1.

INTRODUCTION
An article by Bright Ottermann addressing the negative effects of certain soft drinks
has threatened sales of Coca-Cola soft drinks. The article is spearheaded at the link
between soft drink consumption and diseases such as obesity and heart conditions.
Both of which are serious conditions with vast affected-by numbers, E.g. one third of
adults in the U.S are considered obese (Center for Disease Control and Prevention,
2014). The aforementioned article is not alone, it will be followed up by a welladvertised campaign focused on the links between soft drink consumption and obesity.
With slogans such as are you pouring on the pounds? and dont drink yourself fat!
taking centre stage.
This report aims to address the possible threats of the article and its ensuing campaign
to the sales of Coca-Cola soft drinks, and recommend alternative techniques to create
and implement an effective counteractive campaign to dampen or soften the blow to
sales and market share that such an article/campaign will bring about.

2. BACKGROUND
Consumption of a product directly correlates with consumers attitudes towards the
product or brand. Coca-Cola has spent over a 100 years developing a household
brand which as of November 2013 is the third most valuable brand in the world
(Forbes, 2013). Altering consumer attitudes regarding the Coca-Cola brand name is
the key purpose of the article and its trailing campaign, in an effort to reduce
consumption of soft drinks across the board.
To prevent consumption of a product, consumers need to first be educated on the
negative effect of consumption of that product. Consumer learning can be
accomplished through four key elements, namely; motivation, cues, response and
reinforcement (Schiffman, et al., 2010).
The aforementioned article has begun the education process by informing consumers
about the harmful effects of soft drinks and their ingredients. Bringing the negative
effects of soft drink consumption to the attention of consumers, Health24 has
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motivated the need to learn and gather information regarding soft drinks. Often this
will include an analysis of ingredients and major studies.
Cues or stimuli are the next step and they will be executed through the campaign
which will constantly remind those interested consumers of the article and their
personal research, serving as a reminder to the negative effects of our products.
Response is a key element of the learning process and entails how consumers will
react to the cues/stimuli (Schiffman, et al., 2010) however it is often rendered mute
without regular reinforcement which will most probably be accomplished through the
hard-hitting campaign.

3. THREATS
The article and its following campaign contain negative reinforcement (Schiffman, et
al., 2010) which aims at adversely influencing the consumption of soft drinks by
scaring consumers and thereby forcing them to reduce or stop consumption. The
consequent effect is reduced sales and loss of regular/loyal consumers. For a
company like Coca-Cola, the loss of repeat consumers is a heavy blow and must be
avoided at any cost.
Negative reinforcement will have a lasting impact from the article and its ensuing
campaign due to the link between soft drinks and poor health being established in the
minds of consumers. Therefore, every time a consumer is exposed to stimuli by CocaCola he or she will be reminded of the harmful effects of our products.
Another major threat posed by the article and the marketing campaign could be
attributed to modelling or observational learning (Schiffman, et al., 2010), where
individuals learn by observing the behaviour and consequences of other consumers.
The vast numbers of obese individuals, over 29% of men and 56% of women in South
Africa (Goedecke, et al., 1995-2005), act as a constant reminder of the article and
hence form an off-putting reaction to Coca-Cola products.
This article and its trailing campaign will have a substantially multiplied effect. This is
due to social media and the fact that empowered consumers have access to more
information than ever before. Giving the word-of-mouth (WOM) and consequently e-

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WOM (online word-of-mouth) a larger and lasting impact (Schiffman, et al., 2010). The
result is a greater than anticipated reach for the article and campaign, resulting in an
even greater threat to the sales of all soft drinks.

