The Coca-Cola (Oman) Company

Introduction

Coca-cola is a multinational company that has been in existence since the late 19^th Century. Coca-Cola's survival, over decades, is largely attributable to the effective market expansion strategy employed by the management. The monopolistic nature and the well-diversified advertisement forms employed have all ensured the product’s reach to a wider global population, including that in the remote areas of the Middle East. In Oman today, Coca-Cola’s marketing management heavily relies on the forms of advertisement that have been proven successful in capturing the public’s attention, especially in the across Europe and other Western nations (Batra et. al 2009). However, the change in the religious environment has led to the marketing strategists finding the ways with which to tactfully navigate away from offending individual religious views through adverts. This has included phasing out both the ‘Santa Claus’ Advert and the incorporation of female model celebrity adverts. The paper, therefore, aims at discussing the various forms of advertising used by the Coca-cola in Oman today. Also, it shall analyze the positive and negative effects of advertising while offering a number of suggestions of how to effectively handle the challenges that emanates from advertisement adoption.

Advertising Forms

There are various forms of Coca-Cola advertisement presently used in Oman. They include the following:

1.      Newspapers

In the modern times, technology is undergoing a rapid advancement phase. As a result, there is an imminent threat posed on the analog media forms all over the globe today. However, a large section of the population in the Oman today –especially the old—is reluctant to adopt the more efficient digital media (Green, 2012). Therefore, the newspapers are still in a wider circulation, even to the rural areas. Realizing this, the Coca-cola Oman Company marketing department often post adverts on the leading dailies like Muscat Daily and the Times of Oman. The dailies are in high circulation both in the urban and the rural areas, ensuring the reach to a wider targeted population.

2.      Magazines

Magazines usually focus on a specific population group. In Oman, a number of magazines target the issues relating to the youthful population in the society like campus students and the working-class demography. Given that Oman is majorly a young population; the Coca-Cola Company is obliged to use various magazines as a medium of advertisement. Magazines such as the Y-Oman and The Face regularly feature Coca-Cola adverts that are specifically designed to capture the attention of the younger market. For instance, the most recent advert on the Y-Oman Magazine had a ‘Share a Coke with Friends’ advert.

3.      Radio

All over the Middle East, radio plays a major role as a source of information, especially in the rural areas. As such, it is common to hear a Coke advert in between a news brief or during a live match announcement in Oman. Usually, coke uses the radio as a form of advertisement when introducing a new product to the market, for instance, the recent introduction of Dasani drinking water, the latest product of Coca-Cola Company in Oman.

4.      Outdoor Signs

It is common to spot a Coca-Cola advert on Billboards all across Oman Cities today. To most multinationals in Oman, the use of billboards as a form of advertisement is a current trend. Researchers observe that the phenomenon is attributable to the observed increase in sales revenue immediately after the adoption of this form of Advertisement. To counter the rising billboard hiring cost, Coca-Cola has opted to the less costly but equally effective form of outdoor sign advert: Building Painting. The Coca-Cola offers to paint the local buildings for free but with coca cola adverts. Finally, Electronic billboards are still at an infantry stage in Oman, but the Coke Company is among the first users.

5.      Television

Like the radio, television is one of the most common media outlets. Recent Oman surveys suggest that more than half of the total country’s population have an access to media houses and the outside world through possession of a television set. To exploit this opportunity, the Coca-Cola hire commercial times from the television stations that reaches wider audiences. Given the natural love of sports events by the Oman citizens, Oman-TV, a national broadcaster is usually frequented with the Coca-Cola adverts during the times of Olympic or World Cup broadcasts.

6.      The Internet

The boom in social sites has offered a unique opportunity to the Coca-Cola Company to reach an expansive local market at an extremely low cost. Social sites like Twitter and Facebook offer a free advertisement platform to multinationals, hence a chance of product exposure to a majority youthful population (Janoschka, 2004). In fact, the Coca-Cola usually exploits the advantage of the global internet reach to advertise its products from the head office in the United States to a global market including that of Oman.

7.      Product Displays

As a marketing strategy, Coca-Cola offers branded Fridges to its retail sellers. The terms and conditions for such an offer include the mandatory requirement for every seller to use the fridge for display of the exclusive company products. Such a move is widely seen by market analysts as an advertising strategy to counter the rising competition from other refreshment drinks in the Oman market.

