Research Topics: Coca Cola Case Studies

The Coca-Cola Product

Introduction             Mirroring the world’s condition with reference to our postmodern consciousness is something that is borderless, encompassing, limitless and even groundless. This consciousness pasted into our mind is an offshoot of the proliferation of modern science, political and social trickeries, and more so economical maneuvering of most powerful elites and multinational organizations across the continents. This phenomenon recognizes no frontiers not only geographical but cultural. This is best known as globalization.             One of the contestants in an International Speech Contest held in London, four years ago, was a college student studied in one of the prestigious universities in the Philippines took the grand price when she impressed the jurors of her provocative, critical and intellectual sharing of ideas about the topic on globalization. She entitled her speech A Borderless World. It speaks of a world wherein everything is in constant communication. Distance is no longer an adversary for two loving individuals who are separated a thousand miles away. The advent of the new technology and the spontaneous growing of a homogenous consciousness bridges people closer to their families, friends, and loved ones. This is the world that is borderless—a world that strives to be homogenous.   Globalization defined             This construct renders a vast meanings and definition derived from various scholars of various disciplines. For a sociologist globalization must have something to do with the process of influencing the society to adopt a certain behavior, attitude, habit, or way of life. This takes in different forms like media, lifestyle, food, and technology. Simply put, this phenomenon becomes a detrimental tablet for one’s culture. But for an economist, globalization is driven by the interpenetration of the advanced capitalist countries and in particular by the intensification of transfers among great economic regions of the world. Moreover, products, supplies of goods produced by multinational companies can able be share, penetrate and compete with the local markets.             The vast definitions of globalization make us puzzled and logically inferred that absolute is non-existent insofar as a definitive meaning of globalization cannot be comprehended and capsulated.  In the book, Articulating the Global and the Local: Globalization and Cultural Studies, Ann Svetkovich and Douglas Kellner defined globalization as “a code word that stands for a tremendous diversity of issues and problems and that serves as a front for a variety of theoretical and political positions (1997).” This in a way served as a substitute term for modernization and continues as a legitimating ideology for the westernization of the world, cultural differences, and struggles.             Svetkovich and Kellner (1997), think that this phenomenon gradually replacing concepts such as imperialism, thus displacing focus on domination of developing countries by overdeveloped ones  or on national and local economies by transnational corporations. In this discourse about globalization, its functions and concepts are important in understanding the phenomenon which in nature a theoretical construct which varies according to the assumptions and perspectives in question. In this context, Svetkovich and Kellner would like to treat globalization as a term used to describe the ways global economic, political, cultural forces are rapidly penetrating the world in the creation of the “new world market, new transnational political organizations, and a new global culture.”  Furthermore, globalization involves a dissemination of new technologies that have tremendous influence and impact on polity, economics, culture, society and in our daily life. New technologies such as communication instruments become the primal tool in creating a world, though, has frontiers, tremors to collapsed borders, inflicting and creating global cultural village wherein everyone defined his culture as universal and one. The diversity of culture, on the other hand, is neither protected nor preserved, rather the fundamental project of globalization is to collapse all barriers in order to form one single unit of culture—a new global culture.             Hence, globalization brings forth the consciousness of reconstruction, deconstruction and rehabilitation of what was present in civilizations lone ago.     Cultural Imperialism: A Review             Before we step-out into the concept of cultural imperialism let us allow ourselves to recall our basic understanding of imperialism in general.             We understood the concept of imperialism in the context of capitalism. Way back in ancient period, imperialism became a no new concept, from the Greek, Persians, and Romas alike, imperialism has become a way of life. However, the fruition of the concept which attracted philosophers and social thinkers were brought by Karl Max in his Das Capital wherein he elaborated and consequentially, critique the operations of the capitalists and the economic form dominated the whole of Europe, capitalism. However, capitalism stands strong and was not able to faint down by Marx, it was become an incessant subject for criticism. Following the doctrine of Marx, Vladimir Lenin and John Hobson were few of the thinkers inspired by Marx brilliance of interpreting economy. It is with this development of thought ranging from Marx to Lenin and Hobson where imperialism became the center of attraction.             The notion on imperialism cannot be derived elsewhere but to the idea and concept of capitalism. We are drive to think that when we speak of imperialism or even an attitude of being imperialist, we are led to imagine someone that desires to monopolize resources or products or even to think of an empire, we immediately think of something grandiose, a towering infrastructure, skyscrapers and etc. Imperialism then is something to do with manipulation, subjugation, domination, and monopoly of something. This is not a school of thought rather a consciousness, a way of life situated and inculcated in the minds of all the capitalists.             So what then is cultural imperialism?             In the article Cultural Imperialism: An American Tradition, Julia Galeota cited Herbert Schiller in clearing out the definition of cultural imperialism. For Schiller, “the sum of the processes by which a society is brought into the modern world system, and how its dominating stratum attracted, pressured, forced, and bribed into shaping social institutions to correspond to, or even to promote, the values and structures of the dominant center of the system. (2004).” Thus, cultural imperialism involves much more than simple consumer goods; it involves the dissemination of ostensibly American principles, such as freedom and democracy. Though this process might sound appealing on the surface, it masks a frightening truth: many cultures around the world are gradually disappearing due to the overwhelming influence of corporate and cultural America.              Putting this in mind, we are led to realize something greater about these phenomena: globalization and cultural imperialism. With this prevailing concern, I attempted to give myself a challenge to analyze these constructs putting into contexts and try to validate the arguments raised by scholars regarding these. Hence, I took a great leap to look at in particular the role of an American product, like Coca-Cola in proliferation of their culture through interpenetrating strategies in the various locales.             