Coca-Cola Consumer Behavior: Introduction
This paper consists of a series of answers related to the Coca-Cola Company concerning its most popular product, the Coca-Cola soft drink. Basically, the paper contains the analysis and determination of consumer buying behavior for Coca-Cola soft drinks. By examining a number of incidents that have already taken place in the context of the soft drink mentioned above, this paper seeks to shed more light on consumer demographics, biogenic needs, and behavior and how such behavior determines the popularity of a product. In the process of making such an examination, timely insights and recommendations are made on how to satisfy customer needs and want better and what can be done to increase and popularize the company’s products.
Coca-Cola Consumer Behavior: Motivation
Basically, to motivate is to create an urge in somebody so that something is accomplished. It can be argued that motivation will push someone into accomplishing a given task within some given time frame. It has been argued that motivation is a force that stimulates human behavior (Tyagi and Kumar 1); it can be both negative and positive. Positive motivation induces consumers to buy Coca-Cola; positive motivations are the needs, wants, and desires that have a net effect of making someone have the urge to use a given product, in this context, drink Coca-Cola.
Therefore, in the context of this paper, positive motivation is the summation of all those urges that will have the net effect of directing a person into acquiring Coca-Cola for consumption. It has been pointed out that positive motivation is enhanced by spirited sales promotion and advertisement. However, other factors also play roles and will be covered later in this article.
On the other hand, there is a negative motivation associated with a collection of feelings that have a net effect of directing away the urge to consume a product in this context, the product being coca cola. Some of the feelings that tend to drive away the urge to consume a product include fears and aversion.
Positive motivation forces like the need and desire drive consumers to buy Coca-Cola. Consumers need the drink to satisfy their thirst. Consumers also desire Coca-Cola as a pleasure drink. Since one is motivated by a need, a need only becomes a motive when aroused to a particular level; a motive or drive is a highly pressing need to force individuals to satisfy that need.
Coca-Cola Consumer Behavior: Psychogenic & Biogenic Needs
Individuals are motivated by the desire to have many needs as possible at a particular time. Needs can be biogenic and psychogenic; Biogenic needs are psychogenic in form and include tension like hunger, thirst, and discomfort. Psychogenic needs emanate from psychological states of nature, like the need for esteem, recognition, or belonging. All these needs play a role in the creation of positive motivation. It should be noted that marketing strategies are often aimed at creating arousal of such needs on a short-term and long-term basis.
Several theories have been formulated to explain why consumers opt for Coca-Cola drinks to quench their thirst instead of water. These theories are; Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and Fredrick Herzberg’s two-option theory.
Consumer Behaviour Coca Cola: Freud’s Psycho-Analytic Theory
This theory thrives on the assumption that the psychological forces that shape individual behaviors are unconscious. Freud argued that when an individual grows up, he/she suppresses several urges while accepting the social rules of society. These urges are not completely eliminated as they appear in dreams or through a slip of the tongue. This theory postulates that no individual understands the origin of his drive.
Consumers, for example, might purport to buy Coca-Cola drinks and explain that the drive for purchasing it is to quench thirst, and deep inside, the primary purpose is actually to demonstrate a social class since Coca-Cola, as opposed to water, makes an individual appear modern and potent. It, therefore, is a clear indication that the drinking of Coca-Cola is a conscious act, and to trigger an emotion and stimulate the consumers, the company must create an impact on its production, marketing, and packaging of the Coca-Cola drink.
Consequently, Ernest Dichter, the principal advocate of Freudian motivation theory who has widely interpreted buying situations and product preferences, concluded in his work Motivational Research that drive happens in line with the fundamental unconscious motives.
Coca-Cola Consumer Behavior: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
This theory was formulated by Abraham Maslow. In his book Motivation and Personality, he postulated why consumers are obsessed with different needs at particular times. Maslow organized human needs in a hierarchy from the most burning needs to the least burning ones, as seen in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs below.
According to Maslow, an individual will try to satisfy vital needs first. When he achieves it, such needs at that level stop being a motivator, and the individual is motivated by the desire to seek the most critical need at the next level. As in the case of Coca-Cola, quenching the thirst is the fundamental thing and the most basic drive. Satisfying it using water is primarily compared to using Coca-Cola, which is expensive and only fit for those who have satisfied their psychological and social needs. The desire for Coca-Cola is primarily due to a need for self-esteem and status. According to Abraham Maslow, an individual must satisfy his biogenic needs before the psychogenic ones. Psychogenic needs include love, belonging, and self-actualization.
