IMMSQA International Marketing Management Report Sample

IMMSQA International Marketing Management Report

Assignment Task: Read the following Scenario and prepare a Report with the guidelines provided.
Report – 100 Marks [5000-6000 Words]

Scenario:

Candidates are required to apply the learning and creative marketing skills they have gained from studying this Unit to develop a marketing strategy for an organisation of their choice. You will be expected to discuss the key concepts of marketing management and use contemporary marketing models, tools and techniques in a practical context. Specifically, you will:

• Analyse the changing business environment(s) globally and how they pose challenges to marketing management functions in organisations;

• Develop marketing strategies with the application of appropriate marketing tools;

• Evaluate the processes involved in brand management and how they influence consumer behaviour;

• Decide how to launch new products/services in a dynamic global marketplace.

You can choose any organisation that you have sufficient first-hand knowledge of, preferably where you are working currently or have worked in the past, or an example organization that you have chosen for the purposes of this assignment. This may be a family business, a multi-national organisation, a college or university, or any other organization that lends itself to discussion and analysis.

This is an investigative assignment/mini project which will require detailed planning to ensure that all assessment tasks are adequately researched and for data to be analysed within the timescale permitted.
You MUST follow the Project Report format, which should contain the following sections:

1. Executive Summary: You should summarise your entire case study briefly (no more than one page of A4 paper). This should outline the key messages and be prepared in a format that would be suitable for presentation to the senior management team of the example organization. [5 Marks]

2. Introduction: You should introduce your organization of choice, giving details, based on research, about its size, its product offering including any branding, and the market(s) in which it currently operates. [10 Marks]

3. Literature Review: You should conduct a review of a range of relevant academic literature as well as data/information from at least three different sources and provide a critique/critical analysis of the current issues/concepts that are relevant to and potentially impact on the international marketing environment and in particular to your case study organisation. Your literature review should include at least 2-3 articles taken from reputed research journals/ article publications, as well as at least 2 secondary literature reports, company data/any other relevant data. It is expected that the findings of the literature review will be woven into the rest of the report as candidates are required to demonstrate critical thinking in this assignment task by applying the literature reviewed to the practical example organisation [15 Marks]

4. Background Analysis: Candidates will critically discuss the local, national and regional context of marketing approaches employed by your chosen organization. You must then identify at least three possible international entry methods that can be used by your organization. You should evaluate the benefits of each method to the organisation in terms of indicators such as forecasted market share, targeted market segment or possible mergers or acquisition. You must then critically evaluate the influence of the changing business environment on the marketing priorities and marketing management functions of the organisation. [10 Marks]

5. Application of Learning to Practice: You need to compare actual practice at your organisation with the key academic thinking established in the review of literature. It may point out similarities and differences, agreements and contradictions, arguments and counter arguments, and suggest explanations for these relationships.

The focus of this section will be on the following areas:

a) Marketing Strategies: Critically discuss the role of marketing theories and principles in the selection of international market and in developing an entry strategy for the organization in an international market. As a minimum, you will discuss Porter’s Model/SWOT Analysis/PESTLE (one of these three models) and BCG Matrix/Ansoff Matrix (one of these two models). Candidates are expected to evaluate each model and tool by comparing and contrasting them in terms of their suitability for informing entry methods for your organization into international markets. You will then use each of these tools and techniques to critically analyse your organization and decide on entry criteria that would be beneficial for your organization. The outputs of this analysis will be used to synthesize ideas and develop the entry criteria strategies you wish to adopt for the international market of your chosen organization. [15 Mark]

b) Brand Management: Critically discuss Keller’s brand equity model and apply to your organisation’s products. Thereafter, conduct research into at least four psychological and sociological factors influencing consumer decision making and develop a branding strategy based on your research and data analysis. The strategy should propose forecasted responses and the conversion rate of prospective consumers. [15 Marks]

c) New Product Development: Assess and evaluate at least 3 strengths and at least 3 weaknesses of the new product development process in your chosen organization and devise an international marketing strategy that will expand the business in the international marketplace. You should then include an international marketing plan for the launch of a new product or service which puts in place the recommendations of the strategy and includes timescales for completion and the area of the business responsible for the action. [15 Marks]

