Early History and Evolution

Coca Cola was invented by Dr John.S.Pemberton (pharmacist from Atlanta Georgia) in May 1886. He concocted the formula in his backyard. Carbonated water was added to syrup to make it a refreshing drink. The flowing letters which has become the logo of the company today is the gift of Frank Robinson (bookkeeper of Dr Pemberton). Till 1905 the drink was served with cocaine & was supposed to be the remedy for headache.

In 1887 Asa Candler (another pharmacist from Atlanta Georgia) bought the formula from Dr Pemberton for 2300$. Due to his aggressive marketing strategy Coca Cola’s sale went up by 4000% between 1890 and 1900. By the turn of the 20th century the product was being sold in US & Canada.

In 1915, Pepsi went for bankruptcy & was offered to Coca Cola to take over as it was the only other major soft drink in the country. But Coca Cola didn’t accepted that offer as they thought it to be a liability to take over a loss making company. A blunder that haunts Coca Cola till date.

Coca Cola elevated itself from just a product to a symbol of patriotism during World War-II when they decided to sell the drink to the military men for 5 cents per bottle (thereby obtaining the license of unlimited cultivation of sugar). This made it the drink of America.

In 1963, Pepsi positioned itself as a product of youth. The strategy was so influential that it became like a trend in US that a person with a bottle of Pepsi in his hand was considered to be hip identifying himself as a new age American & a person with a bottle of Coca Cola in his hand was considered to be orthodox old age American. Coca Cola identified this trend & again invoke the patriotic sentiments of the American by identifying itself as the drink of America which helped them retrieve the market which was lost to Pepsi.

In 1985, Coca Cola did something unthinkable. They changed the taste of Coca Cola & the new product was launched in the name of Coca Cola refresh. The strategy failed big time as there was not only drop in the sales but there was wide spread feeling of dissatisfaction among Americans who proclaimed that Coca Cola had robbed the drink of America. The issue was finally settled, as they re-launched Coca Cola in the name of Coca Cola classic.

In India Coca Cola was 1st launched in the late 1970’s. But FERA Act (1973) compelled them to discontinue their operations in India. In early 1990’s in the new liberalized Indian economy, Coca Cola came back with vengeance, acquiring dominant market brands like Thumps up (a product of RPG) laying a platform for its operations in India.

Initially, it targeted the high income group with high price & eye catchy advertisement. Later it repositioned itself as a drink for the masses and slowly as the cost of operations became cheaper it penetrated the market of middle & lower middle income group with the reduction in price.

It has distinctively positioned itself in urban & rural India. With the yawning mind-set gap between the two markets, Coca Cola in urban India has positioned itself as a symbol of style & celebration, while in rural India it is essentially a product which quenches thirst.

Quantitative Research Model – BAVRefer to EXIBIT 1 (BAV-Quantitative Technique), which is attached

Research Methodology

The BAV model is a proprietary tool designed by Young & Rubicam. The BAV model is used to measure the current and future status of the brand vis-à-vis its competitors. The current status of the brand (also known as Brand Stature) is measured keeping in mind two main attributes - Knowledge and Esteem. And the future status of the brand (also known as Brand Vitality) is measured keeping in mind two other attributes – Relevance and Differentiation.

As the BAV is a proprietary tool an independent questionnaire was designed to gauge the consumer’s perception across the 4 pillars on which BAV is based. Each pillar is assigned 100% weightage and this is split amongst the questions pertaining to them. Weights are assigned on the basis of how direct and how comprehensive is the information that could be derived from the question.

The calculation is done by totaling the number of responses (in some cases only the correct response) and adding them after the weightage of the question is allocated to a particular attribute or a brand. This is done for every question to arrive at a score for each brand. All the scores from the questions pertaining to a specific pillar for a particular brand is added to get the final score for that pillar for that brand. Once this is done, percentile is assigned on the basis of the final score received by each brand.

