Coca Cola

“Pop Art is an art movement in the U. S. in the 1950’s and reached its peak of activity in the 1960’s, chose as its subject matter the anonymous, everyday, standardized, and banal iconography in American life, as comic strips, billboards, commercial products, and celebrity images and dealt with them typically in such form as outsize commercially smooth paintings, mechanically reproduced silk-screens, large-scale facsimiles, and soft sculptures”(Dictionary). While looking up the definition of Pop Art, Dictionary. om tells you “see also Andy Warhol. ” Andy Warhol defined Pop Art. Warhol was a twentieth- century American artist who took simple consumer objects and took them to the level of art. Warhol is best known for his “precise, enlarged image of Campbell’s tomato soup”(Dictionary). In the book called Andy Warhol: prince of pop written by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, they stated, “The work created by Andy Warhol elevated everyday images to art, ensuring Warhol a fame that has far outlasted the 15 minutes he predicted for everyone else.

He not only produced iconic art that blended high and popular culture; he also made controversial films, starring his entourage of the beautiful and outrageous; he launched Interview, a slick magazine that continues to sell today; and he reveled in leading the vanguard of New York’s hipster lifestyle. Warhol’s rise, from poverty to wealth, from obscurity to status as a Pop icon, is an absorbing tale-one in which the American dream of fame and fortune is played out in all of its success and its excess.

No artist of the late 20th century took the pulse of his time- and ours-better than Andy Warhol. ” Pop Art influenced popular culture and mass media during the twentieth-century and well into the beginning of the twenty-first-century and no other artists has defined it as well as Warhol. Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1928. “He was a physically and p psychologically fragile from boyhood and insecure about his freakish appearance and his homosexuality. He was emotionally hapless and sexually timid, terrified of Practically everything”( Puente). In 1945,

Warhol went to Carnegie Institute of Technology where he majored in pictorial design. After college, he moved to New York City and landed a job as a commercial artist, where he worked as an illustrator for several magazines, such as Bazaar, Vogue, and the New Yorker. He also did window displays for retail stores. Throughout the 1950’s Warhol won several commendations from the Art Directors club and the American Institute of Graphic Arts and in 1952, he had his first individual show at the Hugo Gallery, showing drawings based on the writings of Truman Capote (Andy).

Warhol couldn’t figure out how to break through, so he “pestered his friends and art-world contacts for ideas. For fifty dollars a gallery owner suggested the can’s of Campbell’s soup”(Puente), which is now one of his signature styles. In the 1960’s Warhol created several paintings that remain icons of the twentieth century, such has Campbell’s Soup Cans, Disasters, and Marilyn’s. Warhol also made several 16mm films, which are underground classics. In 1968, Valerie Solanis, walked into Warhol’s studio and shot him, the attack was almost fatal. Warhol focused on his paintings during the 1970’s. The artist began the 1980’s with the publication of POPism: The Warhol ‘60s and with exhibitions of portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century and the Retrospectives and Reversal series”(Andy). After routine gall bladder surgery, Warhol died on February 22nd, 1987. Warhol is one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. David Horowitz states in his book, The Peoples Voice: a populist Cultural History of Modern America, that “Just as some elements of the counterculture expressed hostility to the market, pop art practitioners sought to incorporate the materials of ordinary life into painting and printmaking”(Horowitz).

Realism and naturalism were new movements in America during the twentieth century, but modernism and its boost of art to a new level of self-reliance created a new art that summarized the mindset of people and not the physical description of them. Americans moved from rural areas to urban areas that embodied their social position and this was shown in modernist’s artwork. Warhol took modernism and its assumptions and altered them to his perspective. Warhol made people think what exactly is art? what is an artist? And he changed how art should be displayed.

Warhol challenged the modernist perspective and became one of the most recognized artists from the century because of it. Horowitz also explained, “using commonly available media like vinyl, Plexiglas, and neon, Warhol elevated consumer objects to the level of art. The legendary figure built a cottage industry around widely disseminated silkscreen replicas of soup and soda cans and images of Marilyn Monroe, winning praise as an egalitarian commemorator of everyday life and a rebel against the elitist art establishment. ”

Andy Warhol has been dead for twenty-three years but his artwork is still popular everywhere. In Maria Puente’s article, “Andy Warhol is popping up all over the place” she talks about how Warhol’s pop art collections as productive as ever; “His face stares at shoppers from Gap store windows. His artwork speeds down slopes on snowboards and embellishes Levi’s jeans, Royal Elastics shoes and Diane von Furstenberg’s upcoming swimsuits. Pop culture fans sport Warhol jewelry and watches. Spritz Warhol perfumes on pulse points and hang Warhol handbags from their shoulders.

Enthusiasts can even furnish their homes with Warhol- from rugs to dinner plates to bed linens. ” I think that Andy Warhol changed how art was viewed in the twentieth century and his artwork has been so popular it is still an ideal most people recognize. In the twentieth century people went saw his artwork in museums and in magazines, now his artwork is on clothing items, posters, dinner plates, cards, pins, and everything you can think of. I mean on of his original self-portraits was for sale in November for over one million dollars.

If one of his many self-portraits can sell for over one million dollars means his artwork had a huge impact on the culture. Andy Warhol was a leading figure in the Pop Art movement. “Campbell’s Soup Can, a later, enlarged, and isolated version of the tomato soup can, conveys the erroneous impression that Warhol was out solely to apotheosize the idiom of popular culture” (Honnef). America’s social effects were equally important to Warhol. “What made American fabulous, he once explained, was that it established a tradition in which the richest consumers basically bought the same products as the poorest.

You could watch television and drink a Coca Cola and you knew the president drank Coke, Liz Taylor drank Coke, and there you were drinking Coke. A Coke was a Coke, concluded Warhol, and no amount of money could buy you a better one”(Honnef). That insight explains why Warhol set out to achieve something similar in his work of art. He used standardized production to infuse art with the “magic of the perpetually same”(Honnef). Andy Warhol enriched the world by providing us with and idol from the world of art. Warhol was an artist of his time.

He was a pop artist who saw contemporary art and the art world move to a new era. Warhol was “in fact a producer of a software for a form of art which paralleled the social system”( Honnef). Warhol reacted to the challenges of his time and gave a new dimension to the world of art. His art had its subversive features, for it uncovered the hidden mechanisms of the modern industrial, the society, and it exposed connections that were normally only visible through depth.

Works Cited

1. “Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts”. March 2009. Web. 3 March 2010. . “Dictionary. com. ” January 2010. Web. 24 March 2010.
2. Greenberg, Jan and Jordan, Sandra. Andy Warhol: Prince of Pop. New York: Delacorte Press, 2004 Honnef, Klaus. WARHOL.
3. Taschen: 2007. Horowitz, David. The Peoples Voice: A Populist Cultural History of Modern America. Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY: Sloan Publishing, 2008. Puente, Maria.
4. “Andy Warhol’s genius, eccentricities just ‘Pop’. ” USA Today. 11 December 2009. Final ed. Puente, Maria. “Andy Warhol is popping up all over the place. ” USA Today. 1 April 2008. Final ed.

This section presents the background of the report, and outlines its background, objectives, methodology of project and report preparation. La. Background of the report: This project was assigned as part of the course “Principles of Marketing (MUSKET)” in the program Bachelor in Business Administration (ABA) to submit a report. The report entitled “Marketing Plan of Igloo Ice Cream Bangladesh” is submitted to fulfill the purpose. B.

