Success of Coca Cola Brand in Terms of IMC - Assignment Example

? BRANDING PART INTRODUCTION. A brand refers to a symbol, logo, design, sign or a blend of all that are used by companies, organizations or individuals to identify their products and services. Branding, thus, is the process of giving a name, logo, design or symbol to one’s product or service in order to for the purpose of creating its identification in the market. Business people and organizations majorly use branding as a way of showing a distinction of their products from others. A myriad of organizations, companies and individuals have mistaken branding as a way of getting a market. What they have failed to comprehend is that branding is not for targeting a given set of a population but a way of communicating to the people as being the one that is the provider of what they lack, which is, presenting a product as the answer to what they are after (Wendell, 20011). Role of branding A brand name out to be good and appealing to many. It ensures that the attention of many is captured. A good brand name has a lot of advantages and enables a company or an organization achieves the following in the long run. One, is that it conveys the message that is intended. Good branding eliminates any possibilities of a wrong message being passed to the consumers. Another is that a good brand image gives a confirmation of the trustworthiness of a company. Such a thing makes the consumers view a company as being credible and are able to adopt their products and be loyal to them. Good branding also has an effect of linking goal predictions emotionally. Buyers often derive their motivation of purchases from good branding. Buyers have a tendency of believing that products that appeal to them are the ones they go for. Hence, if a buyer cannot find a brand appealing, they obviously will not have any taste to even think of purchasing the product. Last but not least, good brands strengthen user loyalty. Consumers trust good branding since a good brand promises utmost satisfaction and, therefore, such can concrete in a very strong way the loyalty of the consumers to the product (Fanning, 2006). Product parity Product parity is all about the similarity or equality that exists between products. There are many products in the market that share a lot of attributes. They might have some slight difference, but the notable attributes shared by the products outweigh the slight difference. Such products deserve to be branded as one. Companies are in the verge of getting the largest market share globally and amassing huge revenues and profits as possible. Firms try as much as possible to find ways of dominating the market and also ways of diversifying their sources of revenues. They, therefore, have to think,and even if it means improvement of a product or finding new ways of presenting an already existing product to consumers so as to create a new impression in the eyes of the consumers. Organizations that have invented a product and presented into the market, may not have gained a wider market with that brand. As a result, they might want to rebrand it for the sake of making huge sales and increasing the market share of the product (Fanning, 2006). In such a case, the two brands might be different but the product still remains the same. In another case, a company might want to make an improvement of the product and slightly change its name. There is no big difference between the new product and the original one as the fact remains that it possesses about 98% of the product, and a very minute change just for the sake of making huge sales for profits. Furthermore, companies might want to expand its product by producing other products of one king but that have little difference. An example is the co-cola company which produces the Coca-Cola drink. The Coca-Cola Company has produced many sodas under it, a business that started with the invention of the Coca-Cola. So far, it has diversified into the production of sodas like Fanta. Fanta is of different flavors. There is the pineapple flavor, black-current and the orange flavor. Anyone who has taken a taste of the three brands will agree with me that there is no big difference among the brands. The only difference is the flavor. This is an example of product parity. Therefore, it is the branding that makes the difference (Wheeler, 2012). Products that do not rely on brand names Products can be different and not rely on brand names. There are many individuals that have come up with many designs of clothing. They make a lot of sales of that clothing. The sales are not attributable to any brand name and hence; it is possible to come up with products and still sell without relying on brand names to sell the products. Even though such products may not gain worldwide recognition, they still make sales enough to gain them profits (Fanning, 2006). PART 2: COCA-COLA BRAND An example of a brand is the Coca-Cola brand. This brand is for the Coca-ColaCompany which has been in existence for over 100 years. The Coca-Cola brand has stood the test of time. It has acquired a very big market share all over the world and has appeared among the top 100 leading companies all over the world. Its success is attributed to the good management and leadership. However, we cannot fail to attribute a larger part of its success to the branding of the product. Branding has created a picture and captured the hearts of many who’ve declared their loyalty to the drink because of its good attributes and great satisfaction, they have been able to get from Coca-Cola. The brand has establishments all over the world. Everywhere one goes; they cannot fail to get Coca-Cola. It is used by many to cool their bodies, but others take it for fun just to satisfy the urge of wanting the particular soda. The branding of this soft drink has taken many forms. Others have names like, for example, on the bottles, pictures of people cooling themselves with the soft drink and there are video clips founded on the soft drink. There are several branding forms that have been used to brand the product (Haig, 2004). Success of the brand in terms of IMC The brand has achieved great success and worldwide performance. Its success is largely attributed to the branding itself. Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) refer to the different techniques used by companies and organizations through the use of a series of promotional methods, in order to achieve the set goals and objectives. In branding, the company was keen on ensuring that the brand name is selecting a brand name that could appeal everyone. The good and catching brand name that possessesthe characters of a good brand name, has had a lot in influencing the wide spread of the brand. One of the characters is that the Coca-Cola brand is distinctive. This character has made the product stand out among the many brands that are now present in the market. The Coca-Cola brand has features that are specific to it, which has made it easy to be identified. Another character is that the brand name is very suggestive. The brand Coca-Cola is suggestive of its quality and is associated with the best. Thus, in the minds of the people, there is an illusion of being the best and since the impression is already created, the people, including the poor and the rich purchase it because they want to be seen as the best and attain the quality that the drink has (Fanning, 2006). Another trait that the brand possesses that has been attributed to its success is that the brand name is easy to remember. The brand name is very simple and quickly sticks to the minds of the buyers. Thus, because of the easy name, consumers have found it reachable and whenever they want a drink, the name of this cola bland quickly pops in their minds and quickly purchases it. This has led to increased sales of the product. Lastly, the brand name is appropriate and suits the drink. All these characters attributed to the success of the brand (Klimchuk&Krasovec, 2006) Three IMC methods used In reaching out to the whole world, the Coca-Cola brand has utilized three main Integrated Marketing communications, including television advertising, online advertising and sales promotion.Integrated Marketing Communications used to introduce the Coca-Cola brand into the market are the ones that reach out to largepopulations.In picking the three IMCs, there were many factors to be considered. Some of the factors the company considered in introducing the product into the market include; capital availability, the stage at which the product is, the geographical distribution of the populations and the effectiveness of the methods. These factors are very critical since it enables a company know the best method that will ensure that the product is widely distributed and is well received by the consumers.Coca-Cola Company is a wealthy company and capital is not a problem. Thus, the company chose the best methods of promoting its brand regardless of how much it had to pay for its product to experience a worldwide coverage. Advertising refers to any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor via media. It is an expensive method of promoting a product. The amount paid by the company for the television advertising is highly dependent on the on the number of times the product appears on the screen daily. Coca-Cola Company chose the product to appear atleast 10 times daily. Even though the cost of television may be high, it is efficient since in a day an average of billions of people get to view the advert, and that means the product’s market coverage has increased. As a result, many get to know and because of the repetitive appearance of the brand on the screens, the brand sticks on the minds of the buyers. This will lead to increased sales in the long run leading to high revenues.This form has been used majorly by Coca-ColaCompany to reach out to geographically dispersed consumers. Advertising implies that a larger population is being served. Advertising gives reason to buyers why they need to buy. Through television advertisements, the Coca-ColaCompany has been able to reach to a wider audience(Dolan, 2000&Yeshin, 2006). Through online advertisement, it has been possible for Coca-Cola brand to reach to a wider audience too. Online adverts pop up screens whenever one logs into the internet.Although online adverts are dependent on the availability of the net, Coca-Cola has been in a position of reaching many because of the fast-spreading technology.A larger part of the world is becoming technologized. Every one including the young, the middle aged and the old are gettingexposed to technology. Technology includes phones, iPad, computers, tablets and note books. All these accessories are used to access the net. They can all be used to go online. It is not expensive advertising online. At the same time, it has a wide market coverage and the adverts are there all the time. Thus, with the use of online adverts, it has been possible for the company to reach out to many. Every one including the kids are almost aware of the availability of the Coca-Cola brand in the market. Another IMC approach is through sales promotions. Sales promotions involvea collection of incentives. These incentives are majorly available in malls, supermarkets and in the hypermarkets. They are seasonal and do not exist all through. Normally when such sales promotions are in the market, many who are conversant with the drink buy inbulk and those that are not buy the drink out of curiosity.These incentives have been used by the company to stimulate quick and huge purchase of the soft drink. An example of the sales promotion’incentive is lowering the price of the drink or even telling buyers if they buy a given number, they get an addition of maybe two or rather a given a certain prize by buying the drink(Dolan, 2000&Yeshin, 2006). Advantages of the IMCs chosen Television advertisement and online advertisement