6. Recommendations and Conclusion: Finally, summarise and discuss all the acquired findings and analysis and provide a conclusion. Communicate the recommendations for adequate marketing strategy for the chosen organization to expand the business in the global market. [10 Marks]

7. Presentation & References: The whole report should be presented in a well written, structured format, and which makes correct use the Harvard Referencing System (HRS). [5 Marks]

Solution

Introduction:

In recent years, significant changes have been noticed in the global business scenario. Due to the dynamic nature of the business environment, they are constantly influenced by factors like globalisation, political instability, economic shifts, changing consumer behaviour as well as sociocultural differences. Due to globalisation, the world has become a big interconnected market (Lim, Gomez and Wong, 2021). Therefore, organisations use various marketing approaches to secure a sufficient consumer base globally. Products are designed such that they cater to the needs of people within a nation. Moreover, organisations often use local or regional languages to better reach the people. Such marketing strategies are found to be extremely useful for organisations to build close customer relationships and sell a variety of products.

Entering a foreign market is not as easy as it might seem. On one hand, it anticipates risks and expenses while entering a new market. On the other hand, it enhances profits and sales, builds improved recognition of the brand and at the same time, brings down the risk of operating in just one market rather than expanding into several markets. Market entry strategies give a blueprint for breaking into foreign markets. Exporting is one of the simplest, low-risk strategies to sell products in foreign markets (Ipek, 2021). Through licensing and franchising, companies allow other businesses to use or sell their products. Joint ventures allow local partners to collaborate with foreign partners to share their products and resources.

Post-COVID-19 pandemic, the business environment has undergone significant changes. Both inflation and deflation in the customer base, annual revenue, and business market (Almeida, Santos and Monteiro, 2020). Technological changes, including social media marketing, big data and AI, disrupt the conventional methods of marketing. Changes in policies and trade restrictions post-COVID-19 influenced the ways of global business.

Selection of global markets for MBA Assignment Expert is highly crucial as it determines the probable success or failure of the business venture in the global market. Therefore, several market segmentation strategies and tools are used to choose the countries that have a better competitive advantage over others. PESTEL analysis, Porter's five forces and market segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) are some of the most popular marketing models used to evaluate potential markets. While the PESTEL analysis analyses the macro-environmental factors influencing organisations, SWOT analysis and Porter's Five Force analyses both macro and micro-environmental factors influencing business. Additionally, tools like the Ansoff Matrix and BCG Matrix are useful for making informed decisions while entering new markets.

In the present study, a comprehensive analysis of the changing business environment of Coca-Cola will be studied. Coca-Cola is one of the oldest soft drink manufacturers. With more than 2.2 billion servings, Coca-Cola has become a household name worldwide (coca-colacompany.com). However, the business and marketing strategies changed significantly post-COVID-19 (Nair et al., 2021). The following sections of this study will discuss strategies used by Coca-Cola for entering into new markets. Then after, a PESTLE analysis and Ansoff Matrix will be conducted to analyse micro and macro environmental factors influencing Coca-Cola in entering a new market. Following this, Keller's Brand Equity model will be discussed to analyse brand loyalty, and various socio-demographic factors influencing consumer behaviour will also be discussed. Lastly, a brief recommendation and conclusion will be provided that is suitable for the present study.

1. Literature Review:

In this section, the report intends to critically review a set of relevant articles and research journals as well as secondary literature reports to demonstrate the present issues and concepts related to international marketing environment. The analysis is useful to analyse changing business environment and its impact on Coca-Cola.

