Based on a case study below,discuss the current market and sales situational analysis of Coca cola andpresent arethe key factors?

Case study:

Coca Cola: A study on the marketing strategies for millenniums focusing on India by

Rukmani Singaram, Athul Ramasubramani, Aaditya Mehta, Pari Arora4

Started In 1886, as a small patented medicine company based in Atlanta, USA, to the world's largest soft drink manufacturer. Coca-Cola with its rich history and legacy of over a decade, with its exceptional marketing strategies and a supreme portfolio consisting of over 500 beverages such as Sprite, Thumps Up, Maaza, Minute maid and mineral water brand like Kinley known in India as Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB) has been in Indian markets since 1987. Catering to the thirst and cravings of millions of Indians annually, contributing a significant amount to the Indian economy in terms of investments and employment opportunities. Coca Cola has come a long way using aggressive mass marketing strategies being the pioneers in the field of adaptive marketing or marketing with accordance to the consumer behavioural trends is what built a strong brand image for coca cola especially in the Asian markets. Coca Cola is the one brand which is recognized by everyone around the globe. When we talk about brand equity then it is its value & it's about stories, memories, associations, and human connections (although of course, these connections would have been very carefully and deliberately engineered by talented marketers over many years and countless board meetings).This is something that Coca-Cola has been the master of for over 100 years. This equity is derived from people's willingness to pay a premium for the brand and an unwillingness to accept substitutes. Coca-Cola's marketing strategy has always been to associate happiness, positivity and the good life with their products, & that's how they are able to create high TOMA (Top of mind awareness).In this research paper, we analyze the different marketing strategies being used by coca cola, especially influence and usage of social-media and digital marketing techniques and the extent to which it is able to influence a consumers behavior and how he or she reacts to the changing product or price made by the coca cola. We analyze the impact of coca colas strategies from two points of view one that of a customer and second the company itself. We drew up our conclusions based on 100 reliable respondents who are normal residents of India who have been active consumers of Coca Cola as a product keeping aside other products like Thumps Up and Maaza. What we could conclude was price wasn't a major factor but the brand image created as an effect of advertisements and mental satisfaction after consumption was the major behavioural factor for purchasing which the millenniums exhibit.A customer is generally understood to be the person who makes the decision to purchase a product or who pays for it. In fact products are often bought by one person for consumption by another, therefore the customer and the consumer need not be the same person. The Coca Cola company who is manufacturer, retailer and marketer of the nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups focuses on the consumers rather than the customers. Being a company which is American by origin and with a rich history starting from the year 1886 it must have been a very dynamic firm which changes its strategies and tweaks its products according to the needs and wants of the consumers. In the recent market coco cola has identified what the customer's value in the market. "This generation values the openness to new culture and sense. Even though they value new cultures they have a love for their local products and want to support their neighborhoods and communities and keep the wealth within their region itself. In a way you can say that they are moving back to a collectivist culture*3". With the collectivist mindset they want to revive folk traditions and rituals starting from food to spirituality. Customers now follow the YOLO concept where you only live once and they want to experience personalized by unique experiences which allow them to express their identity. The customers have also become health conscious because of their increase in awareness towards the world as a whole. This has made customers scrutinize every ingredient present in the products they consume and makes them weigh their pros and cons before consuming it again.

Consumers now value their time, they believe time is money and have a burning desire to be hyper productive especially when it comes to their shopping habits and way of communication. Consumers want to be productive but at the same time they want to have more leisure in their lives and more moments of pleasure and even indulgence. The utmost expectations from the brands they consume is to engage with the brand through new experiences and conversations .These insights are helping coco cola to become a total beverage company.Coco Cola is known for mass targeting and not segmentation. They don't spend their resources on market research rather they spend it on observing the competitors performance and negative public relations. When coke comes up with a new strategy they tend to incorporate a counter strategy towards their competitors while they show the positivity of the brand, one such example of this is the anti-obesity campaign where they used the campaign as a medium to launch their sugar-free and diet worthy products. Negative public relations and legal proceedings are the major factors that may affect the wellbeing of the company in the near future if corrective measures are not taken. Coke does not have a large base of loyal customers which is another factor for cokes decline in the near future.The millenniums are the type of customers who may be absolutely loyal or absolutely unloyal to your product. They may love the product or they may hate it, there is a very less chance of them being neutral towards a brand. Peer pressure and word of mouth plays an important role but peer both of them combined lead to social media marketing. People see their friend post a picture with a new product and show the difference between how they were before the product and how they were after the product. This makes the person want to purchase the product and use it to get the same effect. In very simple terms we can state that the millenniums are very easily influenced, it's about how the product uses it to their advantage. Coco-Cola has made use of this trait of the millenniums by catering specifically to their interests, like the add where they tweaked their packaging a bit by adding the name Bro or Friends etc. They even created an advertisement to support that idea where a boy and his father are traveling in a train and the father asks his son to accept his friend request on Facebook. But the boy is reluctant to accept his dad's friend request so the dad sets bait for his son with the coke and because the boy is craving for a sip of the coco - cola he accepts his dad's friend request on Facebook. At the end of the advertisement, the back of the coke bottle is shown with a tag that says, friends, while the son and dad are bickering in a friendly manner in the background.

"As Coco-Cola has realized the hunger the consumers have for the product and how they have become more health conscious in the recent times, it has decided to act upon the needs of the consumers by offering more beverages with natural attributes, fewer calories, anda functional benefit. Coca-Cola's portfolio now includes organic tea, coconut water, coffee, and many more products" *7. It has made a conscious effort to reduce the amount of sugar people consume by decreasing the sizes of the bottles and cans as well as a product reformulation.Coca Cola empathizes with the millenniums and their concern for their bodies by bringing out the diet coke which follows a niche marketing strategy rather than a mass marketing strategy because diet coke only caters to those who are extremely health conscious but still want the luxury of a fizzy drink in their constricted diets.One of the marketing strategies that coca- cola gives utmost importance to is the one brand approach unlike companies like Hindustan Unilever. This strategy is where they use a single brand for all the variants and reinforce the fact that people can enjoy coke as per their choice and preference. As the market keeps changing the products must be in line with these changes. Coca-cola has been serving the consumers for more than four generations along with their retailers who are helping the consumers to change the way they shop and interact with the brand. Coca- Cola began with the mom and pop stores which compete in terms of relationships and proximity. These account for a significant share of all the retail trade globally. As time went by it led to the emergence of larger stores which competed in terms of variety and value. When we look at the current scenario the era of technology we can find everything we want at the whisk of our hand. This allows the shoppers to operate seamlessly across and between all stores. The changes in the market scenario provide Coca Cola the opportunity to create a stronger relationship with their retail customers who are currently a click away from their desire for our product.