Marketing Communication Essay Example

This is a very interesting and fascinating area of study since there is no one single model that can be used to summarize the whole communication process. By definition, marketing communication refers to all the messages and media deployed to facilitate communication between the company and the market. It is the better means through which the company can reach out to its customers and other stakeholders (Blick, 2011). The key objective of marketing communication is to create and sustain demand and preference for the product in the market. It is designed to bring an appeal of vision to the customers thus advocating more demand. Appropriate marketing communication also helps in shortening sales cycles by taking goods and services prior to the consumers' memory even before they meet with the actual goods in the market.
Marketing communication is a larger area that the company takes much time to consider its legitimacy. Its components run from advertisements in the media, packaging, branding, trade show appearance, sales presentation, direct marketing, and printed materials. Poorly organized and performed marketing communication is likely to finish good reputation of the concerned company. It is there recommended for the company to take much time and perform diligently in delivering marketing communication so as to maintain its survival within the competitive market (Turner & Vault, 2005).
For the purpose of learning and better understanding of market communication, this study will specifically dwell on the market campaign initiated by the Coca-Cola Company. The famous campaign “Share a Coke” has sunk deeply into the memories of many populations. This has followed its occasional and multiples advertisement run by both local and international media channels (Blick, 2011).
Coca-Cola Company is one of the international beverage manufacturers and Retailer Company located in Georgia, United States. It has been operating since 1882. The organization works in a franchise system of market distributing its products to over 200 countries in the world. Its stocks include those nonalcoholic beverages like Fanta, Minute Maid, and Sprite among others apart from its namesake Coca-Cola. Share a Coke campaign is an adventurous campaign that has enabled the Coca-Cola Company to grab the whole world market. The campaign is a unique marketing strategy that is individualized based. Several kiosks and others containers have been printed the coca cola logos for easy identification and branding. The most interesting part of the campaign which attracted millions of people to purchase the Coca-Cola products was the printing of individual names on the bottle top. Customers would always have a desire to purchase all those products that bear their names. Some would not wait to in the shelves those products that bear names of their beloved ones.
The purpose of the campaign was to improve the sales of Coca-Cola products. Several marketing survey on the Coca-Cola products done in over 50 markets showed a downfall in the consumption of these non-alcoholic beverages. The campaign was carefully designed to accomplish the following objectives which would otherwise lead to the increase in the consumption thus profit maximization (Turner & Vault, 2005).
Creation of awareness on the company and its products was the key objectives that lead to the invention and launching of “Share a Coke” campaign. New customers were being informed about the existence of Coca Cola. The company had a vision of improving the level of recognition of its brand within the states the company is operating. They aimed at printing their containers and kiosk which were then placed at the strategic sites for more advertisement. Images of Coca-Cola products were brightly painted on their Lorries and trucks which were used in ferrying the products to their final distribution points. These created much awareness of the coca cola products onto many consumers who were innocently illiterate about the company existence and the products.
Another key reason for conducting the campaign was to inform and educate consumers and buyers. Consumers normally have the taste to purchase goods and services that they have had some basic knowledge about. Bottles and plastics of coca cola products are equipped with the nutritional knowledge of the content. The sugar content, water, and any other additives on the brand are clearly labeled on the bottles to help the buyers in evaluating the brand before consumption. The health benefits of Coca-Cola products were then communicated to buyers who finally improved their taste for this healthier brand.
The "Share a Coke" campaign was particularly developed to encourage the liking for the company's products over those of the competitors in the market. Psychologically, people fall in love with good-looking images that the coca cola campaign movements did not hesitate to involve in their trade shows. The color of the products itself is good looking and appeal to the eye. Retailers would hurry to acquire the bottle-like containers manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company to use during their day to day business operations (Turner & Vault, 2005). These are among other intensive marketing strategies that the company adopted to cope in the globally competitive market.
Finally, the Coca-Cola Company directs nearly all its marketing efforts to the final consumers, unlike others which target the wholesalers and the distributors. Reaching out to the consumers enhanced the success of the campaign to achieve its planned objectives of popularizing the brand to the consumers. This improved the consumption of the products by a larger percentage (Hoffman & Bateson, 2009).
