Strategic Marketing: Planning and Control

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Introduction

Performance and productivity of an organization depends basically on the strategic management systems that have been put in place. Strategic marketing management aims at selecting accomplishments that are reality-based as well as developing effective business strategies.

The accomplishment of strategic marketing management depends basically on the management systems that are put in place in the particular organization by the managing team (Drummond, et al., 2007).

The coca cola company is deemed as the biggest company in the world that produces and supplies beverages. It is also known as the one that controls the soft drinks in half of the global market (Stone McCall, 2004).

In addition, the company is in control of the non-carbonated compounds across the globe. The company is usually in possession of a variety of soft drinks of brands of beverages. The best-known brands are coca-cola, the world’s biggest product, fanta, and sprite being the second famous brands all over the world.

More so, non-carbonated juice-products are also among the brands that the company sells successfully. The company’s products are considered the best as choice products since they deem best-selling ones for they have always boosted the company marketwise and profit-wise.

The company has been in the deal for the products and brands for quite a long time and with a lot of success, thus gaining confidence in the products that they deal with. Additionally, the company has been the best selling company for the soft drinks over the years, making it to gain fame over the years (Coca-Cola Company, 2006).

This paper investigates into the particular company’s corporate objectives, market overview, as well as the market’s analysis in terms of the internal audit. More over, it seeks to establish the objectives of marketing for the company. Promotional Programmes are also an important topic of discussion in this area.

The company also has a measurement, control, and review programme that has to be evaluated in order to conduct a successful marketing plan (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development 2005)

Corporate Objectives

Corporate objectives dictate the aims of a particular corporation, since every organization’s success depends upon the already laid down strategies by the management (Black Enterprise magazine, 1997).

The herein discussed coca-cola company has had well laid-down strategies and objectives that have made it successful over the years since its inception. First, the company aims at becoming the best soft drinks-selling corporation in the whole world, a morale that keeps them committed into their objectives.

Additionally, the company aims at producing and supplying the best ever brands to their esteemed customers in order to expand their markets globally.

More over, the company seeks to establish a large customer base in all the countries of its operation in order to maximize the number of consumers that they have, and at the same time establish a company with a strong business foundation.

Furthermore, the inception of every business organization is usually in order to make profits, with the coca-cola company being no exception since they have always been making huge profits over the time.

Thus, they aim at becoming the largest and the best selling company that makes large profits with no losses, since no corporation in the world yearns for losses at any instance (Handy, 1993).

Market Overview

Market overview represents the scope of a company’s operation and area of product supplies. The company deals mainly with beverages and concentrates that is non-alcoholic all over the world, and owning about four hundred licensed brands, which include; waters, juices, coffees, energy and sports beverages, diet, and light beverages.

At the same time, they have a wide scope of operation, in more than two hundred countries and in all the five continents. The company’s market is wide enough, thus enhancing its growth in all regions.

The fact that it operates in approximately four hundred countries makes it popular worldwide, hence, every consumer is interested in purchasing the products of the company. Their well-designed marketing mix also makes it possible for the company to generate a large market for products all over the globe.

Owing to the large size of the market available for the company, it becomes possible to overcome the aspect of competition in most instances, thus becoming more successful, despite the challenges that the company faces (Williams & Curtis, 2006).

It is true that there are other companies that sell the same products as I found out in the market during a survey, but they have been able to overcome in many areas and proceeded towards the achievement of the objectives already set (Saxena, 2005).

Marketing Audit: Internal and External (Marketing Mix/SWOT/ PEST/ Porter’s 5 Forces Analyses)

The marketing Audit is a comprehensive study of a company’s position in terms of all aspects. It is a combination of the analysis of all forms, not taking for granted any aspect of the business, whether minor or major.

Various forms of analysis are conducted including, SWOT, PEST, PESTEL, PFA etc. Additionally, the company’s marketing mix is very crucial when it comes to the analysis, since it determines the future trends and success of the company (Gibson, 2008).

