Fanta Jelly Fizz: Marketing Strategy For Australian Soft Drink Brand In South Korea

Promotional Activity Planning

Discuss about the Fanta jelly fizz marketing strategy.

The main aim of the report is to introduce Fanta Jelly Fizz, a soft drink by Coca-Cola South Pacific, to the Australian Food and Beverage and Consumer Product Showcase taking place in Seoul, South Korea in April 2017.The key purpose of the project was to enhance the quality of the Fanta brand and creation of Australian product awareness into the Korean local market as well as build networks and links with the Korean food and beverage and consumers sectors.

In the facilitation of the project, a team of three people was chosen to participate in the showcase. The team consisted of one project coordinator and two sales staff. The project needed a lot of time to plan and execute. Thus, the project timetable was coined two months before the actual showcase and was followed keenly until the end. In the process, there were a lot of activities to be undertaken ranging from the market research to the initiation of the main plan, making an application to participate in the showcase, preparation for the promotional activities, selecting and training of the candidates to facilitate the sales process, choosing the local Korean company to partner with, building and creation of network in the Korean market.

Product and Company Identification

Fanta Jelly Fizz is pure and refreshing soft drink from Coca-Cola South Pacific Pty Ltd which is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of the Coca-Coal Company in Australia (Coca-Cola, 2017). The main function of the Coca-Cola South Pacific Limited is to provide the marketing, technical and quality services to the Coca-Cola Company in Australia (Coca-Cola, 2017). Coca-Cola Pacific Limited operates directly in contact with Coca-Cola Amatil Limited which is the authorized producer and distributor of the Coca-Cola Company’s beverage brands and products in Australia. Coca-Cola South Pacific can be found at Coca-Cola South Pacific Level 9, 40 Mount Street North Sydney NSW 260, toll line free 1800 025 123 0r (+61 2) 94368818 for people from overseas or visit their website www.coca-colajourney.com.au (Coca-Cola, 2017). 

The mother company Coca-Cola is the world’s biggest beverage company which engages in refreshing their customers with over 500 tasty and refreshing brands and over 3800 types of beverages for consumers to choose (Coca-Cola, 2017). With Coca-Cola brand leading others as one of the most valuable and recognizable brands, Fanta also joins other billion-dollar brands like Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero, Vitaminwater, Sprite and Powerade. Through its world's biggest beverage distribution mechanism, Coca-Cola remains the No. 1 provider of refreshing and sparkling drinks and beverages. In a single day, it is estimated that Coca-Cola serves its beverages to more than 1.9 billion people around 200 countries globally (Coca-Cola, 2017).

SWOT Analysis of the Product

Fanta Jelly Fizz comes in raspberry and orange flavours exploding with taste. It is a soft, delicious and liquid jelly blended with juicy liquid jelly pieces (Inside, 2017). Having been launched in Japan and Honk Kong some few years ago, the team in Australia saw the new to replicate the idea in the Australian local market in order to counter the competitive business environment.

The product has been prepared and designed to tap and awaken the Aussies taste buds through texture, touch, taste and smell (Martin, 2017). The product launch is part of Fanta’s goal to shake up the soft drink and ensure that teens are having fun with the brand in 2017. Having targeted the teens who are looking for new interactive experiences, Coca-Cola South Pacific is striving to match its brand with fun and innovation to meet the market demands (Coca-Cola, 2017).

The product can mostly be found in 200ML single cans is found across Australia. It is produced with the interests of teens at heart. Having been established that teens know Fanta than anybody else, the new product launch campaigns is meant to hand them the brand by encouraging them to freely express themselves, engage their friends in the campaign and ensure that they have fun with the new product.

Since its launch, Fanta Jelly Fizz with Orange and Raspberry flavours has continued to do well in the Australian market and the target is to become the best ahead of the competitors by engaging in more marketing campaign (Martin, 2017). One of the main campaign activity is to ensure that the company participates in the Australian Food and Beverage and Consumer Product Showcase taking place in Seoul, South Korea.

Strengths

A well-established distribution mechanisms and sales network

Company’s financial capability to steer the brand campaign

Well established business experience and networks in the beverages market.

Weakness

Low brand awareness for the newly launched Fanta Jelly Fizz.

Higher financial investment in marketing and creation of brand awareness for the new product

Opportunities

The launch of the new product to add to a number of other brands available

The Coca-Cola’s worldwide brand recognition

Growing global market giving them an opportunity to market and sell their product to other countries.