From the findings of Nair et al. (2021) it is observed that COVID-19 pandemic had an adverse impact on Coca-Cola due to lockdown. The company observed that its customer base decreased significantly by approx. 25% around the world. As a result, the net revenue of the business for the last 3 months of 2020 reduced by 1% globally. Hence, the researchers wanted to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the business performance of the company. To examine the situation, researchers applied both primary and secondary methods for collecting and analysing data. Instead of the sudden decline of the business volume internationally, it was found that the online sale of Coca-Cola product increased during this period.

In another study of Huse et al. (2022), tried to find business strategies adopted by Coca-Cola to grow and manage sustainable sales in East Asia. The outcome shows how this large beverage company provides products in middle and low income countries where most of the food and beverage companies offer unhealthy and unsustainable dietary patterns. After applying qualitative research method, it was observed that The Coca-Cola Company influences subsidiary companies and invests in supply chain system to expand it. The company applies digital marketing method to target customers especially children, mothers and youths. Furthermore, the company also integrates public relations activities related to human rights, sustainability of environment and community into marketing campaigns.

According to the findings of Susilo (2021), it is observed that Coca-Cola has successfully captured Indonesia market by applying an effecting market entry strategy. The country is attractive for many foreign investors due to its growing population, cheap labour cost and availability of natural resources. At first, the company applies foreign direct investment strategy to enter into the country. After that, the company decides to apply franchise strategy to expand the business. Hence, the researcher claimed that Coca-Cola adopts transnational strategy. As per Suprapto (2020), the strategy is a combination of global integration and local responsiveness using which the company can expand in the global market. This business plan allows the company to coordinate global activities as well as operations in international market and to adopt local preferences and norms simultaneously.

The study conducted by Deliceırmak (2022) tries to investigate global marketing strategies of Coca-Cola as well. According to the author, the concept “globalisation” includes changing lifestyle, economy, culture as well as developing communication and information technology. Globalisation leads brands to operate international business and hence the difference between it and glocalisation is needed to discuss. Coca-Cola applies this marketing strategy which states to think globally and to act locally. It helps the company to strengthen communication along with the development of information and communication technology. The global strategy of Coca-Cola is helpful for the business as it treats the entire world as a single country and consequently it generates standard methods and standard products in each foreign market. Coca-Cola considers culture of the respective countries where it conducts business and makes marketing strategies accordingly by applying local languages. Moreover, the company also designs bottles by following local motifs and hence it helps the brand to create a strong brand with the local target customers.

From the official website of Coca-Cola, it is found that the growth of the business depends heavily on marketing. In other words, world-class marketing strategy helps the company to build the brand. By understanding wants of target customers, the company prepares a superior product and also presents the brand story to the target audiences in a relatable way. Moreover, to engage modern generation with the brand, the company also shifts the marketing method from a TV-centric model to a digital-based model. Coca-Cola claims that its digital mix has become around 60% of total media spend in 2023 (investors.coca-colacompany.com 2024). The new marketing approach of the brand tries to establish more personalised relationships with customers by consolidating agency partnership. Through building physical hubs in each market, the company tries to integrate disciplines, making standard data and technology and improving capabilities. To connect with people across the world, the company gains creative, social, production and media capabilities. The networked organisation helps the brand to leverage globally and offers consumer-centric service. The following diagram shows how the network operates in the global market.

Figure 1: Networked Organisation: Coca-Cola
(Source: investors.coca-colacompany.com 2024)

According to Statista, Coca-Cola has spent around 4 billion dollars in a year for advertising its products across the world. The report claims that brand image of the company does not depend on traditional advertisement mode, but also on social media. Considering popularity among fans, Coca-Cola ranks 5th on Facebook in September 2023 as it has almost 107 million fans. The YouTube channel also earns popularity gaining 3.28 billion views (Statista., 2024). Hence, it can be said that the company has a dominance across traditional and digital media as it approaches dynamic marketing strategies.

