Improvement of Coca Cola Market Decision Making - Research Paper Example

Improvement of Coca Cola Market Decision Making EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This company is reputed as a chief producer, dealer and distributor of non-alcoholic drinks and its concentrates and syrups worldwide. Over 125 years have passed the company was established by a pharmacist who intended to a medical concoction. John Pemberton discovered the concoction while the name was suggested by the pharmacist’s bookkeeper Frank Robinson. From then on, the company has grown from being sold in a pharmacy in Atlanta to become an acceptable worldwide beverage that is universal. The company has a variety of products, and it licenses or possesses more than 500 brands. With is vast empire worldwide the company has grown to become a market leader that is considered one the influential organization in the world. The company has grown from operating within the city of Atlanta in 1886 to operating in more than two hundred nations currently. It has further grown from selling 8 glasses of soft drinks to 1.8 billion bottles a day. Furthermore, the company has over 300 hundred bottling branches and organizations worldwide, which are the link between the company and its customers. The company manufactures syrup that is sent to these organizations to produce the soft drinks that are distributed to the consumers. The company values its customers who sell and consumes its products worldwide and it considers them a significant part in its sustainability process. INTRODUCTION The company focuses on producing light and diet beverages, waters, juice drinks and coffees, as well as tea. It also provides energy and sports beverages, operating in over 200 nations. It has its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia with around 140 000 employees. The company has been successful in its businesses registering revenues of $35, 119 million in the financial year of 2010. This was an increment from of 13.3% from the previous financial year. The beverage was initially being sold in glasses, but it was later sold in the bottles, first in 1894, to make it portable, and enhanced its distribution to other states. Coca Cola has become the world’s leading non-alcoholic beverage because of its strong marketing strategies, which involves the application of tools that facilitate the process of decision making through carrying out extensive market research. The tools applied include Affinity Diagrams, Control Charts, and SWOT analysis that have enabled the company to remain relevant in the market and become a leading organization in production of the non-alcoholic beverages worldwide. ANALYSIS Affinity tool diagram The Coca-Cola Company has managed to dominate the non-alcoholic beverages world because it applies the right decision making tools concerning its products worldwide. Since the company operates in more than 200 nations, it faces the problem of utilizing a lot of information and ideas, which affect their targeted audience. The affinity tool diagram, comes in handy, in ensuring that large sums of data and information, are gathered from ideas of groups, through the process of brainstorming, to ensure that the information is prompted, based on the natural affiliations of the groups 8 Parnell, 2011). The company ensures that it melds the perceptions, ideas and opinions as well as insights of a faction that is conversant or well acquainted with the modern market changing trends (Hoerl and Snee, 2012). This includes the marketing and advertising segments, who gather the relevant information, which the managerial body of the company, uses to make decisions that affect the investments and marketing strategies of the organization. These decisions are aimed in ensuring the sustainability of the company in the market as well as attaining the maximum possible returns. Since information concerning the company's marketing strategies affects people with different cultures and business strategies, the affinity program is critical in gathering and arranging the information from various parts, of the world, to influence the company’s investment decision-making process (Hoerl and Snee, 2012). With an increasing competition from its rivals, the company is forced to gather widespread information within a limited period, to ensure that its product are performing well in the market, and this strategy enables it to achieve this, within the limited time span. Control charts Furthermore, quality of the products is integral in ensuring that its market performance remains stable. The company applies the control chart tools, to ensure that there is continuous quality control of its products, as they supervise the procedures, to exhibit how the techniques are influenced by changes or adjustments, to the process (Dransfield, 2001). This tool is significant in collecting information that will be applied to ensure that there are quality expansions of the company and its products. This process is critical in checking whether a practice or strategy employed by the company in ensuring its market sustainability is in control or outside management (Vallabhaneni, 2008). The company can base its decisions and derive them from results and statistics, which are attained from graphs and charts, from their previous performances, to ensure that they make the right decision, for the future. These statistics could involve financial results and market expansion and consumption among others (Latzko, 2006). SWOT Analysis As a leading manufacturer and marketer in non-alcoholic beverages, the coca cola company contains a strong brand portfolio and name making it one of the top 100 brands in the world, edging their closest rivals Pepsi. The strong brand value of the organization facilitates customer recall and enables the company to penetrate into deeper markets worldwide. Nonetheless, the company encounters setbacks through intense competition, which pose a massive threat, to its market share. Strengths Since Coca Cola is the world's leading brand in the non-alcoholic beverage industry, its brand is immensely recognized worldwide. It possesses a massive brand portfolio and valued. The company enjoys being the proud owner, of a total of four of the pinnacle five soft beverage brands, universally engraving it to customers, as they prefer it, over other drinks. These top four products include coca-cola, Fanta and sprite as well as diet coke (Dransfield, 2001). According to business-Week and Interbrand, which is a consultancy brand, it recognizes that the company ranks well among the top hundred brand companies with a brand value of $67,000 million in the year 2006 as compared to Pepsi that was ranked position 22 with a brand value of $12, 690. These strong brands are crucial in ensuring that the company can embark in introducing brand expansions to its well performing brands. Therefore, this enables the company to introduce other products, which find it easy to integrate into the market, unlike when a young company introduces its brands to the market. Thus, brands such as cherry coke and coke with lemon as well as Vanilla coke have benefited from the brand name of the company that gives the ease in penetrating the market. This has been crucial, in enabling the company, to not only penetrate into novel markets, but also ensure that it