Enough capital in terms of finances to help in funding the brand awareness campaign

Threats

The growing competition in the Australian market as well as the global market from other companies like Cola

Promotional Activity Definition

Price changes due to fluctuating global economies

Increasing costs of operation in trying to market a new product 

While operating in a foreign country, people tend to be afraid of the imported new products (Wild et al., 2014, pp. 86). While trying to introduce a new product in a foreign country, then the company must work tirelessly to attract and retain new customers and also get to identify key companies to work with abroad (Cavusgil et al., 2014, pp. 80). Hence, the company is supposed to present their product in the new market in a more composed and creative manner in order to attract new consumers for their products in the new country (Shenkar et al., 2014, pp. 50). Coca-Cola South Pacific has strived to design its promotional activities in such a way that it uses advertising, promotional activities and use of personal selling (Hajli, 2015, pp. 35). Therefore, we have agreed to use mass media and new media to advertise and promote our product one month before the actual showcase day.

Facebook, YouTube and Twitter

Currently, online marketing is most common because of the higher levels of interaction and consumer engagements, low cost of maintaining online campaign and also convenience. With millions of people using social media, it is easy to ensure that they are aware of your latest marketing activities through postings and ensuring that you interact with them to get their reaction and responses about the product (Stelzner, 2014, pp. 26).

Television adverts

TV ads can be described as short, efficient and eye-catching information about a product advertised. They include videos, films and video features. Although TV adverts are not specific to Facebook where we can filter the audience, TV ads can reach a huge number of people at once. Therefore, as a team, we decided to use Korean celebrities and teens to share the TV adverts on their social media pages (Wimmer and Dominick, 2013, pp. 108).

One project coordinator and two sales staff

Therefore, a flight ticket from Sidney to Seoul and back costs business class about AU$ 3700 per person.

The total is 3700*3= AU$11100 including taxes and fees.

It is important to note that the team needs to arrive in Seoul two weeks before so as to familiarize with the environment and identify key Korean people to help them in translation and customer engagements. Hence the accommodation for one person is AU$130 per day.

Media

The total is 130*3*14= AU$5460.

It is imperative to note that we also need to secure the services of a group of interpreters whose main role is to translate what a client says and vice versa. In conclusion, the goal of having an interpreter is to make sure that our team of staff and the customers in Korea are communicating effectively to steer and drive a successful marketing and brand awareness campaign.

The travel interpreters will help our team to navigate through the complicated business environment and help our clients in all meeting so as to bring a mutual understating between us and our clients in Korea. The interpreters will act to link our cultures by helping in merely everything ranging from the ordering of Fanta Jelly Fizz drinks to closing of business deals between our team and the Australian companies. The interpretation will also be necessary during the interviews, event hosting, visiting of various places and also meet-and-greet.

The sole purpose of this event is to help the Coca-Cola South Pacific in maximizing and increasing our export opportunities to other countries, increasing our market share and consequently growing our economy. The event will also help our company to grow by meeting it set growth goals and objectives. Lastly, the event will help Coca-Cola Pacific in increasing their export supplies to meet the increasing value of consumer products from the growing economies of various countries in Asia and Europe (Shenkar et al., 2014, pp. 50). 

Role and responsibilities of various people in the team

Project Coordinator

To ensure that also the budget for the whole project is well prepared and finances remitted when required.

Guiding the entire team in achieving the goals and objectives of attending the event

Taking part in securing and signing of business agreements and deals

Making sure that he/she participates in the selection and identification of various people like interpreters and celebrities to steer the campaign.

Advising the sales staff accordingly during the whole process.

Organizing and chairing all the necessary events during the showcase process.

Sales Staff

They will be involved in showing and explaining how the product is being used. For instance, you need to shake Fanta Jelly Fizz ten times before use.

Explaining to the consumers the nutritional benefits and the usefulness of the product.

Helping the consumers with clarification on all the information they need.

Celebrities and Teens.

Posting and sharing their product reviews on their social media pages

Sharing the links to various television adverts about the products on their social media pages

Interpreters

To help in facilitating a successful communication between the team and the Korean clients on a various situation before, during and after the showcase

They will also help in cultural-liaison to guide in unifying the two cultures to facilitate a product showcase.

Since we did not any native person from Korea on our team, we decided to hire some three people to lead and guide our team. The main role of these native speakers is to facilitate a smooth communication between the Korean people and our Australian team.

Through the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the government is able to manage its foreign relations and trade policies with other countries by moving forward the Australian’s government and people’s interests. Therefore, we need to seek to network with such an arm of the government in order to be able to ensure that the government protects our interests through global stability and economic growth purposely to boost our export business.

As a representative from Coca-Cola South Pacific, we made sure that we sign an agreement with one of the leading stores in Korea to stock and sell our products. Established in 1979, Lotte Department Store is one of the biggest retail store in Korea having consolidated up to 8 outlets in Seoul alone. Lotte Department Stores is located in the heart of the Korean city offering effective transport for products. Therefore, we reached an agreement that Lotte Department Stores is the most convenient company to sell and promote our products in Korea.