Objective of the Report: Main objective of the report was to evaluate the marketing plan of MALL group’s Igloo IAC cream in Bangladesh to figure out the marketing plan especially consumer behavior, segmentation, positioning, product strategy, pricing strategy, distribution strategy, budgeting etc. We also tried to find out some recommendation for this. LLC. Methodology: We used secondary data to prepare our report. Besides, our seniors helped us a lot to make everything smoothly. We mainly used information from internet, newspaper, advertisements etc. 2. Company/product profile: Bangladesh ice-cream industry is growing.

Igloo is the largest player in branded common format ice cream segment here. It started its operation in 1964 in Chitchatting under K Raman & Co. Limited (CRACK) with a small factory inside Coca Cola bottling factory of CRACK. Later in 1983, Abdul Money Limited purchased the entire production setup of CRACK Limited including Coca-Cola bottling plant and Igloo ice- cream factory and the manufacturing operations continued in Chitchatting until 1990. Later, the main share went to Dacha. A new factory was established in Shampoo Industrial Area, in Dacha to fulfill the market demand.

Presently, Abdul Money Limited uses the state of the art-straight-line technology for ice cream production. They first introduced this technology in the South East Asia to manufacture ice ream. It produces nearly 20,twitter ice cream and distributes throughout the whole country. Now it is the market leader having more than 51% share (MALL Group, 2013). They have a 10,000 talented and highly skilled workforce now, caring about what they produce and in the manner, they produce them ensuring safety and security of workers as well as safeguarding their health and welfare.

As an organization and as individuals we also take great pride in contributing to the community and society as a whole through active corporate social responsibility and engagement. At present, MALL groups have three product lines- Food ( Igloo Ice cream and Milk Unit, Beverage) Service and Utility ( Paint, Utility, Service) Health care ( Nevus) MALL groups logo claims ‘touching lives… Building capabilities…! ‘ Touching lives through relevant infrastructure development or by delivering products and services available based on customer insights.

Executive summary

            The Coca-Cola is threatened together with the soft drinks industry due to a report that a hundred of people in Belgium and France became ill after drinking a contaminated Coke.  The Coca-Cola Company’s claim of their success is due to the trust of their customers to the quality of their products, and this trust is now shaken.  Alternative courses of actions are listed and evaluated based on their advantages and disadvantages.  Based on this analysis, the Coca-Cola Company must come up with researches about the cause of the illness and if the claim that the cause is due to drinking of contaminated Coke is proven false, should go to the public and tell everything to clear its name to get back the trust of the consumer to the company.

Problem identification

            The name of the Coca-Cola had been its strength in the industry.  They are very popular that they had become the number one brand for a long time.  However, crisis such as this claim for illnesses due to drinking contaminated Coke became a big threat to the company.  The presences of competitors also are threats to the company.  These competitors have been grabbing these opportunity filling up the market (Pepsi and Virgin Cola) which threaten the come back of the company in the market.

            The main problem in the case concerns with the shaken trust of the consumers on Cola-Cola where the company’s success depends upon.  Due to the report that there are contaminated Coke which is said to be the cause of the illness of the hundred people in Belgium and France who drink it, this claim of the company about the trust is shaken.  In addition, the loss of consumer which the company didn’t even think of happening had happened as a result of the said incident.  The soft drinks industry also was threatened and there had been around 13% decrease in the market of the Coke and Pepsi which are normally in the head of the market.  The Coke is also perceived as denying its responsibility because they are not making any reaction to the claim about the cause of illnesses.

Generation and Evaluation of Solutions

            The possible alternative courses of action for the Coca-Cola Company are the following:

• A. Cola could do researches about the cause of the illness and if the claim that the cause is due to drinking of contaminated Coke is proven false, should go to the public and tell everything to clear its name to get back the trust of the consumer to the company.

Advantages:

1. this will cost less than doing product recall
2.   easier and faster to do than product recall
3. results would make an impact due to scientific explanations and basis of the research
4. can bring back the consumer’s trust faster upon disproving the cause of the incident

Disadvantages:

1. the result of the research is not certain; might be true or false
2. if found true, another expenses would be made to make a product recall

• B. Coca-Cola can do a product recall and check their quality and make a claim that the next bottle of Coke they will see in the market are clean.

Advantages:

1. the company’s name would be cleaned and so are their products
2. the trust can be recovered as soon as the product recall is finished
3. can prove that the company is not denying its responsibility

Disadvantages:

1.  cost lot of money; highly expensive
2. more amount of time is needed thus delaying the other sectors of production
3.   didn’t have a clear view on what products should be cleaned; thus will cost jobs to be redone all over again

• C. Coca-Cola can make a product recall and leave the business.

Advantage:

1.  The problem is solved.

Disadvantages:

1. no source of income for the company
2. the founded trust and name in the market will be lost

Recommendation

            The company can choose the alternative course of action A.  That is to do researches about the cause of the illness and if the claim that the cause is due to drinking of contaminated Coke is proven false, should go to the public and tell everything to clear its name to get back the trust of the consumer to the company.  Doing this would this will cost less than doing product recall.  This is also an easier and faster way to do than a product recall.  The results would also make an impact due to scientific explanations and basis of the research.  Through this, consumer’s trust can be recovered faster upon disproving the cause of the incident.  And Coca-Cola can come back to the business and regain its claim: ‘…a billion servings of Coca-Cola ago was yesterday morning.’

References

• Bernstein, J 1996, “Crisis Management Articles”, viewed 15 April 2007, <http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/articles.html>.
• Coombes, A 2006, “You Never Know If a Layoff Is Coming — How to Prepare”, viewed 15 April 2007, <http://www.careerjournal.com/myc/survive/20061201-coombes.html>.
• Deuren, R B V 2007, “Crisis Management and Business Continuity”, viewed 15 April 2007, <http://www.reinhartlaw.com/webpages/2/departments.aspx?deptID=337>.
• Gerencher, K 2007, “Will Disability Insurance Cover All Your Needs?”, viewed 15 April 2006, <http://www.careerjournal.com/myc/survive/20070406-gerencher.html>.
• Heller, R 2005, “Business Crisis Management”, viewed 15 April 2007, <http://www.thinkingmanagers.com/blog/2005/11/30/business-crisis-management>.
• Reh, J 2001, “Business Crisis Resources”, viewed 15 April 2007, <http://managemnt.about.com/od/planning/l/blcrisis.htm>.

This paper draws on Coca Cola Company’s concepts of branding development and marketing using the comprehensive framework of brand inventory and brand exploratory to show how the beverage products of Coca Cola are marketed and branded. Profiling how the products form brand elements, the discussion will lean towards the marketing program adopted by Coca Cola Company. The nature of business in Coca Cola Company portends the element of marketing that connects consumers with the product brand using strategic business units.

This strategy of success undoubtedly broadens the Coca Cola’s family of beverage brands; all in a bid to drive profitable growth as well as driving cost effectiveness and efficiency across the world. Coca Cola Brand Coca Cola Company is the leading manufacturer, marketer and distributor of soft drink beverages across the world. It manufactures carbonated drinks mixed with syrup to largely edge in the market as a leading producer of refreshing beverages.

The famous Coke product forms the biggest selling soft drink in the world; a factor that is attributed to the effective approach the company employs in its strategic brand development and management. As a profitable company, it is evident Coca Cola uses a concise and strategic approach to brand development and marketing typical of a strategic sales force that has earned the company a competitive advantage over other competitors in the beverage industry.

