Marketing audit on an organisation (The Coca-Cola Company)

The Coca-Cola Company is the largest distributor and producer of soft drink concentrates and syrups in the world, according to Waller & Muhtar, and it does business in more than 200 nations. It produces more than 3000 different non-alcoholic beverage brands, with Coca-Cola ranking as its most valuable brand among others including water, juice, tea, diet and light beverages, and coffees and teas. The Coca-Cola Company was one of the most reputable businesses in the entire globe by 1990 because it has stood the test of time since 1886 through times of war and peace, prosperity and depression. The Coca-Cola Company functions in a world that is highly competitive and challenging, and this calls for a lot of creativity in its strategies so that it can continue to exist in the next ten years and beyond (Puravankara)

Goals of the company

The Coca-Cola Company has a mission of ensuring that it serves to refresh the world, inspire people’s moments, encourage them to be optimistic and happy, and create value to make a difference. Coca-Cola Company’s mission describes how they need to achieve sustainable quality growth. Their vision ensures the well-being of people, partners, portfolio, planet, profit and productivity. The company has a winning culture which defines their attitudes and behaviors needed to steer themselves to the next generation. Their values include leadership, collaboration, integrity, accountability, passion, diversity, and quality (Puravankara).

The Coca-Cola Company’s focus on the market

Waller & Muhtar argue that the competitive state of the Coca-Cola Company determines how the company will develop its strategies to earn its profits over the years the nature of competition is different between businesses and in soft drink companies, competition is determined by a corporation’s structure. The company is focused on identifying and meeting the needs of its customers, making the customers and their franchised partners be satisfied. This is achieved by the fact that they take their time to go into the market, observe what is going on and trends that may help in their creativity and innovation, listen to what their customers and partners want and learn to use the knowledge in design and production. They also have an important possession of the world and are keen on how they execute their day to day activities in the market they serve. The company is also insatiably curious to explore and exploit all available opportunities presented to it.

Marketing strategies that promote organizational goals

According to Waller & Muhtar, the Coca-Cola Company aims at becoming internationally recognized as the company with the best products. It targets every customer around the world as it develops different products meant of the various geographical regions and they give these products brand names and popularity. It also works in close collaboration with partners who include convenient stores, vendors, grocery stores and movie theaters so that it localizes its products. To achieve this target, the company also has other beverages like Fanta and Sprite which the main brand (Coca-Cola) competes with. This gives the company an opportunity to enjoy all the profits. So as to reach these goals, the company consistently reviews and evaluates its strategies and analyses its performance so that it can improve appropriately. Most of the decisions made are aligned to match these objectives stipulated above.

The 4Ps in Coca-Cola Company

The company has the largest portfolio of all other soft drink companies because it has more than 3,300 products. Beverages are divided into various categories that include diet, 100% fruit juices, fruit drinks, drinking water, and coffee. The place is also another aspect in Coca-Cola’s marketing mix because they have an efficient distribution network which has eroded small beverage companies from the market. By 2006, the company operated through eight segments which include Africa, East, South Asia, the Pacific Rim, EU, Latin America and North America. Promotion includes all the advertising and promotional efforts which have led to an immense demand in the markets. Most of its advertisements allow the company to associate their products with lifestyle and behavior. The company primarily targets value based advertising, and they encourage positive messages. CSR tool is mainly used to gain emotional benefits in the mind of the customer. An example of such an advertisement is the “support my school” campaign with NDTV (Waller & Muhtar).

Porter’s five forces on the Coca-Cola Company

The Coca-Cola company rivals

Thinking about Coca-Cola, the first competitor that comes to someone’s mind is Pepsi because these two companies have rivaled each other ever since the late 19th century (Puravankara). The Coca-Cola brand and Pepsi brand have the same ingredients and is each company’s most significant product. The two companies also offer the same products to their customers. For example, when Coca-Cola Company has the Coca-Cola brand, Pepsi Company has Pepsi brand. All of these two companies also offer similar non-soda products like orange juice and drinking water. However, Pepsi owns Doritos, Quaker Oats, and other brands while Coca-Cola does not, something that might make Pepsi survive in case soda and the drinks it offers fails. Other competitors include Dr, Pepper which is also a strong competitor in some regions but not as worldwide as Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

The possibility of a new entrant into the market

Puravankara argues that there is a high likelihood of new entrants in the market. Coca-Cola has special licensing deals, but another company could enter into the beverage market by hitting into the trends at the right time especially now that there is a need for healthier drinks. If any aspiring company entered now, it would have an immensely active and viral image and will enjoy all the brand recognition that Coca-Cola currently enjoys. If these entrants enter the market at the same time, they may permanently affect the bottom line of the Coca-Cola Company.

