Coca-Cola STP
Coca-Cola STP
Coca-Cola STP
a
Assistant Professor, Department of Marketing, Jagannath University, Bangladesh.
b
Lecturer Economics and Business School, Shandong Xiehe University, China.
Abstract
STP denotes Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning. This study's main purpose is to
demonstrate the STP concept's understanding and its importance in the success or failure of a
Coca-Cola company. Examines the competitive role of Coca-Cola in the global soft beverage
industry. Since they operate in over 200 countries, they have a simple choice as to whether
their products are standardized worldwide and whether they can benefit from economies of
magnitude and adapt their products to a given market. Many literature has been written about
external and sometimes uncontrollable factors that could influence a plan to position
companies. This particular report has been developed with two major sections. The study
covered and explained STP's concept and why STP is essential in the international business
area in the first segment. In the second segment, the report covered the issue of changing and
adapting the STP concept of Coca-Cola in the global market and how the companies
formulate new strategies in place of their original one according to the international market's
demand and volatility. Besides, this segment covered those companies' main steps to capture
local business and create and enhance their brand value by securing profit margins by
maintaining productivity. Based on the understanding gathered from this study, the report
finally explored the practices of Coca-Cola Company in regards to this particular study area
and dug out the reasons for changing and adapting its SPT strategy in the international
marketplace and the underlying impact of this adaptation practices focusing on the
distribution channel of Coca-Cola in overseas localized markets. These specific factors help
Coca-Cola to established financial growth in the global market. The study's main limitation
is the lack of enough analysis for Coca-Cola as STP analysis only a small part of the
strategical analysis.
Keywords: Segmentation, Target, Market Position, Adaptation, Coca-Cola,
International Market.
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Introduction
Marketing is an art, which all of the sellers need to know for luring the buyers. A tactful
approach is required for influencing the purchasing decision and power of the clients and the
customers. Strategic planning is needed to organize the activities according to the needs,
demands, and requirements of the customers (Fernandes and Pinho, 2016). A marketer could
not satisfy every person in the market, and so the concept came, where marketers divide the
market into various segments and positions (Kotler and Keller, 2015). Segmentation,
Targeting, and Positioning (STP) is a strategic marketing technique for a company. This
helps to understand how efficiently the business is planning various marketing activities to
compete in that market and how they are linked with the overall market. According to
(Schlegelmilch, 2016), STP is considered a necessary instruction for marketing strategy as
this is the main reason for the business to face failure or success in the market. As the market
is more competitive, and consumers are getting choosier day by day, STP helps analyze every
product critically. For a sustainable business, segmentation is often considered the most
critical competitive advantage for its main focus area on the strategy, differentiation, and low
cost (Aaker, 1995). Companies may either follow a targeted marketing strategy through the
provision of a single brand to just one or two segments, or a differentiated STP marketing
strategy to capture several different segments by concentrating on various products for each
field (Kotler, Bowen, and Makens 2006). For example, Coca Cola uses "OASIS," the juice
used as a target of the ages 20-30 in various age groups, ethnic groups, genders, lifestyles,
etc. It manufactures products for those who are health conscious and do not like calories, but
cannot forget the taste, like "Diet Coke, Coca Cola Zero." The party is made up of people
between 30 and 50 years of age. STP marketing strategy requires brand segmentation
engagement; it does not exclude initiatives at the corporate level to capture multiple different
segments. According to David Tarantino (2003), the marketing strategy has three
components: segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning should be described very
comprehensibly.
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focused on geographic, demographic, and psychographic variables. On the other hand,
benefits-sought, occasions, user status, and usage rate variables are included under the
behavioral approach. Alebaki and Iakovidou (2011) divided market segmentation in terms of
socio-economic variables such as race, age, gender, income, and education. Nestlé offered
baby food named “CERELAC” based on age factor (Cerelac-1 for 6-12 months aged babies,
Cerelac-2 for 12-18 months aged babies). On the other hand, Hindustan Unilever Limited
launched ‘fair & lovely’ in India for women and ‘Max-Fairness’ for men using gender as a
segmentation tool. Along with psychotropic variables like motivations, lifestyle, interests,
values, personality, they are used to get customer insight (Galloway et al., 2008; Gronau and
Kaufmann, 2009). Alhomaidi et al. (2018) found that religious certificate has a positive
impact on investors’ choice on investing in stock markets. Café Coffee Day (CCD) has
divided its market among India by using a combination of demographic, psychographic, and
behavioral variables (Kaul, 2019).