Figure 2: Advertisement Expense of Coca-Cola Company from 2014 to 2023
(Source: Statista., 2024)

The graph shows that except 2020, the company has spent a lump sum amount in advertisement. The expense has increased in 2023 compared to last 9 years. The company claims that is has a long history of adopting innovation and applies it in appealing advertising campaigns.
Thus, the review of literature shows that Coca-Cola has changed its marketing strategy accordingly with the change of global market. Pandemic, culture, sustainability and consumer behaviour. The foreign market condition has influenced the brand to adopt effective market entry strategy so that it can operate for long terms by gaining competitive advantage. However, it is essential to examine actual practice of Coca-Cola and to compare it with literary findings to develop effective marketing strategies.

2. Background Analysis:

Local marketing approaches are taken based on locations for targeting customers at the personal level. In national marketing approach, the company selects a domestic marketplace for providing goods and services and follows the rules and regulations of the government of that particular country. The regional marketing approach allows a company to target customers of a specific region in order to fulfil their needs and requirements. In each marketing approach, the company needs to focus on trends, preferences, and socio-cultural behaviour of target customers. Coca-Cola applies localised as well as personalised marketing approach and this becomes the key success of the business across the world (Garcia, 2023). By considering the diverse cultures and consumer preferences, the company has managed to establish the brand with which the target customers can feel inclusive, connected and relevant. For attracting local audiences, it uses local languages on the product and makes advertisements based on local cultures. In national and regional strategies, the company endorses products with national celebrity person and prepare various range of products based on different areas of the nation. For instance, Coca-Cola applies social media platform to understand preferences of consumers and make partnership with regional personalities. Coca-Cola is a well-established company that performs businesses across many countries.

To enter into new international market, the company can apply 3 market entry strategy which are contract manufacturing, licensing and completely owned subsidiary.

Contract Manufacturing: According to this entry method, a business of the destination country needs to accept responsibility regarding product promotions and management of brand value made by Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola needs to find a business which has specialisation in producing energy drinks and beverages but do not have proper marketing skills. Coca-Cola can sell these items by using brand image and brand values (Clark and Shepherd, 2018). The main advantage of this kind of international entry method is that Coca-Cola can get high quality products and lower costs. This method is also known as international outsourcing where Coca-Cola will hire another company to manage certain parts of the business functions.

Purchasing an existing company: Coca-Cola can purchase ownership of an international company to sell products in the international market without managing distribution and shipment. By purchasing a company in a country, Coca-Cola can perform its business over there as a local entity and this in turn help the business to increase (Cuervo-Cazurra et al. 2018). As a large multinational company, the company can take ownership of another company by bearing a huge cost. The main advantage of this entry method is that the company can take a high ROI from it.

Greenfield Investments: This international entry method is complex one. These investments lead the business to purchase land and resources for making a facility in the international market and to employ staff for running it. The main advantage of this kind of entry mode is that Coca-Cola can easily comply with respective government regulations in a new market (Jaworek, Karaszewski and Szałucka, 2018). As the company can oversee the investment operations itself, the company can control it completely including production of subsidiary, distribution, marketing and managing product quality. Coca-Cola can customise products according to the local requirements.

Marketing is essential for a business as it helps to establish awareness, building brand reputation, knowing customer preferences and following changing market dynamics. In modern era, business environment is changing especially due to technological innovations, economic fluctuations, and competition in the global market. To sustain in this dynamic scenario, Coca-Cola adopts affecting marketing approaches that help the brand to compete with other global brands (Coca-colacompany. 2024). For this, the company adopts social media marketing extensively through attractive advertisements, useful contents and collaborations with influencers to target a large customer base. To compete in the market, the company also focuses on health and wellness issues of consumers. As a result, the company restricts sugar consumption to provide healthy beverages to customers. Furthermore, the company also considers sustainability issues to avoid legal barriers and to protect brand image.