We asked ourselves why Coca-Cola became so successful in penetrating and influencing the local consumers to buy and drink their soda. How does the Coca-Cola company creates advertising and marketing strategies in order to have a great appeal to the audiences at the same time buyers? How, the glocalization of the products serve as an effective technique and strategy to attract the local buyers?             This could only be answered in three ways: Economy, Media, and Culture. Coca-Cola: In economical perspective             It is to be considered that one of the major commodities in the world is soda, aside from the universal solvent which is water; soda becomes a substitute as a drink. Coca-Cola in this line became successful in launching and introducing their product to different continents specifically, Latin America, Africa, and North America. This success was brought by the open trade and exchange products between countries, and now was become more open due to globalization. Coca-Cola became effective in implementing an early global marketing tactic to penetrate and eventually influenced the indulgence drives of the people. As Julia Galeota analyzed it, Coca-Cola became innovative and unique in bringing and introducing to people their products. Furthermore, the reason why people are easily attracted to the American product is just a matter of marketing, she reiterated:          “It is easy enough to convince Americans of the superiority of their culture, but how does one convince the rest of the world of the superiority of American culture? The answer is simple: marketing. Whether attempting to sell an item, a brand, or an entire culture, marketers have always been able to successfully associate American products with modernity in the minds of consumers worldwide. While corporations seem to simply sell Nike shoes or Gap jeans (both, ironically, manufactured outside of the United States), they are also selling the image of America as the land of “cool.” This indissoluble association causes consumers all over the globe to clamor ceaselessly for the same American products (2004).” Coca-Cola Advertising Campaign               Coca-Cola used the available communication tools in bringing to people their products. Media in this contemporary times place a great importance. In this Age of Information we only rely on the information given by media institution even though we recognized their inability to bring an objective and impartial stories, we do nothing but to be “hooked”. Nonetheless, we still manage to purify information and bring the residue in trash. This becomes an influential tool which Coca-Cola used in order to effectively influence the consciousness of the consumers. Again, let me quote Julia Galeota (2004): “An early example of this global marketing tactic was found in a Coca Cola commercial from 1971 featuring children from many different countries innocently singing, “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony/I’d like to buy the world a Coke to keep it company.” This commercial illustrates an attempt to portray a U.S. goods as a product capable of transcending political, ethnic, religious, social, and economic differences to unite the world. “                         In the same vein, this product can bend into a local taste by using local personalities to promote the product like for example, in India, a Coke commercial was done by a local Indian personality named Hrithik Roshan, a Bollywood star, appeared last 2000. The same was made in various continents like Africa, Latin America and Asia. Coca-Cola used the local personalities or even their legua franca in order to situate and connect themselves in their looking way of life. Like in Columbia, what they did was to make commercials using Castillian as the medium used in order that audiences can be able to relate with them.     As to the content of Coca-Cola’s commercials, they are not only labeled as aesthetically sophisticated but promote values and local culture. The commercials are driven not for profit but by promoting certain ideology. The ideology is embodied in the whole package of commercial, however, to question what ideology it promotes is a difficult task to examine and evaluate. The Sociological Perspective: Glocalization vis-à-vis Globalization             It is in this level wherein cultural issues raised. Now, Coca-Cola with their prevailing regulations and vision-mission, are not spared from suspecting of promoting Americanization or global culture. Though, Coca-Cola adhere much on promoting values and culture of certain locales, inevitably, it would suspected as a disguise of what is really the real intention and purpose. Basically, consumerism and economic profit are two major concerns of any multinational company like Coca-Cola. If people are drawn to the consciousness of being consumeristic, nevertheless, profit soars high.             Moreover, let us not treat this extremely negative; however, let us try to see both sides of a coin.             Globalization brought America into the apex of the world, the rest became subordinates. American products can easily access to various continents, introduced them, and eventually penetrate their market. In their process of interpenetration, companies like Coca-Cola are taking risk to study the core of one’s country—that is the Culture. Only when culture is penetrated and known to foe can successfully inflict such phenomenon. What seems top be lucid between global and local is the force in which the global terrain influences and even structure ever more local situations and ever more strikingly.             Another focal point in the discussion of globalization is the emerging trend of another concept: Glocalization.             The concept of glocalization originated in Japan. The term was modeled on Japanese word dochakuka which originally meant adapting farming technique to one’s own local condition. The English translation was attributed to Roland Robertson, a British/American sociologist. According to Wordspy, glocalization means “the creation of products or services intended for the global market, but customized to suit the local cultures (http:/www.wordspy.com/words).”  In this sense, Coca-Cola serves as an agent not of westernization but of preserving indigenous culture. Why? Simply because, Coca-Cola adopted such concept of indigenization of the products in order to suit the needs of local culture. Conclusion             The issue of globalization and cultural imperialism matter so much so that each individual should be aware of. Its importance does not only rely on theories that proved to be true and valid or just because it was then brought to light, but on how we become vigilant and conscious about it. This academic endeavor serves not only to comply with the requirements rather to shed light and knowledge to all of us who are consumed consciously or unconsciously by this prevailing phenomenon.             Coca-Cola on the other hand, as based on my analysis does not primarily promote globalization rather economic profit and cultural values with the locales where they are located. Glocalization becomes an effective remedy used by Coca-Cola to make its image good and credible so much so that consumers will patronize them more and love them much. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

