the work for "ESSAYS EXPERT PROFESSOR"

Making Coca-Cola Ads work for Pepsi, Co.

Prepared for: Pepsi Cola, Co

Prepared By: Yassier

April 19, 2016

Contents

Executive Summary

Memorandum

Introduction

Recommendations

conclusion

References

Executive Summary

This report is analyzing how Pepsi Cola can increase their sales by marketing as well or better than Coca-Cola.

Marketing strategies that can save us from declining sales

The market for soft drinks has a lot of room for growth. Information on how to keep your product on the market with great sales begins with your marketing strategy. When we read these points, we found that you could begin by spending more money on the advertising part of the business.

Next we have what the risks are. This ranges from how the market is spawned and how to avoid getting the ads mixed up with other drinks. This also includes different kinds of marketing strategies. You could try the GIF as coke did or you can use more ads on the web everyone is on some kind of social media.

Lastly we have the marketing analysis and training that we recommend you look over and think about giving your employees. Pepsi, Co is also a good company and hopefully we can help you with your marketing needs. Hiring a better marketing committee.

How we can help you

We can begin helping you by suggestions, advertisements, new jingles, and some other ideas. We will be glad to help you in these trying times. Marketing is expensive and if you spend a little more on marketing you will be on your way to the number one spot!

MEMORANDUM

To: Pepsi Cola Co.

From: Maria Valadez

Subject: Marketing Strategy

Date: April 19, 2016

This is the report you requested about the advertising and marketing help.

Introduction:

After you contacted us voicing your concerns about the marketing and advertising for your business, we have been hard at work finding the answers to your questions. You wanted to know how we can make your soft drink ads number one along with your Pepsi cola. Well now that were done looking into this for you, we have what you want to know. This includes how to avoid declining sales. We have also gathered data on how to budget for more money going towards marketing

Avoiding such cutbacks on marketing is not a very good idea. A cutback is rather simple as long as your drinks can maintain being number one, but at this point, it is not, so we are here to help. Regular people as well as movie stars could help in making your market better. Negative ads are not doing your company any good. Positive ads and people will help your business a whole lot more

The team around this project did an amazing job of gathering data and presenting it in an easy to read format. This is a group effort and I wouldn’t be able to send this with out the help of Yassier, Noel and Carlo.

Thank you for the opportunity to help you shed some light on the situation and we hope after you go through this report with your colleagues we have answered all questions you may have had.

How to avoid being second place

The beverage industry is a huge one with many successful competitors. Pepsi Co can be the number one and dominate the beverage industry by optimizing and rapidly updating your marketing strategies into more effective one that can ensure the company’s sustainability and more profits on the long run.

Introduction

Started in the late 1890’s, Pepsi cola was founded by Caleb Bradham, a New Buern, N.C. pharmacist. In 1961 PepsiCo merged with Frito Lay. This new company reports sales of $510 million and has 19,000 employees. In 1943 Pepsi adopted the red, white and blue color scheme and introduced a new modern looking logo. It wasn’t until 1974, that Pepsi became the number one drink in super markets with their Pepsi Light one calorie diet cola.

In 1976 through 1978, they acquired Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and adopts its Code of Worldwide Business Conduct. In 1984 Pepsi made advertising history as Michael Jackson and his brothers usher in a new generation of Pepsi advertising in two of the most eagerly awaited television commercials featuring music marketing.

Since their inception, PepsiCo has been a beloved soda and still attracts a lot of customers. Although they maintain a highly touted image, something happened in the advertising industry that scared PepsiCo enough to contact us. When people started choosing Coca-Cola over Pepsi they knew they needed to do something.

Dating all the way back to their beginning, Pepsi has used movie stars and sports celebrities to use in their advertisements. Everyone from Michael Jackson to Michael Jordan has been involved in one way or another trying to help out Pepsi. Michael Jordan advertised the drink Gatorade, after Pepsi stole Mike from Coca-Cola. Pepsi offered Michael Jordan $1.4 million a year over a decade to be Gatorade’s first and only endorser. (Smith, 2014).

Pepsi contacted us with a few questions that we as an investigative team needed to figure out. The first was how did this come into being? What did Pepsi do that made their numbers drop to put them in second place, how is this possible? Next, they want to know what they could do to become number one. Lastly, they want to know if Coca-Colas ads could help them be number one.