Coca-Cola Consumer Behavior: Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory
This theory was formulated by Fredrick Herzberg. Herzberg sought to differentiate between those factors that cause dissatisfaction and those that cause satisfaction. He referred to them as dissatisfiers and satisfiers, respectively. The case of Coca-Cola can be classified as satisfier. This is primarily due to its taste and coloring, which give Coca-Cola a distinct and sweet taste that makes it appealing compared to tasteless and colorless water.
Herzberg’s theory operates on two fundamental principles. First, the seller should be able to produce quality goods to prevent dissatisfaction prompted by factors like poor quality of products. It was evident when Coca-Cola experienced low sales and customer dissatisfaction brought about by the change in formula to the New Coke. Secondly, the manufacturer, in this case, Coca-Cola Company, should identify satisfiers which may be factors like advertisement or packaging. The reason is that a motivated person can also be influenced by perception. It brings out the idea that people prefer Coca-Cola to water because of perception.
What do consumers buy when they purchase a product?
Coke drinks are soft drinks that reduce thirst. The habit of using Coca-Cola to quench thirst has been associated with a social class because it has been argued that water can equally quench thirst. People in developed countries often take cola to satisfy their thirst, whereas, in the developing world, people satisfy their thirst with water. It clearly indicates that Coca-Cola is a want and a need at the same time.
People need Coca-Cola to satisfy their utilitarian need, which is thirst. Taking Coca-Cola is viewed to be refreshing. The following are some of the attributes that consumers want in a product.
Functional benefits
Functional benefits may be both direct and indirect; direct benefits are resourceful and beneficial to the consumer. These direct benefits are a result of the taste and nutritional value. They include quenching their thirst, and cola also boosts sugar and caffeine quantity in the body.
The indirect functional benefits
Consumers want convenience: consumers desire well-organized and attractively displayed goods since this will facilitate convenient shopping. As a persuasive measure, Coca-Cola vendors should display the good in an attractive place.
Price and value: pricing is a necessary factor, and often consumers consider it in buying Coca-Cola or/and other substitutes or the competitive product.
Advertising: This is also an indirect benefit consumers consider in determining their wants. Aggressive advertising may result in an increase in the volume of sales since consumers will be persuaded to buy the product.
Packaging: Good or attractive packaging will likely lure consumers into buying the product.
Psychological benefits
Among the psychological factors are the lifestyle of the consumers, product differentiation, and buyers’ experience. Consumers often buy a product due to the desire to create an impression of a modern and affluent lifestyle. On product differentiation, consumers often look for a unique product in the market, and hence Coca-Cola should create an identity in their products.
On differentiation of the product, Coca-Cola has effected this through brand name, packaging, and advertising. On the name, Coca-Cola has developed a short name that has been instrumental since a short name is catchy, easy to pronounce, and memorable.
On the packaging, Coca-Cola has packaged its products in different sizes and a feminine and appealing bottle. This is instrumental in winning the customer’s consciousness and fostering product differentiation.
In advertising, Coca-Cola has embraced brand awareness to introduce its brand into the market.
Critically evaluate the buying behavior of consumers to explain why Coca-Cola had a higher share of the cola drinks market than Pepsi even though the taste tests showed that more consumers preferred the taste of Pepsi
Consumer behavior implies the analysis of when, why, where, and how trends in the ability of buyers to purchase a particular product. It analyzes the consumer decision in the buying process and the characteristics of individual and group consumers. The following are the factors that influence consumer decisions.
Loyalty
It is described as the tendency of consumers to stick to one particular product. When there is a strong loyalty base, there is minimal change in the number of consumers willing to buy that particular product. Customers who lack loyalty tend to buy any good they come across and exhibit dynamism in their purchasing behavior. Such customers are also vulnerable to swaying forces by factors like sales promotion and advertising. One conspicuous model of loyalty is the memory effect which concerns consumers’ ability to return to a particular product after trying the competitive product and failing.
Rigorous advertising, several brands, and having been in the market earlier than Pepsi are the factors that put Coca-Cola ahead of Pepsi in customer loyalty leading to the high volume of sales by Coca-Cola.
Sociology
Sociology explains how the consumer behavior of individuals can be influenced by other consumers. When some individuals get to purchase a similar product of a similar brand, there is always a tendency to get locked in with a particular product, however much that good can be identical to the substitute or the competitive product or regardless of whether the competitive product sells at a similar price. Among the social factors that influence consumer behaviors are:
Group
People who interact and coexist together seem to have similar goals. An individual’s decisions are always influenced by that of his group or close associates. These groups can be secondary or primary. Secondary groups are formal institutions like schools and occupation, while primary groups include family, neighbors, and co-workers. The geographical and globalized market of Coca-Cola is primarily associated with the ability of consumers to interact and influence each other about the product.