3. Application of Learning to Practice:

a. Marketing Strategies:

Marketing is the process through which companies create, communicate and cater to the needs of the consumers and balance customer relationships with the companies. To identify the most suitable consumer market, several marketing theories and strategies are available which provide insight into creating competitive advantage and helping companies adjust in the new markets. Through international marketing strategies, Coca-Cola can open a business to even wider audiences, ensuring enormous sales, wider exposure, and product awareness (Katsikeas, Leonidou and Zeriti, 2020). The following are the different tools and theories that provide a competitive edge while entering a new market.

PESTEL analysis is a model used by marketers for assessing the macro-environmental factors that might influence the market entry of an organisation. The PESTEL analysis of Coca-Cola will help in identifying social, political, economic, environmental, legal and technological factors impacting their business.

● Political Factors

Operating over 200 countries, Coca-Cola experiences dynamic and complex business environment. Countries offering political stability, like the US or the UK, provide a favourable working environment for Coca-Cola (Pendergrast and Crawford, 2020). However, countries that are politically unstable like Africa or Latin America the company may face sudden changes in policies or trade restrictions. Some international markets impose high tariff costs which might impact the company's profit margin and supply chain. Changes in the taxation policies of different countries inflate the company's pricing strategies.

● Economic Factors

As a global beverage company, Coca-Cola is susceptible to the economic changes operating in its subsidiary countries. During economic prosperity, sales are enormously higher than during economic recessions, such as Covid-19, when the company usually has reduced sales due to consumers holding back their buying behaviour (Zhao, 2022). The company is also susceptible to currency fluctuations as it operates in various countries. Due to differences in currency rates in the Western and Eastern countries, the company's profit, revenue and financial performance are often lowered. The company, therefore, should take appropriate measures before launching products in Eastern and Western countries (Huse et al., 2022).

The cost of raw materials varies differently in different nations. Therefore, production and packaging costs might be different for different nations. After the pandemic, companies incurred increased operational costs due to trade restrictions in several countries (Fan, Tan and Zheng, 2022). Moreover, higher inflation rates in some nations may increase operational cost of such products, thereby affecting profit margins. Availability of skilled labour at low cost is desired for the company as it boosts operational efficiency and production costs.

● Social Factors

The company's ability to align its products with social trends and cultural norms predicts its success rates. As consumers are becoming more health conscious, they are concerned about sugar intake. So individuals look for sugar-free, low-calorie beverages. To cater to the demands of the target market, Coca-Cola diversified its product range by introducing various sugar-free, low-calorie beverages (Khan and Raza, 2023). Introducing products that suit the tastes of local consumers can strengthen brand value.

Social media marketing extensively influences consumer perceptions. As the youth spend most of their time on social media, attractive marketing campaigns can attract their attention, resulting in increased sales (Mohammed, Kalajdzic and Herzog, 2022). However, the company should so take necessary marketing strategies to attract older customers.

● Technological Factors

Automation in the manufacturing and packaging of products reduces production costs and enhances productivity. This ensures consistent quality of products across regions and reduces changes of human error. Through digital and e-commerce platforms, Coca-Cola can expand sales beyond retail outlets and reach wider audiences (Kumar and Singh, 2020). The company invests heavily in innovative products. Improved packaging and healthier products engage customers. When expanding business in a new market, the company should select those sites that are technologically advanced to not only reach a vast audience but also obtain a skilled workforce.

● Environmental Factors

Environmental awareness is increasing among people and so are the criticism of Coca-Cola for their excessive plastic and water usage. The company has therefore taken initiatives to manufacture sustainable, eco-friendly and recyclable packaging (Chua et al., 2020). Additionally, the company is working towards reducing carbon footprints in the beverages. As the beverage industry is based on water, Coca-Cola has taken steps to replenish water in the production process.

● Legal Factors

As a multinational company, Coca-Cola has to adhere to the laws of different countries it operates in. Compliance to the food and beverage laws of different nations is important. Many nations imply restrictions advertising to children on restricting sales among obese population (Stoltze et al., 2023). The company must adjust with these policies by regulating their strategies. In some regions, the company faces counterfeiting and duplication. Therefore, robust legal strategies are essential for safeguarding their brand image.