The Coca-Cola Product

Introduction Mirroring the world’s condition with reference to our postmodern consciousness is something that is borderless, ...

Coca Cola Company LTD

INTRODUCTION The goal of this report presentation will involve a foreign market that Coca Cola Company overall entry strategy into a foreign market that includes attention to the company’s social, political, cultural and economic environment in the North Korean region – the proposed country which the company is not currently operating in along with its mode of entry, organizational structural arrangement and organizational structural arrangement and organizational strategies the company should advance, including potential alliances with local firms and discussion of the ethical, negotiation, leadership and management challenges associated with useful recommendations. The analysis should demonstrate application of relevant theory and integrate the readings and cases in the context of the actions of a specific firm. Moreover, the Coca-Cola Company exists to benefit and refresh everyone it touches, emerged in the year 1886, Coca Cola Company is the world’s leading manufacturer, marketer and distributor of nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups that is used to produce beverage brands as the company’s headquarters are in Atlanta having a total of 200 countries involving its respected local operations around the world. BODY   Dealing with North Korea is like golf; one never stops concentrating. However, it’s not as tough as it looks. North Koreans, if presented with a good faith, legitimate and credible business proposal, will pull out the stops to deliver. It’s very much in their interest when they are feeling boxed in, blocked here and blocked there, in efforts to engage in international business deals that do not have “other” applications. North Korea, with its back up against the wall, has been able to survive, and at times thrive, with virtually zero assistance from international financial institutions such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank and others. North Korea is still there, digging ever-deeper into whatever resourcefulness it has, and continuing with grim, teeth-clenched determination to get out of its difficulty, come what may. North Korea is singularly ill-suited to policy by sound-bite, it is arguably the business community that is making real, tangible and largely unreported progress with North Korea, and a country that itself has been and is making real, tangible efforts to “engage.” It is indeed ironic that in this climate maybe the international business community could actually teach the politicians a few things about how to “deal with the North.” Coca Cola Company can engage with the help of its bottling partners to focus on its entry in North Korea with the maximizing value through a balanced price and volume approach and on integrating the company’s operations into a single unit and enhance and develop more on its marketing strategies and segmentation with useful integration of its management approaches in order to be successful in the upcoming endeavors to enter into the North Korean market to realize business objectives and values and promote better customer relationship management which is essential to fulfill a good vision in the future and be able to satisfy North Korean’s need for an absolute drink taste as well as to communicate properly to the market status for the needed development of the company in the said country since the company has generated good operating revenues as Coca Cola continued to outpace the cola soft-drink category, achieving increases in sales and market shares worldwide with strong business performance by its top management. The Company’s new marketing platform, Coca-Cola “Real,” will probably help in enhancing the image of the brand, notably among teens and young adults in North Korea through reinforcing an honest, genuine connection to the consumers and the partnership of other sectors in North Korea will provide better market opportunities for Coke to be successful in their entry and be able to gain share and strong delivery with its coke products and that Cola can create enthusiasm for their bottling partners and retailers by customizing flavors and packaging with the brand maintaining its price premium relative to the category and competitive brands. Good marketing structure and positioning is crucial for the pursuance of the company’s North Korean entry as well as the application and realization of a strategic marketing planning and the development of quality assurance management to support and give its best regarding their industry and operations and that the company should remain well-positioned to satisfy customers’ needs and continue experience strong growth through expanded distribution and through new products such as Minute Maid Lemonade and Swerve that was created for the education channel. Coca Cola may emphasize their operating segment to work with its bottling partners to execute package and price strategies that strengthen their financial results, deliver value for customers and provide consumers with choices that meet their needs within the proposed country. The Coca Cola Company can greatly integrate possible needed steps for the creation of effective organizational structure responsive to the needs of the North Korean customers as the structure better reflects the way beverage choices are made, unifies their procurement and supply chain systems to increase efficiency and eliminate redundancies and links the company’s go-to-market activities with those of their bottling partners so that Coke’s system can deliver value-added services to the North Korean customers faster and effectively and helping such divisions to produce real benefits such as the lowering of its system costs, better bottler and customer alignment and increase the ability to provide consumers with good business value and ethics. The new thaw is relations between North Korea and the Coke Company is stirring interest in the global business community. In the past few months North Korea has emerged from decades of isolation – slowly opening itself to foreign influences and business executives hope foreign investors. Global investors were looking at the crowds also with a more commercial eye and that North Korean is one of the last untapped markets in the world. The opportunities to invest at this point are wide open because there’s not much in there. There are very few foreign companies, which are operating. They have a relatively large population of approximately 25 million people, and an economy which is not developed at all.  In terms of investment opportunities, it’s white page waiting to be written. This Coca Cola commercial jingle heard on televisions and radios throughout South Korea could soon be heard in the North as well. Following the inter-Korea summit last June, Coca Cola – that icon of Western capitalism – delivered a symbolic truckload of the fizzy drink to North Korea. Coca Cola like to be early entrants into any developing economy, because they are always looking for new opportunities for growth. They are looking for opportunities for manufacture in the area of consumer goods operate in a very competitive way. It’s very likely that if a Coca cola went into North Korea, a Pepsi would follow, that’s the competitive set of large multinationals. Despite the North’s new open attitude, the company is aware of the many obstacles to entering the North Korean market. Just like pioneers crossing the American Continent, there’s no law, there’s no infrastructure, there are no banks, there are no lawyers and there are no accountants. However, there is a very, a very large, very hostile bureaucracy that is going to have to be dealt with. Coca-Cola, one of the classic symbols of American consumerism can be a success factor in North Korea after the United States lifted most trading sanctions on the isolated Communist state. The move means North Korea could become the newest front in the world cola war. Coke’s arch-rival Pepsi says it is also preparing a campaign plan for the sale of its products in the North. However, Pepsi played down suggestions that it might lose out by failing to match Coke’s initiative