TEAMWORK [teem-wurk]

Noun: 1. Cooperative or coordinated effort on the part of a group of persons acting together as part of a team or in the interests of a common cause.

My team for the designated marketing assignment #3, consisted of people who were both task-oriented and creative. Two of the major components that helped all the members of our group work so well together. Everyone was on time to meetings, eager to do their part for the assignment, and stayed focused on the task at hand. While everyone had a different approach to a question, or different solution for a scheduling problem, no one was shy when it came to asking questions and providing alternatives.

The members of our team, I feel, were quite comfortable with one another by the time that assignment #3 rolled around. We were able to communicate performance concerns, apply individual strengths, and identify personal weaknesses both throughout the term and completion of assignment #3.

Assignment #3 itself was fun to plan, and much fun to film. I believe everyone in the group enjoyed themselves during the production process of our short film. We were able to incorporate a bit of everyone’s vision for the project, and that is what I think makes it refreshing. We applied corrections where necessary from our two previous assignments, and tried to articulate concepts along with terminology from class lectures.

Overall, it was an uncommon experience that our group had this term, leaving myself with very little complaints and many praises for each individual one of my group members. It was an interesting project, and one I enjoyed.

The Coca-Cola Company was ranked in Interbrand’s Best Global Brands for 2013 as being the third most recognized brand worldwide. Coca-Cola Company has been the leading soft drink producer for many years on a global scale, most recently in 2011 holding an overall market share in the soft drink and beverage industry, of 25.90%. As compared to its rival Pepsi&Co. with an 11.50% share in the market, in its 127 years of establishment the Coca-Cola Company’s brand has made it to the top of the most valued brands worldwide.

The company is as much of a cold beverage producer and innovator, as it is a marketing company. As Interbrand summarized, “Coca-Cola achieves impressive global presence through standout ad campaigns, bold design, digital savvy, and a simple, universally relevant theme that weaves throughout the brand’s communications: happiness.”

In 2006, the Coca-Cola Company spent $2.6 billion for worldwide advertising expenditures. Although 2006 is the last year that Coca-Cola published information of such expenditures on its website, the amount  is more than astonishing, and can help put an understanding to the resources that Coca-Cola employs and empowers to maintain brand recognition.

Brand recognition is an essential part to the success of any company. It helps build relationships between buyers throughout multiple levels: suppliers, retailers, and customers. Most importantly, it helps to establish brand loyalty within the company’s consumer base. An integral part of Coca-Cola’s marketing strategy, a behavioural variable that is both applicable and forthcoming in Coca-Cola’s target market around the world.

Global Locations Where Coca-Cola Products Are Sold 

Labeled locations are where Coca-Cola products are not sold.

I read an article recently, titled 10 Ways Today’s Purpose-Driven Brands can Bring Their Core Values to Life. It brought about a way of selling your product through means of promoting social good, and corporate philanthropy. In short, the author states, “emotional impact on your customers will be in direct proportion to the social impact of your purpose. [And the] social impact of your purpose will be in direct proportion to the success of your business.”

By not just focusing on marketing your product as a fulfillment for individual consumer needs and wants, you are opening up opportunity for your company to expand promotion of your product and your company on a universal level. A key factor to emotionally connecting to that of people nationally or across the world, is to strengthen your brand purpose.

A brand purpose is that promise you make to your customers, it tells them what they can count on from your products and your services. It can be as simple as just a differential factor between yourself and competitors, or it could be more. More? 

More, as in the ability to market your brand as having values that do not just benefit the everyday, individual consumer. But rather, that your brand holds values that aim to help provide solutions, contribute to environmental betterment, and have a say in social issues seen by the larger community as valuable. Much like the article articulates, “With our planet in a rapid state of decline – climate change, loss of biodiversity, disparity of wealth, obesity, water scarcity, the list goes on – companies will increasingly be viewed as either part of the solution or the problem.”

By taking on a marketing strategy that emphasizes the broader vision, what your brand holds as values, companies are being perceived as becoming “part of the solution”. With a positive image in today’s socially and environmentally conscious society, it is believed that how a company conveys their business’ philanthropic values determines their success. And that this theory of authentically positioning your brand in a way that is meaningful and relevant, has never been so important.

Please refer to the example video below:

Nike: Find Your Greatness