Coca-Cola_Markets_Is_Product_and_Services

The target market is multi-cultural youth by identifying common youth struggles and positing Coca-Cola as a unifying element. The primary age group of Coca-Cola is 13 to 15 year old; who decisions may influence their parents and their friends. The 16 to 18 year old group is making their own decision. The secondary group is 21 to 24 year old who Coca-Cola wants to keep as a consumer all through their adult life.1 Market segmentation is dividing a market into categories of customer type. Power Ade is aimed at the athletic men and women. Diet coke is aimed at the older age consumer and water is aimed at health conscience consumers. Product is the good, services or idea that is marketed to fill customers’ needs and wants. Marketers have constant challenges of changing technology, changing wants and needs of customers and economic conditions. To meet these conditions products are often changed to keep pace with emerging markets and competitors. A fairly large product mix enables Coca-Cola to satisfy the needs of their customers thirst. Since Europeans have become more concerned about their health, so diet coke and coke zero sales have increased.2 According to ask Coca-Cola, is twice removed from the retail price of the product. They manufacture the beverage syrup and sells then to locally and independently operate bottlers. The bottlers have contracts to produce the finest beverage and sell them to their individual market area. The bottlers establish the price charged to retailers. The price of Coca-Cola varies with brand and size. Gas stations and convenience store sell at a fix price. Retail outlets use a variety of pricing methods and strategies. There is often competition pricing of the Coca-Cola products and prices are set around the same level as the completion. Then there are psychological pricing strategies that are used to make consumers perceive that the product is cheaper than they really are. Promotion is the aspect of the marketing mix concerned with the most effective techniques for communicating information about products. Coca-Cola operates on a global scale and must consider the external environment in which the product is used. The external environment factors include culture, economic and technology development, political structure, demographic makeup and resources.3 In Austria Coke Zero was promoted differently than it did the United States due to different external environmental factors associated with that segment. In China promotions had to include the Chinese language on the advertise as well as English. Coca-Cola uses intermediaries instead of direct selling to distribute it product worldwide. Coca-Cola uses intensive distribution strategies to make sure their products can be available everywhere. Vending machine is used on the low profile to increase distributors. Vending machine is found in schools, hospitals, public buildings. Coca-Cola can found in just about every store in America. References Ask Coca-Cola (2011) retrieved 3/12/11 http://www.thecocacolacompany.com Ebert/Griffin (2010) pg. 169 Fuhrman, E (98, 99) A mature market. The Beverage Industry pages 24-26 retrieved 3/12/11. Hair, Lamb and McDaniel (2007) The Marketing Magazine retrieved 3/12/11 http://www.marketingmagizine.com