Global Strategy - Research Paper Example

Global strategy Global strategy A global business strategy can be defines as a strategic roadmap that guides a business to globalization (Svante & Goran, 2009). A global strategy helps a business to reach out to its target consumers across the world t offer their services and goods while still maximizing profits. A sound global business strategy should address various issues including the extent to which a business should be present in major markets around the world, the optimal locations around the world that the business ought to have a strong presence, and how a business can use its global presence as a comparative advantage to improve its performance (Harrison, & van Hoek, 2011).

There are two main strategies for global businesses. Each of them has its own merits and demerits and a business has to examine and assess each of the strategies in order to determine which one is suitable for its global reach. The two main global business strategies are standardization and adaptation or localization. A standardization strategy involves a company using similar products, brands, marketing strategies, human resource strategies as well as similar development plans for the company across all its businesses in other markets around the globe (Svante & Goran, 2009).

The adaptation business strategy on the other hand requires a business to use different strategies in each market around the world by localizing its brands, products, and marketing strategies to incorporate the socio-economic differences in each market (Svante & Goran, 2009). This essay aims at studying the global strategy used by the Coca-Cola Company, a large multinational soft drinks company with its headquarters based in Atlanta, USA. The Coca- Cola Company uses a standardized universal business strategy that is based on three main principles namely, affordability, availability and acceptability of the company’s products and brands among the consumers in its markets.

The availability principle ensures that the company’s products are always accessible by the consumers anywhere on the planet. This entails a very pervasive penetration of various global markets. Affordability implies that the company’s products reach the consumers at the best prices and that the consumers get the best value for their money. The principle of acceptability ensures that the company and its products become an integral part of the communities I which it has presence making it the most preferred beverage for people across the world.

The standardization strategy used by the Coca-Cola Company ensures that the company is able to sell the same product to all its consumers around the world. The company uses the same brands and marketing strategies in all its markets around the world. The company’s customers can get the company’s drinks from anywhere in the world and it will have the same name, color, taste and ingredients. The company has various businesses around the world that have been licensed exclusively to produce and package finished products of the company using given specifications.

The main component of the company’s beverages, the concentrate, is produced at the company’s headquarters in the USA and sent to various bottlers around the world. The bottlers have exclusive rights to produce the finished products for the company and distribute the products in their respective countries. The cans and bottles used to package the drinks also come from the company’s headquarters in Atlanta (Hollensen, 2011). The licensed bottling companies around the world distribute the company’s products using the best technology available across their distribution networks.

The company provides great support to its international bottlers in terms of marketing strategies that are aimed at ensuring the company’s brands are accessible to consumers throughout the company’s markets. The company’s distribution and production network system is the largest and most efficient in the world (Hollensen, 2011). Another strategy that has made the Coca- Cola Company a successful multinational is its investment in the community. Despite being a huge multinational, the company has entrenched itself in to the community through supporting small community projects and charity efforts around the world.

In the developing world, the company supports local communities through initiating developmental programs such as supporting education through improving learning facilities and improving life in rural areas through provision of clean water (Hollensen, 2011). This strategy is part of the general standardization strategy of the company to ensure the company has great presence and acceptability in the various international markets in which the company operates. Reference list Harrison, A & van Hoek, R. (2011). Logistics management and strategy: Competing through the supply chain, 4th edition.

London, England: Prentice Hall Financial Times. Svante A. & Goran S. (2009). Global Marketing: think globally and act locally, Lund: Studentlitteratur. Hollensen, S. (2011). Global Marketing - A Decision-oriented Approach, 5th edition. London: Pearson Education.