What is Marketing? Lecture from the CMO of Coca-Cola

On the afternoon of December 19th, the CMO of Coca-Cola, Joanna Lu, came to the school to give a lecture to the students of SHSID’s Business Management course.

She first introduced the Coca-Cola company itself, and then she raised a question: “What is marketing?”

The students gave different answers and stated their ideas. She then summarized that marketing is not just about selling more products, but integrating data from various sources and getting to know the needs of target customers and then making proper strategies. Then another question followed: “How much milk tea is sold every day in Shanghai?”

The students seemed very interested in this question and gave various solutions to it. Some suggested calculating the amount by researching how many people in

Shanghai drink milk tea and how much they drink each time. Others suggested researching the number of empty bottles of milk tea in bins around the city. Students were very active in their thinking, and Joanna also encouraged them to try to think of more solutions. She later mentioned, the key skill needed in marketing is to be good at discovering and thinking.

Later, she shared her own experience of doing marketing for Coca-Cola. She told them how she led her teams to hold the “share-a-coke” marketing campaign and eventually helped Coca-Cola win more market share. She played videos about related advertisements, which included the nick-names bottle, lyrics bottle, quote bottle and the Olympic bottle. In the Q&A session after the lecture, the students actively asked many questions to Joanna to learn know more about marketing and Coca-Cola, and she was also loved to share her experience and stories.

Through this lecture, students learnt what marketing is through real life cases, as well as the ability needed in marketing and its effect on people’s life. This will be useful for them in deciding on their major in their university applications next year.

(Written by Chen Danqing Pictures by Chen Danqing)