Psychology
Psychology concerns how and what an item on the shelves of supermarkets and malls can influence the choice of consumers. It tends to influence consumers to purchase a good different from their previous brand. An advertisement can be sociological as well as psychological. It is sociological when it takes the form of sales promotions and road show campaigns, when the advertising takes the form of product advertisement, and when sales agents are used. The psychological factors are motivation, perception, beliefs, and attitude. It is psychological when it is media or digital advertisement crafted in a tendency that will capture the individual’s attention. Psychological influences can take the following models:
Minimize anticipated regret
This explains a situation where two products are identical in quality and price. It can challenge the consumer, who might confuse one product as superior to the other. In this case, the first product becomes the best choice for the consumer, which is Coca-Cola in this case.
Attribute change
It explains a situation where introducing a new product may change the perception of consumers concerning an established product in the market. This might introduce a quality issue, which might have been ignored earlier. The introduction of Pepsi motivated Coca-Cola to up its quality which was evident in their shift from Coca-Cola to New Coke and later to Classic Coke, mainly aimed at building their attribute.
Outlier avoidance
When several products in the market are very similar, consumers tend to abandon the brand they deem strange and the one quite different from the rest. In this case, consumers can choose the one that sells at a moderate price. The pricing of Coca-Cola makes it sell more when compared to Pepsi. This is further explained below:
- Decision process change: consumers often experience an easy time when it comes to choosing between two products since they can base their comparison on two main factors; size and price (Patel and Schlijper 4).
- Internal influences: several internal factors can influence consumers’ ability to choose a particular product. These factors include demographic, personality, and motivations.
- Cultural factors: these include the sets of values, perceptions, norms, and behaviors that influence the wants and behavior of a consumer. These factors are culture, sub-culture, and social class. The social structure in society also influences the values and interests of an individual (MBA Notes 1)
- Personal factors: these factors include age, life cycle, and occupation.
What impact did age have on the behavior of consumers purchasing cola?
Age is a dynamic factor and often has a direct relationship with the ability of an individual to think. As such, people of similar ages often undergo the same experiences in life. Hence, this makes them share similar needs, values, experiences, symbols, and memories, directly translating to similar consumption patterns. Consumers’ needs and interests often vary with age. Age in relation to consumer behavior is categorized as follows. The young generations often admire leisurely and pleasurable goods and purchase different goods than the old generation.
Old consumers have a tendency toward brand loyalty, and more often, they exercise caution when making their purchases. There are some commodities that diminish with age, like sugary and fatty foods. A detailed discussion concerning age and consumption in the context of coca cola is carried out below:
The Teens and the Generation X
This is always the active age in society and has a more significant influence on purchasing household goods. The social factors that characterize modern societies, like the increase in career parents and the surge in cases of single parentages, clearly indicate that in the modern world, the teens and the generation x age shop for themselves. The primary sources of information about the products in the market are their friends and discussions on blogs, short messages, and the social networking facilities such as Facebook and Twitter. This generation category also loves fun and trendy lifestyle, and fun comes at an expense.
It has many implications for market products like Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola company should devise new modes of advertisement and particular digital adverts to capture the young generation to win brand loyalty and be in a good market position. The pleasure associated with cola and how it depicts a higher social standing in society makes it appealing to the youth and the younger generations, hence the high volume of sales (Hoyer and Macinnis 301).
Generation X
It is the generation in their late thirties and forties. They are a loyal group and are cautious in making their purchases. Marketers experience changes with the old generation when they want to launch a new product since they want to stick to the product that existed when they were young. An increase in age leads to a decrease in appetite. Older adults also seem to be selective in the foods they take. The sugary taste of cola makes it less popular with the older generation. Since cola is served in restaurants and hotels is an indication that the old are not the primary target market since old age is less prone to traveling and eating in hotels (Noel 78).
What impact might this have had on the marketing activities of Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola?
The Coca-Cola Company used a type of marketing called undifferentiated marketing. This style of marketing is also referred to as the scattergun approach. The reason is that the Coca-Cola Company had one line of products and tried to pursue one approach to appeal to people of all ages and personalities (Blythe 383).
The Coca-Cola Company often uses demographic gathering of data as an instrument to find out the consumer group that uses their products most. This data is gathered based on the following variables; age, sex, country, and other personal and motivating factors.
