Firstly, I would like to express my appreciation towards your dedication for Coca-Cola for the past ten years. Coca-Cola is one of my favorite beverages and it can always remind me of the joy in my childhood. I am really surprised to hear that your company has suffered a sales decline during the past few years and been evolved in some reputation problems. In my opinion, the competition in today’s beverage market has become more intense than ever before. As a healthy, natural, zero-calorie refreshment beverage, bottled water is now in the consumer sweet spot (Prnewswire.com, 2015). Although carbonated soft drinks remain by far the biggest liquid beverage category, they continue to lose both volume and market share (Prnewswire.com, 2015). In addition, more and more carbonated drinks have entered the market as competitors of Coca-Cola. So the key problem lying here is how to win more market share than water and how to stand out in the soft drinks competition. Changes need to be made to achieve the goal and solve existing problems. One of the main revolutions in Coca-Cola’s history is the change of your recipe (The Coca-Cola Company, 2012). However, the public reaction to the change was negative, even hostile. As a result, the new cola became a major marketing failure. When a product or service is consumed regularly, the consumers would expect it to be constant in character (Brehm, 1989). It is considered to be one of their freedoms that the character remains constant. By
1. Consider Coca-Cola’s advertising throughout its history. Identify as many commonalities as possible for its various ads and campaigns. (For a list of Coca-Cola slogans over the years, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Colaslogans.)
Coca–Cola a leading manufacturer, distributor and marketer of soft drink products. Coca–Cola was not always the sugary syrup soft drink most people know today. As a matter of fact, before 1886 Coca-Cola was made with alcohol and cocaine. Concocted by Dr. John Pemberton a pharmacist in Atlanta Georgia Coca-Cola was originally named Pemberton’s French Wine Coca. Dr. Pemberton marketed the drink as a cure all for mental and physical disorders and was sold from a soda fountain at his local drug store. A step ahead of prohibition, Dr. Pemberton replace the wine in his formula with a sugary syrup. The cocaine portion of Coca-Cola was removed before 1914 when cocaine was deemed illegal in the United States of America. Coca-Cola as we know today still contains coca but the narcotic portion of cocaine, it is removed. Today, Coca-Cola has expanded to over 200+ countries. From concerts to sport venues to local restaurants you are more than likely to come across a Coca-Cola product, Coca-Cola has had such an impact on society that it is given credit for how we portray Santa Clause today. Other credits should also be given to Coca-Cola like an increase in diabetes and other diseases.
Exchange rate gains or losses are brought to account in determining the net profit or loss in the period in which they arise, as are exchange gains or losses relating to cross currency swap transactions on monetary items. Exchange differences relating to hedges of specific transactions in respect of the cost of inventories or other assets, to the extent that they occur before the date of receipt, are deferred and included in the measurement of the transaction. Exchange differences relating to other hedge transactions are brought to account in determining the net profit or loss in the period in which they arise. Foreign controlled entities are considered self-sustaining. Assets and liabilities are translated by applying the rate ruling at balance date and revenue and expense items are translated at the average rate calculated for the period. Exchange rate differences are taken to the foreign currency translation reserve.
The new age brings a challenge to Coca-Cola to find a way to reinvent and rebrand itself. With Mary
2. What unique resources and capabilities does Coca-Cola have that will help it compete well in Africa?
The Coca-Cola organization has made exemplary strides mainly to offer a variety of products to its clients even with the competitive nature of the market. Consumers’ choice gets based on the brand aspect in which the organization wins most customers' heart against its rivals. Even though a significant number of people deny cases to having inclination picking between Coca-Cola items or its rivals', many have a strong desire in some way. Many inclines toward Coca-Cola products since the organization has more than hundred years of history and predictable brand image. This picture is engraved in a lot of people subsequently end up purchasing their beverages. It is out rightly conspicuous in the company’s high market share in the field of soft drinks.
In an industry dominated by two heavyweight contenders, Coke and Pepsi, in fact, between 1996 and 2004 per capita consumption of carbonated soft drinks (CSD) remained between 52 to 54 gallons per year. Consumption grew by an average of 3% per year over the next three decades. Fueling this growth were the increasing availability of CSD, the introduction of diet and flavored varieties, and brand extensions. There is couple of reasons why the industry is so profitable such as market share, availability and diversity and brand name and world class marketing.
