Ravi Sharma eMBA Marketing

Powerade: Keep Playing Roll no 131

Critical Analysis of Marketing Research Strategy:

The Coca-Cola Company had a pressure to increase the efficiency, productivity, profitability, and with the increasing of Powerade, its leading sports drink. Also the association of Powerade with high-profile international sporting events such as the Olympics and FIFA World Cup, establishment of a unified global positioning became critical. The Coca-Cola Company combined quantitative research with strategic rationale, market experience, and qualitative learning, which brought greater precision, rigor, and insight to the process of repositioning, thus facilitating consensus across local markets and reducing the overall risk involved in global repositioning.

The Research was a two stage process approach. Stage 1: A segmentation scheme was created to explore Category of users Sports participation habits Sports attitudes Performance needs Beverage consumption during sports Sports drink brand perceptions. The intent was to develop more complete definition of the core Powerade consumer target. Stage 2: They created an online social networking forum for the target consumers where respondents would report their motivations for participating in sports, as well their current perceptions of sports and sports activity behaviours. They also provided reactions to different Powerade positioning concepts and the extent to which these resonated with their sports activity experiences. A score card summarized each concept's appeal, uniqueness, fit with the brand, and overall potential, as well as key messages, likes, dislikes, associations, and opportunities for improvement.

Ravi Sharma eMBA Marketing

Powerade: Keep Playing Roll no 131

Stage 1 : Segmentation Study This Study was done to gain a more thorough understanding of the perceptions, attitudes, behaviours and needs of sport drink consumers The Goal of the study was to provide an understanding of local-market similarities and differences of the core sports drink consumer in order to feed into global and local strategy development, target definition, as well as guide development of the brand's communication plan.

Five markets: Spain, Germany, Italy, UK, and Poland Age of the respondents:16-40 who practiced a sport at least 2-3 times per month.

Topics ranged from motivations and attitudes towards sports types of sports they participated in, their needs/motivations for drinking beverages during sports occasions Perceptions of sports drink. The segmentation study identified seven unique consumer segments and the attitudes and needs of these segments varied from participating for health reasons and/or doctors orders to considering myself a professional athlete. These segments were very similar in profile and size across the different markets. The most important segment for sports drink consumption was that of True Sportsmen'. Characteristics of this segment Participation in sports as a daily activity and a way of life Played sports for years Associated themselves with teams Enjoyed the competition Social aspect of sports Respondents played and practiced team sports twice as much as the average consumer. group accounted for a significant amount of sports drink volume in the sport occasion. Results from the segmentation study provided Detailed definition of the target consumer Types of sports played Motives behind selecting a sports drink that could be applied across markets. Findings from the segmentation research led to a number of questions like: the local positioning and values for the brand were on track for this core consumer group. how best to increase occasions, frequency, and penetration among this group to understand the needs of each segment for different product offers

Ravi Sharma eMBA Marketing

Powerade: Keep Playing Roll no 131

Defining and understanding the similarities of this core consumer across market was the first step to developing a consistent positioning for the Powerade Brand.

Stage2: Consumer Co-Creation Idea blog This research approach was used for gathering consumer insight IdeaBlog, a social networking environment designed for idea evaluationswith structured, trade-off analytics using a Max-Diff methodology as part of the IdeaBlog execution. IdeaBlog offered a way to get deeper insights from core consumers in a more natural environment (to them) on-line. In utilizing this approach, a rich and colorful consumer assessment unfolded while also having an objective basis for evaluating the positioning concepts and their core elements. These social networks of True Sportsmen were created and conducted in five countries:United States, Mexico, Great Britain, Italy and Australia. Test stimulus involved - 100 to 150-word concept with supporting visuals that described various aspects of the sporting occasion the needs within the occasion, the role of the beverage. Ten concepts weretested among the priority segment, True Sportsmen. The IdeaBlog environment was considered the perfect tool for evaluating existing ideas and generating new ones to reflect consumers perceptions of the brand's essence. It provided a highly interactive, iterative process in which consumers were invited to respond to positioning concepts and communications strategies. Participants not only contributed their views to discussion boards, but also upload images, videos and website URL's of their sports interests and past participations, and gave their opinions in quick polls and surveys. Results: There was a consensus across groups and countries that too much emphasis had been placed on winning in sports and competition. Respondents enjoyed competition, but these athletes reserved the right to define what winning meant to them. The best performing concepts also highlighted additional similarities across all markets. The results were used to build positioning strategy around: Inclusiveness A recognition of the journey, not just winning Acknowledgement of the enjoyment of the game, the passion for the sport The importance of the team as a social connection

Ravi Sharma eMBA Marketing

Powerade: Keep Playing Roll no 131

The strongest concepts used to develop the strategy were theme of performing at your best Persuasive benefits that revolved around hydration. These insights helped Powerade evolve their global brand vision to one that promised to be effective across markets. While research informed a global decision, market-level data was also available to aid the individual markets implementation of the positioning in a way that best fit the local culture and competitive context. The learnings and insights from these 2 pieces of research were the basis for the Integrated Marketing Communication plan

HOW SOCIAL MEDIA CAN BE USED FOR DATA COLLECTION IN MARKETING RESEARCH

Ravi Sharma eMBA Marketing

Powerade: Keep Playing Roll no 131

The digital world is undergoing a change with consumers using an open digital forum to discuss about companies, brands, people, products and services that may have a cumulative impact on a companys reputation. Success lies in carefully monitoring and controlling the happenings in this digital world and acting on the data that is collected Social Media has evolved as an unadulterated, unguided, uncontrolled and undisturbed medium of gathering customer feedback and address customer pain points. Social media can be used to collect data in many ways like Listening to the voice of the customer by data mining social network websites

Using customer profiles in CRM softwares to understand the demographics and prior behaviour, primarily historical buying patterns.

Customer data available via online communities like Facebook is richer and more forward looking.

Data financial organization with access to such data would not only know that a customer had a checking account, savings account, two CDs and a mortgage, but also that the same customer was interested in golf or gourmet cooking information that could be useful in planning future marketing initiatives.

Data can also be gathered form

Blogs Posts and Comments Discussion forums/Boards Product Review websites Online News Stands/Databases Video & Photo sharing websites Micro Blogging sites