Age is also fundamental in analyzing demand management which is a key marketing formula. Demand management involves taking steps that might result in the company either raising or lowering the demand for its products in order to create product adaptability, which might result in the upward rise in the demand for its products to the target consumers and target market.
Age will also allow the Coca-Cola company to develop product positioning. Product positioning involves how the consumers define the product based on various attributes or, rather, the place of the product in the consumer’s mind. Age, therefore, is a critical factor that will determine the mode and system of marketing their products. Furthermore, age is essential in determining which kind of advertisement to apply as a marketing strategy.
Critically evaluate the factors that contributed to the failure of New Coke
New packaging
It isolated the new brand from its consumers. When they branded it New Coke, they had already missed the point since the world was associated with Pepsi, which had just entered the market and was the youth’s favorite. The old Coke was considered a legacy soft drink and an important part of the American culture; hence the branding and the change of formula affected the loyalists of the earlier brand, who found it difficult to associate with the new Coke.
Sentimental value
Introducing the new Coke led to the erosion of the sentimental value associated with the product. The launching of the new Coke was more oriented towards the product rather than the brand, and this strategy backfired.
Limited research is also a key factor contributing to the loss of appeal in the new Coke.
What research into consumer behavior could Coca-Cola have conducted to reduce the risks of their new product failing?
Coca-Cola could have employed the Implicit Association Test (IAT). This is a mode of computer-based measurement that seeks to relate concepts and memory. This research system analyses cognitive processes like attitude, advert response, and the link between brand and consumer self-concept. IAT can predict consumer behavior (Perkins 1).
Coca-Cola ignored the Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis in its quest to analyze its position in the market. Undertaking a SWOT analysis exercise is very significant for the effectiveness of any project in hand.
Strengths and weaknesses of the above research methods
Reliability
IAT has a certain degree of consistency in its calculation and has what is called a test-retest reliability issue which confirms the exactness of measurement.
Fakability
The IAT reports are fakable compared to the normal and the commonly explicit self-reports. Fakability can alter the rank order of the participant in the tests. Fakability also brings to the fore such domains as human attitude, the self-concept, and the stereotype factor that is instrumental in analyzing the consumers’ desire.
Among the weaknesses of the IAT is that multiple behaviors vary, and hence may be difficult to compile the results. It is because it can be affected by factors like social judgment.
Critically evaluate the buying behavior of cola consumers after the re-launch of Coke Classic and discuss possible reasons why sales of Coke Classic were higher after the re-launch than before the withdrawal of the product.
After the re-launch from the new Coke to the classic Coke, the buying behavior of the cola consumers was influenced by demographic, psychological, and social-cultural factors. As in the case of Coca-Cola, consumer behavior that characterized the classic Coke market is the product’s availability, the consumers’ preference, the brand awareness, and the individual income of the consumers. The increase in the sales of the new Coke was due to the fact that consumers still liked the flavor.
The bottling of the Coke Classic was one of the factors that appealed to the consumers since people associated with the emotional red color. The rigorous advertising campaign also influences the consumers toward the brand. The fact that Cola Classic regained a lot of ground in the market and surpassed Pepsi can be largely attributed to the strong brand loyalty among consumers. Economic and business commentators considered the re-launch of the product as a shrewd move aimed at letting the consumers understand how Coca-Cola was willing to meet the consumers’ demands. However, this was not the case. They wanted to display how they could regain their lost ground and prove that they were the best in the market compared to the Pepsi brand.
Consumers of the Coca-Cola brand, as analyzed from the case study, are driven by loyalty. This is evident when the southerners who hosted the factory complained and largely opposed the re-branding merely due to the fact that they largely associated with the product. The media criticism of the branding influenced the consumers into believing that the new Coke was not good.
Works Cited
Blythe, Jim. Consumer Behavior. New York: Cengage Learning, 2008. Print.
Hoyer, Wayne and Macinnis, Debora. Consumer Behavior. New York: Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.
MBA Notes. Factors influencing consumer behavior. MBA Notes, n.d. Web.
Noel, Hayden. Consumer Behavior. New York: AVA Publishers, 2008. Print.
Patel, Shail and Schliper, Antoine. Models of Consumer Behavior Problem. Maths in Industry, 2011. Web.
Perkins, Andrew. Measuring the Non-conscious: Implicit Social Cognition on Consumer Behavior. Marketing, 2011. Web.
Tyagi, Clayton and Kumar, Arun. Consumer Behavior. New York: Atlantic Publishers, 2010. Print.