Pepsi has global responsible marketing policies that requires them to provide key nutrition information on packaging to support consumers’ informed of dietary decisions. Ensure that only products that meet their strict science-based nutrition criteria are advertised to any audience made up of more than 35% of children under the age of 12. They direct sales to schools that focus on water, juice, milk and low calorie beverages to support healthy nutrition habits among students. (PEPSICO, n.d.)

Pepsi is the most saleable product of PepsiCo, and is the most popular in young adults all around the world. Although they have added to their line Pepsi cola is still their number one. In the 1960’s and 1970’s Pepsi was more aggressive and innovative than coke and in this period Pepsi outflanked Coca-Cola. Pepsi set up a blind test to show that Pepsi was better than coke and it won by over 80% of the people liked Pepsi.

However, marketing is a critical component of any organization that wants to build a pwerfull brand. In recent generation, winning customer’s trust is the best thing to sustain business as are the key to the success of the company’s products and services. In order to do that, we need to know how much other competitors spend on advertising.

Spending and budgets of online Competitors

As a company you have consulted in regards to wining new customers and attracting more, I will give you various strategies that are fundamental towards increasing customers’ loyalty and thrives in highly competitive market. It is important to note that online competitors such as Coca-Cola are spending millions of money in advertising their products. They try every possible way to capture the attention of the customers who uses the internet. Sincerely speaking, most of the online competitors invest the largest amount of money in advertising as they know customers are the source of their profit. According to the recent speeches of the Coca-Cola CEO; Muhtar Kent, it is evident that they are setting aside much power in the form of money in advertising since he said that they are aiming to spend billions by 2016. From the analysis and comparison of spending on adverts, Coca-Cola spends an average of $3 billion for the last three years, but your average for the same is less than $2 billion. It is necessary to invest more in current and prospective customers whatsoever the strategies you make since customers are everything you need. Winning your intended customers, I will propose various advertising methods you can apply to help you get customers trust and hence increase your sales and profits. (Caroline, 2008).

Use highly quality and well-designed graphics

First and foremost, customers require clear visual images of high definition which attracts them towards exploring the various content of a particular page. Maybe the likely reason which is making Coca-Cola lose customers is because of undesiring features of the GIF released such as having weak mixtures of colors and lack of clarity among others. You can take an advantage of your counterpart failures and come up with a good design of your advert (GIF) whatsoever expensive it might be but with an assurance of winning customers. If it is possible, you can try to look at the released GIF by the Coca-Cola so that you try to design yours in a different way. It is feasible to achieve this by giving a tender to various design companies and then choosing the best advert designs which you can use in social media such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs to name but a few. For instance, you can use several customers from various regions to propose what they feel, desire and project about Pepsi Cola soda and then you will be in a position to describe the same to your different designers.

Volunteering and support

Moreover, you can use online desired games such as soccer to make your products known. Advertise such games and volunteer to sponsor and support the winners of by setting awards for them. The method is a bit expensive but at the same time very efficient in attracting customers. You are aware that people all over the world like games such as football matches and they don’t miss watching tournaments in internets and TVs. When they see your ads and labels, they will have an anticipation towards utilizing your products. Coca-Cola might also do the same, but the best thing is to make things differently such as giving more awards and supports to the winners than the Coca Cola does.

Making use of Social Media

As aware, every online competitor uses social media as a powerful tool to advertise their products and services. Current generation relies much on the internet for their day to day activities such as shopping. The best sword here is to make the best and optimum utilization of internet to attract customers. Make sure you are in every part of social media such as Facebook, blogs, twitters, Linkedin, Google+, online newspaper and magazines, and Youtube among others. In this case, you must be active all the time, current and updated where you are likely to win followers on a daily basis who will then become your customers. To summarize on the advertisement, you must try your best to use every method of advertising in a wise way by analyzing your competitor’s adverts and means of advertisement and then making a difference in improving your adverts.

