INITIAL COMPANY RESEARCH Name: Kendyl White Date: July 3, 2016

COMPANY: Company Name: Sprite Parent Company: The Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American corporation, manufacturer, retailer and marketer of nonalcoholic beverages founded and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Asa Griggs Candler introduced the Coca-Cola soda, which the company is best known for, in 1886 and that was the start of a beverage empire. The Coca-Cola Company now has 26 brands, over 123,200 employees and Muhtar Kent is the current CEO (The Coca-Cola Company, 2016).

• Net Income: Coca-Cola had a $7.35 Billion Net Income for the 2015 Fiscal Year. • Net Profit Margin: Coca-Cola’s Net Income divided by their Total Revenue of just under $44.3 Billion pushed their Net Profit Margin to 16.6% for the 2015 Fiscal Year (Yahoo, 2016). • Debt to Assets Ratio: Coca-Cola’s Total Liabilities came to $64.5 Billion while their Total assets equaled over $90 Billion to bring their Debt to Assets Ratio to 71.6% for the 2015 Fiscal Year (Yahoo, 2016). • Year over Year: In early January of 2012, The Coca-Cola Company had a closed stock of $34.47 and that stocked increased each January until 2015 where it had a closed stock of $43.03. In early January of 2016, the closed stock sat at a decreased value of $41.51, but currently sits at $45.12 at mid-year (Yahoo, 2016). • Compare Stock Performance to Market Index: While The Coca-Cola Company’s stock has risen well in the last five years, about midway through 2013, their stock fell below the market index. Since that time, Coca-Cola has come close to almost getting back on top, but ultimately has failed to reach that mark to this date. (Yahoo, 2016).

Sprite is a lemon-lime soda created by the Coca-Cola Company in Germany in 1959 as part of Coca-Cola’s Fanta Brand. Fanta Klare Zitrone was later introduced in the United States as Sprite in 1961. It’s known for it’s original taste, the green, blue and silver can and the green bottle that it is served in.

PRODUCTS: Sprite is a clear in color, lemon-lime flavored, caffeine-free soda that comes in different variants such as diet, tropical, cranberry, cherry and orange to name a few. The Coca-Cola Freestyle machine allows consumers to add up to seven different flavors to Sprite or Sprite Zero such as vanilla, strawberry, grape, peach and others.

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Product Line A: Soda Product Example A: Sprite

Product Line B: Soda Product Example B: Sprite Zero

Product Line C: Soda Product Example C: Sprite LeBron's Mix

TARGET MARKET: Product Example A: Sprite Geographic: Worldwide Demographic: African American, Male and Female, Ages 12 to 29, Low to Middle Income Psychographic: Enjoys lemon-lime flavors and enjoys mixing drinks. Benefits Sought by Consumer: A true lemon-lime taste. A good base and mixer for any fruit-flavored drink Usage Rate of Consumer: Heavy User Product Example B: Sprite Zero Geographic: Worldwide Demographic: Caucasians, Female, Ages 21 to 36, Middle Income Psychographic: Health conscious soda drinkers Benefits Sought by Consumer: Similar Sprite flavor, but with zero sugar and zero calories, Mentally okay with drinking soda Usage Rate of Consumer: Heavy User Product Example C: Sprite LeBron's Mix Geographic: North America Demographic: African American, Male, Ages 16 to 26, Middle Income Psychographic: Fans of LeBron James, People who enjoy the Coca-Cola Freestyle Benefits Sought by Consumer: The same flavor of Sprite that their favorite basketball player enjoys. A different taste than the traditional Sprite, but with the same Sprite flavor. Usage Rate of Consumer: Heavy User

COMPETITION: Competitor 1: Jones Soda Co Competitor’s Product: Lemon-Lime Competes with Product A: Sprite

Competitor 2: PepsiCo Competitor’s Product: Diet Mist Twst (Diet Sierra Mist) Competes with Product B: Sprite Zero

Competitor 3: Dr Pepper Snapple Group Competitor’s Product: Cherry 7 Up Competes with Product C: Sprite LeBron's Mix

Company Success Company #1: The Coca-Cola Company, $7.35 Billion Net Income for 2015 Fiscal Year. Company #2: PepsiCo, $5.45 Billion Net Income for 2015 Fiscal Year. Company #3: Dr Pepper Snapple Group, $764 Million Net Income for 2015 Fiscal Year. Company #4: Jones Soda Co, -$1.12 Million Net Income for 2015 Fiscal Year.