Another important weakness is that the company’s products are seen as a major cause of obesity. (Melser, 2013) The beverage sales are affected by various factors including change in trends and preferences. Recently, beverage sales have fallen because of people’s increased preference for the health drinks. Around the world, obesity is a major problem and the Coca Cola products are seen as a major cause of obesity. As people are getting health conscious they are moving towards low calorie healthy drinks. This affects coca cola’s profitability and popularity. However, the brand can overcome this situation by increasing the number of low calorie products in its brand portfolio. It will need to add more healthy choices for its customers in its product portfolio.
Coca-Cola is the result of a patent medicine formulated in a small southern pharmacy over a hundred years ago. It has grown into a multibillion dollar international company. It also owns one of the most valuable brands in the world. Their Coca-Cola banner has won the world’s top brand 13 times on brand c-consulting firm Interbrand’s annual list (Fraser, 2012). In addition to its main product, Coke, the company owns over 3500 beverages. One of its core competencies is brand building. They have built their brand to have respectability and dependability. Their brand and logo are recognized all around the globe. It has actually become a new known on almost all households worldwide (RNWILKIN, 2009).
Coca-Cola Company has realized significant growth since its establishment to become a global leader in the marketing, manufacturing, and distribution of syrup and soft drinks. Out of the four generic strategies, the company has followed the differentiation strategy to make its products unique in the market. Its interest is to maximize the market share through the development of the most innovative products and the establishment of effective strategies to influence the customer’s decisions. In such a way, the company has integrated various strategies to ensure that desirable results are attained in the market. Its strategic choices align with the differentiation strategy in an attempt to make its products unique and meet diverse market requirements. To reduce its weaknesses, the company should consider exploiting key opportunities in the market including venturing in the packaging of water, promotion of new brands, and launching of healthy products. In particular, the vision and mission statement of Coca-Cola seems to have reconfirmed and changed in this process of company’s strategic analysis.
Over 3500 products are available in more than 200 countries (The Coca Cola Company, 2013).
Coca-cola boasts of being the world’s largest beverage company serving approximately one billion customers daily. The most dominant products distributed by Coca-cola are Coke, Fanta, Sprite and Diet Coke. This strategy is aimed at ensuring that every customer gets satisfied whenever they use a Coca-cola brand. Coca-cola has large distributions across the globe making it the largest distributor in the world. The late Roberto Goizueta termed Coca-cola to be an American company with large international business and a sizeable American business (Ferrell, 2008). This has helped a lot with brand selling as it is the most recognized brand in the whole world. “Coca-Cola has the most valuable brand name in the world and, as one of the most visible companies worldwide, has a tremendous opportunity to excel in all dimensions of business performance” (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2008). Coca-cola, however, has not been smoothly running over the decades in operation. It has on numerous occasions been criticized for overlooking some ethical standards that it should have rather upheld. This essay aims at looking into some of the issues facing Coca-cola, the most significant of them, how they were resolved and how Coca-cola should have solved them.
Coca-Cola has been around for generations with the same iconic taste, logo and symbolism. Its brand has represented family and the memories of good times, celebrations and comfort of being with those we love. Unfortunately, the company has not made good marketing decisions in the recent past and has lost relevancy. The purpose of this essay is to assess the conditions that created Coca-Colas marketing problems, evaluate the future of healthy beverages and non-carb drink brand extensions, and provide recommendations to the management.
Last year, Coca-cola saw its sales decreased in the European market. In order to increase the sales, Coca-Cola needs to define a new strategic communications plan. As mentioned above the image of Coca-Cola has been damaged quite a lot for the past 2 years by different factors. A hard work needed to deal with consequences of this damage in the image of the company.
During the 1980’s Coca-Cola was faced with a potentially company killing problem. They were losing market share quickly to their competitors. Pepsi was stealing a portion of the younger generation with their advertising campaign, and they proved that consumers liked Pepsi better with the “Pepsi Challenge.” To combat their falling market share Coke decided to introduce a new formula. This formula was based on the fact that people preferred the sweeter taste of Pepsi. Once the new formula was finished, Coke conducted close to 200,000 taste tests to find out what consumers thought. New