Targeting
Targeting is a method of selecting the right segment and business by balancing the
company’s capabilities and resources against the desirability of diverse segments (Hajar,
Mahrani, and Sinarwati, 2014). Kotler and Keller (2015) argued that organizations could
choose an undifferentiated market or differentiate the market as a targeting strategy. iPhone
always focuses on an undifferentiated market while offering iPhone series such as iPhone 10,
iPhone 11 pro. After many years of following the undifferentiated plan for their classic
flagship brand Horlicks, GSK is utilizing a differentiated targeting strategy for its Horlicks
products such as “Woman Horlicks” for woman, “Mother Horlicks” for pregnant woman, and
“Horlicks Junior” for kids (Sharma, 2013).
Positioning
Positioning refers to building a positive brand image in consumers’ minds (Amin and Islam,
2017). Positioning is an endless effort by designing and marketing a particular product to
fulfill the targeted market's desired requirements. It is all about communicating the benefits
of the product and differentiating the work from that of competitors. In India, customers
believe beautiful skin means fair skin. Every girl in India does not have fair skin. “Fair &
Lovely” fairness cream offered by Hindustan Unilever Limited has created a positive image
in consumer psychology as value-based positioning through communicating the products as
safe and a symbol of beauty. Good positioning uses a brand name with expected benefit,
which helps the company be differentiated from others. For example, the Swedish car
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manufacturer Volvo positions itself as an assurance of ‘safety.’ In one of the advertisements,
they claim, “There is still one safe place on earth.” On the other hand, Walmart emphasizes
saving money of the customers by offering the lowest prices. Positioning helps the company
create differentiation with the competing products and direct its resources to consolidate and
sustain the claimed positioning that it attempts so dedicatedly to establish.
Importance of STP
STP's primary objective is to identify subgroup customers with distinctive characteristics and
apply them to position the brand in clients’ psychology. (Bruwer, Roediger, and Herbst,
(2017) argued that effective segmentation is necessary to match marketing offerings into
different customer choices. In light of Asiedu (2016), the utmost importance of segmentation
is to use its limited resources to find out the target group who must apply its product
offerings. STP enables companies to customize their products with distinct requirements of
customers. For: Ford Company changed the horn button from lever to steering wheel for the
Indian market because Indian drivers use more horns than European countries.
Along with STP analysis, firms can accommodate their products with culture, norms, values,
region, location, age, gender, and different demographic aspects of consumers (Amin and
Islam, 2017). McDonald's India changed its beef burger into the chicken burger to adjust the
cultural values of India. According to Dibb et al. (2007), brand equity can be defined as the
value of a brand that goes above the functional benefits of the product. As adapted from Dibb
et al. (2007), brand equity plays an important role in positioning the product in the market; it
is the value of the brand that the consumer keeps in mind. This technique is assistance for
identifying the target audience and increasing the sales revenue and profit margin.
Segmentation is the first and the second stage, where the target market is segmented.
Focusing on niche marketing through the identification of the targets is beneficial for
improvising on customer relationship management (Cuervo-Cazurra, 2016). Market research,
accompanied by the customer data, is an integral component in the STP analysis. In this
process, demand and supply analysis is conducted for assessing the feasibility of the market
position in the home country. Competitor analysis and internal analysis is performed for
developing the core brand value proposition. Evaluation through the resource and capability
analysis helps in restructuring brand loyalty according to the needs and priorities (Boso,
Hultman, and Oghazi, 2016). In a nutshell, it is observed that the segmentation process
includes three elements such as Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning. The key global
brands of Coca-Cola have been standardized in general, but there are various changes. While
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the organization can adopt an entirely standard strategic strategy based on the corresponding
economies of scale, it follows the Integrated Adaptation Stand approach (Vronti, 2003).
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Figure 1. Steps in Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning. (Source: Philip Kotler, John Bowen, and
James Makens, 2012).
Buzzell (1968), Hill & Still (1984), and Wind (1986) further identified the reasons behind
adaption strategies of segmentation, targeting, and positioning, such as differences among
nations in terms of cultures, stages of economic and market development, political, legal
systems, customer values and lifestyles in the overseas market. These researchers argued that
marketing activities are likely the best local phenomena and describe local people's tastes.
Hofstede et al. (1999) suggested that Multinational Companies should segment their
international markets based on values, customs, attributes, and benefits of products. Alden
(1999) developed the model of Global Consumer Culture Positioning (GCCP) strategy that
uses a symbol of global culture in international market advertising by which the brand is
linked with cultural values such as themes, language, aesthetics, etc. of different countries.
Some companies have already implemented this concept in international markets like Sony
(My First Sony), which is positioned in consumer psychology as the perfect brand for the
young generation in all over the world; Philips (Let Make Things Better), which reflects the
features of people from different cultures. Cavusgi et al. (1993) mentioned that higher
product adaptation is required in case of the high cultural specificity of goods and high
technology orientation of products.