Ansoff Matrix is a tool used by organisations to explore strategies for future business growth.

● Market penetration

This strategy attempts to increase shares in the existing market by increasing sales of current products. Coca-Cola Company usually invests highly in marketing campaigns to increase consumption of several products. Extensive distribution networks are used to ensure products are available at bother retail stores and hypermarkets. Sponsorships of major events like World Cups and Olympics increases awareness, hence, increasing consumption (Yazdanparast and Bayar, 2020). Coca-Cola can venture into new markets through collaboration with existing brands.

● Market Development

It involves using existing products for entering new markets by attracting new consumer segments and exploring new geographic regions. Although Coca-Cola operates over 200 countries, it has been expanding its business in markets where per capita beverage consumption is lower. It appeals to the younger customers through social media campaigns (Trivedi and Malik, 2022). It also appeals to health-conscious individual by promoting its sugar-free beverages.

● Product Development

This involves introducing new products to meet the demands of the existing customer base. Due to increasing wellness awareness, the company introduced Coke Zero, Diet Coke and several other low-calorie drinks to meet the demands of the health conscious individuals (www.coca-colacompany.com). Along with carbonated drinks, Coca-Cola also introduced several energy drinks, flavoured water and plant-based drinks to suit the varied taste of diverse customers (Serodio et al., 2020). Innovative designs and new packaging formats capture the attention of customers. To ensure sustainability, Coca-Cola can use recyclable cans to serve drinks in.

● Diversification

This involves launching a new product in an entirely new market. Although it is a risky process, through diversification, Coca-Cola has ventured several unique products and markets. Apart from beverages, Coca-Cola entered new markets by acquiring non-beverage items, coffee products and several alcoholic drinks (Garcia and Proffitt 2022). This helped the brand attract customers from diverse backgrounds and preferences. Coca-Cola has also marked its footprint in the energy drinks section along with nutritional beverages thereby including several customer groups.

b. Brand Management:

Brand Equity Model developed by Keller is a pyramid-shaped model and it is also known as the Customer-Based Brand Equity Model. According to the model, for making a strong brand, the company needs to prepare a strong brand image using experiences or ideal brand encounters. The experiences related to the brand needs to offer positive thoughts, convictions and emotions to the potential customers. When the brand manages to offer value then it can be said that the brand constructs brand equity and the convictions of customers will spread to others.

Figure 3: Keller's Brand Equity Model
Source: (Raut et al., 2019)

The pyramid is has 4 levels and these are identity, meaning, response and relationships in a upward direction.

First it comes brand identity according to the pyramid. Brand salience indicates how a brand is observed by the customers. In other words, a brand has a strong image as well as presence in such way that it easily comes into customers’ mind when they try to purchase something (Ngo et al., 2022). Coca-Cola Company adopts happiness, friendly, creative, peaceful, balance and optimism for branding the product. Using red colour, the company tries to prove its brand salience to the world through each campaign. By this colour, the company wants to represent youthful, energy and excitement. The marketing strategy of the company consists with mass media, advertising network, powerful message and various distribution channels to control human brain.

The second segment is brand meaning as per the pyramid. This section indicates that customers need to understand the brand meaning and what the reason is behind it. The first step is performance which tries to describe how the product can satisfy the needs of the target customers. 5 key performance indicators of this step are primary characteristic and secondary features, reliability, durability and serviceability of the product, effectiveness, efficiency and empathy of the service, style as well as design and price (Cristea and Munteanu, 2022). Brand imagery, on the other side, shows an intangible aspect of the brand trying to satisfy psychological and social needs of the consumers. Sub components of brand imagery are user profiles, personality and values, purchase and usage situation, history, experience and heritage of the brand. Coca-Cola Company’s strong performance has helped the company to remain one of the leading beverage companies in the world. The company always ensures consumers satisfaction by conducting continuous innovation. It helps the company to follow the taste with time based on changing preferences of consumers. As a result, the brand always tries to launch new packaging style, new flavours and product variation to meet diverse need to customers. Moreover, the imagery of Coca-Cola generates a feeling of togetherness and freshness. People of different ages across the world are familiar with the brand name and brand logo of Coca-Cola. In almost each supermarket or local shop, people can see and purchase the item.

