Introduction
The Coca-Cola Company is the leading manufacturer of beverages, selling more than a billion units a day. Coca-Cola’s red and white logo is undoubtedly the most recognised trademark in the whole world. The company’s headquarters are located in Atlanta, and their beverages take on four spots on the top-5 list of soft drinks with Coca-Cola at number one. The corporation also runs one of the world’s most persistent delivery organisations, distributing approximately 400 soft drink goods in almost every country in the world (Elmore 2015). Virtually more than 60 percent of Coca-Cola’s sales are made outside the United States.
The renowned trademarks of the company, such as Coca-Cola, embody one-third of the merchandise in the firm’s portfolio. The Coca-Cola Company, as well as an extensive range of no- and low-calorie beverages such as Coca-Cola Light, Coca-Cola Zero, and Diet Coke that represent substitutes for Coca-Cola’s mainstream soft drinks. The rest of Coca-Cola’s portfolio comprises categories such as sports beverages, energy drinks, and much more. They offer eclectic merchandise and packing choice so that the customers can choose which of Coca-Cola’s beverages satisfy their needs and ways of life (Isdell & Beasley 2011). The Coca-Cola Company encourages people to select the products which balance their alimentary wishes.
Coca-Cola has no definite target market, but it is a well-known fact that most of the target marketing is aimed towards the younger part of the population (Bodden 2015). Nevertheless, some marketing is custom-made for older people. The corporation has set exclusive restrictions when it comes to targeted advertising. Coca-Cola generally targets individuals who are at least 12 years old or older. Conferring to Coca-Cola, the corporation is minimising the extents of marketing that targets children who are not at least 12 years old. The company specifies that it evades ordering promotion that markets to a spectators’ ratio that consists of children under the age of 12 on more than 35 percent.
Psychology of buying behaviour
There are several notions that are important for the understanding of a customer’s behaviour and buying habits. The two most significant notions are the customer’s culture indicator and social class. The psychology of buying behaviour is based on these factors.
Culture is central when it comes to considering the desires and actions of an individual. A person’s culture is impacted by his or her family, acquaintances, cultural setting or the social order that will impose on him certain values and partialities, in addition to the behaviours that are common to his or her own culture. For a company, it is vital to understand and take into consideration the cultural aspects integral to each market or circumstances with the intention of adapting its marketing approach (Piacentini & Cui 2012). The latter will play a huge role in the awareness, behaviour, or outlooks of the customers.
Social classes are well-defined as relatively homogenous clusters of society that are systematically tiered according to a kind of social grading. People from dissimilar social classes have a tendency to have dissimilar wishes and ingesting patterns. These differences usually result from the variance in their purchasing ability, but not only. The customer’s behaviour and purchasing habits are as well a means of recognising the fact of an individual belonging to a social class. The representatives of different social classes typically do not at all times buy the same goods and do not always go in the equivalent kinds of stores.
Motivation
The definition of motivation
Motivation is what will initiate customers to build a buying habit. It is the determination of a necessity that becomes sufficiently persistent in order to guide the buyer to his or her purchase (Mattiske 2012). Motivation is connected to the customer’s need that seriously impacts the customer’s purchasing decision procedure. To intensify sales and inspire clients to purchase, companies should attempt to generate, make cognisant or support a need in the buyer’s mind so that he or she becomes mindful of the drive. The business must also study the type of merchandise they vend and the clients they target.
How does Coca-Cola motivate customers?
The Coca-Cola company motivates its customers based on the essential notions of motivation. They constantly investigate the market and seek for the market segments that they miss. When the company eventually finds the niche, they come up with a strategy that is aimed to satisfy the customers’ needs (Menzel 2014). Coca-Cola’s extensive portfolio may serve as an example of the hard work that the company does concerning the awareness of the customers’ needs and an appeal to the people’s deep-lying desires.
Perception
The definition of perception
Perception is the procedure through which a person picks out, systematises, and interprets the evidence he or she obtains so as to do something that seems right. The perception of the circumstances at a certain period of time may resolve if and how the person will behave. Depending on the knowledge, personal opinion, and personal traits, the perceptions of different individuals will vary (Thompson 2014). Each person encounters a large number of sensory incentives on a daily basis. It would be unbearable for the brain to handle it all deliberately. That is why the brain concentrates only on a portion, but not all of them.
How is Coca-Cola perceived/ wants to be perceived?
The Coca-Cola Company wants to be perceived as the world leader in soft drink production. Its aim is to be seen as the trademark that is singled out by the accomplishments and international success. Coca-Cola’s other major goal is to be perceived as a luxury brand that does whatever it takes to comfort its customers. An example of such behaviour is a move that Coca-Cola has already made. They decided to add the calorie total to the anterior of their bottles and cans to make it more information for their customers to make knowledgeable choices.
How does Coca-Cola appeal to the customers’ senses?
Coca-Cola uses different methods to appeal to the customers’ senses. First of all, the company uses vivid colours that give the customer a feeling of a luxurious product. The new unified design of the Coca-Cola cans looks pleasing to the eye and provokes the drive in the company’s customers (Abrams 2012). Another way that helped Coca-Cola to appeal to its customers is the personalisation of the approach. The company now extensively promotes its “Share a Coke” movement that helps build the bond between them and their customers. The Coca-Cola corporation uses a minimalistic design and personalised approach in order to call for the loyalty and trust of its clients.
Learning and Attitudes
The definition of learning and attitudes
The process of learning is usually conducted through action. When the individuals perform the actions, they learn. For instance, if the customer had an adverse encounter or experienced a state of distress, he or she will not buy that particular product anymore. On the contrary, if they had a respectable experience with the product, they will be craving to buy it one more time. The learning concepts are widely used in advertising by numerous companies.
