MSc Management Customer Experience Strategy Assignment Sample 2023

Introduction

Customers are the most valuable resources of an organisation and every organisation aims at maximising customer satisfaction so that its vision of high revenues, growth and profitability can be achieved. The current report will focus on the company Coca-Cola and its approach in managing effective customer satisfaction.

Coca-Cola has come up with various products such as Sprite, Powerade Zero, Fanta, Vitamin water and many more in order to achieve maximum customer satisfaction. It will further highlight the consumer persona connected with the product sprite and map customer journey in context to India. The report also includes a focus on marketing channels used and CX process adopted in different countries.

1. The importance of customer experience

Definition and concept of customer experience

Customer experience is a sum total of various attributes such as affection, sensory, cognitive and behavioural responses of customers at different stages of pre-purchase, purchase, consumption and after consumption. It is an impression of the brand on the customers which could be both negative or positive as a whole throughout the journey of the customers.

Globalisation and technological advancement has paved the way to success of brands through use of various techniques and tactics. External market provides a large number of opportunities for growth and expansion to sustain in the cut throat competition (Homburget. al. 2017).

In such circumstances, every organisation looks for opportunities that help them to get competitive and create unique and everlasting impression on the customers for long term relations. Every company tries to maximise customer experience so that large market share can be captured and brand gains high value in the market.

Importance of customer experience for Coca-Cola sprite

A positive customer experience plays an integral role in developing sound brand image and evangelize the product and service so that the customers refer them to family and friends resulting high sales and revenues. Sprite is one of the soft drink products of Coca-Cola and has been launched in various markets over the globe. CX in case of sprite helps in the upliftment of the overall brand Coca-Cola.

It attracts the attention of customers and helps them stay connected with the organisation for long term. Sprite is one of the major selling products of Coca-Cola due to the addition of lemon taste that is not only great in taste but also helps in fast digestion (Jainet. al. 2017).

This property of the product helps Coca-Cola to create a vast image of the brand in the market. The customer base of the product is large in India due to its availability at cheap prices and various designs. This helps the company to launch many more products in diversified fields such as energy and sports as customers are already aware and associated with the brand.

2. Customer persona creation

A customer persona is a depiction of ideal buyers for the product in the market by conducting proper market research and considers the various attributes such as demographic features, motivation, behaviour and objectives. The creation of customer persona helps in developing a better understanding about different customer groups and the current target audience (An et. al. 2018). The customer persona for Sprite, product of Coca-Cola in India is as follows:

Consumer Persona for Coca-Cola Sprite consumers in India
Edward Phillips	Demographics and story Resides in India Single Middle income group Looking for refreshment drink to overcome thirst that has sweet taste
Profile 23 years old Student Goes to college	Motivation for consuming Sprite Sprite is high in taste, energy and quality while available at affordable rates. It has various packaging available at different prices and helps reducing the thirst of even the no income group.
Goals for consuming sprite Wants to get energy and taste at affordable rates Easy availability and easy to carry during travelling	Pain points solved by Sprite No fat ingredients Available in reusable bottles Lemon lime flavour allows unmatched refreshment Low sugar content It has no artificial sweeteners as in case of other soft drinks

3. Mapping the customer Journey

Mapping of customer journey is pointing out customer experience at different stage of product consumption. This is an important stage as it includes better understanding of the expectations and opinions of the customers with the product. It assists in optimising customer experience and creating a positive impression.

4. Omnichannel Marketing

Definition and explanation of Omnichannel marketing

Omnichannel marketing refers to a systematic process of determining channels such as use of email, social media, television advertisement and free trials that helps in reaching target customers easily. Omni channel marketing has become an important phenomenon to interact with customers and create a positive impression about the product or service (Berman and Thelen, 2018).

It helps in better customer engagement and updating them about the latest products to enhance sales and revenues. Organisations use multiple but integrated channels to ensure communication of tailored and consistent information so that wide target market can be attracted and retained.

Role of interaction and customisation

Omnichannel marketing helps in ensuring that customer interaction takes place in a continuous manner. It helps in communicating right information to right customers at right time and medium. Today, organisations make use of customised messages so that customer interaction can be enhanced (Payne et. al. 2017).

This requires intensive market research so that customer requirements can be identified. The customer base for Sprite is wide and observe a high sale through various channel such as online platform, retailers, restaurants and hotels. This requires the brand to communicate with various mediators in customised manners to ensure sales growth in India.

Marketing channels for Sprite

Sprite is a carbonated soft drink sold under the company Coca-Cola. The brand was launched in order to provide customers with a product that was not black in colour. It focuses on heavy advertisement through various social media sites specially to attract. The company makes use of green labelling on the product so that it can communicate its vision of refreshment.

