Global brands connect with the local culture: advertising strategies of Coca-Cola in China

Abstract

This thesis’ main purpose is to provide a comprehensive analysis for what concerns the advertising strategies adopted by the global leader Coca-Cola in the Chinese soft drinks industry. After a first introduction into the theme of internationalization through the explanation of the five available stages in such process, the focus shifts then towards the different strategies a company can adopt for what concerns international communication: should a firm better standardize the elements of its communication or should it adapt the content and include elements coherent with the local cultural context? The main focus of this thesis is represented by advertising, which is one of the components of communication: after having provided a general definition of the concept and a list of the main media companies can use in order to spread their advertisements, great emphasis has been given to the important role played by culture in this field. As a matter of fact, advertising is a product of culture. In my opinion, analysing this specific theme in a complex and unique country such as China is extremely interesting: indeed, advertising in the country can be considered as a recent phenomenon, which started to actually develop in the 1980s due to the previous restrictions implemented by the Government, which led to the gradual disappearing of advertising contents for almost three decades. On the contrary, nowadays the phenomenon has become an essential component for the economic survival of China: it is an unavoidable factor, without which the progress of the country would not have been so strong. So, the second chapter provides a journey into the history with the analysis of all the stages advertising went through from the first commercial that ever appeared in the Chinese scenario to the present day with the boom of digital advertising. Then the thesis goes on in the third chapter with an overview of the sector under consideration, which is to say the soft drinks industry, that in the last few years has witnessed an astounding growth. This insight provided by the paper includes the analysis of the Chinese consumer behaviour, the competitive landscape, and the distribution system with the off-trade and on-trade data and how these latter were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The last chapter then shifts the attention towards the case study I decided to pick, namely the Coca-Cola brand. The thesis offers a general introduction as for how the company targeted the Chinese market and then a detailed explanation of its 4 Ps with a special emphasis of course on the Promotion component, which is an essential element of the company’s strategy, not only in China but all over the world. As the former boss Wood Ralph stated: “Coca Cola is a carbonated water and sugar syrup, 99.61%. Without advertising, who would drink it?”.