The global success of Coca Cola beverages rests in the ability of the company to create a brand awareness that leads in facilitating efficient programs to provide simplified solutions within the precincts of managing brand merchandise (Smith et al, 2009, pp 87-89). Armstrong and Kotler (2009, pp 243-244) acknowledge that Coca Cola, as a company that operates in various location, branches and offices across the world, develops its brand products in special beverages that can be delivered far and wide and the company maintains brand uniformity as well as brand quality.

The concept of branding that Coca Cola uses is inarguably a powerful model that enables the company to determine the success of its products. The beverage brand in this globalised company allows the chance and opportunity of building an appropriate brand image through its universalized logo. Coca Cola products present a plethora of brand meaning to the company as well as consumers and afford the chance of personalizing the brand with the objective of making the products not only appealing but also attractive to customers. Coca Cola Brand Inventory

According to Keith (2004, p 112), Coca Cola’s branding development and management is part of the business process that impacts on the executive decision making process and formulation of policies within the parameters of developing and marketing beverage products. With regard to this, Coca Cola has typically made its products to reflect a unique brand that portends distinctive attributes. The trademark of Coca Cola’s brand products, as well as the logo symbols, has been part of this marketing platform; a factor that has led the company to choose appropriate labeling and packaging criteria for its products.

In addition, an overview of how Coca Cola brands, markets and sells its products shows that the approach of the company to market and develop its brand product is aligned to the theme of forming an identity system of the brand, creating a long lasting image in the minds of the consumers, enhancing the interplay between production and consumption, evolving a brand entity and adding value both to the consumer and the company (Curtis, 2005, pp 177-178). The inherent attributes of the product and the idea of branding exhibited by Coca Cola inform the effective approach towards marketing a product within the precincts of marketing mix. Read also emerging business opportunities at IBM case analysis

Semenik et al (2008, pp 314-316) outline that the strongest link of branding development used by Coca Cola lies in the fact that its products form the company’s name. As consumers think of the company, it becomes imperative that they think about the products and this makes the whole company a brand on its own. As such, the communications features employed by coca cola in its brand marketing contribute to the company’s popular selling point of the soft drinks in the world’s history leaving coca cola beverage products the best ad largest known products in the whole world.

Accordingly, the fact that Coca Cola, s a brand, provide uniform products across the world leaves it as a fountain of beverage. The pricing feature of the company’s products takes a powerful dimension that enhances the products competitive edge in the beverage industry. According to Mantoya (2002, pp 131-133), pricing together with other marketing communication form the basis of a fundamental concept of branding strategy that helps Coca Cola in examining the benefits of its product brand not only to the company but also to customers.

Research shows that Coca cola fulfils the requirements of an effective brand since it is entirely a symbol and design that seeks to identify the company as an organization in beverages and gains a competitive advantage (Willows et al, 2006, pp 87-89). With regard to this, Coca Cola has developed a marketing strength by intimating the American culture in the beverages. This factor has made the image of Coca Cola’s products to be weighed down with sentiments chance emerging as a brand that consumers are passionate to.

Similarly, the ability for Coca Cola as a company to display the image of its brand on t-shirts, caps and umbrellas just to mention a few, extremely works for the company in that Coca Cola products are recognized and consumed by millions of people around the world. In light of this, the brand of the company explains why Coca Cola stand as a dominant and influential symbol of quality as well as enjoyment (Armstrong and Kotler, 2009, pp 189-191). Smith et al (2008, pp 65-66) further assert that the bottling system of Coca Cola strengthen its brand’s relevance in the marketplace.

In essence, this allows the company not only to carry out its business on a global scale but also to customize and localize its production and marketing approaches in light of diversified cultural backgrounds of its consumers.. For example, the bottling companies for Coca Cola’s products are owned locally. To avoid the competitive force that is created by Pepsi, Coca Cola uses a concise value chain that disintegrates its business approach into strategically relevant entrepreneur activities.

Keith (2004, pp217-219) contends that the entrepreneur activities contribute to the performance of the company in maintaining its fame in the beverage industry. The marketing and sales frameworks, inbound logistics, operations as well as outbound logistics are key entrepreneur value chain activities that Coca Cola employs in a bid to maintain competitive advantage as well as enhance a warm positive relationship with the consumers. To illustrate, Coca Cola achieves a successful brand framework due to its notable suppliers who include Spherion and IBM among others.

These suppliers not only provide Coca Cola with raw materials such as ingredients and machinery but also ensure that the health standards of the ingredients are in satisfactory conditions. In the same vein, coca cola has laid down certain standards and measure to ensure suppliers adhere to certain quality condition which includes health and safety measures, compliance with laws, standards and regulations environmental measures as well as collective bargaining.

Ideally, meeting these conditions leads to the safety of the consumer within the pedestal of using Coca Cola products and still enhances the health of the brand (Curtis, 2005, p 179).

Sources of Brand Equity

Labeling of the products range from the use of simple tags on the product to the attachment of somewhat complex graphics on the whole package. Coca cola uses this labeling design to characteristically create a situation where the label can help identify the product brand, help in describing the product as a whole and extensively promote the products in the market (Semenik et al, 2008, pp 213-215).

Extensively, this marketing communication leverages the brand equity and in the same vein, Coca Cola benefits from its element of pricing which forms an important aspect in the paradigm of marketing mix. Mantoya (2002, p179) contends that relative pricing of the products is determined by factor such as the size of the product and the packaging design, external influences such as demand , price elasticity, customer and consumers as well as Coca Cola marketing and organizational objectives.

This approach allows Coca Cola to quote pocket-friendly prices for their brands and thus expand the market size as well as leverage brand equity. The promotional strategy and advertisement explains the success in . Coca cola fascinates its customers with the advertisement messages that are entirely brilliant (Armstrong and Kotler, 2009, p 402). Accordingly, television ads, leaflets as well as billboards form various kinds of advertisement that are used by Coca Cola.

In this sophisticated plan, Coca Cola continue to thrive in the beverage industry and creates a quality brand image that impacts on the psychology of consumers through the use of artistic designs, respectable charities popular celebrities and other forms of corporate social responsibility, to make its marketing mix a success. With regard to this, the promotional strategy that is outside advertising portends a brand milestone. For instance, the colors, as well as shapes of Coca Cola products, their packaging cans, bottles and labels, are eye-catching.

These elements create a vivid image in the minds of consumers making the Coca Cola’s trademarked shapes to be accepted and recognized worldwide. Using the red background, the marketing communication becomes forcefully, appealing and emotive. Definitely, this gives an impression that those people who use coca coal product seem to be enjoying. Thus, the innovative marketing design is a pointer to successful product management and development by making Coca Cola products very refreshing. Brand Exploratory Consumers of Coca Cola products have a world wide base owing to the factor that most of them feel that Coca Cola is a world wide brand.

According to Armstrong and Kotler (2009, pp 417-418), the fact that Coca Cola is a carbonated type of soft drink leaves many customers with an easy opportunity to use the product wherever they are and whenever they need any Coca cola products. In this light, Coca Cola Company has its products sold in stores, vending machines, restaurants and supermarkets across the world. In essence, the company has managed to win the confidence of its customers since most of them recognize it as the most valuable brand of the world.