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Demetris, and Iain 2003 has explained a specific case based on the strategic positioning of the
global marketing operation of the Coca-Cola company.
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Coca-Cola has a good brand value as they operate their business all over the world. For
globalized operation, Coca-Cola has a different strategy as they have to address a wide
variety of consumer’s needs. Coca-Cola focuses on the age level of 18-30, as they are the
highest consumer of Coca-Cola products and have a future high potential to be loyal to the
brand (Michael, 2012). As like in China, Coca-Cola started a mission to capture the 355
million teenagers as their new consumer. To engage their target audience, they figure out
some campaigns all over China, which has been a massive success for their first steps
(Michael, 2012).
Specification Beverage
Dark Cola Coca-Cola
Diet/Low Calorie Diet Coke, Tab, Coca-Cola Zero, Coca-Cola Zero
Lemon Lime Soda Sprite
Cherry Soda Cherry Coke
Orange Soda Fanta
Orange Juice Minute Maid
Iced Tea Nestea
Water Dasani
Root Beer Barq’s
Sports Drink Powerade
Citrus Soda Mello Yello, Vault
Vanilla-Flavoured Vanilla Coke
Lime-Flavored Coca-Cola with Lime, Diet Coke with Lime
Vanilla-Flavoured Vanilla Coke
Lime-Flavored Coca-Cola with Lime, Diet Coke with Lime
Table 1: Coca-Cola beverage diversification
For conducting the positioning, Coca-Cola needs to be mapped for determining the factors
driving the customers towards making the purchase. Specific products and services are traced
to positioning the brand within the competitive ambiance of the market. For positioning the
market in the local market for international business, Coca-Cola has taken up the “Think
Local, Act local” strategy to secure the positioning. This helps the company to raise an eight
percent profit in Asia-Pacific in 2000 (Michael, 2012).
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Water Company, the Shanghai Coca-Cola bottling plant, faced high competition because it
was younger than Aquarius (a British-owned soft drinks brand). Third, the rate of Coca-Cola
was higher than Yili (a Chinese soft drinks brand). Finally, Watson’s Coca-Cola was forced
to stop business because of Shanghai's Japanese occupation between 1937 and 1945. After
huge ups and downs, Watson’s Coca-Cola got an opportunity during the Second World War
when Coca-Cola became the sole supplier of American soldiers in abroad (Yao, 2017). At
that time, Robert Woodruff, president of the Coca-Cola Company, developed a new
marketing positioning strategy that was ‘every man in uniform gets a bottle of Coca-Cola for
5 cents, wherever he is and whatever it costs’. The number of American soldiers was
increasing in China; the business opportunities were expanding.
The business model of Coca-Cola is not only an international but also a multi-local. Coca-
Cola is a manufacturer and seller of beverage concentrated to its franchised bottling partners
across the globe. The franchised bottling companies are mainly responsible for producing and
distributing the final Coke for customers (Banks, 2016). From the viewpoint of Banutu-
Gomez (2012), there are different mechanisms for differentiating a company’s products and
marketing strategies in the global market, including focusing on branding and gaining cost
leadership. The purpose of branding is to build a profitable relationship with target customers
through communicating a clear brand image, ensuring the brand’s credibility, linking target
groups emotionally, and finally creating customer loyalty. In the case of cost leadership, a
brand must be the lowest manufacturer within that particular industry. As per our example,
Coca-Cola has already utilized both branding and cost leadership in the international market
to expand its business. In the USA, Coca-Cola has positioned itself as an American Icon by
saying, “Always Coca-Cola” as an advertising slogan. This slogan reflected the patriotic and
friendly image of Coca-Cola among American people. But in the case of promoting itself in
Peru, Coca-Cola didn’t represent it as an American brand instead promote as a brand of
Peruvians. This positioning strategy has enabled Coca-Cola to gain trust among Peruvian
people as a global company. Coca-Cola also focused on both branding and cost leadership in
Morocco. It highlighted social bonding as a positioning strategy with pay of line “Dayman
Coca-Cola," which translates to “always Coca-Cola.”
Along with the average coke expense in Morocco was 2.5 Dirham (3 cents), which made
Coca-Cola as a cost leader. Okazaki, Mueller, and Taylor (2010) mentioned that global
consumer culture positioning (GCCP) would be a successful concept in the worldwide market
because of global segments of consumers. In the case of GCCP, they suggest a soft-sell
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approach (image and atmosphere) is more effective than the hard-sell approach (Sales
oriented) because image, atmosphere, and human emotional sentiments are more visual.
According to Moses and Vest (2010), Coca-Cola also applied two positioning strategies in
the South Africa market. One of them was to create an overall brand identity and awareness
firstly. Secondly, it focused on market penetration by linking customer passions toward the
brand both in rural and urban areas. Coca-Cola graphed South African’s love and affection
for games and a sense of norms, values, and traditions while avoiding race sentiment.
