Launch of Zico in the 2012 London Olympics Essay

Launch of Zico in the 2012 London Olympics - Essay Example This is because of the fact that considering the advantages coconut water has to offer to the consumer, it can prove to be an essential drink for the elderly too. Keeping in mind the target audience, Coca Cola is launching Coca Cola Zico in the UK market by using the London 2012 Olympics as the major platform for it since the Olympics is considered to be the most prestigious sporting event to take place once in four years. The Zico campaign can certainly attract a lot of audience who are sport loving. For this to happen, Coca Cola can employ both advertising and public relations program to achieve their aim to successfully launch their new product. Let’s first define the two marketing strategies. Advertising is an act of selling a product by conveying a message to the audience about the existence of a product. It can be done using both the print and electronic media to reach the masses. On the other hand, Public Relations (PR) refers to the establishment of strong relations wi th the company’s publics which helps in building a strong brand image. Public relations can include activities like sponsorships, covering sport events, etc. (CIPR, 2012) Carrying out advertising may not sound as simple because it entails a lot of aspects that need to be taken account of. Marketers all over the world come across many hurdles before coming up with an advertising strategy. These environmental challenges include the following: 1. Demographics: income distribution, changing lifestyle, standard of living and the likes; 2. Economic environment: per capita income, state of the economy, etc. ; 3. Cultural environment: for instance, the ad on the right of Vita Coco, the market leader in terms of coconut water in the US, maybe unacceptable in the South Asian culture but accepted in the UK culture; (Buss, 2012) 4. Political and social environment: legislation, ethics, laws, society itself, etc. Since the case is such that a new product is being launched in to the UK mar ket, the role of advertising shall be to both inform and remind the consumers about Zico. The reason for this is that the public relations program will be taking place during the Olympics and it will be followed up by the advertising campaign. The initial step to outline an advertising campaign for Zico would be to decide upon the advertising budget that Coca Cola will spend after the end of London Olympics. Since it’s a new product, it will require a large budget. Considering the ?500,000 media budget, a 60:40 split should be done with advertising getting more as opposed to public relations. The primary reason is that advertising helps in conveying the message to a larger audience with a lower cost per audience. Considering the budget constraints, it is imperative to make the best use of the finance available. Market share also plays an impact on the advertising budget. Since we don’t have sufficient information as to how many players are already in the market, itâ₠¬â„¢s hard to comment about it. For instance, the US market comprises of Pepsi’s ONE and Vita Coco that are doing very well. In case, they exist in the UK market, the role of advertising will also be persuasive in addition to informing. (Esterl, 2012) The second step in designing the advertising strategy would be to create an advertising message. In order to overcome the issue of message retention and attention, the campaign has to be clutter breaking. The concept