
Pepsi cola (PepsiCo)
Diet Coke (Coca-Cola)
3.
Diet Coke (Coca-Cola)
Pepsi cola (PepsiCo)
4.
Mountain Dew (PepsiCo)
Mountain Dew (PepsiCo)
5.
Diet Pepsi (PepsiCo)
Dr. Pepper (Dr. Pepper/Snapple)
6.
Dr. Pepper (Cadbury-Schweppes)
Sprite (Coca-Cola)
7.
Sprite (Coca-Cola)
Diet Pepsi (PepsiCo)
8.
Fanta (Coca-Cola)
Diet Mountain Dew (PepsiCo)
9.
Caffeine-Free Diet Coke (Coca-Cola)
Diet Dr. Pepper (Dr. Pepper/Snapple)
10.
Diet Mountain Dew (PepsiCo)
Fanta (Coca-Cola)
(Top 10 Soft Drinks, 2011. http://www.energyfiend.com/top-10-soft-drinks)
4.0 Discussion
Both two brands, Sprite and 7Up, have remarkable influences on world soft drink market for their prominent
globalization and considerable sales volume. Because Sprite belongs to Coca Cola Company, provides it a
great amount of fund; and Sprite also have strength that its clear color focus on people wearing braces.
Caffeine free characteristic matches modern people’s health criteria, which creates opportunities for Sprite to
draw attention from customers caring about health issues. (SWOT in Findings) However, comparing to 7Up,
Sprite has evident weakness that is, unlike 7Up, it still use some chemical component instead of natural
additives, which makes it essential to find out the substitutes to those artificial ingredients. It is also clear that
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though 2L Sprite has much lower price than the same size 7Up, canned Sprite is more costly than 7Up, which
generates the improvement of lowering canned Sprite price in the second marketing mix. Moreover, it is a
well accepted fact that there are not many differences between mere product of Sprite and 7Up, thus, to
enlarge the gap between Sprite and its competitor, advertisements and promotions should be taken into a great
account by Coca Cola Company. From SWOT analysis and 7Up’s marketing mix (Table 1), 7Up’s strength of
website advertising can be discovered for there is more available detail information and current promotions
found on 7Up’s website than Sprite’s. This factor provides the reason why the second marketing mix of Sprite
is superior to the first one, for it has mentioned the elaboration of Sprite’s websites and its promotions. By
comparing with 7Up, the weaknesses in Sprite’s original marketing mix has been improved and manifested in
the second marketing mix. Table 4 and Table 5 provide ranking and sales volume of soft drink and show the
Sprite’s predominance over 7Up in market, which indicates that Sprite has built up better reputation and
selling achievements than 7Up.
Nevertheless, the prices of both products are from UK market and Soft Drink Rankings are from US market,
so the results would become more general and convincing with more global data been collected. Because both
Sprite and 7Up are worldwide brand, the findings can have regional distinctions due to various marketing
strategies applied in different parts of world.
5.0 Conclusions and Recommendations
To sum up, the second marketing mix of Sprite is superior to the first one for it has improved its promotions
and mentioned an official website with more details and natural ingredients like 7Up. Even if Sprite had won
more achievements in selling, the second marketing mix can help Sprite make a wider gap between 7Up and
weaken Sprite’s weaknesses and threats. This new marketing mix will beat its competitor in lower price,
healthier product and more attractive promotions.
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Reference List:
Bhasin, H. (2011), SWOT Sprite, Marketing 91 [on line]. Available at: http://www.marketing91.com/swot-sprite/
[Accessed 23 June 2012]
Olivia (2011), Differences between 7Up and Sprite [online]. Available at:
http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-7up-and-vs-sprite/ [Accessed 23 June 2012]
Sprite- An Innovative Product Launch (no date), Scribd [online]. Available at:
http://www.scribd.com/diyasiddhu/d/36977471-Final-Sprite [Accessed 23 June 2012]
Sprite (2007), MBA Skool [online]. Available at:
http://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/food-and-beverages/639-starbucks.html [Accessed 23 June 2012]
Top 10 Soft Drinks (2011), Energy Fiend [online]. Available at: http://www.energyfiend.com/top-10-soft-drinks
[Accessed 24 June 2012]
7Up Products and Promotions (2012), 7Up [online]. Available at: http://www.7up.com/products/#/7up [Accessed 24
June 2012]
7 Up, the Making of a Legend (2007), Archive [online]. Available at:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080430022917/http://www.brandspeoplelove.com/csab/?TabId=148 [Accessed 24
June 2012]
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