The third stage is brand response which also has 2 steps and these are judgements and feelings. This step is crucial as it describes the response of consumers towards the brand. Customers always judge items based on their experiences, personal opinions and contact. Judgements are offered based on brand quality, credibility, consideration and superiority of the brand (Raut et al., 2019). Brand feelings on the other side, indicates emotional reactions and responses of customers towards the brand. Brand feelings are based on fun, excitement, warmth, security, self-respect and social approval. Coca-Cola has launched its global campaign using the slogan “Taste the Feeling”. The brand establishes the feeling that Coke is for everyone and it can offer pleasure and can make a normal day special one. Hence, customers accept the brand happily considering their each moment special and memorable.

The fourth and last stage of the pyramid is relationships of the brand with its customers. The four categories of the stage are behavioural loyalty, sense of community, attitudinal attachment and active engagement (Cristea and Munteanu, 2022). Coca Cola does not establish itself as a normal beverage but also represents a customer’s value and spirit. A can of coke can offer happiness and a powerful message to the customers. Emotional branding strategy has helped the brand to make loyal relationship with customers.

Four psychological factors influencing decision making process of customers are motivation, perception, learning and attitudes along with beliefs (Testa et al., 2024). Firstly, motivation is the internal drive that helps customers to get satisfaction. Secondly, perception allows individuals to evaluate goods and services using various sources of information such as reviews, advertisements and social media. By following this process, the consumers can interpret and generate sense to shape their perception of a specific product. A customer can consider positive feedback of feelings related to the product by ignoring the negative one. Thirdly, through learning, customers can collect new knowledge and change their behaviour according to experience. Fourthly, attitudes and beliefs also play crucial role in influencing consumer behaviour for a particular product. These can be constructed through direct experience, inference and information from external sources. Thus, to influence customers’ decision-making process, Coca-Cola can make a new branding strategy that can influence psychological factors. For this, the brand needs to focus on recent or ongoing requirement of target customers and their needs. Using these needs can motivate customers to purchase the product. Hence, Coca-Cola can motivate customers to purchase the product for getting refreshment and happiness. By using this, the company can make a strong emotional communication with their target customers and can influence their purchasing decisions. The brand can highlight or showcases positive and happy moments of consumers with coke during campaign. For doing so, the brand can allow customers to give statement openly in front of audience to share their positive experience with the product. A customer can learn to prefer Coca-Cola over other beverage brands due to positive emotional experience. For instance, they can receive this product from loved once at special occasion. For this, the company can offer special discount if the product is purchased and delivered to customers with special messages on special days. Coca-Cola can influence these factors through market campaigns that showcase benefits or advantages of consuming the product and addressing negative perceptions.

Sociological factors that can influence consumer decision-making are family, status, reference groups and social network. Young people or children make their purchasing habits by observing their family members. Preference and habits of each family member for purchasing a product plays an important role (Qazzafi, 2019). Status includes income, occupation and education of people and these also play significant role in consumers’ decision-making process. Reference groups can be addressed as closed group such as friends and colleagues with whom consumers are associated. Social network implies people with whom consumers meet on online and offline.

Hence, a customer can get product related information from family, friends and other social network. Thus, Coca-Cola needs to establish a strong brand awareness and positive connection pf people from different age-group. Through branding, the company needs to ensure people that they can receive premium quality product at reasonable prices.

c. New Product Development:

For developing new product, Coca Cola has 3 strengths and these are described below:

Firstly, the brand value plays a pivotal role in beverage industry. Instead of strong presence of other competitors such as PepsiCo, Coca Cola has taken the former position across the world in terms of sales value in 2023 (Statista., 2024). This implies that people prefer coke more compared to Pepsi.