SUMMARY: Based on my research on Sprite and the Coca-Cola Company, although the drinking of soda has declined in North America and worldwide, both the company and the parent company are still on top in soft drink business. Every list you look up on the best lemon-lime sodas, Sprite sits at top of the list. While the second most successful lemon-lime soda had to rebrand itself from Sierra Mist to Mist Twst, Sprite has remained the same from the beginning, while just adding different variants throughout time to keep up with today’s generation. Sprite has remained successful throughout time because it keeps up with the current trends; they’re fortunate to have one of the best marketers in the world, the Coca-Cola Company. For example, Sprite and the world’s best basketball player, LeBron James have been in partnership since he came into the NBA in 2003. Since that time, Sprite has used LeBron on numerous advertisements and has even gone on to give him his own signature soda twice, Sprite 6 Mix and Sprite LeBron's Mix. They get outside of sports as well, collaborating with some of today’s most popular hip-hop artist such as Drake and J.Cole to print their lyrics on the side of their cans. My prediction for Sprite is that they’ll stay on top of the lemon-line soda market in part due because both them and the Coca-Cola Company are established, recognized and the best at what they do.

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REFERENCES: Brands: The Coca-Cola Company. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.coca- colacompany.com/brands/the-coca-cola-company

KO Balance Sheet | Coca-Cola Company (The) Common Stock - Yahoo! Finance. (2016). Retrieved from http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=KO Balance Sheet

KO Income Statement | Coca-Cola Company (The) Common Stock - Yahoo! Finance. (2016). Retrieved from http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=KO Income Statement

KO Interactive Stock Chart | Yahoo! Inc. Stock - Yahoo! Finance. (2016). Retrieved from https://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=KO Interactive#{"range":"5y","allowChartStacking":true}

Sprite Brings Back Popular Flavor Created With LeBron James. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/press-center/press-releases/sprite-brings-back- popular-flavor-created-with-lebron-james

Sprite Consumer Data and Demographics | InfoScout.co. (2016). Retrieved from http://infoscout.co/brand/sprite/

Sprite Ingredients and Nutritional Information. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.coca- colaproductfacts.com/en/coca-cola-products/sprite/

Stewart Scott-Curran Explains How To Design For Different Demographics. (2015). Retrieved from http://blog.creativelive.com/stewart-scott-curran-sprite-design/

Sprite Zero Consumer Data and Demographics | InfoScout.co. (2016). Retrieved from http://infoscout.co/brand/sprite_zero/

The Legacy of Sprite and the Color Green. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.coca- colacompany.com/stories/primary-color-why-sprite-has-sported-green-since-1961

An Environmental Analysis for

Sprite

Kendyl White

Full Sail University

Project & Portfolio II: Business and Marketing

July 17, 2016

The STEEPLE Analysis

SOCIOLOGICAL: Consumers of all demographics vote Sprite at the best lemon-lime soda on the market, which is who the company cares about the most. Sprite has a variation of is product for everyone from original to the multiple flavors you can create with the Coca- Cola freestyle machine (Ranker.com, 2016).

TECHNOLOGICAL: Sprite continues to work with what’s trending today to stay on top and that includes athletes and artists. Sprite has had LeBron James on their team since 2003 and they continue to work with popular artists. Last year, Sprite introduced their Obey Your Verse campaign with Drake, Nas, Biggie and Rakim. This year, they revamped it with more popular artists including J.Cole, Tupac and Missy Elliot (HipHopDX.com, 2016).

ECONOMIC: Coming in October, workers who are paid salary and make under $47,500 per year, which is middle income, will either get a raise or get paid for overtime, which will put more money in the pockets of the consumers in Sprite’s target audience. This creates an economical growth that puts Sprite in the position to make more money as well (CNSNews.com, 2016).

ECOLOGICAL: Sprite uses 100% natural flavors in their regular version of the product. Even thought it’s still a soda, being able to advertise that is a major selling point to consumers (Coca-ColaProductFacts.com, 2016).

POLITICAL: Coca-Cola is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and Sprite has partnered with the local NBA team, the Hawks to create Sprite Night in the arena. Fans receive unlimited Sprite with their ticket purchase. It’s a great way to stay on top in your main location (NBA.com, 2015).

LEGAL: When it comes to product safety, the Coca-Cola Company uses KORE, Coca-Cola Operating Requirements, to ensure such consistency and reliability in this process. You wouldn’t want to send out a bad product to a consumer in today’s word because it could damage your company (Coca-ColaCompany.com, 2012).

ETHICAL: Coca-Cola and Sprite’s three main goals consist of refreshing the world, inspiring moments of optimism and happiness and creating value and making a difference. They also preach team inside of the company to create the best products for consumers (Coca- ColaCompany.com, 2016).