Another strength that betters the recognition of the customers lies in the ability of Coca Cola Company to introduce other drinks on top of the famous coke such as diet coke, cherry coke, vanilla coke and other editions that have lemon and coffee. It is imperative that such a business move guarantee the customers a variety of products as well as tastes. These non alcoholic spackling brands are constantly marketed using powerful growth promotional activities that give the customers a moral boost.

Moreover, Keith (2004, pp 162-163) postulates that Coca Cola attaches great value on the consumer following its aspect of promoting a positive image. Accordingly, many peoples, potential and actual consumers of Coca Cola products, perceive it as a company of the people because its retailers range from large stores, supermarkets to corner shops. With regard to this, schools and other institutions of learning, pubs, restaurants and event workplaces take part in the retailing process through stocking the products for the consumptions.

This in essence fosters the relationship it has with consumers for mutual benefits. On the same note, the interplay between the consumers, the customers and the market in the soft drink industry, has made it obvious that most customers will prefer Coca Cola products to similar brands from other companies. The reason behind this lies in the ability of Coca Cola to overly change its strategic marketing direction to fully evolve into a total beverage company.

Coupled with the efforts for the company to campaign towards campaign for its brands, Coca Cola manages to communicate to the consumers any changes in the brands and marketing hence holding the faith of the customers and remaining credible in the soft drink industry. Significantly, a recent survey showed that as many contemporary customers have turned to eating healthier especially in pursuit of an inclusion of fruits and vegetables in their meals and therefore influencing Coca Colas approach to produce juice drinks, energy drinks and smoothies (Smith et al, 2009, p387).

This has made it to remain relevant in the market place by realizing growth rates in the product consumptions. Another important point to note is the packaging approach that Coca Cola Company takes. The company not only packages its soft drinks in an appealing functional manner but also in a form that double up as a communication tool that creates a brand character. Armstrong and Kotler (2009, pp 353-354) outline that in so doing, the customers feel part of the company and their consumption of products reflects the participatory role enhancing the growth of the company.

Similarly, it is evident that what contributed to the consumers’ belief in the authenticity of the products is the functional role of packaging which transcends the protecting the products and assuring the health and safety of the consumers. It is plausible to argue that many different packages of coca cola products, as in 250ml, 500ml and one liter are in convenient portable formats that are extensively more demanded and conveniently used. Improving Brand management and Development

Towards retaining the competitive edge that Coca Cola has achieved, its consider employing marketing strategy of price skimming. This approach is argued by analyst to be instrumental to the organization not only in creating an expanded market niche but also to establish a quality brand image (Keith, 2004, pp 223-224). For instance, if it quotes high prices for its products, it can consider lowered until the marketing manager realizes the appropriate level.

In addition, marketing operations of the brands should lean towards the developed market niche that the company establishes its entrepreneur territories in economies that are stable and guarantees a powerful purchasing power. With regard to this, Semenik et al (2008, pp 117-118) articulate that , Coca Cola will improve its brand management by operating in a predictable and well regulated business environment thus enjoying the benefits of establishing and setting long term goals, and strategies through planning.

By diversifying its product portfolio, Coca Cola can aggressively develop and expand in non carbonate products which are an indication of growth opportunities. The need for healthy drinks in schools and the modern beverage consumption market may see many people refrain from consuming Coca Cola products hence the challenge that Coca Cola may face is reduced consumption of its beverages and an eventual shrunk market. In a bid to cushion the company from such impact, it remains imperative that a diversified product portfolio will be instrumental.

As such the company can open newer door for the production of water as well as juices. Conclusion From the foregoing discussion, it is evident that the approaches of brand development and management taken by Coca Cola uniquely position the company in the market niche. The consistency and uniformity in the brand elements, attributes of the Coca Cola products and the consistency as well as the continuity of the marketing programs enhances the commitments and effective strategies of Coca Cola to create an everlasting brand image.

Similarly, following the thorough knowledge of consumers about the products of the company, usage rates, awareness and what the brand promises them; portend the efficiency in brand development that Coca Cola has undertaken over the years. The whole strategic approach in pricing, marketing communication and globalization of their products in a unified whole make the customers and consumers of Coca Cola company to feel refreshed and part of the brand that Coca Cola produces.

In essence, the packaging aspect leaves customers with the ability to identify brand equity and continue to be part of the coca cola success story.

Bibliography

Armstrong, G and Kotler, P 2009. An Introduction to Marketing and brand Development. New York: Prentice Hall Curtis, T . 2005.
Marketing and Brand Management in Practice. Report on Coca Cola Soft Drinks. Vol 1, Issue No 1, pp 176-181 Keith, W. 2004.
Turning Marketing Strategies into the Company’s Value. London: Heinemann Mantoya, P. 2002.
Personal Branding Phenomenon: Development and Management Approach. New York: Routledge Semenik, R et al. 2008.
Advertisement and Integrated Brand Promotion. New York: Cengage Learning Smith, T et al. 2009.
A Brand Narrative Approach of Marketing Communication. The Perspective of Coca Cola Products. London: John Willey& Sons Willows, D et al. 2006.
Effective Brand Communication, Marketing and Development. New York: McGraw Hill

Marketing Report on Coca-Cola

1.                  Introduction

            Pricing becomes one key factor determining the saleability of a product in market that exhibit a fierce competition. At retailing industry, price becomes a marketing component that plays significant part that determines the success of a company. The underlying reason is the fact that the industry has many players that competes one another in order to acquire as many as customers and revenue as well.

In soft drink industry where the competition involves two giant producers: Coca Cola and Pepsi Co., price also become one influential factors since in several markets, the price of two similar products is about the same. In addition, the industry also exhibits the competition with other products such as Delmonte Juice, water, sport drink, and energy drink, to name a few.

The fact that customers prefer Pepsi cola to Coca cola in terms of taste, as revealed by the blind test several decades ago, suggest that brand equity become the driving factor that entice customers to buy Coca cola than Pepsi cola.

            Concerning the beverage competition, this paper will discuss about the marketing report for Coca Cola during the upcoming events, London Olympics 2012, that includes the environmental factors, SWOT analysis, PEST Analysis, marketing strategy through STP (segmentation, targeting, positioning), designs of marketing campaign, and advertising plan.

2.                  Environmental Analysis

In general, corporations at any size are influenced by external and internal situations and condition that influence them at different level. Several external factors that influence a company includes antitrust Act, technological advancement, changes of customers’ preferences, export and import policy, and customers’ demand. These kind of external factors coupled with internal factors may become winning strategy if corporations can utilize and manage them appropriately and effectively.

            In order to assist business in recognizing external factors that influences them; scholars, researchers, and business practitioners develop appropriate tools that also provide solutions to deal with those factors. Among many external factor and internal analyses, SWOT analysis and Marketing Strategy are business analysis tools that commonly used by business practitioners to figure out and explore issues that influence the rise and ruin of an industry.

2.1              SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis composes of strengths (S) and weakness (W) as internal factors while the external factors consist of opportunities (O) and Threats (T). The use of SWOT analysis is advantageous since it provides information that is useful to match the companies’ resources and capabilities to existing business environment in which the company competes.

2.1.1        Strengths

Strength is the one factor in analyzing internal factors that influence a company. The component describes any resources and capabilities that support a company to achieve its competitive advantage such as patents, excellent reputation, low cost structure and many more.