4. COUNTERACTIVE CAMPAIGN
A counteractive marketing campaign from Coca-Cola to firstly react to the article and
secondly to position the company for the upcoming campaign must be implemented.
Coca-Colas marketing activities should focus on attracting new customers and
retaining and/or creating loyal and repeat consumers.
It is important to remember, the campaign must not attempt to counter the claims made
in the article as they are based on legitimate research, and supported by facts and raw
research data. Coca-Colas campaign cannot set out to claim the article to be false as
that would go against state ethics laws and coca-colas own ethical code of conduct
(Coca-Cola, 2014), in addition it will simply end up being a game of he said-she said
which does not coincide with the respectable brand image Coca-Cola has strived to
create, implement and maintain.
Attraction of new customers involves enticing an individual to interact with the product
for the first time and allowing the product to leave a lasting impression (Lamb, et al.,
2000). A widely used method for attraction of new customers is the forced usage
method. Where consumers are only given one option and no competing products are
available in the establishment. For example, fast food chains such as McDonalds and
KFC only stock Coca-Cola products. Therefore forcing consumers to try Coca-Colas
products and allow the product itself to form a positive interaction with the consumers.
Another alternative approach would be the mass distribution approach, where CocaColas products are metaphorically within arms reach and therefore allowing the ease
of acquiring a Coca-Cola product to be the initial hook to attract a new consumer.
Consumer retention, ensuring it is in the best interest of the consumer to stay with
Coca-Cola (Schiffman, et al., 2010), will play a key role in maintaining customer
relationships and ensuring repeat or loyal consumers. Coca-Cola is in the maturity
stage of its product life cycle and has been implementing various extension strategies
to prolong sales (Lamb, et al., 2000). In a low growth, saturated and highly competitive

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market, repeat customers hold the largest piece of sales (Rosenberg & Czepiel, 1984)
and therefore demand and deserve the increased attention from the marketing team.
The marketing campaign must not portray any unhealthy or unhappy visual influences,
a perfect balance of healthy situations/environment and people without necessarily
focusing on fitness will provide the optimal fit for such a counteractive campaign. CocaColas current strategy of sponsoring the major sporting events such as the Olympics
and the FIFA World Cup already adequately cover the fitness related marketing needs
for Coca-Colas products.
The campaign should rather be aimed at the post purchase evaluation (Lamb, et al.,
2000), helping convince the buyer that he/she made the correct decision will ultimately
result in repeat sales. Eventually forming long term customer relationships.
These relationships have to be maintained through the provision of value (Schiffman,
et al., 2010), the marketing campaign must aim to incorporate value in the sense that
consumers feel the product to be superior to the vast number of competitors in the soft
drink market.

5. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the threats described of negative motivators and negative reinforcement
along with behavioural learning all combine to set-up a possibility of a huge fall in sales
of all Coca-Cola soft drink products and therefore warrants the need for a substantial
and effective counteractive campaign.
Coca-Colas campaign must focus on two correlated areas, namely; new customers
and repeat buyers. These two consumer groups should take the spotlight when
designing the counteractive campaign and entail positive motivators to purchase the
product and positive reinforcement to firstly provide value and therefore allow the post
purchase evaluation to be positive in nature.
The counteractive campaign if planned and implemented accordingly will be
substantial enough, from a psychological point of view, to balance out the negative
impact of both the article and its trailing campaign.

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6. REFERENCES
Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014. Overweight and Obesity. [Online]
Available

at:

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

[Accessed 23 April 2014].

Coca-Cola,
Available

2014.
at:

Governance

&

Ethics.

[Online]

http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/governance-

ethics/governance-ethics
[Accessed 23 April 2014].
Forbes,

2013.

Available

Worlds
at:

Most

Valuable

Brands

List.

[Online]

http://www.forbes.com/powerful-brands/list/

[Accessed 20 April 2014].

Goedecke, J. H., Jennings, C. L. & Lambert, E. V., 1995-2005. Chronic Diseases of
Lifestyle in South Africa, Tygerberg: Medical Reasearch Council.
Lamb, C. W. J. et al., 2000. Marketing. 4th ed. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
Rosenberg, L. J. & Czepiel, J. A., 1984. A Marketing Approach for Customer
Retention. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 1(2), pp. 45-51.
Schiffman, L. G., Kanuk, L. L. & Wisenblit, J., 2010. Consumer Behaviour. 10th ed.
New Jersey: Pearson.

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