The SWOT Analysis

HELPFUL HARMFUL

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

1. Coca-Cola is the parent company. 1. Coca-Cola’s revenue was less than PepsiCo in the 2015 fiscal year.

2. Biggest competitor, 7UP was created 2. Great partnerships with people that first. influence their target audience.

INTERNAL 3. Easier to get a Pepsi vending machine 3. Uses 100% natural flavors. than a Coca-Cola one.

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

1. More artists and athletes to sign. 1. The drinking of soda is decreasing.

2. Target market’s salaries are 2. Other lemon-lime sodas are increasing. rebranding.

EXTERNAL 3. More in-bottle and in-can flavors. 3. Exclusive flavors from other sodas.

Conclusions:

Sprite leads the pack in lemon-lime soda sells by a wide margin and it is easily the fan favorite despite the sells. When it comes to a citrus type soda, it ranks behind only Mountain Dew in large part because people see Mountain Dew as an energy source along with the taste, while Sprite is caffeine-free. Sprite also ranks at the top of overall sodas with the likes of Coca-Cola, Pepsi and others.

To remain dominant in their target market, Sprite should continue to follow the trends and take advantage of some of the opportunities listed above. People like Sprite for the crisp taste and the innovation they and Coca-Cola bring to the lemon-lime market. There’s a reason why they rank at the top for lemon-lime soda and also near the top of soda in general. Sprite has the good fortune of having one of the best marketing teams in the world in Coca-Cola to promote and revamp the same taste that’s been loved since 1961.

References:

Mission, Vision & Values. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our- company/mission-vision-values

Obama Explains Administration's New Rule That Businesses Must Pay Salaried Workers Overtime. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/cnsnewscom- staff/obama-explains-administrations-new-rule-businesses-must-pay-salaried

Sprite Ingredients and Nutritional Information. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.coca- colaproductfacts.com/en/coca-cola-products/sprite/

Sprite Nights. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.nba.com/hawks/sprite-nights/

Sprite Revamps "Obey Your Verse" With Tupac, Missy Elliott & J. Cole. (2016). Retrieved from http://hiphopdx.com/news/id.39238/title.sprite-revamps-obey-your-verse-with- tupac-missy-elliott-j-cole

The Best Lemon Lime Soda. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.ranker.com/list/best- lemon-lime-soda/ranker-food

The Coca-Cola Company - Quality. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.coca- colacompany.com/stories/quality http://web.b.ebscohost.com.oclc.fullsail.edu:81/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=7 3a40a00-50ec-4a69-b1e1-5806c0e07bdd%40sessionmgr105&hid=115

A Market Analysis for

Sprite

Kendyl White

Full Sail University

Project & Portfolio II: Business and Marketing

July 31, 2016

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Sprite is the world’s most valuable and leading lemon-lime soda according to sales and consumers. In a time in the world where the drinking of soda is going down, Sprite has continued to be successful. They use their established name to create opportunities that they’ve earned that their competitors in the lemon-lime industry don’t have. The end goal is for the Coca-Cola Company to have the two leading sodas in Coca-Cola and of course

Sprite.

OBJECTIVE

The goal for the information being presented to Sprite is to help Sprite grow even more as a brand. Sprite is already the most valuable lemon-lime soda, but the end goal is for them to compete with their parent company’s leading soda,

Coca-Cola. Being under the Coca-Cola Company helps Sprite

Sprite and Coca-Cola tremendously due to their very established name worldwide along with the marketing resources that are brought forward from being a global icon. While it’s very fortunate to be partnered with a company so recognizable, the goal is to get Sprite on the same level as

Coca-Cola.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The information researched on Sprite dates all the way back to the beginning when it was just one of Fanta’s flavors. The main research goes back as far as 2012 knowingly and continues to this day. Most of the research is external so that the public has the say on what is the best lemon-lime soda and where Sprite ranks in soda overall. At the end of the day, the back-stories and the brand are important, but the consumers really determine how successful a company is. The challenges were deciding what type of research to collect and the choice of qualitative was more important to get an exact idea of where Sprite stands among the population of the target audiences.

RESEARCH AND KEY FINDINGS

In the research of Sprite and its competitors, there was a lot of evidence of Sprite being the leader in lemon-lime drinks period. Consumers enjoyed the taste of Sprite along with everything else that Sprite brought to the table being a good mixer and base for a lot of drinks. Sprite has an advantage having 100% Sprite Zero and Sprite natural flavors, which appeals to a lot of people. It is also a caffeine-free product, which helps because some people either can’t have caffeine or just want to stay away from it.