Although a blind test in 1970s shows that customers prefer Pepsi to Coca Cola in terms of taste, still in reality Coca Cola gain better financial and sales performance. This is because the competition in the cola industry is much more about brands and value rather than price. This condition occurs since the company successfully builds their brand through several marketing campaign (Woodgrange Technologies Ltd, 2006). Figure 1 shows the top 10 brands in the UK that could strengthen the competitive advantage of Coca Cola in facing the London Olympics 2012.

Figure 1          Coca Cola among The World’s Famous Brands

Source: Centaur Media plc, 2006

2.1.2        Weaknesses

The second internal factor is Weaknesses. This is simply in contrast to the strength in which the absence of specific strength might be considered as the weaknesses of the company. It includes a lack of patent protection, high-cost structure and many more.

            The weaknesses of Coca Cola are caused by the strong partnerships with organizations such as Starbucks and the Lipton Company.  It should also be noted that Pepsi-Cola was known for its strong franchising system.  At one time, this ability was considered the backbone of Pepsi-Cola and the number one reason for its success.  Figure 2 shows that carbonated drink still have a good place for

Figure 2          Beverage Scorecard

Source: Oregon State University, 2000

2.1.3        Opportunities

These elements provide specific opportunities that may help a company to gain more profit and achieve sustainable growth. They include unfulfilled customer need, new technologies, elimination of trade barriers and so on.

Despite the fact that the soft drink market is pretty competitive, Coca Cola still has the opportunity to increase its market share because the cola in the market is quite monotonic. Most of the end users are young people. However, not everyone enjoys the taste of the cola; therefore, Coca Cola could try to provide some other taste of cola such as adding some lemon juice. Coca Cola could potentially change the flavour or provide variations of flavours in order to satisfy the varying desired tastes of buying audience. Figure 3 shows that consumers now are thirsty having a quality beverage since energy and sport drink is widely available in the market. The condition suggests that Coca Cola in facing the competition in London Olympics 2012 should also campaign new products from the energy and sport drink segments. Therefore, the Olympics events could be the suitable events to heavily campaign the Coca-Cola’s Powerade products.

Figure 3          Preferred Beverages

Source: Perlik, 2008

2.1.4        Threats

Threats describe any changes in the external factors that may put any company in unsafe position in the market. They include a change in consumer tastes, new substitute products, new regulations and many more

In addition to the biggest competitor, Pepsi-Cola, Coca Cola also faces challenges from local producers of soft drink industry. In China, for example, some local cola such as FeiChang and FenHuang Cola have taken their strong hold in the market with over 50% of the market share. These local cola advertisements for the local cola also adopt the sentiments in their campaign as stated “Chinese people drink our own cola.”  In addition, these local cola flavours are more suitable for the Chinese taste buds (“Report on Pepsi,” n.d.).

2.2              Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning has been identified as the new approach toward new product development. This approach has been used extensively to discuss the marketing mix as a whole. Nevertheless, in this paper I am discussing the practice of this approach to the ‘Product’ factor of the marketing mix. The STP process consists of three parts:

Segmentation
The process of segmentation includes observing personal characteristics of consumers. In this point of view, personal characteristic of consumers are significantly influenced by demographics factors. Segmentation analysis should use a mixture of various factors, which are educational attainment, home value, occupation, income and age.

Targeting
Defining the target market is also important factors in making money for Coca Cola. After dividing consumers into different segments, Coca Cola should choose which market is the most profitable for their products. Since Coca Cola products have their own fans and buyers, therefore, Coca Cola had better to target particular markets as following:

§  Brand of Products           :  Unforgettable moments with Coca Cola

§  Ages         :  all age

(Woodgrange Technologies Ltd, 2006)

In addition, in some markets, Coca Cola also targets particular markets. For example in Romania, where soccer becomes a popular sport, Coca Cola start targeting to tap the sport market, which currently hold by sports drinks (non-carbonated drinks containing a higher salt).

Positioning
The last part of the STP process is defining the position of the product within the selected market. This is important because defining the right market for the product does not mean determining the details of how the product should be tailored. In order to gain recognition and success in the targeted market the product must have a set of value preposition. For Coca Cola, the positioning of the company relates to the targeting of customers that focus on people who enjoy music, sport, and fashion because life experience mostly links to at least one of these activities (Restrepo, n.d)

2.3              Marketing Mix (4Ps)

Marketing mix becomes the heart of any marketing plan. It consists of product, price, promotion and place. The resume of marketing mix for Coca Cola is as following:

·   Product : goes beyond soft drink by providing customer service support to answer customers’ inquiries

·   Price : penetration pricing to strengthen their position in the market while acquire larger market share

·   Place: available anywhere especially those connected to target market (sport, music, and events) to increase the awareness that Coca Cola are lifestyle not only soft drink.

·   Promotion : use endorsement from top athletes that performs during the London Olympics 2012

3                    Advertising Campaign

Currently, the most popular media for advertising is paper or in-print media. Although electronic media emerges, the use of in-print media for advertising and public relation efforts is ‘acceptable’ and even ‘helpful’ for most consumers. However, the use of in-print media for communicating customers about Coca Cola offerings may find difficulty because consumers may receive almost 4 million tons of junk mails annually. The situation highlights that Coca Cola should employ other kinds of media such as online media since the number of internet users continues rising, which in turn also increase the online spending.

Table 1            Communication/promotion activities, budgets and time scheme, and measures for evaluation

No
Communication

Activities
Budgets

($)
Time Schedule
Measure for Evaluation
§  Public Relations
1
In-house promotion at Coca Cola venues during the London Olympics 2012
a
Every Month before the games start
§   The number of students of public who visit Coca Cola increase everyday as promotion on how Coca Cola works
2
Press Releases
b
Every week
§  News about new Coca Cola and Promotion or CSR initiatives
§  Print Advertising
3
Brochures
c
Anytime
Distributed to customers at point of sales
4
Magazines
d
Every month
Advertisement at entertainment on sport, music magazines
§  Online Advertising
5
Website Updates
e
Any time
Web sites updated every time to show current offering of Coca Cola
6
Direct Mail
f
Every two month
Distributed to loyal customers to inform the recent update on Coca Cola products
§  Outdoor Advertising
7
Billboard
g
A whole year
Giant billboard at Hotels, Athletes apartments and at airports
8
Posters
h
Every day
Placed at restaurants, sport venues etc
TOTAL
SUM

            In general, the Gantt chart for the advertising plan of Coca Cola in the London Olympics is as following:

4                    Recommendation

The London 2012 Olympics is still four-year away but the atmosphere can be felt since the decision to award the city as the host of the greatest sport event in the world. Especially, it relates to the government decision to build mega projects on infrastructure to support the events. Some projects include new transportation modes, housing for athletes etc. considering these issues, there are several recommendation as following:

Early Public Relation and Advertising. This condition suggests that London, one of the most crowded cities in the world that in metropolitan area population have more than 12 million becomes key attractive market for Coca Cola to promote their products long before the games begins
Taking into account cultural diversity of London and during the events. As the capital of United Kingdom, the culture of the city is the combination between dozens of different customs and values owned by people of diverse origins. With more than 300 languages spoken within the city, London became of the richest cultural inheritance in the world. This condition will become more intense as athletes will come from any parts of the world suggesting coca cola to be able to deliver message effectively in more customized format.
Focus on the benefits of Coca Cola. Coca Cola has a wide range of beverage products that is suitable for athletes (sport/energy drink), officials, and guests/attendants. Therefore, it is essential that Coca Cola designs a specific communication that target each market segment.