in entering the market so soon. Coke’s move into North Korea is still limited. Mr. Lo stressed that the company would not directly be doing business with North Korea. Coca-Cola’s external affairs director in Seoul, John Gustaveson, said the company had no plans as yet for establishing bottling plants or any other investments in the North. He added that Coke drinks would only be sold in hotels and restaurants catering to foreign visitors. The move is being seen as another example of easing tensions on the Korean peninsula but economists say the moribund North Korean economy will have to change dramatically if trade is to become at all profitable. For years the North has been suffering the effects of a protracted famine caused by a combination of bad weather and mismanagement. The Coca-Cola Company’s labor relations practices are among the best on the planet and we are continuously working to improve them. The Coca-Cola system is one of the most highly unionized multinational corporations in the world, with more than 30 percent of employees belonging to unions. The Coca-Cola Company’s environmental practices are among the best on the planet and we are continuously working to improve them. The Coca-Cola Quality System is a worldwide initiative involving every aspect of our business. Everyone who works for or with Coca-Cola is empowered and expected to maintain the highest standards of quality in products, processes and relationships. We are never content to let our standards become static. The Coca-Cola Quality System mandates in-depth self-assessment throughout our operations, by all our business units. This enables us to raise our standards even higher. In our ingredient evaluation laboratories, for example, we perform precise analyses of fruit juices and other ingredients sent to us by our suppliers, to ensure and to improve product quality. Our processes, too, undergo constant scrutiny, to safe-guard the water we use in our products and the packaging that carries them to our consumers. We inform and educate our business partners about our standards, so that they meet the highest quality requirements. Under the Coca-Cola Quality System, quality is our highest business objective and our enduring obligation. The Coca-Cola Company is on a journey. It is a bold journey, inspired by our simple desire for sustainable growth, and fueled by our deep conviction that collectively we can create anything we desire. The goals are simple: They will reinvigorate growth for their Company and will inspire people. Likewise, their entry strategy is simple: Coca Cola will accomplish our goals by building a portfolio of branded beverages, anchored within our brand name and icon and by enabling superior market execution globally and locally aligning and leveraging the power of our global network that will be propelled by unleashing the collective genius of the organization that will make sustainable growth a reality in the North because it is in the company’s nature to innovate, create and excel to all countries in the world as possible. The company will have to demonstrate substantial progress in developing their North Korean business model in order for its management to positively drive reliable operating outcomes in the region through combining their progress within these years within its brand extensions and new products and benefits of their new North Korean operating framework. Thus, the company’s success in controlling the growth of operating expenses also strengthens their confidence about their dream for a nice business entry for a better business performance in terms of their cost control efforts for growth in operating expense that can give the company the needed flexibility in dealing with the challenging operating dynamics in the future years respectively. The company have to work hard to generate pricing growth and achieve operating expense savings and be effective in North Korea and stabilize their performance for the proper handling of their target markets as Coca Cola will have to continue planning out for useful strategies and management approaches and be able to overcome consumer and market trends impacting the business, including weak retail trends in some markets, health concerns and the continued growth of deep discount retailers and designing and implementing operating and sales initiatives in place to meet the needs of consumers and their North Korean customers that will have to include new marketing approaches for hard discounters, country specific brand and product innovation plans as well as organizational initiatives that will strengthen efficiency and ability to serve loyal and valued customers in the North. Business Outlook It is undeniably true that Coca Cola does not provide direct employee benefits for its “system,” like indirect, workforce. It is also true that its distributors, canners, and bottlers have some degree of operational autonomy, even though Coke has extensive ownership interests in many of its bottlers and canners. However, even if Coke cannot provide coverage directly, it can require coverage as part of its exclusive licensing agreements with major suppliers, bottlers, canners and distributors. It already micromanages some operating procedures through its licensing agreements, it will necessarily have to permit operating margins for its affiliates that might require Coke to sell its syrup on slightly better terms. Coke system is not readily available, most of the affiliates provide relatively good wages within the formal economy and labor turnover is presumably much less than in the informal sector. The Coca-Cola system is one of the most diverse organizations with a rich mosaic of talented colleagues who bring a variety of intellectual, professional, ethnic and cultural perspectives to our enterprise. They reflect the nations, cultures and languages of the world. Our policy is to foster an inclusive environment that encourages all employees to develop and perform to their fullest potential. The company can apply their recent corporate strategy in North Korea since; it has been one of overcharging bottlers and canners for cola concentrate and strong-arming high-priced acquisitions of weaker bottlers. North Korea has enacted several revisions and passed updated or new laws in several phases, a positive sign that it recognizes a legal system must evolve with internationalization and with technological advances. Recent developments included reinforcement of intellectual property laws and bolstering of mechanisms for third-country arbitration/dispute resolution mechanisms, including provisions for foreigners to act as arbitrators. North Korea offers a considerable array of tax breaks, exemptions and incentives to foreign investors in certain areas of industry and commerce. It is actively seeking to issue exclusive licenses to a foreign law firm and a foreign accounting firm. One of North Korea’s great challenges has been simply that of getting the message across and communicating to foreign countries what legal framework exists and what investment opportunities are available. Coca cola is popular in the international market due to its in-depth knowledge of marketing strategies and local community that could best serve in North Korea. Coca cola’s better understanding of the local communities and the market makes the company to remain in the top position in the global market for soft drinks and its readiness to spend heavily on the marketing effort helps the company compete and win over the market of soft drinks worldwide. Coca cola believes that the heart and soul of their enterprise has always been the customers. It will be using excellent marketing strategies and became top in soft drink and beverages industry in North Korea and around the global thirsty market. Coca cola’s focus on brand management, worldwide coverage and intense distribution and advertising makes it the worlds most leading and profitable soft drink company. “Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individual and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging product and value with others”. (Kotler, Brown, Adam and Armstrong 2001, p.25) In short marketing is the delivering of customer value and satisfaction at a profit. Coca Cola Company can have the best-managed and exclusive marketing research operation units in North Korea that will make the Company the best marketer in beverages industry.   