Coca-Cola - Market Analysis and Corporate Social Responsibility in Handling the Issues - Case Study Example

Coca-Cola and Ethics affiliation Coca-Cola ethical study analysis Being a multinational beverage corporation manufacturer, distributor and marketer, Coca-Cola has gained intense and widespread distribution in the market. It is a company to watch. Many reasons have led to this settlement in the market. They utilize the marketing method of franchising too, in a bid to ensure that all their products are available everywhere. They have also adopted the business idea of presenting variety products to cater for the needs of a growing population. In addition to that, it has bought other emerging small companies such as Minute Maid, hence ending up gaining dominance and monopoly in the market. The company has also presented other offers to some few emerging companies, but they end up rejecting the offer as acceptance can entirely lead to total dominance of the company y in the market. For example, a plan to buy a Chinese juice maker company did fail to succeed due to that perception. Market analysis The company does sell their products in more than 200 countries in the whole world. Therefore, it is evident that they have a well-distributed market. Their products are branded with a logo and this aid in distinguishing their products from the imitations that may arise. The main goals of Coca-Cola as a refreshments company are to create drinks that will refresh the world. They purpose to increase beneficence and refreshment to every person they touch through their business. This can be through job creation in the market, or purchases of their products. The people, planet, portfolio, partners and the profit all-resulting and consequential effects of Coca-Cola evidence this. Consumers across the world chose to adopt the Coca-Cola products more than a billion times in a single day. This is because Coca-Cola represents a symbol of quality; it offers customer and consumer satisfaction and is available everywhere (Taylor et al. 2011, pg. 667). Coca-Cola products, target market and ethical issues Coca- cola targets the people who are conscious of their health recently. Target market is important as it ensures that the products in the company find a way of thriving without absolute accumulation. The Coca-Cola Company considers various characteristics of their target market and aims at winning them fully. First in demographic characteristics, the target demography is wide and extensive. It remains broad because of the popularity and appeal of the product in the market. The product also has an established base, so people end up preferring the Coca-Cola products to other products in the market. After careful analysis of the consumers demographic characteristics such as marital status, household size, age, and income, the best target market remain those who are 18-34 year and living in households of 3 or more (Vrontis & Sharp 2003, pg. pg. 296). The age is a determining factor since they have a high ranking and potential. However, the company takes advantage of any customer who is thirsty and in need of a drink. This is a potential customer according to them. However, the segment between ages 18- 32 covers a huge segment of their market, consisting of 55%. The main goal of consideration when evaluating on the target market is all about age (Yadav et al. 2013, pg. 54). Their audience is the youngsters and the youth. Coca-Cola does not use the strategy of gender in targeting their market, but their results show that both genders are in as of their products and use it frequently. For example, in Pakistan, the aspect of gender and the utility of the drink fall within 58% for females and 42% for males In relation to the lifestyle issues, the company targets the busy people, those having a busy lifestyle, such that they face a shortage of time in their private lives and meals preparations. Busy people will always end up taking a drink and a snack to kill their hunger. Those whose work is continuous movement from place to place selling or marketing or in business work also grasp a drink to keep them going, restoring their strength. Sometimes the company also targets those who are dependent on their family such as small children, since when they demand something they will always be given (Braine 2002, pg. 300). Those in occupations, students and family oriented people also have a share in the market population. The students are a good target market since they purchase things with influence. When one student buys something, the probability is high that the rest will also buy the same due to peer pressure among them. In a way the company ensures that, the drinks are available to the students’ environments. Coca-Cola targets people who are obsessed with making fun and merry, those whose life rotates around entertainment. This is because such people will use the Coca-Cola drinks in their parties. The target group is even seen when a company is advertising their products. They do so with an advertisement bringing ideations of celebrations and not mourning. This is a marketing technique to reach such people whose lives private around making merry. In addition to this, the company also targets the upper lower and lower class populations. They ensure that the drinks are affordable and available to them (Chaklader & Gautam 2013, pg. 100). The use of market segmentation also helps in establishing a credible market. Geographic segmentation entails breaking up the products regionally, retaining the quality and taste. The third world countries are given the low-quality taste while the developed countries acquire the best quality. With relation to the climate, their goal is to serve the drink cold, so they mainly focus on the hot areas of the world to increase their sale in a number (Ghosh 2010, pg. 335). In addition, those in urban areas have more demand of the product as compared to those in rural areas. Therefore, the distribution in the urban area is more assuring than in the rural area. In addition to this, the focus to cater the young children has led to the introduction of various tastes such as vanilla, lime, cherry and strawberry. In targeting the family pack, it introduces an economy package that is cheap yet satisfies the whole family. It also comes in small returnable glass bottles for the sake of those whose income is low, yet they want to consume their products. For the middle-income people, they can use the nonreturnable tins while for the upper class population can use the Coke Tin. Therefore, in reaching out to the target market, the company considers so many factors such as occupation, age, education levels, social class and even personalities (Vrontis & Sharp 2003, pg. 297). The company intends to satisfy the needs of their target market with close considerations of their age groups, the ethnic groups, the sex, lifestyles, the occupation or their personalities. To fulfill this, it has come up with many brands to reach their target market. There are over 400 brands