Geographic Segmentation in Coca-Cola Marketing

by corayiu

This is a response post to Valeria’s post about marketing approaches of Coca-Cola. I agree with Valeria that Coca-Cola does segment the market depending on geography. I’ve personally experienced the difference in 3 of the 4 Ps in marketing while I spend my summers in Hong Kong.

During summertime, the weather in Hong Kong is rather humid and temperature could reach up to the high 30s. With such sticky and unpleasant weather, it is natural that consumers avoid drinks that are sticky and sweet. Coca-Cola created this unique product called freezing coke; it is regular coke with a slurpee consistency and can be bought in one of the specialty vending machines scattered around Hong Kong. It costs around the same as a regular bottle of coke.

Let these two gentlemen explain to you what freezing coke is and how it works!

Product and placement of the 4 Ps are different here as they created a refreshing drink that is only available in random locations scattered around Hong Kong. As a result, Coca-Cola created a convenient and specialized product.

Unlike Pepsi, Coca-Cola rarely use the faces of celebrities to promote. However, since celebrity endorsement is huge in Hong Kong, having celebrities on their ads would increase market sales. The woman on the left of the billboard ad is a famous singer in Hong Kong.

These are some differences in marketing strategies I’ve noticed from travelling between Canada and Hong Kong. The downside of geographic segmentation is that there is inconsistency. A person who learns about such products online but have no way of consuming it would potentially develop negative feelings towards the company due to the fact that they can’t access the product.

Valeria’s post: https://blogs.ubc.ca/valeria/2013/10/23/is-there-an-opportunity-to-grow/