Coca-Cola's changing product mix

Coca-Cola Life, introduced in 2014 as a low-cal alternative to traditional Coke, will reportedly be delisted in the UK from June, as the company emphasises zero--meaning zero sugar. (Coke Life will remain in the product mix for other markets.)

Sales of Coke Life had dwindled, and now Coke wants to more clearly define its soft drinks and their benefits.  'As we look to drive no-sugar sales even more and make it clearer for consumers to differentiate between sugar and no-sugar options now feels the right time to phase out Coca-Cola Life from the UK market and focus on our three leading and iconic cola variants', says the GM of Coke GB.

Coke may also have been looking ahead to 2018, when a UK sugar tax is supposed to go into effect for sugary soft drinks. Such legal and regulatory changes make a difference in how Coke and its competitors develop and adjust marketing plans for today and tomorrow.

To introduce more UK consumers to Coke Zero, there has been an ongoing campaign featuring billboards and transit ads, TV adverts and other brand communications. This summer's campaign will include extensive sampling to induce 'try and buy' consumer behaviour.

The iconic Coke brand has more than 103 million Facebook likes, more than 2 million YouTube followers, 140k Twitter followers and thousands of other social media fans, giving it a popular platform for dialogue with consumers.

Marketing Starbucks in China

Continuing a look at global brands in China, this entry is about Starbucks, the US-based coffee shop company that has made lattes and espressos part of daily life all over the world.

Starbucks just opened a spacious flagship cafe in the new Shanghai Disney resort. This isn't the first Starbucks connected with a Disney resort, but it is the first of this ultra-modern design...with more than 100 employees to serve thousands of customers every day. The company says this will be the busiest Starbucks on the planet.

China is an attractive market for Starbucks because coffee consumption is still relatively low compared with consumption in other areas--which means a lot of growth potential as consumers adopt the 'coffee culture'. Starbucks already has 2000 cafes in China and plans to open 2500 new cafes over the course of 5 years.

To reinforce its brand image and provide an upmarket consumption and sampling experience, Starbucks plans a new Roastery and Reserve Tasting Room for Shanghai. Modeled on the tasting room near the company's headquarters in Seattle, this Shanghai location will demonstrate the roasting process and offer samples of various coffees and flavours.

Will consumers in China pay the luxury price for a luxury coffee often enough for Starbucks to profit handsomely from its investment? 

Coca-Cola and Christmas marketing

Coca-Cola's iconic red-and-white logo is almost as Christmasy as can be. At holiday time, the brand uses special marketing to encourage consumers to try, buy and enjoy its soft drinks for parties and for any occasion.

At right, Coca-Cola's photo of its famous truck criss-crossing the UK during holiday season. The field marketing tour began in Inverness and ends in Leicester Square, London, two days before Christmas.

At each stop, consumers can enjoy free samples of Coke soft drinks amidst a wintery season backdrop, complete with festive lights. To increase anticipation and bring consumers to the lorry stop, Coke used the hashtag #holidaysarecoming and promoted the tour on its website and via publicity. Coke's UK FB page has more than 94m likes and its Twitter account has 126k followers, adding up to a huge audience for social media marketing.

This year, Coke is celebrating another marketing milestone: The 100th anniversary of its instantly recognisable contour bottle, which was introduced in 1915.

Now Coke has launched another packaging innovation: a bottle label that converts to a holiday bow. The idea is to encourage consumers to leave Coke bottles on the table and 'unwrap' the novelty bow as part of their holiday meals.

The strapline for this year's UK holiday campaign is: 'Bring happiness home'.

For more images of Coke's Christmas adverts of the past, see its online gallery here.

Subscription beauty boxes: Try, learn and buy

Birchbox, founded in 2010, pioneered the concept of selling a monthly subscription to samples of women's beauty products delivered by post. The concept, according to the co-founders, is 'try, learn and buy'. Once a customer has tested a sample of a new mascara or new bronzer, she'll know whether it is right for her--and be more willing to buy the full size at regular price. No wonder so many beauty brands want to participate.

Two years after it began operations in the US, Birchbox acquired JolieBox to gain entrance to the UK and European markets. Today, Birchbox has a multinational presence and faces considerable competition but continues to acquire customers. It now offers sample boxes for men as well as for women.

Nearly 900,000 people have 'liked' Birchbox UK on Facebook and the firm has posted hundreds of how-to and brand-specific videos on YouTube. To reinforce the brand's connection with style, Birchbox has (for a second year) wrapped London cabs in colourful patterns during London Fashion Week. The cabs highlighted the brand name and style connection, and distributed a free Birchbox filled with sample products at the end of every ride.

One of Birchbox's top competitors is GlossyBox, UK-based and also focusing on men's and women's personal care products. This company has customers in 16 nations and offers both monthly and limited-edition special occasion boxes by subscription. GlossyBox's Facebook page has nearly 600,000 likes. It also posts how-to videos on YouTube to encourage customers to try new techniques and new products.

Other competitors are entering the market all the time, and subscription sample boxes are popping up for many other types of products, from pet food to healthy treats. Try, learn and buy is a good way to reduce the inherent risk of new products--meaning products you've never used before. Once you know what suits your personal needs, you will buy the full size with confidence (and, just possibly, become brand loyal to this new product). 

This post updates the Birchbox feature in chapter 9 of Essential Guide to Marketing Planning.

Tweet for Tea

BOS Ice Tea wants to get people all around South Africa sipping its iced teas and talking about the brand.

What better way to build buzz than to offer a free can of tea in exchange for a Twitter post using the brand's hashtag?

That's what BOS is doing with its new high-tech vending machine, nicknamed BEV, which releases a can of tea every time someone tweets using the correct hashtag. The tweet should be directed to @BOS, with the message #BOSTWEET4T.

"Our goal, while sampling, is to create fun, interactive and inspiring environments to do so," says the cofounder of BOS.

But hurry--the tweet will stop releasing tea after Friday, 22 June.