As a team, we saw the need to stay longer in Korea in order to get the most out of our prior meeting and agreement with various partners in Korea. We needed more time to clearly study and understand the Korean market with an aim of doing more research to help in understanding the foreign dynamic market (Cavusgil et al., 2014, pp. 78). Moreover, we needed some more time to study and review the impact of our promotional activity to our products as well.

Being known for local entertainment and sports programs targeting young people, KBS1 is the leading channel of the Korean Broadcasting System. Our Fanta Jelly Fizz is a product targeting the young people across the globe and thus this station being watched mostly by young people, we were confident that the message would reach the right people (Wimmer and Dominick, 2013, pp. 110). In addition, we chose to use the media since it is the only channel in Korea that offers to air commercials for free thus reducing the cost of the whole promotional campaign. 

It is essential to note that South Korea has ranked 17^th among biggest economies in the world growing at a rate of 5.4% (Duncan, 2016). The country has also a higher wage level compared to other countries. The literacy level is high and the people are technically qualified. Despite the ageing population, the country’s productivity is generally high. Therefore, with the growing economy, it is important to ensure that Coca-Cola South Pacific takes advantage of this growing economy to increase the sales of their product in Korea and gain a substantial consumer base (Muruganantham and Bhakat, 2013, pp. 149.

Conclusion and recommendations

We recommend that with the growth in the digital era, the company should heavily engage in online marketing to increase brand awareness and consumer base (Schütte and Ciarlante, 2016, pp. 30). The company should also engage highly in creating more partnerships with more outlets in Korea to ensure that we increase our sales. With Korea’s economy growing tremendously and relying on imports, the company should take advantage of this and ensure that they heavily export more products to Korea (Lee et al., 2013, pp. 15).

The report explores the promotional activity used to promote Fanta Jelly Fizz, a soft drink by Coca-Cola South Pacific. It involves the techniques used to promote the brand in Korea during the Australian Food and Beverage and Consumer Product Showcase taking place in Seoul, South Korea. Therefore, we have explored the whole process to facilitate the effort to introduce and promote the Australian product in the Korean market. 

References

Cavusgil, S. T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J. R., Rammal, H. G., & Rose, E. L. (2014). International business. Pearson Australia, pp. 67-90.

Coca-Cola. (2017). About Us. [Online] Retrieved from: < https://www.coca-colajourney.com.au/contact-us > [Accessed on 1 May 2018]

Coca-Cola. (2017). Fanta. [Online]. Retrieved from < https://www.coca-colajourney.com.au/brands/fanta > [Accessed on 1 May 2018]

Duncan, G (Sep 2016). The world’s top 100 economies: 31 countries; 69 corporations. The World Bank. [Online] Retrieved from: < https://blogs.worldbank.org/publicsphere/world-s-top-100-economies-31-countries-69-corporations > [Accessed on 1 May 2018]

Hajli, N. (Ed.). (2015). Handbook of research on integrating social media into strategic marketing. IGI Global, pp. 23-50.

Inside, F (Feb 2017). Fanta adds Jelly Fizz and Sour Tingle flavours. The Inside FMCG. [Online] Retrieved from: < https://insidefmcg.com.au/2017/02/22/fanta-adds-jelly-fizz-and-sour-tingle-flavours/> [Accessed on 1 May 2018]

Kang, K. (2013). The choice of export destinations and its determinants: evidence from Korean exports. The Korean Economic Review, 29(1), 139-160.

Lee, S. B., Kotabe, M., Yoon, A. H., & Kwon, K. H. (2013). Export strategies and performance of small and medium-sized enterprises. Journal of Korea Trade, 17(1), 1-24.

Martin (March 2017). Fanta Jelly Fizz. Morsels. [Online] Retrieved from: < https://morsels.com.au/fanta-jelly-fizz-hmm-they-promised-that-the-can-wouldnt-explode-although-that-might-have-been-a-more-entertaining-experience-its-not-pleasant-to-look-at-in-a-glass-user-your-imagination-and/ > [Accessed on 1 May 2018]

Muruganantham, G., & Bhakat, R. S. (2013). A review of impulse buying behavior. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 5(3), 149.

Schütte, H., & Ciarlante, D. (2016). Consumer behaviour in Asia. Springer, pp. 12-45.

Shenkar, O., Luo, Y., & Chi, T. (2014). International business. Routledge, pp. 34-66.

Stelzner, M. (2014). 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. Social media examiner, 1-52.

Wild, J. J., Wild, K. L., & Han, J. C. (2014). International business. Pearson Education Limited, pp. 78-98.

Wimmer, R. D., & Dominick, J. R. (2013). Mass media research. Cengage learning, pp. 102-116.