Marketing digital das empresas transnacionais de alimentos e bebidas: uma perspectiva global do segmento Big Soda

Abstract

Introduction: The modern food systems are characterized by the main role of transnational food and beverage companies, such as Big Soda. These companies invest globally in digital marketing, with the potential to influence food choices. Objectives: Describing Coca-Cola’s digital marketing (company that leaders the Big Soda segment) on Facebook pages (most popular social media) in different countries according to sociodemographic conditions and the company’s market share. Methods: The sample was selected using a media platform that identifies countries by the presence and popularity of commercial Facebook pages. From the registered countries (n = 149), we identified all the countries with Coca-Cola pages in this media. We considered popular the countries in which the company’s page was among the top five in number of followers within the beverage segment. Thereby, 57.0% of the countries were considered popular, 22.8% less popular, and 20.2% did not have pages of the brand on this media. We used the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and the percentage of market share (%MS) to characterize the countries. We recorded the number of followers, posts and interactions (likes, comments, and shares) that each post received in 2018 from Coca-Cola’s pages in popular countries. We also described the marketing characteristics and strategies in 10% of the posts made by the company among these countries. Results: Popular countries showed a higher SDI than countries with less popular Coca-Cola’s pages or those without brand’s pages on Facebook. Popular countries also showed higher %MS compared to less popular ones. Among the popular countries, those with lower SDI showed higher average of posts and interactions than those with higher SDI, while the countries with higher %MS obtained more posts, followers, and interactions than the countries with lower %MS. In the set of popular countries, the use of brand’s logo (74.9%), display of brand’s products (67.9%) and young people (67.9%), and use of photos (59.5%) prevailed in the posts, as well as socialization appeals (38.5%), sporting attributes (21.0%), and sporting events (16.6%). In the lowest SDI countries, the use of brand’s logo, sporting attributes, sporting events, gifts and collectibles, and healthy eating appeal were more common in the posts, while in the highest SDI countries, Coca-Cola published more posts showing young people and socialization appeals. Among the highest %MS countries, display of brand's products, presence of individuals, and mentions of commemorative dates were more frequent when compared to the lowest %MS countries. Conclusion: Coca-Cola uses Facebook to promote its products globally and the popularity of the page of the brand and the marketing content presented in the posts differed according to the characteristics of the countries.