Coca-Cola as we know it is a huge beverage giant. The amount of data compiled by this
company is overwhelming. With such a large collection of data the company has created
many different programs designed to turn useless data into profit. I would like to discuss
one of these programs in order to describe how they gather this information, what type of
information they gather, and how this information helps Coca-Cola market its products.
In order to gather useful information the Coca-Cola Company has partnered local retail
stores. Their goal is to not only gather information that is useful to their business, but to
help retail stores in gaining more business for themselves. Through this partnership Coke
can use the data that is collected by the retail stores through scanners, frequent shopper
card programs, and collective observations made by store employees to learn how to better
market their products. Retailers that have chosen to participate in this program have also
allowed Coke to use their stores as a real-world laboratory, conducting long-term
marketing experiments to gather their own data.
The type of information gathered varies from store to store. Information gathered by store
scanners produce universal product codes, number of items purchased, price, time, and the
store name and location. The stores that offer frequent shopper programs can track
transactions to specific households and monitor purchasing patterns. The observations
made by the store employees, as well as Coke marketing researchers, help to identify