The philosophy of operant taming which claims that you can shape a good reputation for the brand and high request for a product by connecting it with optimistic support (or a moderately poor reputation with amplification of pessimism) can serve as a good example.
An attitude can be demarcated as a feeling, an evaluation of an item or impression, and the tendency to act in a subject way towards that item (Yarahmadi 2015). Attitudes let the person develop comprehensible conduct in contradiction of a cohort of analogous items or notions. Principles, along with attitudes, are usually fixed in the individual’s cognizance and are hard to transform. Nevertheless, it is imperative to recognise, categorise, and study the good attitudes and views as well as the bad ones that customers can have on the company or its products.
How does Coca-Cola encourage trial to encourage learning?
The Coca-Cola company encourages trial to encourage learning in various production areas. First of all, it pays attention to the proper motivation and exposure to new products and experiences. By the virtue of trial, Coca-Cola was able to revise its approach to packaging of their goods. They also reviewed their partnerships and even released an app for the customers. Coca-Cola also encourages its customers to participate in various trials with the purpose of creating a deeper understanding of customer needs and wishes.
Coca-Cola’s social media/ marketing tools’
Coca-Cola creates a visible presence in today’s social media world (Noor Al-Deen & Hendricks 2012). They tweet more than 50 tweets a day which most probably generates more than a billion views a day. Another important fact is that almost 90% of Coca-Cola’s tweets were direct replies to other Twitter users which prove how crucial for the company is the business-customer bond. Coca-Cola also shares a vast number of videos on Instagram that on average get around 12 thousands of likes. However, the biggest fan base Coca-Cola has on Facebook as 82 million people are following the company’s page. To conclude, Coca-Cola involves their customers and other social media users in the process and is not afraid to try out new features.
Personality
The definition of personality
Personality is the result of the collaboration of psychosomatic and physical features of the individual that is characterised by the persistent behaviours. The concept self-perception significantly impacts people in their selections and lifestyles. Therefore, this concept also affects their behaviour and buying habits. So as to fascinate more clients, many companies are trying to elaborate a personality that incorporates the characteristics and ideals (regardless of whether they are actual or looked-for) of customers they are targeting (Martini & James 2012).
This is done because customers do not simply buy products following their needs or for their central features, but they are also seeking products that are reliable and strengthen the image of who the customers are, or who they wish they would be. If the company is able to provide an encouraging and sympathetic self-perception to the consumer, it will be respected, and its products will be bought more often.
What type of personality is buying the product?
Considering the fact that Coca-Cola is a product that has been initially created for the younger part of the population, it is not a surprise that it is most popular among the individuals aged between 18 and 24. Food, drinks, and games can be found among the top interests of Coca-Cola consumers. The majority of Coca-Cola consumers mostly use Facebook and YouTube (these websites also have the most potential concerning the company’s targeted marketing). Coca-Cola’s customers also are inclined to be enthusiastic TV series viewers.
What is the brand personality?
Coca-Cola’s brand personality is based on two essential pillars which are the trustworthiness of the brand and its pledge to exceed customers’ expectations. The fidelity of the brand is interrelated with their determination to build an ongoing relationship with its customers. This is why the brand became legendary and is often associated with the notions of loyalty and respect. Coca-Cola’s fascination with its customers’ expectations has formed the trademark and made the company popular (Lambin & Chumpitaz 2012).
Justified recommendations for change
Despite the company’s credibility and its will to strive for the success, there are several points that are crucial for the business, and it is highly recommended to review these suggestions. The first and the foremost factor that covertly drags the company behind is its outdated managing style that is embracing outworking and work-life steadiness but does it too deliberately. The managers may be not proficient enough and that would inevitably lead to the numerous crises in the worker-manager relations. Another problem that should be reviewed is limited improvement. This means that Coca-Cola’s employees may get into a situation when they do not have enough options to get promoted or experience any progress in career growth.
Properly motivating employees should be the Coca-Cola’s key concern if the company aims to keep on dominating the beverage market. The most important problem that Coca-Cola’s employees may encounter is the discouragement of the lateral thinking. The described issues may often result in high staff turnover rates and reduction in the company’s revenues. That is why the recommendations should be carefully reviewed and adjusted for their correct implementation in the working process.
Reference List
Abrams, A 2012, Formula for Fortune: How Asa Candler Discovered Coca-Cola and Turned It into the Wealth His Children Enjoyed, iUniverse, Bloomington, IN.
Bodden, V 2015, The Story of Coca-Cola, Creative Education, Mankato, MN.
Elmore, B 2015, Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, NY.
Isdell, E & Beasley, D 2011, Inside Coca-Cola: A CEO’s Life Story of Building the World’s Most Popular Brand, St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY.
Lambin, J & Chumpitaz, R 2012, Market-Driven Management: Strategic and Operational Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.
Martini, N & James, G 2012, Scientific Selling: Creating High-Performance Sales Teams Through Applied Psychology and Testing, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.
Mattiske, C 2012, Understanding Customer Motivation, AudioInk, Seattle, WA.
Menzel, A 2014, Coca Cola HBC. A Case Study, GRIN Verlag, Munich.
Noor Al-Deen, H & Hendricks, J 2012, Social Media: Usage and Impact, Lexington Books, Lanham, MD.
Piacentini, M & Cui, C 2012, Multicultural Perspectives in Customer Behaviour, Routledge, London.
Thompson, H 2014, Who Stole My Customer?: Winning Strategies for Creating and Sustaining Customer Loyalty, FT Press, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Yarahmadi, F 2015, Exploring Consumer Attitudes Towards Different Facets of Advertising, Lap Lambert Academic Publishing, Saarbrucken.