In Q.5 and Q.7 we tried to check how the products are different from each other. So in Q.5 we gave some attributes with which the products are already associated with. And in Q.7 we provided a set of corporate personalities, along with the name of the corporate, with which the products are not related and asked people to relate them. The product getting the highest response for a given attribute/corporate personality was set as a standard and then it is being deducted from the responses that other products gets for that following attribute/corporate personality. The difference between the entire product for the same attribute/corporate personality is then added and then given a weightage.

Similarly Q.4 and Q.9 is framed. In Q.4 the respondent is asked a close ended question so that he/she gives a response that comes certainly in his/her mind. And a same kind of question is asked in Q.9 but in a different manner and it is kept open ended so that the respondent think a little and then give the response. Thus in one case we get a pseudo response and in one we get a true response.

The questionnaire is being deliberately jumbled so that it looks that the questions are not related to the previous question and also because the respondents should look at all the questions as an individual question. Similarly the options given in all the questions are jumbled.

Sample Size

53 respondent

Sampling Plan

All the respondent in the sample size are non-MBA students. This is done because the brands that we have taken are well known brands and management students knowing about the brand, about its positioning and marketing strategy will have a biased opinion. So we took non MBA’s to ensure that the sample is unbiased.

Instrument of Data Collection

Questionnaire (Online Survey)

Questionnaire

Q1

What is the first brand that comes to your mind when you hear the words ‘Happiness’?

Sprite Pepsi Coca-Cola Thumps UP

Q2

Identify the brands with their associated taglines?

Sprite Coca-Cola Pepsi Thumps UpNot Applicable

Rasta Clear Hain

Change the game

Pyaas Bhujaao

Open Happiness

Aaj kuch toofani karte hain

Believe in a brighter tomorrow

Q3

Which soft drink would you prefer to serve your guest during small get together?

Pepsi Thumps Up Coca-Cola Sprite

Q4

With which soft drink brand you associate yourself with?

Sprite Coca-Cola Pepsi Thumps Up Others

Q5

Which brand would you associate with the following attributes?

Pepsi Thumps Up Sprite Coca-Cola Not Applicable

Macho and daring

Youth

Pride and respect

Street smart

Q6

While buying a soft drink which are the factor important to you?

Availability Taste Peer Pressure Thirst Quenching Fizz/Burp

Q7

Associate the following personalities with 4 different brands

Pepsi Coca-Cola Sprite Thumps Up

Ratan Tata (Tata groups)

Mark Zuckenberg (Facebook)

Vijay Malya (Kingfisher)

Lakshmi Mittal (ArcelorMittal Steel)

Q8

To which soft drink would you like to give an award as the “soft drink of the nation?”

Pepsi Sprite Thumps Up Coca-Cola

Q9

The soft drink which you have consumed the maximum number of times in the last 3 months?

Q10

Explain yourself in one/two word(s)

Q11

Name of the respondent

Results and Analysis of BAV

Individual Analysis

The percentile score of all the individual brands across differentiation, relevance, esteem and knowledge was calculated and then converted into graphs. Then the graphs are compared to find out in which category( new, unrealized potential/niche, leadership, declining, eroded and unfocused) do these brands lie. The brands that were analyzed are Pepsi, Thums Up and Sprite as they are the competitor of Coca-Cola.

Pepsi

1

33.33

0 0 0

PepsiAwareness Esteem Relevance Differentiation

In this case we can clearly see that the awareness level of Pepsi is the second lowest, second to Sprite. Mainly this thing happened because both Pepsi and Sprite use the youth culture in advertising their product. This brand has low stature and low vitality. So it is advisable that the company should look for a better option than Pepsi.

Thums Up

66.67 66.67 66.67 66.67

Thums UpAwareness Esteem Relevance Differentiation

This is a brand which has high stature and high vitality and thus has a high potential. It is a very strong brand and a consistent one also.

