Cola Wars
1. In the new Coke fiasco, how could Coca-Cola’s marketing research have been improved? Be specific.
Coca-Cola’s marketing research could have been improved in many ways to help it reach success over Pepsi in the long run. Pepsi started off in the 70’s and 80’s with marketing campaigns like the “Pepsi Generation” and the “Pepsi Challenge” which really made Pepsi gain momentum on Coke. Coke could have done some research on this to determine some similar types of campaigns to compete with Pepsi. Coke was also spending large amounts of money on advertising, double the vending machines, and larger shelf spaces, but it was not seeing any increase in its market share. Coke needed to research how to better spend their money in order to use it more efficiently. If Pepsi was spending less money and gaining market share, what were they doing right? Research is an essential step in advertising because money cannot be wasted, there are many other uses within the company which money could be used for. In order for Coca-Cola to improve the above stated problems and improve their marketing research, the company could do a number of things. When the flavor changed of Coke, many were upset about this, even though a study was done to determine if the change should happen. This decision made by Coke was probably done too quickly and by doing some more research, the problem may not have been the taste which was suppressing their sales. Companies need to look into every potential change to a product, and determine the best fit with many research groups, surveys, discussions, etc. Current customers need to be in on important decisions like these also because they are your main business. The 80/20 rule applies here where 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers. Another way to improve their marketing research is to be quick on sudden changes by competitors. Pepsi grabbed the market share in Buenos Aires before Coke had any time to react. Coca-Cola should have been researching
Coca-Cola’s marketing research could have been improved in many ways to help it reach success over Pepsi in the long run. Pepsi started off in the 70’s and 80’s with marketing campaigns like the “Pepsi Generation” and the “Pepsi Challenge” which really made Pepsi gain momentum on Coke. Coke could have done some research on this to determine some similar types of campaigns to compete with Pepsi. Coke was also spending large amounts of money on advertising, double the vending machines, and larger shelf spaces, but it was not seeing any increase in its market share. Coke needed to research how to better spend their money in order to use it more efficiently. If Pepsi was spending less money and gaining market share, what were they doing right? Research is an essential step in advertising because money cannot be wasted, there are many other uses within the company which money could be used for. In order for Coca-Cola to improve the above stated problems and improve their marketing research, the company could do a number of things. When the flavor changed of Coke, many were upset about this, even though a study was done to determine if the change should happen. This decision made by Coke was probably done too quickly and by doing some more research, the problem may not have been the taste which was suppressing their sales. Companies need to look into every potential change to a product, and determine the best fit with many research groups, surveys, discussions, etc. Current customers need to be in on important decisions like these also because they are your main business. The 80/20 rule applies here where 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers. Another way to improve their marketing research is to be quick on sudden changes by competitors. Pepsi grabbed the market share in Buenos Aires before Coke had any time to react. Coca-Cola should have been researching