SWOT analysis gives an overview of the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a company. The coca-cola company is among the best companies in the world. However, conducting a market research provides a comprehensive report on the trends of the company.

The fact that the company hs a wide range of beverages in operation is deemed as strength since their customers is always pleased to choose among a variety. Secondly, the establishment of selling bases in a variety of countries is also as strength because they can sell a large number of products to the customers and make a lot of profits.

However, the fact that they have dealt with the same brands for quite a long time is a weakness since the use of the same products for a long period leads to boredom in many cases, therefore needs to be made strength by regular changing of brands (Stacey, 1999).

More over, the fact that there are other companies that sell such similar products with the coca-cola company brings out the aspect of competition that the company faces. This is considered as a threat to the company’s success, lest they design strategies that may help overcome this challenge.

Nevertheless, the company has a very great opportunity to exploit since they have customer bases that can enable them gain many customers, thus they are in a very ample position to establish them (Gilligan. and Wilson, 2009).

Marketing mix

Marketing mix is a process that involves communicating to a target audience through a variety of ways about a company’s products or services, with the aim of entising them to buy more products as well as remind them of the continued existence of similar products.

Coca-cola company has been famous for its entising advertising strategies and therefore has been experiencing rapid growth.

For instance, one tunes on the television and comes across the term “super-bowl advertising”, a form of sports advertising but will find the company’s profile appearing in the advert. In order to enhance its growth and counteract competition, marketing mix is done over a variety of media and under strategic planning techniques.

The company has put into practice the elements that aim at persuading and informing the audience about the extraordinally nature of their products. Repetition is essential in order to maintain a flow in the marketing mix strategies, thus they should perform their adverts more repetitively.

On the other hand, too much repetition causes boredom, thus the company should measure considerably the amount of advertising as well as the tools that they employ in these strategies.

The course of advertising should also be exellently designed to reach the target customers at the right time and in their easy to access places.

Additionally, the marketing mix media have been carefully selected in order to cater for all classes of people, since some of them are so expensive for all to afford. Simple media that all can access would help to create a large customer database, leading to more sales and increased company’s productivity (Pride, et al., 2009).

Assumptions

Various assumptions have been made about the coca-cola company by the management, consumers, other companies, as well as the findings of the marketing research that we conducted. First, the customer is considered as the best manufacturer of beverage products in the world by many consumers, thus most buy their products.

Additionally, the company is always considered to have well laid strategies, a factor that contributes to its success in many cases. More over, it was assumed that Coca-Cola is just a normal company, whose operations resemble those of a common company.

Furthermore, it is assumed that coca-cola company being the biggest ought to have a good managing system, proper strategic plans, and makes huge profits (Zentes, et al., 2007).

Marketing Objectives and Strategies for new or modified product

Marketing objectives are the aims that are put in place to help market a new product. A product that has been newly introduced in the market needs a variety of methods to be involved in order for it to yield profits for the company (Kapferer, 2008).

The marketing objectives of the company are aimed at producing quality products that would be marketed more easily than the former. More over, the best strategies are always laid down by the company to market the products (Schuler and Jackson, 2007). The marketing mix strategies put in place have sufficiently assisted the company in expanding across the globe.

The company always recruits a new team to manage a company’s new products to enhance productivity as well as to incorporate new ideas from a young and a dynamic generation. Nevertheless, the company has good advertising and promotion strategies for their products (Wysocki and Ferdinand, 2001).

Promotional Programme

Promotion is one of the aspects of every corporation with the aim enhancing their profits as well as productivity. One promotion programme type is not always sufficient for a company’s success.

A promotional programme is conducted by experts in the area mainly to publish the company to the public, to sustain their already attained customers as well as to gain more customers in their target markets.

Promotion is a very important instrument to enhance a company’s sales as well as its growth. An organization’s maturity can be reached by incorporating the best marketing mix strategies with an aim of winning more customers around the world (DIANE Publishing Company, 1993).

Cola-cola company has been famous and thus stand at a very strategic point to become the best beer-selling company in the world, if only they embark on the best ever promotional and advertising strategies. Cola-cola company marketing mix strategies balance each other.

