A New Life for Coca-Cola 

Excerpt and adaptation from an article published in The Globe and Mail, September 23 2016

The introduction of Coca-Cola Coke Life

While Coca-Cola Co. has a number of newer brands in its portfolio â?? including Vitaminwater and Core Power protein drinks â?? this is the first major launch of a new carbonated drink under the central Coca-Cola brand in Canada in more than a decade. The last one was Coke Zero, which made its debut in 2005.

The core marketing position of Coca-Cola Life, which comes in green cans and bottles with green labels, is that it is "natural", and is aimed at attracting new â??greenâ? consumers. The company says that out of roughly 300 beverages it sells in Canada, more than 70 are reduced-calorie or no-calorie drinks. Coca-Cola Life is a bet that some consumers will be willing to accept a slightly higher calorie count in favour of ingredients they can pronounce: In a throwback, the product is sweetened with actual sugar, as well as stevia extract. Stevia, a herb native to Paraguay, has been its own marketing story in recent years, as more food producers are looking to swap out artificial colours and flavouring to keep up with consumers' changing tastes. Signs for Coca-Cola Life include a green leaf shape around the word "new."

"With Coca-Cola Life, we want to be sure they're aware that it is sweetened with natural sources," said Michael Samoszewski, vice-president of Coca-Cola Canada's sparkling beverage business. "There is a group of consumers who are looking for that. It is a growing base. It is something that we're marketing."

Coca-Cola Life has been launched only a few months ago in May 2016. Given that Coca-Cola knows that its competitors are already working on similar products to be launched soon, it has decided to support the launch with an aggressive pricing strategy aimed at penetrating this new target market quickly. The adoption rate among target consumers is still low but the company will wait for another few months so assess the new productâ??s overall success.

Based on the above information, please answer the following questions:

Q2-1 Imagine you are a marketing manager at Coca-Cola and you are asked to design an Integrated Marketing Communication campaign for Coca-Cola Life. What should the objective of your campaign be? List all elements of any integrated promotional mix and illustrate each element with a brief application to your campaign. How would you evaluate the success of your campaign?

Q2-2 What type of branding strategy is Coca-Cola using when launching the new product? Briefly justify. List two potential pitfalls of using this type of branding strategy.

Q2-3 Prior to developing the new beverage, Coca-Colaâ??s internal marketing research department described the product idea to potential customers and asked them what they thought about the idea and whether they would buy this type of product. Within the context of the new product development process, what was Coca-Cola doing? Provide two reasons why it was important.