According to Kotler and Armstrong (2001) 9th edition “the most basic concept underlying marketing is that of human needs. These human needs are states of deprivation which include physical needs, social needs and individual needs. These needs were not invented by the marketers but are the basic part of human makeup.” (Kotler-Armstrong, 2001 p.67) Coca Cola Company manufactures and promotes soft drinks and beverages so it has wide variety of market available to it. The following three markets can be best applied by the Coca Cola Company in its purpose of having a successful and steady entrance to the North Korean region.   Mass market: In mass market the seller mass-produces, mass distributes and mass promotes one product to the buyers and hoping it would appeal to everyone. Lowest costs, lowest price and large potential market are the main characteristic of mass market.   Product variety market: In product variety market seller produces more than one product that have different features, styles, quality and sizes and Coca cola can produce several soft drink packages in different sizes and containers that can be designed exclusively for variety of North Korean buyers as the taste of buyer’s changes over time.   Target market: The company identifies market segments and selects one or more of them and develops products and marketing mixes tailored to each as Coca cola produces soft drinks for the sugared-cola segment, the diet segment, the no caffeine segment and the non coke segment. Market competition Coca Cola Company uses market leaders’ strategies to meet with its competitors because in the world of soft drinks and beverages, Coca cola enjoys the top position around the world, but like other companies it also faces stiff competition in the market. Coca cola’s focus on brand management and intensive distribution and advertising its product makes it the leading and most profitable soft drink company. Coca cola can segment its market on Geographical and Demographical basis and in geographical segmentation Coca cola runs on a national and international basis as Coca cola leads because of its deep insight of various marketing and leadership strategies. In demographic segmentation Coca cola can concentrate on different age of people especially youth group and promotes its product accordingly to the North Korean market and select the right segment that have the right size and growth characteristics for the North Korean people and targets segments with large current sales, a high growth rate and a high profit margin. It target calorie conscious people by offering diet coke and target those who claim the drink to be undrinkable by offering caffeine free diet coke, the target involves the communities as well.   “The way the product is defined by consumers on important attributes; the place the product occupies in consumer’s minds relative to competing products”. (Philip Kotler, 2001). Coca cola hold special position in the mind of people of different age group. It has become a trend among young generation to satisfy thirst only by Coca cola due to the tremendous marketing efforts and takes care of customer having different taste by providing them variety of product. Then, Coca cola holds the top position in soft drink and beverages industry unless a dominant firm enjoys a legal monopoly its life is not altogether easy as other firms keeps challenging its strength for its weakness. It can easily miss its position. It can be said that Coca cola is a king of soft drinks and that no one can dare to challenge it having a broad knowledge in business and marketing.   RECOMMENDATION   In accordance to entry process for North Korea, I would recommend the following strategies for Coca-cola products respectively:   Dog Strategy Coca cola can basically invest in North Korea in order for them to earn market share in the region for growth and stability and to keep competitive advantage in its desired context for the business   Star Strategy The investment of their sales and profits for future growth of the region’s cultural as well as political considerations that is needed for the company to remain stable in the foreign market and gain support from the customers in the country   Cash Cow Strategy The using of profits to finance new products and management growth for the purpose of doing business in North Korea   Customer Relationship Strategy This is crucial for Coca cola business to prosper in a country where business is controlled by the power of its authorities and that customer relationship needs to be managed well and that providing customers in the North Korean region something that they wanted and needed to satisfy themselves.   The Development of strong market segmentation The company needs market segmentation because buyer’s taste, wants, needs and preferences in North Korea differ from one another and that by means of segmenting the market, customer can be served much better effectively and efficiently.   Geographical – knowing appropriate locations for the business in order to keep track of the principles for the business and achieve the mission to go beyond the vision.   Demographic – knowing the cultural traits and characteristics of the North Korean people and investigating their tastes in terms of drinks and beverages so that Coca Cola Company will know how to adopt to certain changes in its products, operations and industry management to really cater the needs of the people trusting their business ways.    Psychographics – having a pattern or illustration with regards to the opinion and views of the North Korean’s so that the company could easily fit in to the type of culture and lifestyle they have.   Behavioral – evaluating the behavior aspects of the business sectors, the possible partners, dealers, retailers, employees and to the customers as well for the company to have a good business ground in the region.   The strengthening of Coca-Cola Company in different aspects to control all aspects of their company on a world scale as the Coca-Cola Company deals solely with the selling of its brand name and by performing administrative and coordinating activities in North Korea. The involvement of continuous product research and development as well as manufacturing and sales value to the bottlers situated in the country. Henceforth, Coca Cola is consumed depending on factors such as culture, climate and tastes resulting into individual company needs to adopt their own management approaches to push the sales of Coca-Cola and its respected products in the region. This means that market knowledge is important in trying to gain market share for a possible success of entry in North Korea and that to achieve this greater market share, new product development needs to be concentrated on extending the product range beyond carbonated drinks and other products.   These products are intended to satisfy the needs of each individual market segment and will certainly vary from region to region, at some point in the future; consumer culture will be homogenous to such degree as differences between markets will show preferences for different products that comes from something as basic as climate, result of complex social and or religious reasons – Coca-Cola knows this and the company know that the diversity of the human race should not be compromised for their own financial gain, “dividing a market in to direct groups of buyers who might require separate marketing mixes; the process of classifying customers into groups with different needs, characteristics and behavior” (Kotler, 2001 p. 46).   BIBLIOGRAPHY   Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2001). “Principles of Marketing” (9th Ed.). Prentice-Hall India   Kotler, P., Brown, L., Adam, S., Armstrong, G., (2001) “Marketing” (5th Edition) Pearson Education Australia   COCA COLA COMPANY LTD Website   URL: http://www2.coca-cola.com/ourcompany/index.html www.cocacola.com McColl-Kennedy, J., Kiel, G., (2000) “Marketing: A Strategic Approach” Nelson Thomas Learning, Australia. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Coca Cola Company LTD