What are some of the products that customers could buy instead of the Coca-Cola products?

The Coca-Cola Company also should understand which products customers are willing to purchase instead of their products. For instance, with the healthy diet trend taking the course, more customers will start going for coffee or smoothies more than soda. With the rise of companies like star bucks, people will start preferring to take various beverages like coffee in the right environment and having a wide variety of flavors to choose.

Do buyers have any bargaining power?

When purchasing soft drinks, buyers have a purchasing power, and this negatively impacts on the Coca-Cola bottom line. This is because the company does not directly deal with end-users but distribution companies like fast food chain and vending machines do instead. The high demand leads to purchase, but the Coca-Cola Company keeps regulating the final retail price for its products. This is done when the company sells its products to distributors at a low enough price so that these dealers can sell the product to customers at a reasonable cost that will keep them coming and also make a profit for themselves (Puravankara).

Supplier’s bargaining power

Coca-Cola Company is a humongous company, and it maintains contracts with many providers. These suppliers have some power even though some authority may be out of their hands. For example, the company uses sugar which is supplied by another corporation. So as to ensure that there are proper planning and consistent supply of this product, the company secures this process using a contract. This deal ties the sugar company to provide this product if the product is highly available or scarce. If the product is highly available, the sugar company will benefit and if it is rare, the Coca-Cola Company will gain because sugar supply will not be cut (Waller & Muhtar).

SWOT Analysis (Puravankara)

Strengths

Brand awareness where many people recognize the brand globally

Its signature logo resonant customers of all ages

It remains to be the top brand among all soft drink company manufacturers

Coca-Cola has the biggest market share compared to the rest

Loyalty among potential customers.

Vigorous advertising

Financially stable to ensure marketing and innovation to increase innovation

Robust distribution network around the world

Impressive franchising strategies and quality control mechanisms

It has a stable distribution platform

Keeping the ingredients of its concentrates and syrup as top notch secret

Weaknesses

Poor water management which is already limited in most parts of the world and it is the main ingredient in their products. This may lead to overexploitation. Poor water management could lead to climate change and pollution.

Foreign currency fluctuation which is evident when the company pays for expenses earns its revenues and owns assets. This is felt because the company uses the dollar as its main medium of exchange even outside USA.

Opportunities

The company diversifies its product line and has over the years build a presence in the fast growing beverage categories

Extended reach where the company has started to invest in producing healthy beverages like pure fruit juices and coffee which bolsters various business lines

Threats

Currently, there is a cultural shift from soda to natural and organic products like fruit juices and water, smoothies and coffee because they are considered more healthy, this means that soda is seen as a threat to health of the people who consume it because it has high levels of sugar and artificial ingredients.

Indirect competitors like star bucks and duckin’ brands group compete with Coca-Cola indirectly because they offer their customers healthy beverage choices, unique choices and customer loyalty rewards.

Recommendation

According to Waller & Muhtar, currently, there is an apparent increase in health awareness among consumers who are turning to healthy drinks like water and have been discouraged taking soda which is considered to have artificial ingredients which are not healthy. The Coca-Cola Company being the leading beverage producer should take the leading role to innovate its products so that they meet the required needs. Even though it has tried to diversify its products, this step has not been felt in the company’s sales and has achieved more choice for the customer. For example, its efforts in the UK and North America of introducing Dasani water terribly failed. This then means that soft drink market is slowly decreasing because customers are switching to healthier options. They need to add new healthier drinks to continue to grow.

Works cited

Puravankara, Dinesh. ”Strategic analysis of the Coca-cola Company .” SFU Journals (2014): 1-34.Print

Waller, Kathy and Kent Muhtar. ”Coca-cola Company annual report.” United States securities and exchange commission (2016): 1-164.Print