Sprite

0

100 100 100

SpriteAwareness Esteem Relevance Differentiation

This is a brand which have high potential but lack in the awareness attribute. The reason why it has very low awareness are: a)In the last 1.5 years Sprite has changed their advertisement campaign 3 times-Sprite bujhaye only pyaas baki sab bakwas, University of Freshology and Rasta Clear Hain (present one) b) Both Sprite and Pepsi emphasizes on the youth, so people get confused with which to associate youth c) Limca presently came up with a tag line called ‘pyaas barao’ which is similar to Sprite’s previous tag line ‘Sprite bujhaye only pyaas baki sab bakwas’

Coca-Cola

100

66.67

33.33 33.33

Coca-ColaAwareness Esteem Relevance Differentiation

Coca-Cola being a 125 years old brand proves how much strong presence it has in the minds of people. Again in the case of esteem it is second best to Sprite. But when it comes to future of this brand it looks little shaky. The reason why it has low vitality might be the following: In the top 4 soft drink brands, 3 products are Cola product.

Overall Analysis

0.00 25.00 50.00 75.00 100.000

25

50

75

100 100

66.67

0

33.33

Brand Asset Valuator

Coca-ColaPepsiThums UpSprite

Brand Vitality

Bran

d St

atur

e

If we look at the overall BAV Grid then we can see that the best brand here is Thums Up. The score of this brand is constant in all the attributes. The next best brand is Sprite because it has a good potential. Coca-Cola being a old brand have high brand stature but low brand vitality.

From the survey done by us few things were very clear to us, Taste(58%) and Thirst Quenching(40%) are the two major reason why people drink soft drink. And Spite automatically relates itself with the above mentioned attributes because it has been positioned like that and fulfills the need of the people.

One more thing that came to our notice is that both the sex prefers Spite. Generally the fair sex do not like cola drink. But they like to have a drink which has fizz. And Sprite caters to that need. Again as both the sex like Sprite, so during small get together Sprite is more demanding.

We adopted a customised version of ZMET (Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique) for the Qualitative Research of our Project of Brand Image Perception on Coca Cola. This was because of the limitation we had in terms of selection of population.

Qualitative Technique-ZMETRefer to EXIBIT 2, which is attached

We have chosen ZMET over R&G’s Laddering Method because of the following reasons:-

• Our brand was Coca cola which is a lifestyle product and in addition to taste a lot of other things make the consumer buy the product which can be expressed more clearly by Elicitation then normal Q&A.

• The customised model of ZMET which we developed was helpful in determining how and why the consumer relates itself with brand.

• In addition to the previous point we were also able to find out what are the other attributes which consumer think the brand has which our respondents don’t relate to.

Steps Followed in Qualitative Research

1. Story Telling about the pictures- We asked the respondents to select 10 pictures out of set of 32 which they think relates to their own character or personality. A bit of laddering was done to find out how it relates to their personality.

2. Connection with the brand- We asked them to select 3 pictures out of those 10 pictures which they think relates to the brand Coca cola. This was done to find out how respondents connect their personality with the brand. Similar process was repeated with other brands like Pepsi, Thumps Up and Sprite to remove biasness among the respondents.

3. Missing Image- We ask the respondents to select 1 more picture either from the selected 10 or from the initial 32 or any other picture which they can describe, which they can relate to the brand. This was done to find which all other attributes, which they think the brand has, but not necessarily related to their own personality. The same process was repeated for other brands to remove biasness.

4. Audio visual image- The respondents were then asked to describe any audio visual, be it movie, scene of the movie, song, play, etc which they think connects with the brand. The objective of this exercise was same as mentioned in point 3. The same process was repeated for other brand as well to remove biasness.

Pictorial Analysis

Similarities among respondent

• Family Oriented• Fun Loving• Perfectionist • Responsible• Friendly• Innovator• Attention Seeker• Focussed• Happy• Positive Attitude• Refreshing• Reserved• Socially Responsible

Attributes which connect the consumer with the brand

• Family Drink• Friend Drink• Happiness• Perfect Brand• Refreshing Brand

The brand has the following attributes in addition of the above

• Celebration• Evergreen• Numero Uno• Thirst Quenching

It is concluded that Coca-Cola is not merely a Numero Uno brand but “The Perfect Brand”. It has stood through thick and thin and this evergreen quality has made Coca-Cola a brand that symbolizes celebration and happiness. It is a refreshing brand that quenches the thirst and is shared with family and friends.