are almost one and the same thing. The difference comes in where online adverts have to happen in the presence of network while television adverts are not dependent uponthe network but the presence of satellites to attract the information from the air waves.Television adverts only happen on TVs whereas online adverts happen on either phones, iPad, notebooks, computers and even on tablets. Both serve a wider population which hence led to increased market coverage of the brand. One advantage of television advertising is that the information passed has a very high possibility of creating a lasting impression in the minds of the buyers. This means that it is hard for a buyer to forget a product or brand viewed on TV. This is because of the repetitive nature of the adverts on TV. For example, Coca-Cola is receives over ten times repetitive brand appearance on the TV screen in a day regardless of the timing. It also involves the use of art such as plays and visuals.This is what makes the buyers remember the brand over and over. Thus, this has an effect of creating a lasting impression on the minds of the buyers. On the other hand, use of television advertising may be disadvantageous in the sense that not everyone is blessed with a TV. As a result, few people that own TVs get to know about the existence of the brand while others that have no TV are left in the dark. For example, larger parts of developing countries and the undeveloped have no TV. Hence, this disadvantage may end up making this mode of IMC inefficient leading to failure of the achievement of the company’s objective of reaching the whole population of the world. One advantage of online advertising is that the information passed is very expressive. It involves the use of visuals, print sound and color. This is attractive and anyone who sees the visuals get attracted and gets curious into knowing what the advert is all about.Watching an advert that is full of art is interesting and triggers individuals to make huge sales. This triggers huge sales. An example is that the Coca-Cola advert has a visual play where there are some teens taking the drink on a sunny day and use it to cool their selves. This creates an illusion of satisfaction in the minds of the buyers and are triggered to go for the brand. On the other hand, this mode of promoting the Coca-Cola brand has been disadvantageous in that it is not everywhere on earth that network is available. Furthermore not everyone is conversant with how certain components of technology such as computers and iPad work. In other words, online access is highly dependent on the literacy of an individual. For example, a large part of the developing and the undeveloped countries are not literate. Hence, online advertisement may prove inefficient because of the populations’ illiteracy. Sales promotion invites people for rewards. This happens when people buy and get rewarded there and then. This has had a great influence on the Coca-Colabrand. An advantage of sales promotion is that the incentives used to attract buyer’s attention this boosts sales in the long run. Many individual love to take advantage of sales promotions since they get to buy that product in bulk. Having such sales promotions has been advantageous as many buyers have had the opportunity of buying many of the Coca-Cola brands and others even buying for the future when no promotions of cheap prices are in place.One disadvantage of sales promotion mode of IMC is that it may give a wrong impression about the brand and some consumers might only buy a product because of the sales promotion drive. Hence, it is not advisable for a company to over use sales promotion since some consumers might take advantage of the sales promotion season and only wait for those times. Others might question the quality of the brand and deem it poor because they are led to think that the brand depends only on sales promotions in order to make sales (Hackley, 2010). How the IMCs were integrated. The three promotional method of the brand were integrated into the company where you find that the product is found all over the world. It has gained global recognition because of the three IMCs implemented in the company’s verge of gaining establishment globally. Coca-Cola company’ brands are present in TVs and online. The two modes have been used majorly by the company to get a wider range of buyers. Sales promotions have been used in super markets and in malls to get the buyers to buy the Coca-Cola brands. (Tellis, 2004). Conclusion In conclusion, branding is of great benefit to anyone who wishes attain a wide market. Itis, however, necessary for the companies and organizations to be careful and watchful when designing a brand name in order to avoid the shocks of poor and non-appealing brands. Brand names should be simple, easy to understand but at the same time distinctive fordifferentiatingone's product from the many in the market. References Dolan, R. J. (2000). Integrated marketing communications (Rev. Ed.). Boston, Mass: Harvard Business School Pub... Fanning, J. (2006). The importance of being branded: an Irish perspective. Dublin, Ireland: Liffey Press. Hackley, C. E. (2010). Advertising and promotion: an integrated marketing communications approach (2nd Ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE. Haig, M. (2004). Brand royalty: how the world's top 100 brands thrive and survive. London: Kogan Page. Klimchuk, M. R., &Krasovec, S. A. (2006). Packaging design: successful product branding from concept to shelf. Hoboken, N.J.: J. Wiley & Sons. Tellis, G. J. (2004). Effective advertising: understanding when, how, and why advertising works. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications. Wendell, M. (2011). The branding. Memphis, TN: Bell Bridge Books. Wheeler, A. (2012). Designing brand identity an essential guide for the whole branding team. (04 Ed.). Hoboken: John Wiley. Yeshin, T. (2006). Sales promotion. Australia: Thomson Learning. Read More