The famous "Share a Coke" campaign categorically selected appropriate materials that convey healthy messages associated with taking the company's products. Marketing professional has perfected the images, sounds, and words that come from the campaign shows. Taking one brand of the company’s is today associated with another new lifestyle within the community. Those people who want to live at the top of their life cannot afford to exclude the Coca-Cola brand in their leisure retreat (Cheng & Tsai, 2006).
Messages conveyed to the customers through the pictures and the images used in the have a lot to comfort the consumers. Interpreting and analyzing the meaning of these messages can create different meaning in the memory of the consumer. For instance, drinking coca cola is stylish, drinking coca cola is part of lifestyle, coca cola helps to best satisfy the thirst among other meanings. This marketing initiative of relating the intake of coca cola to higher achievements in life could probably be the key reason there is a drastic improvement in coca cola consumption by the majority of people in the world. The urge for taking more of the coca cola products has taken a new trend right from the commencement of the campaign (Hoffman & Bateson, 2009). In contemporary language, there is a gap created by the message learned from the Coca-Cola advertisement that there is no nonalcoholic brand with the same health benefits as Coke products.
There are many satisfactions derived from the consumption of coca products. A good number of these satisfactions originate from the myths and fictions which have been instilled into the minds of consumers by the marketing strategy of the brand. The advertisement of the Coke products today deploys the use of images and pictures of very rich people in the society. Sometimes they select on the most beautiful and expensive ladies taking their brand of Coke. These advertisements do away with the perceived thoughts that Coke is only consumed by a particular social class of in the society (Cheng & Tsai, 2006).
The rich and the lower class of people would comfortably take their favorite brand of Coke in different resort hotels without fear of discriminating and undermining their class. The advertisement also advocates the necessity to feed children with the coca cola products. This has in the long run boosted the consumption of Coke products thus the realization of maximum profit (Hoffman & Bateson, 2009).
"Share a Coke" campaign has not been only aired in the local and international Television but the campaign has encroached to newspapers, local radios stations, internet among others. Journalists have combined their efforts together with marketing professional and other crafty men and women to produce high-quality items for advisements purposes. Mature design work has been aired from many media houses attractive qualities in them. They are carefully mixed with soft music accompanying them which have captured and nursed attention of many television viewers.
The consequent results of these modified clips in the media and other channels of communication are the effects on the attitudes of consumers. Today, there are diehards of coke products who cannot do without one or more bottles Coke brand on their table. The impacts of the media mix on the consumer preference have raised the consumption of Coke thus increasing the market availability for more profit return (Cheng & Tsai, 2006).
In order to realize the success and the effectiveness of the marketing campaign of “Share a Coke” by the coca cola company, the integrated marketing communication assessment criteria can be used which include customer loyalty, amount of revenue collected from the marketing campaign among others. The annual financial report of Coca Cola company since the adoption of the new marketing strategy have shown great improvement in their profit realization which is the core mission of the business (Hoffman & Bateson, 2009).
The level of the market share that the coca cola company has had in the market can be good parameters for assessing the efficiency of Coca Cola marketing initiatives. Current statistics on market share of the Coca-Cola Company reveals that the company is selling its products in more 250 countries in the world. The company has an overwhelmed number of employees which is a clear indication of growth for this company.
For the newly established companies to survive in the modern world, they should have an effective marketing communications strategy without which the chances of collapse would be very high than the long term growth. In my opinion, I would conclude by advocating for other companies to stand tall and come up with other similar marketing initiatives just like the famous "Share a Coke" adopted by the coca cola company. This is the best tool for survival in the tightly competitive market in the business world.

References

Blick, D. (2011). The ultimate small business marketing book. Surrey: Filament Publishing
Cheng, B.-S., & Tsai, T. (2006). The Silicon Dragon: High Tech Industry in Taiwan. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Pub.
Hoffman, K. D., & Bateson, J. E. G. (2009). Services marketing: Concepts, strategies & cases. s.l.: Cengage Learning Services.
Misawa, M. (2011). Current business and legal issues in Japan's banking and finance industry. New Jersey: World Scientific.
Turner, T. N., & Vault (Firm). (2005). Vault guide to the top manufacturing employers. New York: Vault, Inc.