of the drinks in the market, just aiming to satisfy the needs of the target market. Disney hundred Acre woods targets the young children within the ages 3 to 10 years, both boys and girls. A child with this drink will see itself connecting with the bears they view in the television. It is in different flavors such as apples, banana, strawberry or vanilla. Qoo, which is famous in many European regions, comes in varieties to exploit people’s taste buds. Oasis is a grownup juice targeting the young adults, available in tangerine, lemon or berry tastes. Minute house cleaner targets kids and adults. Its packaging enhances convenience in movement. The beverage is healthy, since thy have a check of their contents from the heart and stroke foundation. It is a healthier choice of drink for those who want to remain healthy. Many researchers have conducted an in-depth analysis of the content of the Coca-Cola products and the disposition on the health of the population. The pollution Monitoring Laboratory did observe that the contents of the Coca-Cola products are sometimes lethal to the wellbeing of the populations. The company has to address the issue of health in their products, for the sake of the consumer, for example, the minute maid; a Coca-Cola product undergo screening by the heart and stroke department and is proven friendly to the health of the people. Their products currently have a sticker-sending message to the consumers that their health is guaranteed. Other possible criticisms of their products were the effects on the wellbeing of people, poor record on environmental issues, questionable suppression of its workers, their marketing strategies and violations of intellectual rights. The health effects include the increasing teeth decay; the high levels of fructose can syrup and carcinogenic risks due to overconsumption (Devlin et al. 2006, pg. 29). Many people are evading the risks associated with these drinks, minding their health. Coming up with a different marketing plan to cater for these people is the only solution at hand. The stock market prices of the company have remained constant for the last ten years. Concisely, the company has faced a number of social, ethical issues that did weaken the confidence people had on their products (Banutu-Gomez & Rohrer 2013, pg. 258). In 1999, a few children in Belgium fell ill after consumption of coca cola products (Nemery et al. 2002, pg.660). Later, secondary to that effect, many stores pulled off from selling the coca cola products. People did start to sell off their stocks in the company due to the increasing loss of reputation. Other countries such as Netherlands also withdrew their sales. Their slow response to the problem even worsened the whole situation. Additionally, France also had similar problem, where around a hundred people fell sick after products consumption. A conflict arose between the marketing authority body. Coca cola was also sued for racial discrimination issues allegations in United States of America. The Africans Americans were least paid, yet were doing the same jobs with the whites. The public did react strongly to the issue. The company loses immense confidence from the public secondary to the racial discrimination lawsuit (Anonymous 2010). In India, the company did face severe criticism from the environmental organizations and activists, who blamed the firm for water depletion in the areas their processing plants were located (Burnett & Welford 2007, pg. 300). They had direct effect on the neighboring poor farmers, whose life depended entirely on irrigation and agriculture. They had also dumped some toxic had hazardous waste close to the bottling plant. Wastewaters could be directed to the agricultural farms in the poor residents. Despite their initiatives and programs to encourage harvesting of water and sustainable packaging and recycling, the community could not listen and walk with them (Walsh & Dowding 2012, pg. 110). Corporate social responsibility in handling the issues A good number of communities fail to value the utmost value and significance of having a close connection with the community and participating in the community activities. Coca cola as a company does value its interaction with the community. They do believe that it is in the community where they sell their products. If a community rejects such a company and their products, their reputation is deemed to fall; the overall sales will decrease greatly (Madhavan 2012, pg. 98). Coca cola has embraced the aspect of cooperate social responsibility by introduction of various social activities and projects, and sponsoring them. They have adopted a project and philanthropy known as Education on Children Wheels. In this project, children are granted a good learning environment hence influencing their future. They adopt various activities that get children to have critical thinking skills (Saeidinia & Salehi 2012, pg. 10). With such influence in the community, the do alter the target clients emotions, which is essential for them to purchase their products and services. They have also established various scholarship funds and kitty for students in various countries. They have also been involved in various activities meant to improve the environmental issues. They have to give back to the community to ensure that they are ever happy and support them (Kent & Ignatius 2011, 89). Recovery from the ethical issues In a bid to recover from the ethical issues that the company faced, the marketing department did set high expectations for the firm to achieve. All these are in response to the health issues, discriminating and marketing fraudulence. PricewaterhouseCoopers still ranks the company among the most respected companies in the world. The firm did donate around 50 million dollars into the support of minority programs. They also set up a person to report to the chief executive officer for settling the discrimination issues . The management team has also learnt that the health concern of the consumers is of utmost importance. In reference to that, they have adopted a system whereby they do health education to them on the dietary components of the products. At the side of the product, they have indicated the caloric content. Other products such as Sprite, have zero calories, hence a better choice for some people. The firm is also concerned about the environmental pollution and creation of a long lasting sustainability. The emissions the company produces are also measured and categorized in three scopes. They do focus in minimizing the pollution emanating from manufacturing plants and supply fleets. The byproducts during the manufacturing process are also treated before release into the environment. All the products used in manufacturing Coca-Cola products do undergo close monitoring, to ensure that they are in the appropriate ratios. References Anonymous, 2010. Coca-Cola launches sustainability programs. BusinessWorld. Banutu-Gomez, M.B. & Rohrer, W.G., 2013. 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