Rationale for the POWERADE
Discuss about the Coca-Cola Company for Powerade Pineapple Storm.
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink manufacturing company. Company’s origin country is United States and it was introduced in the market in 1886. The name of the drink refers two of the original ingredients which were kola nuts, a source of caffeine and cola leaves. Yet the formula of Coca-Cola drink is a trade secret. In 1937, Coca-Cola Company sent production team to set up its own production unit in Australia in order to expand the operations and functionalities of the organization in the international market. Coca-Cola’s product offering in Australia has been modified as per the Australian consumer’s taste and preferences. Further in March 2018, organization announced launching of a new drink with relevance to the target audience’s preferences. According to market research, Coca-Cola found that the demand for coconut and pineapple flavoured drinks are much demanded by the Aussies, thus, organization decided to launch a new flavour in their drinks as POWERADE ION4 range and this helped organization to sustain their brand name by keeping the foot on the pedestal of innovation (Coca-Cola, 2018).
With high demand of coconut water in past few years, organization decided to provide the best possible drinks to the Aussies by launching POWERADE Pineapple Storm ION4 + Coconut Water with a refreshing twist in hydration along with fruity flavour of pineapple. This drink contains appropriate sporting performance credentials through which consumer could feel refreshed after a whole day of hard work. Organization marketed and promoted this drink by marketing campaigns by focusing over out-of-home channels (Coca-Cola, 2017).
This report will focus over the rationale of the idea of the new product along with the target market for the particular product. Further, the report will focus over effective marketing mix strategy by highlighting the USPs and key success indicators of the new product. Apart from this, value propositions offered by the new product will also be highlighted with regards to the marketing mix theory.
In past few years, demand for fruity flavoured drinks has been increased in the Australian market along with the high demand of coconut water. Reviewing this, organization decided to launch a unique drink with the combination of these two flavours to offer a refreshing twist on hydration along with a refreshing taste of coconut water. POWERADE Pineapple Storm ION4 + Coconut Water is launched especially for the people who are bit health conscious and avoid to consumer other drinks available in the markets such as cola and other artificial flavoured drinks. Apart from this, organization has launched this product for fitness enthusiasts, sportsperson, etc. This product is an energy booster and this drink also contains certain benefits as fulfils the required level of water in human body and it will also save people from dehydration and related diseases. Apart from this, major reason for introducing fruity flavoured refreshing drink in the market is to enhance organizational brand value, revenues and profitability in the Australian market. Along with this, Coca-Cola Australia will be able to enhance its customer base along with acquiring its desired goals and objectives in relevance with the launching of new product (Coca-Cola, 2017).
Value propositions
POWERADE ION4 range of drinks has unique combination of refreshing coconut water and pineapple. This drink is made to provide an alternative for the carbonated drinks to Aussies as well as to enhance the market share of the company in Australian market. Australians are becoming health conscious and thus, they are shifting towards healthier and fruit drinks in order to stay fit and energetic. The POWERADE ION4 has been introduced recently in the Australian market with the motive of fulfilling latest desires and wants of Aussies along with providing them appropriate and healthy source of gaining energy. The drink will be effective especially for working people, fitness enthusiasts as well as for the people who consume varieties of tablets and medicines to gain energy. A POWERDE ION4 after whole tiring day will help Aussies to stay energetic even after their working hours which help them to enjoy their personal life. Thus, it acts as the most appropriate alternative for the energy supplements. Along with this, this drink replaces range of electrolytes which are lost through sweat such as sodium, calcium, potassium and magnesium in addition with great flavours of coconut and pineapple (Coca-Cola, 2018).
Organization has adopted focus strategy which is a mixture of product differentiation and cost leadership strategy in order to set up an effective image for the new product in the target market. Reviewing the demand for fruity flavours and coconut water, Coca-Cola has immensely imposed their focus over developing a unique drink by combining pineapple flavour and coconut water to meet with the contemporary needs of target audience. For spreading awareness amongst the target audience, organization has adopted effective marketing strategies. Amongst those marketing strategies, organization will majorly impose focus on social media strategies as it will reduce the cost of marketing and it will help the organization to deliver its new products in the target market at fair prices. Ultimately, organization will be able to attain competitive advantage along with setting up an effective and identical brand image in the Australian marketplace (Armstrong, Kotler, Harker & Brennan, 2015).