INTRODUCTION The goal of this report presentation will involve a foreign market that Coca Cola Company overall entry strategy into a for...

COCA COLA

OBJECTIVES As a person with knowledge of international market entry and development modes, the author has always brought up to his superiors the viability of strategy formation regarding the analysis of this topic and at times fails to understand the reasons or logic behind certain strategic implementations imposed on it. By delving into this project paper, the author intends to have better insights into how various international market entry and development modes are thought up, formulated and then imparted down by multinational companies. The author hopes to have an in-depth understanding as to how the various international market entry and development modes enable multinational companies to compete effectively and profitably in this era of internationalization where competition is extremely intense. In order to reinforce the learning objectives, two key focal issues were focused upon i.e. innovation and diversity. Innovation was discussed with regard to the various international market entry and development modes of multinational companies where they were renowned for their developmental capabilities to constantly innovate. Diversity came under strategic thinking and formation as the author considered the diverse culture, political climate, economic surroundings, social environment, technological settings, government policies and legal systems in order to better understand the issues being discussed.   EXECUTIVE BRIEF This essay utilized Coca Cola as the model multinational company to review its present international market entry and development modes and how they dealt with critical situations. From the analysis, key trends in the international market entry and development modes of Coca Cola were then identified, how they worked and their effectiveness in dealing with critical situations was ascertained. The paper then moved on to assess these international market entry and development modes with regard to their suitability to critical situations, during which the internal capabilities of these international market entry and development modes in relation to the strategy being followed by Coca Cola was determined also. An overall analysis of the performance and effectiveness of Coca Cola’s international market entry and development modes was also conducted to assess and compare the capabilities of these international market entry and development modes with those of others. Gaps in the international market entry and development modes and environment were then identified. Finally, several choices of strategies to improve the international market entry and development modes of Coca Cola as effective means in critical situations were recommended and evaluated in terms of appropriateness to the issues reviewed, feasibility in carrying out the options and acceptability within the key stakeholders and decision makers. Several key implementation issues related to managing strategic change were also addressed as well. INTRODUCTION International market entry and development modes pertain to the various strategies that most multinational companies use in order to ensure the efficient and effective entry of their products and services in a particular territory. International market entry and development modes also focus on the careful management of the processes involved in the production and distribution of products and services (Bhattacharya, 2000). More often than not, small and relatively unstable companies don’t really have the capabilities to implement international market entry and development modes. Instead, these companies engage in activities that various schools of business management typically associate with market entry and development modes. These activities include the marketing of products, product development, production and distribution. However, international market entry and development modes deal with all operations done within multinational companies and organizations. Activities such as the management of purchases, the control of inventories, logistics and evaluations are often related with international market entry and development modes. A great deal of emphasis lies on the efficiency and effectiveness of processes. Therefore, international market entry and development modes include the analysis and management of internal processes (Rosenberg, 1984).   OVERVIEW OF COCA COLA COMPANY Coca Cola Company aims for sustainable growth as a broad market leader in the beverage industry as well as for segment leadership. In both cases, the Coca Cola brands will play a crucial part. Coca Cola Company is able to establish its broad leadership usually by acquiring other strong beverage companies and their products, which are then combined into a new, larger company (Schmidt, 2002). Offering training to its employees, improving the company operations, and the introduction of new technologies then reinforces the positions of the various Coca Cola products. This practically results in economies of scale that is able to create a distribution network for both the local and international Coca Cola products. If a market is already in the control of other beverage companies, Coca Cola Company devotes its attention towards the development of a premium segment with its various products (Booms, 1981).             The mission of Coca Cola Company is to secure the growth of the business in a sustainable manner, while at the same time constantly improving the company’s profitability. The strategy to achieve this involves four elements: <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Striving in order to reach a leading position in attractive markets </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Focusing on securing a competitive share of the beverage market segments. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Working in order to improve the company’s efficiency and cut costs in operations. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Continuous growth through selective acquisitions for as long as they are able to create shareholder value. </li> Licensing and Franchising Licensing and franchising are key factors especially in markets where a broad leadership position has yet to be fully developed (Miller, 2004). In these markets Coca Cola Company strives for strong positions especially in the premium/import and specialty segments.           Good examples here include Coca Cola Company’s leading position in the import segment in the United States as well as the recently established market in China.  In both examples, Coca Cola Company shows its desire to establish autonomous growth through the selling of more and more brands and expansion through the distribution networks as well as growth through acquisitions. Coca Cola USA Coca Cola USA has been showing steady signs of growth and progress for a couple of years now. This consistent progress can be attributed to the change in strategic directions that was implemented several years ago and is still being further structured up to now. Basically, the critical element of the strategy was that Coca Cola USA started looking at things from the perspectives of the consumers and the customers.   Why Coca Cola USA? Because primarily, the United States has nearly half a million outlets where beverages are allowed to be sold. If one would consider the size of the country, it would seem like that the “getting closer to the market” strategy would not work. Add the fact that it is very difficult to get detailed information about the performances in terms of sales of every independent convenience store in the US (Kotler et al. 1999). But Coca Cola USA still took up the challenge. Under the leadership of CEO E. Neville Is dell, large-scale operations were initiated.  Business units were started to be established to initiate the change process needed to bring Coca Cola USA closer to the market. In the part of marketing, the decisions taken in recent years already established positive impacts such as portfolio management and ethnic marketing. Coca Cola China China possesses a strong market that enables it to be easily targeted by the world’s leading beverage companies. China’s market value has even increased over the recent years especially with the steady increase of their presence.             Coca Cola Company is the first to strike a deal with China in its bid to strengthen its foothold as the top beverage company in the world. With its entry into the beverage market of China, the world’s largest beverage market holder just got even bigger and stronger (1994).   Why Coca Cola China? China has one the largest beverage markets in the world. For instance, its beverage market earned an estimated sales volume of 250 million hectoliters of beverage in 2003. Add the fact that with a population of nearly 85 million people, China has certainly one of the largest and wealthiest beverage markets in the world (Loins, 2003). This is a crucial initial step made by Coca Cola Company, and they remain positive about the prospects of striking more deals with international beverage companies in Asia to fortify its number one position in the beverage industry. Exporting / Collaborative Ventures In order to sustain its growth on the international level, Coca Cola Company builds its business on four (4) main positioning strategies. <ul type="disc" style="margin-bottom: 0in"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> The first is building a strong local operating platform, and then testing it over time to determine if profitable growth would be possible through the selection of the right brands and creation of the structures for distribution to supply a local national market. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> The second is broadening the portfolio in order to make way for international brands to give access to those not supported by the local brands. Global perspectives are also gathered to help optimize both the local and global brands. By broadening the portfolio, Coca Cola Company is able to meet the consumer’s needs and minimize the costs of local infrastructures (Jobber, 1998).</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> The third strategy involves a balanced portfolio of countries among established and developing markets. In this instance, the established markets such as those in North America and Europe will provide the funds to invest in developing markets like those in Asia that have lower GDPs but possess a tremendous potential for growth and development (Parvatiyar, 2001).</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> The last strategy involves market consolidation which would help in the securing of positions and the creation of shareholder values. Coca Cola Company strives to be in the top position on each market.</li> </ul> Future Outlook Coca Cola Company is in a great position to solidify its dominance of the premium segments in markets under its control. There is a strong possibility that in the long run, the sizes of the premium segments in each market will grow continuously in proportion to the total beer market (1991). Coca Cola Company should continue its consistent investment level to such programs to maximize the opportunities for the Coca Cola brand in the future years ahead.   CONCLUSION The results of the analysis carried out on the international market entry and development modes of Coca Cola Company indicated very significant effects, even amidst the threats of unrest. Therefore, we could conclude that the international market entry and development modes of Coca Cola Company could still be expected to improve faster than the average. The review of the company’s capabilities and resources revealed very little inconsistencies regarding its international market entry and development modes. This is coherent with its traditional inside-out approach. However, the need to reconcile both the inside-out and outside-in approaches becomes imperative now for the Coca Cola Company. The analysis among the environment as well as the international market entry and development modes of the Coca Cola Company revealed certain gaps, most of which are biased towards the environment. However, these gaps paved the way towards determining a number of recommended strategic options to secure the competitiveness of the company. Also, Coca Cola Company has to find a balance between adherence to internal forces within the management and to the changing forces of the environment in order to implement such strategic options. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

COCA COLA

OBJECTIVES As a person with knowledge of international market entry and development modes , the author has always brought up to his sup...

