Marketing: Real People, Real Choices 9th Global Edition by Greg W. Marshall Solution manual
You Make the Call
1-30. What is the decision facing Coca-Cola?
How will this ongoing concern by public health officials effect how Americans feel about soft
drinks in the long run? Will soft drinks ever attain the negative status of tobacco products,
which many consumers have abandoned? Will Coca-Cola be able to reclaim its former
position as market leader or must coke change its focus to something else?
Students may come up with a number of different decisions that Coca-Cola might make such
as:
Coca-Cola needs to determine what marketing mix strategies would be effective for their future success (and what strategies would not be as successful).
Students may be encouraged to factor in extensive marketing research designs in their answers.
New ideas for marketing mix strategies.
What factors are important in understanding this decision situation?
The following factors are important in understanding this decision situation:
Coca-Cola’s marketing strategy of product, price, place, and promotion needs to be superior to its rivals.
The $98 billion soft-drink industry is being challenged by changes in consumers’ attitudes toward both sugar-sweetened and diet drinks.
Sales of soft drinks have fallen by more than 25 percent since the 1990s.
In this health-conscious market, innovation is necessary for companies to attain and hold market share.
Competitors in this marketplace include PepsiCo, other soft-drink, and water companies such as Evian and Perrier.
Innovation must be accompanied with value in the minds of consumers.
What are the alternatives?
Students might recommend a variety of different marketing strategies and/or revisions to current marketing strategies discussed in the case. Some possibilities include:
Develop an aggressive promotion plan.
Reduce pricing.
Develop a competitive advantage.
Monitor and understand how the competitors are potentially gaining power and influence.
Monitor on a continual basis the market position and pricing in relationship to competition.
Coca-Cola must show the benefit to consumers that will satisfy that need or want.
Marketers must develop the product with the benefits of the customers in mind.
Articulate why Coca-Cola is the choice to make for a soft-drink.
1-33. What decision(s) do you recommend?
Students may focus on several of the alternatives developed. They should be encouraged to
discuss which alternative actions are more critical.
1-34. What are some ways to implement your recommendations?
Students may make a variety of suggestions for implementation depending on their recommendations. These may include specific promotional activities, specific pricing, research activities, and many others.
WEB RESOURCES
Michael Baumwoll (Real People, Real Choices, Decision Time vignette): https://twitter.com
Coca-Cola: www.coca-colacompany.com/
Craigslist (online classifieds website): www.craigslist.org
The Sims (online virtual community): www.thesims.com/
Second Life (a 3-D virtual world created by its residents): www.secondlife.com
The SmartWay brand (identifies products and services that reduce transportation-related emissions): www.epa.gov
Avon Foundation (to improve the lives of women globally): www.avoncompany.com
Girls Inc. (inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold): www.girlsinc.org
Blogger.com (a small team in Google focusing on helping people have their own voice on the web and organizing the world’s information from the personal perspective): www.blogger.com
Subaru: www.subaru.com
LinkedIn (professional network online community): www.linkedin.com
Ad Roll (lets publishers “connect” through a social network-style matching system to “roll-up” their ad space into highly targeted packages that advertisers can buy across): www.adroll.com
Wikipedia (a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia): www.wikipedia.org
Google (online search engine): www.google.com
YouTube (allows people to easily upload and share video clips): www.youtube.com