Advertising is a Boon or Bane

In as much as most coca cola adverts are informative and aids consumer in decision making, it is notable that the well-varied forms of advertisements used, in the long run, have invaded the citizen's privacy. An individual can almost find a Coke advert everywhere across the Sultan of Oman territory: on the mobile phones and other electronic gadgets owned, all over the electronic media, vehicles, buildings, and others. Such clearly depicts how adverts have invaded and taken over the control of daily lives with or without personal consciousness.

Furthermore, the level of absurdity observed in adverts has been on a steeper rise in the recent past. A well known public figure quenching his thirst with a Cold Coca-Cola together with a tantalizing lady lover who wears scanty and revealing clothing is not only regarded as absurd, but also displays the level of decay to the mostly conservative Muslim society.

Also, the frequent disturbance of the television and radio programs by the coca cola commercials is a well-calculated move to have a psychological effect on the audience and viewers due to their full attention at the moment (Health, 2012). As such, younger minds in the Muslim world end up being corrupted to consume the mostly sugary Coca-Cola products, with a potential of future development of health condition such as diabetes. But the company’s aim is to maximize profits through the increase in sales revenue. Bearing this in mind, there is a careful concealment of the devastating health effects posed by the soft drinks to its users in the long run. The government is aware of the double-standard measures employed in the adverts, but can do little to alter the situation; with the coca-cola company being the major source of revenue to fund the government projects (Berger, 2011).

Avoiding Advertising Difficulties

There are a number of ways in which the difficulties that emanates from the Coca-Cola and other multinationals advertisement patterns can be avoided, including the following (Mohan, 1989):

1.      Government

Though multinationals is one of the main sources of revenue to the government, the long-term impact of their less considerate advertising activities will increase the level of government expenditure on health and social activities. It is imperative, therefore, for the government to lay down strict rules and measures to be followed by all the multinationals including Coca-Cola in their advertisement. To be allowed to operate in the country, the Coca-Cola Company should incorporate the negative side effects of their products in all the adverts. In this way, the public will be on the know-how on the health implications of the products they are consuming, hence may be able to make a conscious decision on its usage or not (Stole, 2012).

2.      Regulatory Body

There is a rising need to establish an independent and fully functional body tasked with the regulation of the advertisement activities in the country. The body will be able to endorse all the adverts that fully meet the laid down rules of fair competition, ethical consideration and the environmental sustainability. This will ensure the avoidance of the dominance of the monopolistic corporations such as the Coca-Cola Company. Also, the local companies will be encouraged to fairly compete with the well-established multinationals for a market share.

3.      The rise of Activist groups.

Activist groups that advocate for the fair product advertisement means and the cultural conservation should be properly funded. It should be noted that such companies play a bigger role in curbing the advertisement activities by the large corporations, as they act as whistleblowers on the unethical business practices. As a result, failure to heed to their call can lead to the multinationals losing the market share. Therefore, the fear they instill to the corporate world is enough to guarantee the adherence to the best advertising practices, hence avoidance of the imminent difficulties.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Coca-Cola Company has provided support the government in various projects within the country. However, the forms of advertisement that it uses tends to overshadow the existence of the local soft drink companies in the country. As a result, the unfair and monopolistic advertisement practices threaten the survival of the smaller corporations trying to penetrate the market. To save these companies from extinction and to help conserve the Muslim culture from being tarnished by the western world, there is a need for the government and the legislation to enact policies that will see the conception of a body to regulate advertisement practices.

References

Batra, R., Myers, J. G., & Aaker, D. A. (2009). Advertising Management. New Delhi: Pearson.

Berger, A. A. (2011). Ads, fads, and consumer culture: Advertising's impact on American Character and Society. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

Green, J. (2012). Advertising. New York: Rosen Central

Heath, R. (2012). Seducing the Subconscious: The psychology of Emotional Influence in Advertising. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.

Janoschka, A. (2004). Web Advertising: New forms of Communication on the Internet. Amsterdam [u.a.: Benjamins.

Mohan, M. (1989). Advertising Management: Concepts and cases. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill.

Stole, I. L. (2012). Advertising at War: Business, Consumers, and Government in the 1940s. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.