The Coca-Cola Product Takes over the World : Case Study

The Coca-Cola Product Takes over the World   Introduction             Mirroring the world’s condition with reference to our postmodern consciousness is something that is borderless, encompassing, limitless and even groundless. This consciousness pasted into our mind is an offshoot of the proliferation of modern science, political and social trickeries, and more so economical maneuvering of most powerful elites and multinational organizations across the continents. This phenomenon recognizes no frontiers not only geographical but cultural. This is best known as globalization.             One of the contestants in an International Speech Contest held in London, four years ago, was a college student studied in one of the prestigious universities in the Philippines took the grand price when she impressed the jurors of her provocative, critical and intellectual sharing of ideas about the topic on globalization. She entitled her speech A Borderless World. It speaks of a world wherein everything is in constant communication. Distance is no longer an adversary for two loving individuals who are separated a thousand miles away. The advent of the new technology and the spontaneous growing of a homogenous consciousness bridges people closer to their families, friends, and loved ones. This is the world that is borderless—a world that strives to be homogenous.   Globalization defined             This construct renders a vast meanings and definition derived from various scholars of various disciplines. For a sociologist globalization must have something to do with the process of influencing the society to adopt a certain behavior, attitude, habit, or way of life. This takes in different forms like media, lifestyle, food, and technology. Simply put, this phenomenon becomes a detrimental tablet for one’s culture. But for an economist, globalization is driven by the interpenetration of the advanced capitalist countries and in particular by the intensification of transfers among great economic regions of the world. Moreover, products, supplies of goods produced by multinational companies can able be share, penetrate and compete with the local markets.             The vast definitions of globalization make us puzzled and logically inferred that absolute is non-existent insofar as a definitive meaning of globalization cannot be comprehended and capsulated.  In the book, Articulating the Global and the Local: Globalization and Cultural Studies, Ann Svetkovich and Douglas Kellner defined globalization as “a code word that stands for a tremendous diversity of issues and problems and that serves as a front for a variety of theoretical and political positions (1997).” This in a way served as a substitute term for modernization and continues as a legitimating ideology for the westernization of the world, cultural differences, and struggles.             Svetkovich and Kellner (1997), think that this phenomenon gradually replacing concepts such as imperialism, thus displacing focus on domination of developing countries by overdeveloped ones  or on national and local economies by transnational corporations. In this discourse about globalization, its functions and concepts are important in understanding the phenomenon which in nature a theoretical construct which varies according to the assumptions and perspectives in question. In this context, Svetkovich and Kellner would like to treat globalization as a term used to describe the ways global economic, political, cultural forces are rapidly penetrating the world in the creation of the “new world market, new transnational political organizations, and a new global culture.”  Furthermore, globalization involves a dissemination of new technologies that have tremendous influence and impact on polity, economics, culture, society and in our daily life. New technologies such as communication instruments become the primal tool in creating a world, though, has frontiers, tremors to collapsed borders, inflicting and creating global cultural village wherein everyone defined his culture as universal and one. The diversity of culture, on the other hand, is neither protected nor preserved, rather the fundamental project of globalization is to collapse all barriers in order to form one single unit of culture—a new global culture.             Hence, globalization brings forth the consciousness of reconstruction, deconstruction and rehabilitation of what was present in civilizations lone ago.     Cultural Imperialism: A Review             Before we step-out into the concept of cultural imperialism let us allow ourselves to recall our basic understanding of imperialism in general.             We understood the concept of imperialism in the context of capitalism. Way back in ancient period, imperialism became a no new concept, from the Greek, Persians, and Romas alike, imperialism has become a way of life. However, the fruition of the concept which attracted philosophers and social thinkers were brought by Karl Max in his Das Capital wherein he elaborated and consequentially, critique the operations of the capitalists and the economic form dominated the whole of Europe, capitalism. However, capitalism stands strong and was not able to faint down by Marx, it was become an incessant subject for criticism. Following the doctrine of Marx, Vladimir Lenin and John Hobson were few of the thinkers inspired by Marx brilliance of interpreting economy. It is with this development of thought ranging from Marx to Lenin and Hobson where imperialism became the center of attraction.             The notion on imperialism cannot be derived elsewhere but to the idea and concept of capitalism. We are drive to think that when we speak of imperialism or even an attitude of being imperialist, we are led to imagine someone that desires to monopolize resources or products or even to think of an empire, we immediately think of something grandiose, a towering infrastructure, skyscrapers and etc. Imperialism then is something to do with manipulation, subjugation, domination, and monopoly of something. This is not a school of thought rather a consciousness, a way of life situated and inculcated in the minds of all the capitalists.             So what then is cultural imperialism?             In the article Cultural Imperialism: An American Tradition, Julia Galeota cited Herbert Schiller in clearing out the definition of cultural imperialism. For Schiller, “the sum of the processes by which a society is brought into the modern world system, and how its dominating stratum attracted, pressured, forced, and bribed into shaping social institutions to correspond to, or even to promote, the values and structures of the dominant center of the system. (2004).” Thus, cultural imperialism involves much more than simple consumer goods; it involves the dissemination of ostensibly American principles, such as freedom and democracy. Though this process might sound appealing on the surface, it masks a frightening truth: many cultures around the world are gradually disappearing due to the overwhelming influence of corporate and cultural America.               Putting this in mind, we are led to realize something greater about these phenomena: globalization and cultural imperialism. With this prevailing concern, I attempted to give myself a challenge to analyze these constructs putting into contexts and try to validate the arguments raised by scholars regarding these. Hence, I took a great leap to look at in particular the role of an American product, like Coca-Cola in proliferation of their culture through interpenetrating strategies in the various locales.             