5                    Conclusion

Beverage industry continues exhibiting fierce competition because the customers’ preferences that demands for new products and tastes. To be specific, the competition could be also more challenging for special events like London Olympics 2012 that will be held between 27 July and 12 August 2012. The challenges is not only from other soft drink producers like Pespi Co. but also from substituting products like Delmonte Juice, water, sport drink, and energy drink.

            Concerning the beverage competition, this paper has elaborated the marketing report for Coca Cola during the upcoming events, London Olympics 2012, that includes the environmental factors, SWOT analysis, PEST Analysis, marketing strategy through STP (segmentation, targeting, positioning), designs of marketing campaign, and advertising plan.

The analysis shows that the London Olympics events may provide opportunity for Coca Cola since the company also has energy and sport drink segments, Coca-Cola’s Powerade products, which is suitable to target athletes and attendants.

Reference:

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Consumer loyalty is a broad category, which requires a detailed study, particularly with a company like Coca Cola.  Coca Cola belongs to the packaged consumer goods market and is the largest company with regard to marketing, branding, distribution, manufacturing, etc.  (Cisco Systems, 2007).  When attempting to understand the concept of brand loyalty, it is important to carefully analyze the areas that apply to brand loyalty.  The manner with which promotions are handled creates a major impact on the study, which gives the implication of strong branding.  This process could results in the devaluing of the brand as a whole and the marketed product.  To the dismay of management, research also indicates that loyalty to the Coca Cola brand is decreasing (Vault, 2008, F-5).

Introduction

Brand loyalty is a force that persuades the consumer to buy Coca Cola repeatedly whenever they desire to purchase soda.  This is due to the consumer’s level of satisfaction with the product and is directly linked to marketing of the product.  The brand name of Coca Cola has been used as a defining characteristic to their consumers; it helps to define them as a people.  However, too much advertising created an awareness of the newer variations in the product’s quality, which created unrest among the bottlers and Coca Cola sales fell off after the formula change.  This created an emotional response from consumers who had been dependent on the Coca Cola product for their soda needs (Allen, F, 1995, 113).

This proposal will carry out research on the aspects that the company should address the issue of brand loyalty.  Tests will be conducted including taste tests, interviews, and questionnaires, which will indicate whether the formula change implemented by Coca Cola will reverse the private motivations of consumers buying their product.  New Coke did destroy the brand loyalty consumers had for Coca Cola; it could not inspire the deep emotional bond that consumers had with the original.  For marketing managers, this enforced the concept of the difference between perceived brand loyalty and what the shoppers actually buy.  Minor changes could offer solutions, but this still needs to be handled carefully throughout the process (Hayes,  2005, 44).

The different groups that will be studies for the Coca Cola market survey are:

• Coke manufacturers and the trading associations
• The Coca Cola suppliers
• Consumers of Coca Cola

Methodology will be based on informal interview communication mode directly with the consumers of coke who are participants in terms of suppliers, traders, and manufacturers in the market across the world.  Sources will also include statistical data, conference papers, and interviews with the main players of the industry (Maupin, 1999, 28).

When considering Coca Cola changing its formula, market research has shown that the loyalty dropped below expectations due to the modification and was far below expectation.  Due to the fact that a number of variations have been made to the sugar and caffeine make up since 1886, there has been a gap in the continuity of the loyalty of consumers to the Coca Cola brand.  This is significant because the Coca Cola company is known for success in their industry throughout the world.  The implementation of “new Coke” was aimed at younger consumers.  Coca cola believed that the aging crowd was more concerned about their health and weight and would opt for drinks that did not contain sugar.  Teenagers, however, would favor the sweeter taste of cola.  The fault with this logic is that the company opted for alternatives to the product’s formula rather than changing their marketing campaign to appeal to the youth segment (Hayes, 2005, 229).

As brand loyalty is the top concern for company executives, marketers need to understand that the majority of consumers purchase a particular product because of convenience and specific situational constraints directly linked to their satisfaction levels.  This loyalty concept needs to be more focused to address the company’s needs.  Brand loyalty is paramount for Coca Cola as drawing in a new customer is sixteen times costlier that retaining an old customer.

Therefore, the goal and strategic objective of the research presented is to assist Coca Cola in understanding their current position in brand loyalty and to advise them on how to increase it (Kotler, 2005, 198). Market researchers studied the consumers’ behavior with regard to the new taste of Coca Cola wherein the consumers were asked a series of questions relating to their opinion of the change, how they were adapting to the “new Coke” variation, and whether or not they would be loyal to Coca Cola or try a new brand.

The research proved that Coke drinkers were not satisfied with the modifications made to their choice of brand.  Coca Cola executives worried about their baseline brand of Coca Cola diving into trouble with the consumer market if the “new Coke” failed to maintain their consumer base.  This would open up the field to Pepsi Co., giving them complete market advantage.  The studies’ results indicate that tests, including taste tests, blind tests, opinion polls, interviews, and other market research, is not clearly definitive in the process of measurement (Davis, 1993, 189).

Research also indicated that the best study method for understanding brand loyalty is to examine consumer behavior in the purchase decision process.  Studies also proved that it is not taste alone that is the basis for purchasing decisions.  It has been revealed that the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain, which literally lights up when the consumer is making a decision based on brand awareness and loyalty.  Research also delved into a concept known as neuromarketing wherein neuroscientists are employed to actually study and explore consumers’ reactions in an environment which allows scientists to see the changes in the brain which affect the buying process.  Researchers have more to say about brand loyalty, which is directly linked to the way messages are sent to the brain while conducting tests (Gould, 1994, 243).

Research has shown that consumers who participated in blind taste tests demonstrated a lower level of acceptance to the Coca Cola brand when compared to those who were told the name of the drink when tasting.  This shows a clear emotional preference by consumers.  Studies also reviewed the cultural messages that are sent to the brain.  These help in identifying the downturn in personal preference.  The challenge has been to differentiate between the power of brain science and commercials, which the advertisers promote.  Hence, marketers need to understand the link of the human brain and the advances in brain science when making effective commercials (Blakeslee, 2004, F13).

Research Methodology

The goal of research is to better analyze the problems facing research and practically streamline the strategic issues of brand loyalty for Coca Cola.  It is necessary to understand the target market segment, the limitations, the methods adopted, and collection of measures of data that were undertaken in the course of the study.  The limitations will be structured to study the brand loyalty across the United States and Indian markets to gain a clear comparison of the reasoning that affect brand loyalty.  Coca Cola will need to address the issues of demand in order to study the changing patters of both foreign and local markets.  The company will be arranging specific representatives across the American and Indian markets in strategic locations in order to speed up the process and get a better market population study.

Over the course of the study, Coca Cola will be considering social factors, demographic trends, past sales records, health measurements undertaken, consumption patterns of the target segment, price shifts and the relation of price to the purchase, competition, and the product development phenomenon.  In order to accurately analyze brand loyalty, the company will also have to evaluate cultural dynamisms, consumer buying behavior, governmental policies affecting major decisions in the domestic and foreign markets, which will clearly indicate the specifics required of the study.

 As Coca Cola is a universal drink enjoyed by all age groups, the target market will be both youthful consumers and older ones.  Demographic trends will be ascertained among the different segments of consumers, which will be used to understand past studies as necessary.  Though the study will include the older consumer segment, more emphasis will be given to the youth evaluated as that is the group that contains the future, long time users of the product.  The next step would be to conduct primary research considering the estimated market potential and the market share  of Coca Cola and competitors (Greising, 1999, 121).