Sonnenberg Murphy Leo Burnett (SMLB), an advertising agency of Coca-Cola in South
Africa, linked Coke and Africa’s great obsession: Soccer. Another successful marketing
campaign in South Africa linked Coke to the African concept of seriti (Community respect)
by telecasting an African boy becoming a man of stature by selling Coke. Coca-Cola always
tries to sponsor national and international mega-events such as World Cup Cricket-1996 and
the Olympics -1996 to create a global brand. Coca-Cola prefers to enter an international
market through a franchisee-owned bottling operation – FOBO rather than company-owned
bottling operation – COBO used by Pepsi (Biswas and Sen, 1999). This strategy has created a
positive and successful formula for applying the concept “Think global, act local. The Coca-
Cola strategy is stated as the “Glocal,” which is the combination of global and local together.
Adopting the strategy, Coca-Cola established the identifiable brand image worldwide and
clutched the local culture with priorities. They adapt the localization not only in operation but
also on the website they have shown their attribute. Like in Korea, they displayed a young
Korean adult with modern attire to influence the culture. On the other hand, in Malawi, they
displayed a mature woman with a traditional dress (Rowan and John, 2011). For the
localization strategy, they change their name into the local languages, like Bangladesh,
China, Egypt, Russia, etc. have the Coca-Cola in their local language.
Interestingly Chinese armed forces tried to adapt to the lifestyle of American soldiers. And
they started to drink Coca-Cola like American soldiers. Coca-Cola brought a new marketing
technique in poster branding, where they showed “a Chinese military officer drinking Coca-
Cola with his American friends.” The poster entitled ‘Good winds have blown you here’
implies that Coca-Cola, like a cultural bridge, brought friendship, peace, freedom, and
democracy to China. This advertisement was published in the Spartanburg Herald and many
other newspapers in 1943.
Coca-Cola took the sponsorship for the seventh national track and field games in 1948 in
Shanghai. In these games, Coca-Cola was the only title drink for all players, referees, and
administrators. At the end of each volleyball game, the police chief kept shouting to his
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assistants: ‘Deliver Coca-Cola immediately!’ (Yao, 2017). The extensive influence of
American culture worldwide with a combination of local marketing activities finally brought
rewards for Chinese bottlers for Coca-Cola. During 1940, Coca-Cola became the number one
seller of drink in Shanghai. After that, another issue came into discussion. The Communist
Party and its allies started a National Products Movement with the slogan ‘Use Chinese goods
and boycott American products’ in 1947. In this situation, Coca-Cola modified its positioning
strategy in a way that “Think local, act locally” (Yao, 2017). Watson’s Mineral Water
Company customized its Coca-Cola fostering in a way that features a young Chinese woman
enjoying a bottle of Coca-Cola. At the bottom, Watson’s mentioned that it was a Chinese
company in the bold font.
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Figure 3: Global Revenue and Financial results of Coca-Cola Company 2009 to 2017 (Million U.S.
Dollar).
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Conclusion
Coca-Cola influences the marketing managers to manage a combination of core brand values
in the abroad market to decide whether to adopt its marketing strategy. By attracting multiple
segments in global markets may improve profits while adapting each group's specific needs
even though the increasing price of products. From the viewpoint of (Hill and Still, 1984),
Companies need more product adaptation for rural people rather than urban people in the
developing world. They also have proved that a company can achieve a competitive
advantage in the foreign marketplace through the STP adaptation strategy. Obviously, their
high competitive position and market participation in their primary product market. Coca-
Cola is adopting differentiation and cost management strategies (Generic Strategies). As far
as differentiation is concerned, the company tries to differentiate its rivals by incorporating a
new product that gives its customers a unique value. This is possible through well-designed,
well-managed marketing efforts that result in identifying and recognizing a perceived
superior product of quality. Moreover, cost leadership is achieved through efficient and
efficient distribution networks and manufacturing systems as well as through the use of
knowledge, learning, and experience in production and operational processes. Coca-Cola
supports the effectiveness and profitability of the company. Internationally recognized and
profitable were also other brands like Diet Coke, Sprite, and Fanta. The company's strategy
and tactics complement and operate in tandem to achieve its international success, ensuring
the highest return with performance. The business is flourishing because it is both profitable
and effective. In its strategic approach as well as in its daily tactical operations, Coca-Cola
should retain its emphasis on marketing. Market research should be continuously conducted
to allow the business to understand and develop products that satisfy consumer needs. The
definition of marketing is consistent with the definition of customer identity, anticipation, and
satisfaction through understanding STP strategies of Coca-Cola in the global market.
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