Company Special: China leads global increase as Coca-Cola gains share

Coca-Cola, a global beverage giant, recently released its 2014 second-quarter and year-to-date operating results.

Second-quarter global unit volume rose 3 percent at a time when worldwide sparkling beverages grew 2 percent. Despite the modest growth in the global beverage market, Coca-Cola has gained share in the nonalcoholic ready-to-drink beverage sector.

Muhtar Kent, chairman and CEO of the Coca-Cola Co said that "at the beginning of the year we shared our strategic plan to restore momentum in our global business".

"As we now reach the midpoint of the year, we have delivered sound financial performance and demonstrated improvement in our global volume growth."

According to Coca-Cola's financial reports, China and India once again generated strong momentum.

In China, unit case volume grew 9 percent in the second quarter as sparkling beverages outpaced the average thanks to a strategy for the country to accelerate growth through product and marketing innovations along with solid infrastructure building efforts.

Coca-Cola, Sprite and Fanta were the key drivers behind the business performance.

For product innovation in China, in March Coca-Cola launched Schweppes +C, a lemon-flavored sparkling beverage designed to meet Asian tastes.

The beverage quickly gained popularity among consumers due to its distinct branding and chic packaging. Its sales exceeded 10 million unit cases within three months after its launch, making it a new sparkling star with higher priced, vivid positioning.

The Shui Dong Le flavored drink also posted a strong performance after its national launch early this year.

With a 128-year history, Coca-Cola is well recognized for its marketing.

In an era of mobile communications and millennial consumers, the essence of marketing has switched to stimulate consumer interactions and voluntary sharing.

Experience marketing has become a hot industry topic.

After the success of the "nickname bottle" campaign in 2013, Coca-Cola launched an upgraded "lyric bottle" to further encourage sharing happiness with family and friends.

The campaign not only puts lyrics from some of China's best-loved songs on Coke labels, but also allows consumers to scan the quick response code to listen to the songs.

Launched in June, the "lyric bottle" campaign already helped boost sparkling beverage volume growth by 10 percent.

Recently, Minute Maid also took an innovative approach with a marketing campaign called "scan the code, enjoy a sunshine tour".

By scanning the QR code on the label with their mobile phones, consumers are treated to a panoramic view of scenic spots in Brazil, Zimbabwe, the Maldives, Canada, the Vatican, Hungary and many other famous tourist sites.

Consumers can also enjoy virtual scenery while making and sharing photo montages.

The campaign has already made many youngsters "shake their mobile phones to the extreme" and chalks up another success in experience marketing to consumers in the mobile Internet era.

zhuanti@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/26/2014 page11)