maintains and consolidates the already established markets, and not lose them to their rivals (Pride and Ferrell, 2006). With its revenues being in surplus of $24,000, the coca cola company possesses a large scale of operation. The company had over time engaged in operating and selling trademark products since its creation, and this has enabled it to rise to become not only a leading manufacturer of non-alcoholic beverages, but also a larger scale distributor and marketer, containing a large-scale production. The company’s existence in over two hundred nations enables it to contain a well-supported and strong infrastructure universally making it stable and a market leader. Among the possessions of the company, it has and operates 32 principle beverage concentrates, which are situated throughout the universe. Additionally, the company expresses interest in 37 operations, with 95 principle beverage bottling, and canning plants that are situated exterior of the US. Furthermore, the company has the efficiency and machinery to keep on growing globally; thus ensuring that investors and shareholders enjoy their investment as the company registers robust revenues in its operating segments. The robust revenues ensure that there is enough capital, to expand further, as well as allow the company to invest, in other segments, to enhance its profits. Weaknesses The company has faced challenges of negative publicity in its quest to become a world leader, and this might taint its reputation in the market more so min the international market, for instance, in 2008 the company was accused of selling endangering beverages to populations in India. The Centre of Science and Environment (CSE) accused the company of trading products, which comprised perilous pesticide dregs. These pesticides contained chemicals that could cause cancers, harm the nervous and reproductive structures as well as decline the bone mineral concreteness. These Publicities can unfavorably injure the company's brand reputation and image as well as the demand of its products by consumers globally (Griffin, 2012). Moreover, although coca cola products are many and widespread, most people know a few. The company produces drinks of approximately 400 in number, but most of them are unknown to the customers. Only a few brands such as coke, sprite and Fanta, are well known, while others are yet to become popular. These unpopular brands, are also rarely accessible for purchase, and they have a low profile, since their advertisements strategy is nonexistent, to popularize them. Furthermore, the company’s products have been found to contain many calories that lead to a potential chronic outcome such as obesity and overweight. This has caused some people to avoid taking these beverages. Furthermore, the company mostly targets the young and youthful populations as their target audiences overlooking the elderly as a potential market. If the company were to focus in both groups, then it would enhance its profits and market. Opportunities Since most people are currently focused in living healthy lives, and consuming nutritious drinks, the company should try to generate and offer more healthy drinks, in the market. This will enhance their market reach since most people are currently focusing on their health. The health drinks markets are bound to be critical in the potential future, as most people will be selecting their beverages selectively. Moreover, since the company is focused in offering drinks, in the present, it should consider production and provision of food, in the future. These prospects will be focused in offering healthy foods, which will be even correlated to larger restaurants enhancing its market reach and returns. Threats Currently, it is deemed fashionable and acceptable for non-alcoholic beverage companies to offer healthy drinks and most companies have embarked in producing a diversity of such innovative and healthy drinks. Therefore, Coca Cola should strive to pursue this ambition, rather than persisting in offering tasty, soft drinks, which might highly affect its sales in the market, when people pursue healthy drinks. Furthermore, the company has been producing its products based on its trademark brand. However, with time many competitors have emerged with novel and innovative ideas in the industry making it saturated. Therefore, the coca cola company must strive and seek innovative ideas to retain its existing consumers and attract further customers, from other markets (Griffin, 2012). Another threat to the company is the depressing economic downturn that influences the consumers purchasing ability. A poor economy, may lead to the consumers spending their cash on products that are necessities, rather than spending it on soft drinks, which in turn, will lead to the coca cola company sales being affected, as they will be on the decline (Parnell, 2011). RECOMMENDATIONS Since the Coca-Cola Company has numerous products, it should aim to popularize all its products, to enhance its sales, and widen its market. It will manage to attain this by embarking in investing in the less popular products and ensure that they get recognition and promotion in the market. The company should also recognize that currently completion in the industry is saturating with new and innovative products being brought into the market. Therefore, since the company has already established itself into a world leading brand, it should buy out competition, more so with smaller companies, and ensure that it remains relevant, in the market (Pritchard, 2011). Furthermore, the company should move with the trend of its consumers, who currently wish to consume health drinks over the soft drinks that the company presently offers. Therefore, the company should find innovative means of producing health drinks to meet this emerging trend. CONCLUSION Coca Cola is a successful and world leading organization that has an international market for its products. It has become one of the chief players in the soft drinks industry and has immensely developed to become a world leader. Therefore, since the company has already established itself among the world people, it should strive to maintain this relationship. The company should address the societal issues such as the environment to ensure that it retains its status in society, and get an opportunity to expand further. References Dransfield, R. (2001). Corporate strategy. Oxford [u.a.: Heinemann. Griffin, R. W. (2012). Fundamentals of management. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Hoerl, R. W., & Snee, R. D. (2012). Statistical Thinking: Improving Business Performance. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Latzko, J. W. (2006). The Underused Control Chart: Facts, Myths, and Applications. Pp 782- 790. Parnell, G. S. (2011). Decision making in systems engineering and management. Oxford: Wiley. Pride, W. M., & Ferrell, O. C. (2006). Marketing: Concepts and strategies. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. Pritchard, R. D. (2011). Kick-ass business & marketing secrets: How to blitz your competition. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. Vallabhaneni, S. R., & Association of Professionals in Business Management. (2008). Corporate management, governance, and ethics best practices. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. Read More