They have been able to adopt a variety of new lines of products, which with promotion in the market have been able to capture a wide audience, thus surpassing other beer companies. A number of factors should be considered when planning on the marketing mix strategies by Cola-cola organization.

They include, the company’s objectives, sustainability of the business, target audience, the type of media to be used, product brands, the strategic position of the organization to inform the marketing strategies as well as competition.

A careful consideration of the factors would assist the management to lay appropriate marketing mix plans that would help accomplish the company’s goals (Donnell, 2001).

Measurement, Review and Control

Accomplishment of objectives in an organization is very vital for its sustainability and continuity. A collection of measures is put in place to spearhead the activities of the company. To invest in more distribution channels, the company has to recruit more distributors and creating more retail stores at convenient places.

More so, for the accomplishment of the goal to maximize profits within the company, it would be important to improve productivity and performance by encouraging investments in best human resource services.

At the same time, it would be essential to ensure easy accessibility of the company’s resources by the target community as a way to build an excellent customer relationship strategy (Business Resource Software, Inc. 2010).

Additionally, the company has set particular targets that would spearhead the above measures. The fist objective would be met by having as many stores as possible in all places, with an estimated number of a hundred stores to be developed every year, within the United States as well as in other countries.

The second one would be accomplished by authenticating all human resource departments within the company’s stores for effectiveness in employee management to enhance their satisfaction, as a factor that determines the company’s productivity.

Finally, the third would be made practical by initiating extra community-based projects with an intention of enhancing company-community interactions (Simpkins, 2004).

Furthermore, various actions are deemed important with an intention to meet the above targets. One, accelerating more investments in major countries would help in increasing the number of distribution channels.

It would be ample to expand the administrative structure of the human resource department by recruiting more human resource personnel who will ensure better contact with the entire staff would ensure maximized profits and increased profits within the company (Hill and Jones 2009).

More over, Assisting the less fortunate in the immediate community as well as providing incentives to the prevailing community would help in implementing in appropriate and enthusiastic CSR strategies (Taiwo and Idunnu, 2007).

On the other hand, measurement of the company’s performance and productivity indicated a positive report. The success depends upon the range of a company’s products, scope of operation as well as the management strategies that have been initiated by the company/ organization (Parry, 2002).

The company’s control of resources and products depends upon the stock management team as well as an appropriate record-keeping system (Doole and Lowe 2007).

The company’s assets have been subjected to proper control over the years since the management team has played a vital role in the key management role, the reason for such expansions that they have experienced.

At the same time, the business review process is very essential in a business organization, and the coca-cola company has been found as a leading example in the review processes (Blythe, et. al., 2005).

The processes assist the company in the evaluation of the past, present and expected future performance, thus helping in making vital strategic decisions for marketing and management.

Therefore, the process involving measuring, evaluating, controlling supply and delivery of products the esteemed customers, control of in and out of the company products as well as the review of the business processes is considered crucial in all aspects.

It helps in keeping proper company’s historical records as well performance control (Croome,.2004).

Conclusion

In conclusion, every company’s target is to work towards making its products to be the best in the market, with an intention of attracting more customers. Therefore, Cola-cola Company has tried to lay the best strategies that would help improve its image to its clients.

At the same time, appropriate Customer relationship management has been fairly practiced within the organization to enhance the company’s sustainability (Pearce and Robinson, 1994). It is for this reason that the Cola-cola Company has been able to grow over the years, and will still continue to grow.

Promotion of products plays a key role in product, selling since it helps in increasing the awareness to consumers who are willing to purchase certain products. New marketing strategies should be developed by the company, including the use the currently developed programmes (Wilson, 2005).

Electronic marketing is a current trend taken today the organization since it wishes to evaluate their prevailing markets, plan how to overcome all forms of challenges that they are facing. Thus, the marketing mix should be carefully organized for effectiveness in business sales operations (Kurtz, et al., 2009).

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