Aussies’ tastes, preferences and demands are changing rapidly in terms of fast moving consumer goods. They are becoming aware of the benefits of healthier drinks and healthier food items. Thus, in relation with meeting with their needs and wants, Coca-Cola Company recently launched a healthy drink in order to enhance their revenues and market share in the Australian market. Apart from this, organization has launched these products with the objective of enhancing organizational revenues and profitability. Coca-Cola is known for rapid innovations in relevance with maintaining and enhancing their image in the target market. With the continuous launching of new products, organization could match up with the dynamic requirements of customers along with enhancing their sales as well as the profitability (Ang, Benischke & Doh, 2015).
Positioning
This innovation made by Coca-Cola is made with the objective of meeting contemporary needs of the sports category people. Organizational aim is to target 16-39 year physically active people. Company’s POWERADE ION4 range has already certain effective healthy and energy drinks and with the launching of POWERADE Pineapple Strom ION4 + Coconut water has helped the organization to enhance their customer base along with targeting other customer segments. This innovation made by Coca-Cola in POWERADE range has provided an opportunity to demonstrate the innovation to target new customer segments. In relevance with positioning a brand image of the newly launched product, Coca-Cola has adopted appropriate and effective marketing strategies. With the help of these strategies, organization could easily approach to its target audience. Coca–Cola has a strong brand identity and association in the market, it is one of the most identified brand due to its plethora of association with events, CSR activities and it visually attractive and rich logo. Thus, in order to market the new product, the company will go with subtle advertising and promotion, 80% of which will be done through Social media marketing. This will help the company in bringing down the cost of the product, the benefit of which will be passed on the consumers of the drink (Aaker, 2010).
In terms of target market, organization has specifically segregated the large market into small parts so that they could attain desired goals and objectives. Following is the target market details for Coca-Cola in relevance with the new product:
Demographics: Coca-Cola has targets both female and male 16-39 year old physically active people.
Geographic: In terms of geographic segmentation, all major cities of Australia will be targeted and the special focus will be imposed over those regions where density of fitness enthusiasts and young aged group people are more (Coca-Cola, 2017).
Behaviour: Behavioural segmentation in terms of new product launched by Coca-Cola is people with fitness anomalies as well as those who seek for benefit before consuming or purchasing something.
Psychographic: Psychographic segmentation includes people who are brand enthusiasts and carries a lifestyle. In relation to these attributes, they prefer consuming products under brand name, thus, the new product is launched under the number of brand of soft drink industry across the globe. It will help the organization to attain its desired goals and objectives.
Marketing mix is the most appropriate and effective tool of a marketing plan and it is mainly used for promoting newly launched products in the market. Marketing mix is an integrated theory of marketing which is used to strengthen the image of particular product along with highlighting the major key features of the new product and its value propositions to attract target audience. Following are efficient element of marketing mix strategy:
Segmentation and Targeting
POWERADE Pineapple Storm ION4 + Coconut Water offers a refreshing twist on hydration as it is unique drink made up from the combination of pineapple and coconut water. Due to increasing demand for coconut water and pineapple flavoured drinks, organization decided to launch a fresh and new product through which latest demands of target audience could be fulfilled. This drink is a good source of energy and organization has targeted mainly sports person who requires high level of energy and working people who takes energy supplements and gym enthusiasts. Apart from this, POWERADE Pineapple Storm ION4 + Coconut Water is a unique refreshing drink through which Coca-Cola has gained an effective place in the target market along with acquiring a high customer base (Fischer, Albers, Wagner & Frie, 2011).