In order to understand brand loyalty among teenager, several tests can be initiated.  These include surveys designed to establish the effectiveness of an ad, package, or new product innovation or design.  Focus groups are another way to conduct a more intense research survey.  An interview that includes blind taste tests will also prove beneficial.  The cultural differences technique wherein users of the product do not give correct responses to statement and experiments due to their culture must also be considered.  Brain imaging is not adopted very often but it does show profound results when it comes to verbalizing the emotions (Blakeslee, S., 2004).

Coca Cola will indirectly adopt pilot tests, test-marketing concept to aspects where the consumers’ idea of choosing a particular brand stems from.  Considering the target segment of teenagers, adopting the process of sampling can increase brand loyalty toward Coca Cola.  The company can initially launch a discount of Coca Cola whenever the study needs to be carried out and implemented wherein the selection of the states could be based on a random selection process.  Promotion of this discount promotion campaign will include online web mode, which regulates participation by means of creating a database of customers’ email ID and age to ensure that only a certain demographic segment, most often teens, will receive a discount coupon for Coca Cola (PhD- dissertations, 1999).

For consumers which fall between a defined age group, a structured questionnaire will be made available which takes into consideration the uniformity of the consumers’ selection from each state in order to have a proportionate representation of the sample selected.  The questionnaire will consist of questions which are answered compulsorily and in the form of judgmental statements.  These evaluative statements include responses consisting of Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree.  This questionnaire will help Coca Cola in identifying the attitude of the consumers’ response to Coca Cola.  After the evaluation, positive and negative responses will be analyzed.  This will indicate whether consumers who have a positive attitude have a higher level of commitment and trust with Coca Cola and will purchase the product over the competition.  This will indicate strong brand loyalty toward Coca Cola (Pendergrast, 2000, 89).

Results

In order to make rational and sound observations, it is required that analysts use proper methods, tools, and techniques so that analyzing the required data set becomes easier.  Generalizations are often used in conjunction with this method.  Analysts will need to use certain instruments in order to generate and conduct an analysis.  These instruments will identify the results of customer loyalty of the different target segments.

A Likert scale will be used to observe the pattern of consumer attitudes toward specified statements that have positive and negative answers that create a behavioral pattern.  The scale used has been previously identified as a range between Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree.  From the resulting scores, the researcher will carry out standard deviation, median, and mode to determine the level of agreement on a particular statement.  In turn, this will help develop a proper questionnaire analysis, prompting an understanding of the relationship between various variables used in the study.

The method that will assist with the understanding of the research include three main factors that will be adopted to study customer attitude towards their cola purchase and to ascertain to concept of brand loyalty  (Kotler, P., 2005, 34).  This technique is known as Factor Analysis, which is used to obtain deeper insights on the strong variables, which in turn lead to a particular judgment and follow-up action (Ramaswamy, 2002, 67).

In addition to these tests, Coca Cola believes in conducting blind taste test which help in knowing what is actually in the minds of the consumers.  This will help researchers in understand consumer perception and ideas which could be addressed by company executives to create more focus on the delivery of strategic implementation of goals and objectives.

Summary, Recommendations, Conclusion

After having thoroughly reviewed the entire pattern of research with reference to understanding brand loyalty and consumer attitudes, the possible alternatives and solutions need to be developed by Coca Cola.  Brand loyalty, which is closely tied to brand equity and promotions are one way to look at this consideration.  Some brand managers may not know that promotional campaigns related to the brand create an impact in aligning the consumers’ thinking when considering a certain product or service.  This may in turn, mislead the purpose of the strategies utilized.

Price sensitivity and usage dominance are directly related to the way brand promotions are addressed.  If a company allows their advertising campaign to include price cuts, the consumer will consider this aspect for every product in the industry and will routinely switch to a product that is priced lower.  Usage dominance is the edge a company possesses for having acquitted the maximum number of local buyers.  This indicates that the brand managers have to understand that if usage dominance exists then price sensitivity increases for every other competitor in the industry.  This contrasts when considering the view of ideology of brand equity or the loyalty consumers hold for the specific products (Warren, J., 2001)

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COCA-COLA CRISIS IN BELGIUM, 1999. Introduction The assignment given was to choose a case with an organization or person that suffered a PR crisis, and didn’t manage it correctly from a PR perspective, such as miss-communications with stakeholders, media etc. I chose to write about the crisis that happened in Belgium in 1999. I will analyze the steps the company took towards to solve the issue, explain what they did wrong, and give my own opinion on how they could’ve handled it better. I will end my case with a final conclusion, and what the situation is today. But firstly I will start by talking a little bit about the Coca-Cola Company.

Company Profile The Coca-Cola Company is the global leader in the soft-drink industry, with world headquarters located in Atlanta, Georgia. Coca-Cola and its subsidiaries employ nearly 30,000 people worldwide. Syrups, concentrates and beverage bases for Coca-Cola, the company’s flagship brand, and more than 160 other soft-drink brands are manufactured and sold by Coca- Cola and its subsidiaries in nearly 200 countries around the world. Approximately 70 percent of volume sales and 80 percent of profit come from outside the United States. The European market provides 26% of the company’s US$18B in revenues.

Coca-Cola owns a 49% share of the European soft drink market, compared to Pepsi-Co’s 5%. Coca-Cola’s Corporate Mission Statement We exist to create value for our share owners on a long-term basis by building a business that enhances The Coca-Cola Company’s trademarks. This also is our ultimate commitment. As the world’s largest beverage company, we refresh that world. We do this by developing superior soft drinks, both carbonated and non-carbonated, and profitable nonalcoholic beverage systems that create value for our Company, our bottling partners, our customers, our share owners and the communities in which we do business.

In creating value, we succeed or fail based on our ability to perform as worthy stewards of several key assets: 1. Coca-Cola, the world’s most recognized trademark, and other highly valuable trademarks. 2. The world’s most effective and pervasive distribution system. 3. Satisfied customers, to whom we earn a good profit selling our products. 4. Our people, who are ultimately responsible for building this enterprise. 5. Our abundant resources, which must be intelligently allocated. 6. Our strong global leadership in the beverage industry in particular and in the business world in general.

Additionally, Coca-Cola has a stated commitment to social responsibility through philanthropy and good citizenship. The company’s reputation for good corporate citizenship results from charitable donations, employee volunteerism, technical assistance and other demonstrations of support in thousands of communities worldwide. Coca-Cola Management From 1984 to 1997, Robert Goizueta ran Coca-Cola like; “a ship in calm waters” as we may say, it was going smoothly. In his 13 years at the helm of Coke as CEO, Goizueta transformed Coke from an Atlanta cola company to an international brand phenomenon.

Analysts and employees alike viewed Goizueta like a “God. ” In 1997, Doug Ivester succeeded Roberto Goizueta as CEO of Coke following Goizueta’s death from lung cancer. Ivester, an employee of the company since 1979, had previously been Goizueta’s right hand financial engineer and later his chief operating officer. On the face of it, the transition would appear seamless. Doug Ivester has often been described as a very “rational” man with a “bulldog” leadership style. James Chestnut, Coca-Cola’s chief financial officer, says Ivester is a “terribly rational” manager.

