#8 Does Coca Cola still need to advertise?

What is the purpose of advertisement such as TV commercial, poster, bill board? I thought it was raising the recognition of a company of its products. However, it is more that that! As the time goes by, company need to create a different brand image.

Everyone knows Coca Cola. Coca Cola has the largest market share; 42.8% in 2011 and 1.7 billion servings of Coke products are consumed every day. Also, I found a data that says "The red and white Coca-Cola logo is recognized by 94% of the world's population."(http://steelmediainc.com/case-studies/22/coke/) Without any doubt, Coca Cola is a leading firm in the world and Coca Cola has enough recognition. However, Coca Cola still keep using a lot of money for advertising, and Coca-Cola spends more money on advertising than Microsoft and Apple combined.(citation) Now that I know this fact, that is true that I often saw Coca Cola TV commercial.

Products do not sell well just because they are known well. Therefore, Coca Cola tries to create a brand image that suits the times. You can see that from the fact that Coca Cola changes its slogan depending on the times. Coca Cola changes its slogan every few years. For example, in 1906, slogan was "The Great National Temperance Beverage." 1906 is during Progressive Era, and there were the movement toward Prohibition of alcohol. Thus, Coca Cola marketed itself as a good alternative to alcohol. Still now, Coca Cola changes its slogan at least  every few years. (You can see the list of the slogans here.)What marketers need to do is understanding the trends and the mood of consumers of the times, creating a brand image that is suitable for the time and that gets a lot of empathy from the people in the times, and sending a message to consumers by advertisement. By spending a lot of money on marketing and advertising, Coca Cola always fits the times, gets brand loyalty, and sells well for a long time. Advertising is not only getting more awareness, but also creating a brand image and sending a message that fits the trend of the time.

Citations
http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/coke-lore-slogans

#7 I encountered an online market research firm, Macromill, Inc.!

From Nov. 7 to Nov. 9, I participated in the Boston Career Forum , a Japanese-English bilingual job fair. As many as 190 Japanese international companies came to the event to hire Japanese students who are studying in the USA and students from any countries who can speak Japanese and English. In the Boston Career Forum, every companies had a small booth, and students visited booths of the companies they are interested in, listened to approximately 30-minute company information and submitted their resume.


In the Boston Career Forum, I found an interesting company, Macromill, Inc., a Japanese online market research firm, and listened to the company information session. I was excited at that time because in our marketing class, we learned about market research. The textbook, "Principles of Marketing," says that "Some large companies have their own research departments that work with marketing managers on marketing research projects. In addition, these companies-like their smaller counterparts- frequently hire outside research specialists to consult with management on specific marketing problems and to conduct marketing research studies."(p.106) This company, Macromill, is the outside research firm!!Main role of this company is listen to a client about their problems, identify what kind of questions they need to answer, conduct a primary research, analyse the data they get for the client, and make a strategy with the client. In today's blog, I want to share what I learned from the company information session.





What I found interesting from the company information session was the difference of sales and marketing. A person from Macromill explained that the act of sales is asking people who do not want to buy and persuade them to buy, on the other hand, marketing is justification; making the system in that people want to buy spontaneously with their own will. He illustrated this difference with an interesting example.

The example is about the Odenplan station in Stockholm.
In the station, there was a escalator next to a stairs, so most people chose escalator, and people really need the escalator, such as the elderly and pregnant, cannot use it comfortably. To solve this situation, there are two possible ways. One is putting the poster saying "Please use stairs so that people in need can use the escalator." This is asking people to do what they are unwilling to do. The other way is to make a system that each stairs makes sound as people step on, so that people enjoy to use stairs and spontaneously choose stairs over escalator. This is what marketing need to do. Marketing is giving a reason, justification or incentive to do something.
Marketing strategy is to make a system to change or affect people's behavior!

#6 the importance of marketing ～providing the same productｓ, but sell differently～

We learned 4 steps for a customer-driven marketing:

1. segmentation, dividing the market into small segments,
2. targeting, selecting the segments you will target and appeal to,
3. differentiation, differentiating the products and creating competitive advantage, and
4. positioning, positioning the products in the minds of customers.


I found some Japanese companies and products that illustrate well the importance of these steps of marketing, so I'll show you.


The first example is "スタジオアリス" or "Studio Alice Co.,Ltd.," which are a Japanese photo studio company, targeting the families who have children.


Customers may use photo studio in various occasions, such as wedding, graduation, coming of age ceremony and so on. However, Studio Alice targeted children and provides the services that fit children. For example, most workers in Studio Alice are women.

Studio Alice provide the service of free costume rental, and it allows customers to change costumes as much as they want, so that children enjoy taking pictures. Also, thanks to the service, not only parents but also grand parents come to the photo studio for grand children and enjoy to choose costume and posing all together. Studio Alice give customers a enjoyable place where all families get together for children. This service also benefits Studio Alice, because grand parents also come to the store, so customers have what is called "six pockets," parents and grand parents pocket money, and photos sell well.

There are a lot of companies whose service is taking pictures, but Studio Alice targeted children, and differentiate its services that provide the place for children and their family to enjoy taking photos, so Studio Alice succeeded.

The next example is "Kit Kat,"a chocolate from Nestlé.

At first, Kit Kat was a just one of a reasonable chocolate brands in Japan.
However, now Kit Kat is a lucky chocolate that brings student　a luck to pass the entrance exam.
This is because of play on words.In Japanese, "Kitto Katsu" means　"You will win," and the pronunciation is similar to "Kit Kat." Also, the entrance exams for college, university, high school, or junior and high are very big and important events for Japanese students.

Therefore, the company market Kit Kat focusing on students who will take the exams that are usually taken place on the spring., their friends and families.

For example, the package of Kit Kat has space to write message, so that people can give Kit Kat to friends who are going to take exam. Marketers position Kit Kat as a perfect gift to the students, because the name of Kit Kat is very good for exam, chocolate gives energy for the exam, and Kit Kat is not so expensive to give friends. This Kit Kat in the picture below has a place to put a stamp and write a zip code, to send Kit Kat as a mail.
 
Also a lot of cherry blossom flower are printed on the package, because the cherry  blossom flower is the symbol of passing the exam.
Because of these efforts, Kit Kat sell better that before, even though Kit Kat itself is the same as before.

Kit Kat also position itself by different way.
Kit Kat has a lot of tastes only provided in a limited region, and regarded as a popular and useful souvenir to give others.
For example in Kyoto, a famous green tea producer, there is a green tea Kit Kat.
In Hokkaido, a famous melon producer, there is a melon Kit Kat.  



Kat Kat target students who will take exams and tourists, differentiate from another chocolate, by its design and tastes.
After these marketing efforts, Kit Kat is not a just chocolate, has a unique brand image, and sell well.