Factors customers consider when choosing a soda

It is also of great importance to understand the features or factors the customers consider when choosing a drink over the other. Understanding these factors will assist you to come up with a brand accepted by the majority of people in the society. Customers consider;

a) Cultural make up

There are various subcultures such as religions, ethnic groups, gender, and nationalities which have different customs and beliefs regarding utilization of products. It is important to consider all these cultures and their norms in making your brands such that the usage is not restricted to some cultural groups.

b) Social status

Customers look at the price of the sodas and like to buy as per their capabilities. In the society, there are several categories of social classes classified as lower, middle and upper

class. In this case, their monetary value will determine their behavior, lifestyles, and interests. They, therefore, consider the capacity of the soda, the size of the bottle, and portability. As Pepsi Cola make sure you accommodate all these types of users while making drinks. As a result, customers will always get what they desire and will become loyal to your sodas.

c) Personal factors

The consumer personal factors such as age, way of life, purchasing power, revenue, and lifestyle determine his choice of drink. The buying habit changes as time and environment changes. For example, the customer will not purchase the same soda; he bought ten years ago. Therefore, customers consider the taste of the drink, his standard of living among others before he can make a choice of a drink.

d) Psychological factors

The writings on the labels attached in soda also guide the customer towards purchasing a drink. For instance, he/ she may perceive the information to be against his desires and may end up not buying the product. Therefore, you ought to write whatever is meaningful to all customers wishing to use your brand. You can win the confidence of your customers by statements such as “100% energetic”, relieves stress three times” and so on. Also, customers look at awards connected with the consumption of the soda. You should include awards for the ones’ who consumes and get a particular label in your sodas.

All these factors will assist you to make a brand which will be fully embraced by everyone in the society and hence you will record increased sales and profits (Reibstein, 2002).

Coca cola's ratings, prices, deals, and customer loyalty

It is significant to analyze the ratings, prizes, deals and customer loyalty towards using Coca-Cola soda so that you can do necessary planning in making your drink as to win more customers.

i) Ratings – from the analysis of various consumer reports and scores, Coca-Cola has an average of 3 stars out of 5 over the recent years with most of the customers complaining of the changing tastes and flavors over years. However, they are amazed at the colorful and all sized containers used for packaging. As Pepsi Cola, you can take the advantage of such Coca-cola weaknesses to enhance its brands and attract more customers.

ii) Prices

Coca-Cola packages its brands into bottles of various capacities which dictate the price. It has catered for all classes of customers ranging from lower class to higher class. For instance, you can purchase a pack of sodas or just a single drink based on your desires and purchasing power.

iii) Deals

Coca-Cola has several offers to customers when they buy their products. They include winning numbers in sodas and whoever takes that drink receives an award such as caps, and t-shirts. They also give tours to the winners.

iv) Customer loyalty

Coca-Cola customers’ loyalty is high because of frequent engagements with the minds of the customer. For instance, using labels to remind them of their past experiences. To increase the loyalty of the customers in your company, you try your best to have engagements as much as possible with the customers through encouraging and attending to their replies as well as using labels to attach their various activities (Reichheld, & Schefter, 2000).

References

Caroline, T. (2008). Pepsi-Cola versus Coca-Cola. Publications Études & Analyses.

Reibstein, D. J. (2002). What attracts customers to online stores, and what keeps them coming back?. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,30(4), 465-473.

Reichheld, F. F., & Schefter, P. (2000). E-loyalty. Harvard business review,78(4), 105-113.

************ Recommendation

Targeting Content for an International Audience:

There many creative ways that you can use to identify and amplify your passionate followers and your comparative advantage. However, targeting a segment of audiences considering their culture make up, social status, and personal factors can be challenging. But it has a high probability of success and expanding way more effectively if it is done right. The best example I can think of now is targeting the Muslim audiences in Ramadan. To Illustrate, Ramadan is a month in the Islamic calendar when all Muslims around the world abstain from eating or drinking from sunrise to sunset. Most companies around the world arrange for Ramadan in advance, because of the increase of demand volume in the Islamic world.

This coming Ramadan will take place from the 6th of June till the 5th of July.

· Budgeting for Ramadan! % increase of ads expenditure during Ramadan!!?

· Respecting the culture in your messaging.

· Creative ad campaigns that appeals to the simple and valuable moments in consumer’s life.

· Messages to use: Ramadan Mubarak!, Ramadan Kareem. ,,,,

and conclusion

Our recommendation to Pepsi is to ensure that the staff is fully aware of the regulations and policies of the company, as well as of the industry. There would be a benefit if the company trained the employees according to an analysis of marketing strategy of both companies. Another benefit from positive marketing would be to send positive people and positive messages to consumers. Stealing ideas from Coca-Cola would not be very appealing to consumers in the market. Spend, spend, spend is the one thing that Pepsi needs to do to beat coke. They do not spend nearly as much as Coca-Cola.

References list:

PepsiCo.com

Sports Business.com

Pepsi, marketing