Secondly, coke has made partnership with McDonald’s and this shows mutual respect and partnership between them. Hence, it can help the company to promote new product easily by delivering it with any food item of McDonald and this will help to promote the brand.

Thirdly, the brand has already reached across 200 countries and this implies that the brand has a global reach. The brand has gained success internationally by offering refreshing beverages at a reasonable price. More than 16 million customers across the world and more than 500 product range have influenced the brand to maintain the product value and maintain customer satisfaction level.

Instead of these strengths, Coca-Cola also has some 3 weaknesses that can influence new product development process.

Firstly, most of the beverages of Coca-Cola Company are carbonated soft drinks that contains a huge amount of sugar. Hence, this can cause diabetes and obesity among consumers. Nutritionists, doctors and health experts suggest to avoid these drinks. Hence, producing new product with similar ingredients and formula can reduce popularity of it among customers.

Secondly, Coca-Cola experiences criticism over business practices destructive packaging for the environment. Hence, it causes legal issues against the brand due to the extensive use of plastic.

Thirdly, the brand has strong competition with PepsiCo and Red Bull in the soft drink market. Moreover, it also experiences indirect competition from Starbucks, Nestle and Costa Coffee etc. Hence, consumers can get many options for beverages in the market and hence failure of new product development can cause a huge loss of customers for Coca-Cola.

Considering these strengths and weaknesses, it can be said that Coca-Cola can apply an effective international marketing strategies to expand business in the international marketplace and this is to maintain its unique image. The brand can showcase itself as a protector of the world by maintaining sustainability and social corporate responsibility. Instead of altering values of the business, the brand can change their product differentiation as per the requirement of local people in the foreign market.

4. Recommendations and Conclusion:

Each nation has its unique norms, tastes and consumer behaviour. So when entering into an unexplored region, Coca-Cola should tailor its products so that it fits the tastes of the regional people. The following recommendations can help the company to prosper in its business.

● Extensive market research should be done prior to entering a new market so that the company is familiar with the competitors, tastes, consumption habits, local preferences and trends in the market.

● Region-specific drinks can be introduced through campaigns so that it caters to local tastes.

● Partnership with local retail chains and supermarkets can ensure availability of products for local purchase.

● As e-commerce and digital platforms are rapidly growing, Coca-Cola should invest more in expanding its digital distribution channels. Collaborating with food-delivery services can help reach wider consumers.

● As people are becoming increasingly health conscious, Coca-Cola should invest on developing natural and nutritional beverages. Introducing flavoured water, tea and coffee based products, fruit juices and functional drinks can help build trust with those customers who are focused on improving their health.

The time-scale is mentioned below:

Thus, it can be concluded that Coca-Cola is a well-established brand across the world and hence it can easily compete in the global market. Instead of changing market condition globally, the brand can attract new customers using its strong brand value and market image. By understanding needs and wants of local target customers, the company can improve its product range. Moreover, effective entry strategy in the foreign market by contracting manufacturing process, purchasing an existing company in the foreign market and doing Greenfield investment, the brand can conduct business with low risks in the foreign market. An appropriate international marketing plan including market research, introducing new products as per the local tastes and making partnership with local companies can help Coca-Cola to develop new products in the world market instead of the presence of weaknesses.

References:

Almeida, F., Santos, J.D. and Monteiro, J.A., 2020. The challenges and opportunities in the digitalization of companies in a post-COVID-19 World. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 48(3), pp.97-103.

Chua, J.Y., Kee, D.M.H., Alhamlan, H.A., Lim, P.Y., Lim, Q.Y., Lim, X.Y. and Singh, N., 2020. Challenges and solutions: A case study of Coca-Cola company. Journal of the Community Development in Asia, 3(2), pp.43-54.

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