Sprite makes use of various tagline such as “clear hai” and “Sprite boojaye man ki pyas” in order to attract attention of Indian customers. It makes use of promotion on television through famous Indian stars in order to enhance consumption (Dent and White, 2018). Further, Sprite makes use of various campaigns such as the “Spark Campaign” that was conducted in partnership with Drake to help youth showcase their talent in the field of dance, music and creativity.

This helped it to enhance its sales by 19%. It features advertisement on television using various Indian hit stars such as Viraj Ghelani, and Rohan Shah. The availability of the product on mobile applications such as Amazon and e-bay in India allows customers to get various discounts and offers while getting its delivery fast and free. These marketing channels and tactics helps the company to develop a strong market base (Coughlan and Neuwirth, 2017).

5. CX performance metrics

Performance metrics refers to the indices that are used by an organisation to identify the level of customer satisfaction and loyalty with the brand. Some of the key performance metrics used by Coca-Cola includes:

Customer churn rate: Churn rate refers to the percentage at which customers stop subscribing or purchasing the products of a brand. This helps in identifying ways that are innovative and creative and helps in retaining customers loyal to the brand. The customer effort score helps in assessing the ease at which customers complete their shopping cycle. Low churn rate reflects a positive attitude of customers and higher rate of satisfaction with the product (Keiningham et. al. 2017).

Customer satisfaction: The Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is an index to measure the level of satisfaction among the customers with the product. A high score reflects the fact that customers are satisfied with the product and that they are likely to purchase more and recommend more to family and friends. This metrics is an effective way of identifying strength of the company and retaining the customers.

Average Resolution time: This is the time required by the customer care agent of a business to solve the doubts and queries of the customers. It is extremely important for companies to focus on problem solving so that customers do no shift to the competitors. Fast resolution of issues helps in better engagement of customers and is a positive sign to the growth of business.

Net promoter score: This is one of the most effective metrics that helps in measuring the response of customers towards a product. A low score indicates that the company needs to put in more efforts toward customer loyalty programs and incorporating the views, and feedbacks of the customers in real world (Zolkiewski et. al. 2017). This method of assessment plays a crucial role in increasing the rate of customer retention.

Coca-Cola is already a well-developed brand in India but the entrance of new competitors such as 7UP and mountain Dew have taken over some portion of the target market. In such situation, the application of customer satisfaction metrics and churn rate is recommended. These metrics are easy to implement and provides immense advantage.

Customer satisfaction rate enables the company to assess the level of satisfaction with the product and what more can be changed to maximise this. Further, the churn metrics helps in assessing the percentage of customers lost or shifted to the competitors so that innovative changes can be made in the process of re-attracting the lost customer base. These metrics will help the product Sprite to sustain in the market despite of the existing competitors (Goodman, 2019).

6. CX process in different industries

Critical success factor can be described as the management term of the elements that are necessary for a project or organisation to achieve the target and mission in the process. Companies need to be aware of their key success factor in order to achieve their goal and objective. The term was initially used as data analysis and business analysis in the market.

The success factor should not be confused about the success criteria framed in the process (Moeuf et. al. 2020). Success criteria are being framed and designed according to the objectives and key indicators of performance in the process. All the functions should be properly coordinated in order to obtain a positive outcome over the period of time.

Strategy focus: Coca cola is famous for its flavoured drink across the world. Coca cola when launched sprite in the Indian market then it all started with the proper strategy planning. The planning of the action plan was framed by the expertise according to their potential experience in the market.

Effective Management:  For making sprite success in the Indian market various excel management skills and abilities were used by coca cola in the process in order to achieve the goal and target (Alqahtani and Rajkhan, 2020).

Marketing: Companies even focus on the effective marketing strategies that help in generating awareness about the firm in the mind and hearts of the customers.

Products: Sprite captured the Indian market by sharing the drink with the taste of lemon prevailing in it. Indians are majorly fond of drinking lemon flavoured drinks. In the summer the company itself gained the growth of sprite in the name of sprite. The company comes up with flavoured water in the Indian market to achieve the goal and objectives (Khan et. al. 2020).

Operation: The local market of India accepted the drink’s taste and flavour easily without any pros and cons. The new segment in the soft drink increases the market share which indirectly helps in increasing sales volume and profits over the period of time.

Coca Cola company gains success on its strong connecting supply chain which is prevailing in different parts of the world. The company awareness is strong enough to reach the potential customers which are miles away in the market. This effective and efficient marketing and communication helps in achieving demand and supply of the market.