Price factor is an essential factor for the success and failure of new product. Coca-Cola has set up its brand image in the global market along with Australian market by implementing cost leadership strategy. This has made the company stands on the peak position in various countries across the globe. In relevance with this, organisation has adopted fair pricing strategy and with the help of this strategy, organization has set up its effective brand image in the marketplace. In relevance with the new product launched by organization in Australian market, the same pricing strategy has been implemented through which their customer base have been increased. Apart from this, this strategy has essentially helped the organization to enhance their sales, revenues and profitability. Currently, organization delivers POWERADE Pineapple Strom ION4 + Coconut water in a 600ml packaging from all major and independent retailers.
Place of distribution is another major factor which decides the success and failure of the new as well as existing product of the organization. In relevance with distributing POWERADE Pineapple Storm ION4 + Coconut Water, organization has adopted extensive distribution scheme under which each and every retailer irrelevance to their nature and size. Along with the extensive distribution technique, organization believes in showcasing and highlighting unique features of the organizational products so that the goals and objectives could be attained. Along with distribution channels, organization has adopted an effective advertisement channel which mainly includes showcasing the features, image and slogan of the organization over large board hoardings on the roads and busy markets. This will attract large number of consumers in relevance with enhancing organizational revenues and the profitability with regards to the attaining goals and objectives (Armstrong, Kotler, Harker & Brennan, 2015).
Promotion is another effective element through which organization could promote its new as well as existing products. It helps the organization to spread awareness amongst the target audience along with establishing an effective brand image in the target market. Coca-Cola has set up its effective brand image across the globe, thus, they does not require any additional effort to promote their products. In relevance with the newly launched product, organization will majorly focus over the social media strategies and along with the social media strategies, television marketing will be implemented in the marketing campaigns. In relevance with promoting POWERADE Pineapple Storm ION4 + Coconut Water, organization will have implemented following strategies:
- Social media: Organizational marketing campaign in relevance with promoting and marketing newly introduced product in Australian market, social media strategies will be used. These strategies have high impact on the target audience along with gaining positive outcomes (Greer & Ferguson, 2011).
- Television marketing: Apart from this, organization will also focus over television marketing in order to spread awareness amongst the target audience and for this, organization has hired a fitness model from Australia in order to create positive impact amongst the target audience.
Conclusion
From the aforesaid information, it can be concluded that marketing and promotional strategies plays vital role in relevance with enhancing revenues and demand for the newly introduced products in the market. In this report, research has been made in relevance with the recently launched products by Coca-Cola in the Australian market. Product is a refrying and energy drink made up of fresh fruits and a very good source of increasing level of water in human body. This drink will work as an energy booster for the people who had a very tiring day at workplace as well as for fitness enthusiast’s people. In this report, marketing mix technique has been discussed with regards to enhancing demand for newly launched product in the target market.
References
Aaker, D. (2010). Marketing Challenges In The Next Decade. Journal Of Brand Management, Vol. 17 (5), Pp. 315.
Ang, S. H., Benischke, M. H., & Doh, J. P. (2015). The Interactions Of Institutions On Foreign Market Entry Mode. Strategic ManagementJournal, 36(10), 1536-1553.
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. And Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: An Introduction. Pearson Education.
Coca-Cola. (2017). Coca-Cola Journey. Retrieved from: https://www.coca-colajourney.com.au/media-centre/all-releases/launch-of-powerade-pineapple-storm-ion4-coconut-water
Coca-Cola. (2017). One Small Idea: How Coca-Cola Became an Aussie Phenomenon. Retired from: https://www.coca-colajourney.com.au/our-company/coca-cola-australia
Coca-Cola. (2018). Home. Retrieved from: https://www.coca-cola.com.au/en/home/
Fischer, M., Albers, S., Wagner, N., & Frie, M. (2011). Practice Prize Winner—Dynamic Marketing Budget Allocation Across Countries, Products, And Marketing Activities. Marketing Science, Vol. 30 (4), Pp. 568-585.
Greer, C. F., & Ferguson, D. A. (2011). Using Twitter For Promotion And Branding: A Content Analysis Of Local Television Twitter Sites. Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Vol. 55 (2), Pp. 198-214.