He states, “Doug believes everything should go through a logical sequence. He’s fixed on where he wants the company to be. ” Ivester’s recent focus had been on two potential acquisitions to increase Coca-Cola’s presence in Europe: Orangina in France and Cadbury Schweppes. The tactics Ivestor pursued to acquire Orangina and Schweppes, however, has been met with much criticism, especially by Europeans. A July article appearing in Fortune magazine summarized the conventional wisdom this way: “the way Coke went about the acquisitions – arrogantly, urgently, intensely – absolutely reflects Ivester’s personality.

And it’s not working. ” Other analysts who have followed Coca- Cola for years believe that if Goizueta were still running the company, controversy surrounding the recall in Europe would not be festering as it was under Ivester. The Source of the Problem The outbreaks appeared to be caused by two sources, contaminated carbon dioxide and fungicide sprayed on wooden pallets used to transport the product. The contaminated carbon dioxide found its way into the product at a bottler in Belgium.

The company was unable to determine whether the carbon dioxide was already contaminated when the bottler received it or whether contamination occurred later, at the bottling facility. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Anton Amon, Coca-Cola’s chief scientist, said that, “contrary to Coke procedure, the plant wasn’t receiving certificates of analysis from the supplier of the gas, Aga Gas AB of Sweden. This certificate vouches for the purity of the CO2. ” A CCE spokesman confirmed this statement and acknowledged that the company did not test the CO2 batch at the Antwerp plant.

In either case, key quality control procedures were not followed. At the Coca-Cola bottling facility in Dunkirk, France, the plant received wooden pallets that had been sprayed with a fungicide that left a medicinal odor on a number of cans. Jennifer McCollum, a spokeswoman for Coca-Cola, described the substance as p-chloro-m-cresol or PCMC, “a chemical commonly found in wood preservatives and cleaning fluids. ” The Environmental Chemicals Data and Information Network (ECDIN) states that PCMC can be absorbed through the skin and cause redness, burning sensation, pain and skin burns.

If inhaled, the chemical can cause symptoms such as cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, unconsciousness, and may cause effects on the central nervous system, liver and kidneys. These more severe conditions are said to require large doses or chronic exposure to the chemical. Coca-Cola said that the substance was sprayed on approximately 800 pallets used to transport cans produced in Dunkirk to Belgium. The supplier of the pallets was said to be Dutch. The company, however, declined to name the company, stating only that it was not one of their regular suppliers.

The foul odor is believed to have caused numerous symptoms, including upset stomachs, headaches and nausea after drinking the product. Dr. Hugo Botinck, medical director at St. Joseph’s Clinic in Belgium and one of the first physicians to see these patients, stated in an interview that affected persons were treated for, “headaches, dizziness, nausea and muscular vibration. ” He added that, “some of them were vomiting, but there was no fever. ” Bottling and International Distribution One of Coke’s greatest strengths lies in its ability to conduct business on a global scale while maintaining a “multilocal” approach.

At the heart of this approach is the bottler system. Bottling companies are, with only a few exceptions, locally owned and operated by independent business people, native to the nations in which they are located, who are contractually authorized to sell products of The Coca-Cola Company. These facilities package and sell the company’s soft drinks within certain territorial boundaries and under conditions that ensure the highest standards of product quality and uniformity. Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) manages most of the European bottlers. The Coca-Cola Company controls a 40% interest in CCE. Coca-Cola Belgium.

Belgium was introduced to Coca-Cola in 1927. Today Belgium is among the world’s top 20 countries in terms of per capita consumption of Coca-Cola products. The Coca-Cola Company currently employs close to 2,000 people and serves up to 30,000 restaurants, supermarkets and other customers in that country. Coca-Cola France. Coca-Cola was introduced in France in 1933. Coke has been the number- one soft drink in France since 1966 with total sales doubling over the past eight years. Coca- Cola France employs more than 1,000 French citizens and has invested more than 3 billion francs in local economy since 1989.

Today, French consumers drink an average of 88 servings of Coca- Cola products each year. External Factors Involved In May and June of 1999, it is fair to say that Coca-Cola executives vastly underestimated the sensitivity of European consumers to food contamination issues in light of the existing social and political environment. Contributing to the anxiety was the “mad-cow” crisis that had taken place three years earlier. Additionally, the Coke incident coincided with a recent governmental ban on the slaughter of pork and poultry in Belgium.

Earlier in June, cancer-causing dioxin was found in a large shipment of meat, which was believed to have originated through contaminated animal feed. In the end, this scandal forced the resignation of Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dahaene as well as the country’s health minister. With the Belgian government facing elections on June 13, all political platforms were under scrutiny. In the wake of the Coke crisis, European government agencies were scrambling to protect their reputations as watchdogs, taking a high-profile role in contamination issues.

Consumers had previously considered Coke invulnerable to contamination concerns due to the artificial, manufactured nature of the product. In addition to its proximity to other food scares in Europe, the crisis also occurred at a time when Coke was looked upon unfavorably by the European Commission. Earlier in 1999, Coke had made plans to acquire Cadbury Schweppes brands around the world. The European Commission was opposed to this acquisition, viewing Coca-Cola as excessively dominant. The company was forced to scale back its acquisition plans. Coca-Cola’s Response

By the time the recall was completed, 249 cases of Coke-related sicknesses were reported throughout Europe, concentrated primarily in Belgium. A total of 15 million cases of product were recalled costing the bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE), an estimated $103 million dollars. When the outbreak began, Coca-Cola executives waited several days to take action. Viewing the issue as low-priority, an apology to consumers was not issued until more than a week after the first public reports of illness. Top company officials did not arrive in Belgium until June 18, ten days after the first incident was reported.

The company’s casual and muted approach to the crisis was first made evident in its neglect to mention the May 12 incident – in which affected consumers suffered similar symptoms – once the other cases were reported, beginning in June. Ivester remained largely silent, at least publicly, throughout the crisis. He admitted that he happened to be in Coke’s Paris office on June 11, shortly after the first wave of illness reports surfaced, and was briefed in person on the Belgian situation. Ivester and Belgian Coke executives attributed the problem to a bad batch of carbon dioxide and “hardly a health hazard. The next day Ivester boarded a plane back to Atlanta, as planned. On June 14, the Belgium government ordered all Coca-Cola products off the market and halted production at bottling plants in Antwerp and Ghent. The government took the lead to protect consumers from the health scare, rather than Coca-Cola management. Coca-Cola issued a statement on June 15 from Atlanta (see Exhibit 1) refuting the contamination claims. On June 16, Ivester released a statement under his name (see Exhibit 2) expressing regret for the problems, but he mostly left the public side of the damage-control campaign to company spokesmen and CCE.

On June 18, Ivester realized the magnitude and impact of the crisis and arrived in Belgium for the first time to manage the crisis. Ivester’s mission to Europe was his most visible step during the crisis and came only after the number of reported cases had ballooned to more than 200. Coca-Cola officials avoided the media, however, stating afterward that this decision was in response to a request from the Belgian Minister of Health, Luc van den Brossche, asking that the crisis be handled out of the public eye. Conclusion

In conclusion Coca Cola didn’t handle the situation properly by not communicating in a timely manner with the stakeholders. The crisis represented vast damages to Coca Cola’s reputation and total cost of 66 million pounds. The main reason for the mistakes it was the lack of authority of local executives (Ivester). Coca Cola identified the reason for the fails in communications and consequently empowered the local teams to deal with this sort of situation. The lessons from this case study show how important it is to communicate with stakeholders.