Charissa Coughlan Week 2 Collaboration- Initial response Dasani water fiasco What segments did Coco – cola target and why? Coco-cola attempted to market Dasani in a full market approach, approach (Kotler and Keller, 2012). This means they marketed the water product in the same way they would market their soft drinks- to all segments. (The money program, 2004) They launched a massive $7,000,000 campaign for Dasani in the UK. The authour would believe this approach to have been taken due to lack of thorough research and an assumption that it was so successful in the USA that the success in the UK would be a given. What were the relevant segments Important segmentation that coco-cola should have considered was the geographic. Consumers in the UK were more educated in water than consumers in the USA in relation to water. The market was already served by long standing brands who actually sold pure water The healthy lifestyle/ Pyschographic segmentation should have been more carefully researched in the UK. Water being the healthier choice is a given, however what was not considered is that in healthy lifestyle, consumers expect natural products, not a product that has been filtered and then had minerals added back into it. The mistakes they made were to underestimate their consumer knowledge. While the product was a huge success in the USA, in Europe and the UK consumers were more discerning. Pure meant natural. Coco- cola’s manipulation of the term pure was bordering on unethical behaviour and lost customer loyalty. Demographic segmentation would also be important in regards to affordability and age. Mistakes That being said, Coco cola had the resources to do a mass market differentiated approach and actually target all segments with the water product. I think their decision of Coco-cola to deliberately down play the source and manipulate the term pure was possibly their worst mistake. Coco-cola made other bad decisions in regards to their strong arm tactics of distributors for fridge space, they also did not take into consider loyalty of consumers and distributors to other long standing local brands of water. Today’s consumer is far more discerning than in past decades. Corporate responsibility issues, such as impact on the local community can be enough to turn consumers away. Finally the quality control issue of contaminated water which, although was not a marketing caused problem, it was enough to put the nail in the coffin of Coco-cola’s Dasani product in the UK. Dasani lost all credibility and Coco-cola’s reputation was badly damaged. If it were to consider relaunching the product, Coco cola would need to make considerable effort to regain the trust of the UK consumer and it would have to be carefully marketed to specific geographic, demograhphic and physcographic segments to have a chance at success. “By allowing a business to focus on the particular needs of well-defined customer groups, marketing programmes can be more precisely specified, leading to greater effectiveness” (Dibb, 2001:McDonald and Dunbar, 1995). References Internal Sally Dibb (2001) New millennium, new segments: moving towards the segment of one?, Journal of Strategic Marketing, 9:3, 193-213 Kotler, P. & Keller, K.L. (2012) Framework for marketing management, 5th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Ha The Money Programme, (2004) ‘Coke’s water bomb: the Dasani fiasco’, [Video], BBC, London. (Accessed: 03 September 2014)

Charissa Coughlan

Week 2 Collaboration- Initial response

Dasani water fiasco

What segments did Coco – cola target and why?

Coco-cola attempted to market Dasani in a full market approach, approach (Kotler and Keller, 2012). This means they marketed the water product in the same way they would market their soft drinks- to all segments. (The money program, 2004) They launched a massive $7,000,000 campaign for Dasani in the UK.

The authour would believe this approach to have been taken due to lack of thorough research and an assumption that it was so successful in the USA that the success in the UK would be a given.

What were the relevant segments

Important segmentation that coco-cola should have considered was the geographic. Consumers in the UK were more educated in water than consumers in the USA in relation to water. The market was already served by long standing brands who actually sold pure water

The healthy lifestyle/ Pyschographic segmentation should have been more carefully researched in the UK. Water being the healthier choice is a given, however what was not considered is that in healthy lifestyle, consumers expect natural products, not a product that has been filtered and then had minerals added back into it. The mistakes they made were to underestimate their consumer knowledge. While the product was a huge success in the USA, in Europe and the UK consumers were more discerning. Pure meant natural. Coco- cola’s manipulation of the term pure was bordering on unethical behaviour and lost customer loyalty.

Demographic segmentation would also be important in regards to affordability and age.

Mistakes

That being said, Coco cola had the resources to do a mass market differentiated approach and actually target all segments with the water product. I think their decision of Coco-cola to deliberately down play the source and manipulate the term pure was possibly their worst mistake. Coco-cola made other bad decisions in regards to their strong arm tactics of distributors for fridge space, they also did not take into consider loyalty of consumers and distributors to other long standing local brands of water.

Today’s consumer is far more discerning than in past decades. Corporate responsibility issues, such as impact on the local community can be enough to turn consumers away.

Finally the quality control issue of contaminated water which, although was not a marketing caused problem, it was enough to put the nail in the coffin of Coco-cola’s Dasani product in the UK. Dasani lost all credibility and Coco-cola’s reputation was badly damaged.

If it were to consider relaunching the product, Coco cola would need to make considerable effort to regain the trust of the UK consumer and it would have to be carefully marketed to specific geographic, demograhphic and physcographic segments to have a chance at success. “By allowing a business to focus on the particular needs of well-defined customer groups, marketing programmes can be more precisely specified, leading to greater effectiveness” (Dibb, 2001:McDonald and Dunbar, 1995).

References

Internal

Sally Dibb (2001) New millennium, new segments: moving towards the segment of one?, Journal of Strategic Marketing, 9:3, 193-213

Kotler, P. & Keller, K.L. (2012) Framework for marketing management, 5th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Ha

The Money Programme, (2004) ‘Coke’s water bomb: the Dasani fiasco’, [Video], BBC, London. (Accessed: 03 September 2014)

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