Marketing Communications Strategies Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Marketing Communications Strategies - Case Study Example Marketing has moved from customer acquisition (winning new customers) through customer retention (keeping customers for life) towards customer selection (dumping unprofitable customers while selectively seeking and keeping the more profitable ones). The development of marketing communications is the major role of the promotional strategy component off the marketing mix. The marketing mix is essentially a conceptual framework that helps to structure the approach to each marketing challenge. At the heart of a marketing strategy is the target market strategy stemming from the markets segmentation process of segmentation, targeting and positioning. A marketing strategy specifies the segments to target, the brand or product positioning required to appeal to these targeted customers, plus the competitive advantage to be exploited versus rivals. Without a marketing strategy, the marketing mix activities are unlikely to bring significant benefits to the organization and probably will fail to satisfy and retain targeted customers. Core to a marketing strategy is the understanding of competition and the identification of a differential advantage – something unique to one supplier and highly desired by targeted customers. In terms of the overall competitive strategy, there are four broad options : (a) intense growth, when current products and current markets have potential for increasing sales; (b) diversified growth, which occurs when new products are developed to be sold in new markets; (c) integrated growth, owing to forwards, backwards or horizontal integration; and (d) maintenance, of the status quo. The marketing strategy should specify marketing objectives so that marketing performance can be monitored. UK - Soft Drink Industry Review : The roots of the soft drink industry have been engraved in the soil of United Kingdom for hundreds of years. The soft drink industry continued to grow steadily as the nineteenth century progressed. The current UK soft drinks market is 9 billion litres in volume. If adult juice drinks reached this proportion of the total market, the segment would be 360 million litres. The size of the target market must be set in context with the sales by volume of the leading carbonated soft drinks in the UK. Brands such as Lucozade and Lilt have sales of around 100 million litres, while Coca Cola is a massive 1.4 billion litres by volume. Overview : Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola can be identified as market leaders in the Cola drinks industry. They possess significant market share within the soft drinks industry. Coca Cola is a 100-year-old soft drink that started out as anything but soft. It was introduced as a medicine. "A delicious, exhilarating, refreshing, invigorating beverage in addition to being a cure for all nervous afflictions, sick headaches, neuralgia, hysteria, melancholy" said an early advertisement. Coca- Cola is enjoyed all over the world. The figure indicates that 1.6 billion gallons is sold every year, in over one hundred and sixty countries. Coca Cola's main challenger world wide is the Pepsi Cola most commonly referred to as Pepsi. Pepsi follows exactly the same brand and business model. Its differentiation is based on the fact that it was introduced more recently than Coke, and did not create the category. As a challenger, its brand image and market grip are lower. It challenges the leader on three facets: price, product and image. Price : it is a dime cheaper than Coke, at consumer level, but this creates a