We asked ourselves why Coca-Cola became so successful in penetrating and influencing the local consumers to buy and drink their soda. How does the Coca-Cola company creates advertising and marketing strategies in order to have a great appeal to the audiences at the same time buyers? How, the glocalization of the products serve as an effective technique and strategy to attract the local buyers?             This could only be answered in three ways: Economy, Media, and Culture. Coca-Cola: In economical perspective             It is to be considered that one of the major commodities in the world is soda, aside from the universal solvent which is water; soda becomes a substitute as a drink. Coca-Cola in this line became successful in launching and introducing their product to different continents specifically, Latin America, Africa, and North America. This success was brought by the open trade and exchange products between countries, and now was become more open due to globalization. Coca-Cola became effective in implementing an early global marketing tactic to penetrate and eventually influenced the indulgence drives of the people. As Julia Galeota analyzed it, Coca-Cola became innovative and unique in bringing and introducing to people their products. Furthermore, the reason why people are easily attracted to the American product is just a matter of marketing, she reiterated:          “It is easy enough to convince Americans of the superiority of their culture, but how does one convince the rest of the world of the superiority of American culture? The answer is simple: marketing. Whether attempting to sell an item, a brand, or an entire culture, marketers have always been able to successfully associate American products with modernity in the minds of consumers worldwide. While corporations seem to simply sell Nike shoes or Gap jeans (both, ironically, manufactured outside of the United States), they are also selling the image of America as the land of “cool.” This indissoluble association causes consumers all over the globe to clamor ceaselessly for the same American products (2004).” Coca-Cola Advertising Campaign               Coca-Cola used the available communication tools in bringing to people their products. Media in this contemporary times place a great importance. In this Age of Information we only rely on the information given by media institution even though we recognized their inability to bring an objective and impartial stories, we do nothing but to be “hooked”. Nonetheless, we still manage to purify information and bring the residue in trash. This becomes an influential tool which Coca-Cola used in order to effectively influence the consciousness of the consumers. Again, let me quote Julia Galeota (2004): “An early example of this global marketing tactic was found in a Coca Cola commercial from 1971 featuring children from many different countries innocently singing, “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony/I’d like to buy the world a Coke to keep it company.” This commercial illustrates an attempt to portray a U.S. goods as a product capable of transcending political, ethnic, religious, social, and economic differences to unite the world. “                         In the same vein, this product can bend into a local taste by using local personalities to promote the product like for example, in India, a Coke commercial was done by a local Indian personality named Hrithik Roshan, a Bollywood star, appeared last 2000. The same was made in various continents like Africa, Latin America and Asia. Coca-Cola used the local personalities or even their legua franca in order to situate and connect themselves in their looking way of life. Like in Columbia, what they did was to make commercials using Castillian as the medium used in order that audiences can be able to relate with them.           As to the content of Coca-Cola’s commercials, they are not only labeled as aesthetically sophisticated but promote values and local culture. The commercials are driven not for profit but by promoting certain ideology. The ideology is embodied in the whole package of commercial, however, to question what ideology it promotes is a difficult task to examine and evaluate. The Sociological Perspective: Glocalization vis-à-vis Globalization             It is in this level wherein cultural issues raised. Now, Coca-Cola with their prevailing regulations and vision-mission, are not spared from suspecting of promoting Americanization or global culture. Though, Coca-Cola adhere much on promoting values and culture of certain locales, inevitably, it would suspected as a disguise of what is really the real intention and purpose. Basically, consumerism and economic profit are two major concerns of any multinational company like Coca-Cola. If people are drawn to the consciousness of being consumeristic, nevertheless, profit soars high.             Moreover, let us not treat this extremely negative; however, let us try to see both sides of a coin.             Globalization brought America into the apex of the world, the rest became subordinates. American products can easily access to various continents, introduced them, and eventually penetrate their market. In their process of interpenetration, companies like Coca-Cola are taking risk to study the core of one’s country—that is the Culture. Only when culture is penetrated and known to foe can successfully inflict such phenomenon. What seems top be lucid between global and local is the force in which the global terrain influences and even structure ever more local situations and ever more strikingly.             Another focal point in the discussion of globalization is the emerging trend of another concept: Glocalization.             The concept of glocalization originated in Japan. The term was modeled on Japanese word dochakuka which originally meant adapting farming technique to one’s own local condition. The English translation was attributed to Roland Robertson, a British/American sociologist. According to Wordspy, glocalization means “the creation of products or services intended for the global market, but customized to suit the local cultures (http:/www.wordspy.com/words).”  In this sense, Coca-Cola serves as an agent not of westernization but of preserving indigenous culture. Why? Simply because, Coca-Cola adopted such concept of indigenization of the products in order to suit the needs of local culture. Conclusion             The issue of globalization and cultural imperialism matter so much so that each individual should be aware of. Its importance does not only rely on theories that proved to be true and valid or just because it was then brought to light, but on how we become vigilant and conscious about it. This academic endeavor serves not only to comply with the requirements rather to shed light and knowledge to all of us who are consumed consciously or unconsciously by this prevailing phenomenon.             Coca-Cola on the other hand, as based on my analysis does not primarily promote globalization rather economic profit and cultural values with the locales where they are located. Glocalization becomes an effective remedy used by Coca-Cola to make its image good and credible so much so that consumers will patronize them more and love them much.       References:   Cvetkovkh, A & Kellner, D. (1997). Articulating the Global and the Local. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.   Galeota, J. (2004, May-June). Cultural Imperialism. The Humanist, 22   Rothkopf,D. (1997). In Praise of Cultural Imperialism. Foreign Policy,107   Khondker, H.H. (2004). Glocalization as Globalization: Evolution of Sociological Concept, vol.1 No.2                     Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

The Coca-Cola Product Takes over the World : Case Study

The Coca-Cola Product Takes over the World Introduction Mirroring the world’s condition with reference to our postmodern...