Being seen as a healthier alternative, but still having that clean and crisp taste allows Sprite to appeal to a wide variety of people. Sprite offers different variations of their product but the original Sprite that comes in the iconic green bottle along with the equally iconic blue and green can is still the leading product for the brand. It’s been the flagship drink for the brand for many years and it’s still that way to this date because of the original taste and it being targeted towards everyone. Inside the company, Sprite is targeted more towards African Americans of low to middle class. It’s more of an overall vision for the

Coca-Cola Company to have Sprite targeted towards a certain demographic; looking at the research Sprite is actually favored by almost as many people outside of the target market as it is inside the target market.

CONCLUSIONS

It’s been said, but it doesn’t get old to hear that Sprite is the world’s most valuable and leading lemon-lime soda according to the consumers and the statistics. Sprite has been on top in their area of soft drinks, but the goal is for them to be leading right along with their counterpart in Coca-Cola. Sprite has many things to offer to consumers, but it all comes down to the crisp and clean, 100% natural flavored and caffeine-free taste.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on everything found in the research, there isn’t too much that isn’t working for Sprite. One of the biggest contributions to their success is the some of the partnerships they have. A main partnership that benefits the company is the athletes and artists that they have on their team. They have the likes of

LeBron James, Drake, J.Cole and others that Sprite, LeBron, Nike and Beats collaborate to create a limited edition Sprite LeBron's Mix promote their brand, which leads to higher pack. sales from the people who follow those big names. It makes complete sense for Sprite to bring in more people to the team to increase the influence for people to buy Sprite. While soda isn’t the number one choice of drink of elite athletes, there athletes that have deals with soda companies to advertise and represent their brand. There is no shortage of artists that already talk about Sprite in their lyrics from the likes of Future, Vince Staples and plenty of others. If Sprite capitalizes on the opportunities it has, it’ll continue to stay on top in the lemon-lime industry and make its way to the top of the soda empire overall.

REFERENCES

Brands: The Coca-Cola Company. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.coca-

colacompany.com/brands/the-coca-cola-company

KO Balance Sheet | Coca-Cola Company (The) Common Stock - Yahoo! Finance. (2016).

Retrieved from http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=KO Balance Sheet

KO Income Statement | Coca-Cola Company (The) Common Stock - Yahoo! Finance. (2016).

Retrieved from http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=KO Income Statement

KO Interactive Stock Chart | Yahoo! Inc. Stock - Yahoo! Finance. (2016). Retrieved from

https://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=KO

Interactive#{"range":"5y","allowChartStacking":true}

Mission, Vision & Values. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-

company/mission-vision-values

Obama Explains Administration's New Rule That Businesses Must Pay Salaried Workers

Overtime. (2016). Retrieved from

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/cnsnewscom-staff/obama-explains-

administrations-new-rule-businesses-must-pay-salaried

Sprite. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/companies/sprite/

Sprite Brings Back Popular Flavor Created With LeBron James. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.coca-colacompany.com/press-center/press-releases/sprite-brings-

back-popular- flavor-created-with-lebron-james

Sprite Consumer Data and Demographics | InfoScout.co. (2016). Retrieved from

http://infoscout.co/brand/sprite/

Sprite Ingredients and Nutritional Information. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.coca-

colaproductfacts.com/en/coca-cola-products/sprite/

Sprite Nights. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.nba.com/hawks/sprite-nights/

Sprite Revamps "Obey Your Verse" With Tupac, Missy Elliott & J. Cole. (2016). Retrieved

from http://hiphopdx.com/news/id.39238/title.sprite-revamps-obey-your-verse-

with-tupac-missy-elliott-j-cole

Sprite Zero Consumer Data and Demographics | InfoScout.co. (2016). Retrieved from

http://infoscout.co/brand/sprite_zero/

Stewart Scott-Curran Explains How To Design For Different Demographics. (2015).

Retrieved from http://blog.creativelive.com/stewart-scott-curran-sprite-design/

The Best Lemon Lime Soda. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.ranker.com/list/best-

lemon-lime-soda/ranker-food

The Coca-Cola Company - Quality. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.coca-

colacompany.com/stories/quality

The Legacy of Sprite and the Color Green. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.coca-

colacompany.com/stories/primary-color-why-sprite-has-sported-green-since-1961 http://web.b.ebscohost.com.oclc.fullsail.edu:81/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=7

3a40a00-50ec-4a69-b1e1-5806c0e07bdd%40sessionmgr105&hid=115 http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8024/6959866112_347e7168d6_o.jpg http://www.lindos.bm/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Sprite-Nov-2014-monthly-

products-1024x828.jpg

http://sneakernews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/lebron-12-sprite-remix-pack-

12.jpg