By segmenting into new drink sprites, the company launches the product in the same supply chain to cover the market share (Hastig and Sodhi, 2020). Even the marketing strategy of the company is good in order to attract the strangers and convert them into permanent customers. Companies communicate with customers by taking reviews into consideration in the process.

On the other hand, Marriott is famous for its luxurious product which is being promoted between the high-income people in the market. Marriott’s critical success factor is their service and management in order to achieve the goal and objective. Marriott service and management is just because of their skills and abilities which are recruited from the market (Huang et. al. 2019).

Marriott has made its reach to customers by giving their service at different parts of the market. Nowadays companies also provide offers like providing membership coupons to market the brand within the economy class too.

Conclusion

Sprite is known to be one of the most famous soft drink brands which is being produced and sold by Coca-Cola all over the globe. The strong marketing efforts has helped the company to remain a strong competitor against product such as 7UP.It is now known to be the sixth best-selling soda in the world with the taste of lemon and line which is most favoured by the youth.

The brand makes use of effective marketing campaigns and strategies which enhances brand equity, image and visibility in the market. The use of Omni channel marketing and customer experience strategy allows Sprite to ensure high sales and market success. It is recommended that the company must make use of Customer satisfaction level and churn rate as its performance metrics to assess the level of customer engagement and make changes that help in retaining and regaining the lost customers.

References

Alqahtani, A. Y and Rajkhan, A. A. (2020). E-learning critical success factors during the covid-19 pandemic: A comprehensive analysis of e-learning managerial perspectives. Education sciences, 10(9), 216.

An, J., Kwak, H., Jung, S.G., Salminen, J. and Jansen, B.J., (2018). Customer segmentation using online platforms: isolating behavioral and demographic segments for persona creation via aggregated user data. Social Network Analysis and Mining, 8(1), pp.1-19.

Berman, B. and Thelen, S., (2018). Planning and implementing an effective omnichannel marketing program. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 46(7), pp.598-614.

Coughlan, A.T. and Neuwirth, B., (2017). d. light Design: Marketing Channel Strategies in India. Kellogg School of Management Cases.

Dent, J. and White, M., (2018). Sales and marketing channels: How to build and manage distribution strategy. Kogan Page Publishers.

Følstad, A. and Kvale, K., (2018). Customer journeys: a systematic literature review. Journal of Service Theory and Practice.

Goodman, J., (2019). Strategic customer service: Managing the customer experience to increase positive word of mouth, build loyalty, and maximize profits. Amacom.

Hastig, G. M and Sodhi, M. S. (2020). Blockchain for supply chain traceability: Business requirements and critical success factors. Production and Operations Management, 29(4), 935-954.

Homburg, C., Jozić, D. and Kuehnl, C., (2017). Customer experience management: toward implementing an evolving marketing concept. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45(3), pp.377-401.

Huang, S. Y., Chiu, A. A., Chao, P. C and Arniati, A. (2019). Critical success factors in implementing enterprise resource planning systems for sustainable corporations. Sustainability, 11(23), 6785.

Jain, R., Aagja, J. and Bagdare, S., (2017). Customer experience–a review and research agenda. Journal of Service Theory and Practice.

Keiningham, T., Ball, J., Benoit, S., Bruce, H.L., Buoye, A., Dzenkovska, J., Nasr, L., Ou, Y.C. and Zaki, M., (2017). The interplay of customer experience and commitment. Journal of Services Marketing, 31(2), pp.148-160.

Khan, S., Maqbool, A., Haleem, A and Khan, M. I. (2020). Analyzing critical success factors for a successful transition towards circular economy through DANP approach. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal.

Moeuf, A., Lamouri, S., Pellerin, R., Tamayo-Giraldo, S., Tobon-Valencia, E and Eburdy, R. (2020). Identification of critical success factors, risks and opportunities of Industry 4.0 in SMEs. International Journal of Production Research, 58(5), 1384-1400.

Payne, E.M., Peltier, J.W. and Barger, V.A., (2017). Omni-channel marketing, integrated marketing communications and consumer engagement: A research agenda. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing.

Rosenbaum, M.S., Otalora, M.L. and Ramírez, G.C., (2017). How to create a realistic customer journey map. Business horizons, 60(1), pp.143-150.

Zolkiewski, J., Story, V., Burton, J., Chan, P., Gomes, A., Hunter-Jones, P., O’Malley, L., Peters, L.D.,Raddats, C. and Robinson, W., (2017). Strategic B2B customer experience management: the importance of outcomes-based measures. Journal of Services Marketing.

Assignment Services Unique Submission Offers: