THE EFFECTIVE ADAPTATION OF SPORTS MARKETING STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE COMPANY PRODUCTS (BRANDS): THE CASE OF COCA COLA

Every company knows that an effective marketing strategy is the only reliable tool they can use to carefully plan and communicate with increased impacts (Smith, Pulford, and Berry 1999, p.71). Over the last decade, the focus of company’s marketing strategies has been shifted to the sports world (Desbordes and Richelieu 2012, p.1). This trend has resulted in a new form of marketing strategy known as “Sports Marketing” and many companies such as the Coca Cola are currently using it. This paper proposes to use the Coca Cola Company as a case study to investigate the effective adaptation of sports marketing strategy.

Marketing strategies are being developed to integrate all activities involving sales, public relations and advertisement as well as networking in order to create, maintain, and satisfy customers (Pinson 2008, p.44). When a company’s marketing strategy is effective, it can enhance its communication with the consumers, end users, and other external parties. The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games was a remarkable event that gave birth to the modern day sports marketing. The surging public enthusiasm that came with it made many companies started viewing sports as an opportunity to promote their brand image (Wang 2015, p.22).

Sports marketing can be defined as a special type of marketing strategy that uses sports activities as carriers to promote and popularize company’s products and brands. This is achieved through various means such as sponsoring, publicity, distribution, naming, and inviting sports stars or designing products that conform to the sporting culture (Shilbury et al. 2014, p.11). However, as explained by Alonso (2014, p.9), companies are concerned about cost associated with hold such events. It is focused on the sports market, which includes sports venue, leagues, Olympic games, government sports departments, sporting associations, sporting apparel, clubs, teams, media, educational organizations, as well as corporation and private enterprises (Smith and Stewart 2014, p.16).

The Coca Cola Company was incorporated in 1886 in the United States of America and has been extending its business activities to other parts of the world (Anders 2013, p.4). The company was incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware but its current headquarter is in Atlanta, Georgia (Vault 2002, p.11). Its specialization is the production and distribution of beverages and is recognised as one of the leading soft drink providers in the world (Donovan 2013, p.111). It has subsidiaries in more than 200 countries but its products are found almost in every part of the world. Its brand is recognized globally (Lopez 2013, p.10; Anders 2013, p.4).

Notably, the Coca Cola Company does not target any specific market segmentation. Instead, it relies on a mix of undifferentiated marketing strategies in order to reach out to many categories of consumers (Anders 2013, p.18; Bodden 2009, p.22). Lastly, it has a competitive advantage in terms of cost control, operations, brand awareness, collaborative customer relations as well as channel marketing and distribution (Nganga 2014, p.4)

The topic for this case study was chosen because it is less researched hence presents bountiful research opportunities. In addition, there are only few empirical and case studies in this research. Lastly, it presents a relatively new concept in marketing, which is quite interesting to research.

The main purpose for undertaking this study is to get a personal experience of how big brands such as the Coca Cola applies and manipulates their marketing strategies in order to remain on the top. In addition, the study is purposely designed to identify the effective adaptation of sports marketing strategies at the Coca Cola Company. This case study also purpose to improve the learner’s research skills and abilities as well as expand knowledge of the research topic.

All firms, whether multinational against like the Coca Cola or modest start-ups, need effective marketing strategies in order to reach out to a wider range of consumers. As this competition continues, firms are seeking for better alternative marketing strategies. Most companies fail because they are using ineffective marketing strategies.

Many companies are now considering sports marketing as a desirable tool for promoting their brand but little is known about its effectiveness. There is little empirical evidence supporting its ability and effectiveness in marketing. In addition, little is known about the ability of sports marketing to help companies promote their business, allocate resources correctly, safeguard reputation, as well as court right type of clients.

A number of things are at stake when a company is marketing its brand: company reputation, shareholder value, consumer expectations, market share, profitability, sales revenues, and social responsibility among others. Ineffective marketing strategies can destroy reputation, trust, and confidence that already have been developed for the brand.

a. What is the effective adaptation of sports marketing strategies to promote company products (brands)? (Look into measurement, better to choise products or brands)

b. What are the effective modes of sports marketing being used by the Coca Cola Company?

c. What kind of marketing tools is available?

d. Has the use of sports marketing strategies helped the Coca Cola Company to improve its (1) brand reputation, (2) market share, (3) consumer expectations? (Look into measurement)

e. What is the role of sports in marketing?

a) To find out the effective adaptation of sports marketing strategies to promote company products (brands).

b) To identify the kind of marketing tools that are available.

c) To discover the effective modes of sports marketing used by the Coca Cola Company.

d) To determine whether the use of sports marketing strategies has helped the Coca Cola Company to improve its (1) brand reputation, (2) market share, (3) consumer expectations

e) To verify the role of sports in marketing.

The primary purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive analysis and understanding of the concept of sports marketing and determine whether the Coca Cola Company is effectively using it. This topic was chosen because of the interest to explore the possibility of using sports marketing strategy in enhancing a company’s brand reputation, market share, and consumer expectations. Furthermore, the Coca Cola Company was chosen as a case study because of its brand recognition and market command.

The proposed case study is essential due to many reasons. First, it will provide information on current developments in the marketing strategies. Because sports marketing is a relatively new concept, it is not available in the most academic literature. This study will serve important task of bridging the gap in the literature. Second, the Coca Cola and other companies may use the findings rethink and redesign their marketing strategies to achieve the maximum outcome.

In this chapter, the researcher presents the result of a literature review that was conducted. A review of the available literature was conducted to establish the theoretical underpinnings of this study as well as what other researchers have found.

Soft drinks are made using a collection of sweeteners, flavour, and carbonated water. However, the type of sweeteners and flavours used vary. The history of the manufacture of soft drinks started in the late 1770s with the discovery and development of carbonated water (Steen and Ashurst 2006, p.2). From that time, soft drinks have significantly grown to become a beverage consumed widely across the world, primarily recognized for their thirst-quenching and refreshing properties (Hui 2007, p.420).

Currently, the industry has several players; however, the main ones are the Coca-Cola Company, Pepsi Co, Buffalo Rock, National Beverage, and Dr Pepper Snapple Group. These companies use a wide range of marketing strategies to promote their products to different categories of consumers. Nonetheless, the industry is also facing wide concerns about safety, consumer health, as well as environmental issues (Nestle 2015, p.53; Ferrell and Ferrell 2016, p.572).

Marketing is both a concept and a strategy that companies use to meet four objectives: be competitive, increase sales volume, satisfy customers, and maximize profits (Schmitt 2011, p.40). As noted by Ferrell and Hartline (2013, p.1), in today’s economy, all companies need an effective marketing strategy and sound planning to achieve the above goals. It has become central to marketing as is currently being embraced by many other fields (Shankar and Carpenter 2012, p.1; Motzek 2011, p.29).

Shankar and Carpenter (2012, p.2) defined marketing strategy as a plan of managerial actions and initiatives that an organization uses to relate to its customers and the entire market. Traditionally, marketing strategies are developed based on five concepts namely the production, product, marketing, sales, and societal concepts (Pinson 2008, p.45; Cant 2006, p.13). All these concepts are developed based on the same marketing philosophy of providing an exchange mechanism (Rajagopal 2000, p.1; Hoffman and Bateson 2017, p.66).

The production concept promotes the idea that consumers will ultimately appreciate and chose products availed to them. The product concept, however, promotes the idea that consumers only favour products that add value to their needs. The selling concept promotes the idea that consumer will buy enough of the product if the company makes effort to sell and promote it. Lastly, the marketing concept promotes the idea that the company should understand the needs and wants of each market and design products that meet those expectations.

According to Leng and Hsu (2015, p.2), major changes in the sports industry has resulted in the development of sports marketing strategies. This type of marketing strategy is designed to use sports as a means of promoting and popularizing the company’s products and brands. It can be done by means of sponsorship of sports stars, events, as well as materials such as attires (Desbordes and Richelieu 2012, p.99). Also by using this strategy, the company design products that conform to the sports culture. Literature reviewed also presented a list of available marketing tools such as print advertisements, magazines, billboards, commercials, banners, television, newspapers, radio and telephone directories, as well as social media such as sharing, networking, blogging, tweeting, pinning, bookmarking, posting, and media sharing etc.

As explained by Shank and Lyberger (2014, p.550), the most fundamental aspect of sports marketing strategy is the reincorporation and integration of company’s resources, culture, and brand into the sports culture. Sports marketing help the company enhances product popularity and brand image. It also enables the company to communicate effectively its brands and products (Wang 2015, p.23). In addition, a company can use sports marketing as a means for building global power brands that would enable it to beat the competition (Wang 2015, p.23).

The result of the literature review was used to build a conceptual framework for this proposed study. Based on the literature review, it can be argued that sports marketing can effectively help improve its reputation, brand image, brand communication, and consumer satisfaction as expressed by the figure below.

Figure 1 above shows the conceptual framework that was developed for the thesis. It shows how sports marketing leads to efficiency.

The current literature has not explicitly discussed the roles of sports marketing strategies especially in the soft drink industry. In particular, neither cases studies nor empirical research have been conducted to identify the effectiveness of this useful tool in promoting company products and services. Furthermore, the available pieces of literature have not explicitly discussed the effective adaptation of sports marketing strategy in promoting company’s products and services.