Company Analysis Essay on Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is certainly the leading soft drink firm and operates in more than two hundred countries across the globe. The company sells a variety of still and sparkling beverages. Coca-Cola generates about sixty percent of its revenue and eighty percent of its operating profit from outside the US. It, therefore, means that the corporation has strong brand recognition all over the globe. Indeed, it is estimated that almost ninety-four percent of the world population knows the red and white logo of Coca-Cola (Elmore, 2014). The mission of the enterprise is to refresh the world, inspire moments of optimism and happiness, as well as generating value and making a difference.

The vision of the Coca-Cola is a framework for the roadmap of the company and guides various aspects of the business by describing what the corporation needs to accomplish to continue achieving sustainable quality growth. The vision is divided into six segments namely the people, portfolio, partners, planet, profit, and productivity (Elmore, 2014). First, the company wants to become a workplace the employees are inspired to become the best they can be. Secondly, Coca-Cola aims at providing a portfolio of quality beverages that anticipate and satisfy the desires and needs of the people. Thirdly, the company intends to nurture a successful network of customers and suppliers who create mutual, sustainable value. Fourthly, the company wishes to be a responsible enterprise that makes a difference by assisting and supporting to achieve sustainability. Additionally, Coca-Cola intends to maximize the long-term returns to the shareholders while minding its responsibilities. Additionally, the company intends to be highly effective. The tagline of the company is to refresh the world, one story at a time.

The non-alcoholic market will continue to grow with the advent of Asian markets and developing markets (Elmore, 2014). Also, these markets are experiencing a change in lifestyle, economic conditions, as well as consumer buying habits. It, therefore, means that the consumption will be higher. The soft drink industry provides a wide variety of options to consumers. It means that customers can easily switch from one brand to other options. Consequently, companies can only differentiate their products and retain customers by building a strong brand and generating pull in the market. The major players in the non-alcoholic beverage sector share similar marketing strategies. Coca-Cola sells more than three hundred brands of beverages across the globe. The main brands include Coke, Lift, Fanta, Sprite, PowerAde, and Frutopia 100% Fruit Juice. The company packages its brands into plastic bottles of various sizes including 1.25 liters, 300mL, 600mL, and 2 liters. Also, the company packages the brands in aluminum cans of 375mL.

Issue 2

The 5Cs of Coca-Cola

Company

The best way to analyze the company is to look at the SWOT analysis. Here, the Coca-Cola intends to align its strengths with the opportunities available in the marker. At the same time, the corporation wants to make sure that its weaknesses do not harm the company. Some of the strengths include business valuation, vast global presence, brand equity, largest market share, fantastic marketing strategies, and distribution network and customer loyalty (Kumar, Mujtaba, and Jumani, 2014). Currently, Coca-Cola is valued at approximately eighty billion dollars. The valuation comprises of brand value, assets, profit of the company, complete operation costs, and numerous factories sited all over the world.

Secondly, Coca-Cola has a good marketing strategy. The enterprise always tries to win the hearts of its customers. For example, PepsiCo is known to transform its target market from time to time. In fact, PepsiCo mainly targets young people. Contrary, Coca-Cola is likable to people of all ages. The company uses celebrities such as Amitabh Baccam, Aishwarya Rai, and Aamir Khan to market its products. Besides, Coca-Cola enjoys a strong customer loyalty. Indeed, Coca-Cola and Fanta have a huge fan following. Certainly, is challenging to invest substitutes to the beverages offered by Coca-Cola because of to their great taste. Finally, Coca-Cola has the largest distribution network since it has a high demand. Having a successful distribution network offers the company a strong market presence.

Despite the strengths, Coca-Cola faces several weaknesses. First, the enterprise faces strong competition from PepsiCo. Although Coca-Cola seems to lead, Pepsi does not appear to give up either. Moreover, product diversification at the company is still low. On the other hand, PepsiCo has invested in diversification. For instance, PepsiCo has ventured into snacks. For the case of Coca-Cola, the Company has missed such a segment which has a potential for generating enough revenues (Kumar, Mujtaba, and Jumani, 2014). Again, Coca-Cola lacks health beverages. This is a disadvantage to the company since the move to consume health-conscious products could cut the profits for Coca-Cola. Similarly, Coca-Cola has been unsuccessful in water management. For this reason, the firm has been blamed for mixing pesticides in the water to clear contaminants.

Coca-Cola has various opportunities to capitalize on to increase profitability. First, the establishment could diversify into health and food business. First, Coca-Cola has the potential to sell packaged water. In the recent past, consumers are more aware of hygiene, which has popularized packaged water. Coca-Cola will fulfill this desire through Kinley and Dasani. Although the two brands are experiencing slow growth, Coca-Cola has a huge potential to improve. Moreover, diversification can improve the variety of the brands offered customers. For this reason, the company will generate revenue from increased number of customers as well as cross-selling products (Kumar, Mujtaba, and Jumani, 2014). For instance, the existing supply chain could be used to supply snacks. Hence, the company could utilize the well-positioned market to sell snacks as a way of reaching its customers. Again, the developing market has not been utilized fully. Coca-Cola has the potential to sell its products in countries such as India and Africa. This could be a wise move since Coca-Cola makes more profit outside the US.

Lastly, Coca-Cola faces several threats. For instance, sourcing water has become a challenge to the business. Coca-Cola must deal with the suspicion that it uses pesticides. Therefore, scarcity of water is the main threat to the soft drink companies. Limitation or rationing of water can be a chief hindrance for Coca-Cola. Indeed, the corporation could fail to meet its revenue target. However, all the competing firms would face the same threat. Hence, all competitors are likely to encounter the challenge. Furthermore, Coca-Cola is facing rivalry from indirect competitor including coffee chains like Starbucks. Although it is unlikely that this type of competition cannot face out Coca-Cola, reduce the amount of profit that the company makes. Also, health drinks including Tropicana and Real are taking away the revenue of the corporation.

Competitors

Coca-Cola faces direct and indirect competition from all kinds of beverages. Indeed, Coca-Cola faces competition from products that can be substituted to carbonated drinks including tea, and coffee (Amine, and Raizada, 2015). The company faces actual or potential competition from PepsiCo, Nestle, and Pascual. PepsiCo is the core competitor to Coca-Cola. The current market is a threat to Coca-Cola since more consumers are becoming health conscious. PepsiCo is considered to more ethically aware than Coke as it has been on the world's ethical businesses for more than six years. Therefore, Coca-Cola is put at a disadvantage in the soft drinks market. With an upper hand regarding environmental approach, PepsiCo will continue to gain clients who value environmental friendliness. However, Coca-Cola if the leader in the soft drink industry in positioning its brands.

Climate

The climate of the company entails the external environment and how Coca-Cola has to adapt them. The current paper will apply the PESTLE analysis to evaluate the climate of the corporation. First, the political and regulatory environment determines the profitability of Coca-Cola. For example, governments are introducing policies that will help to fight obesity. Coca-Cola is likely to suffer if institutions forbid soft drinks. The second aspect to consider is the economic environment which entails inflation rate and the business cycle. Luckily, Coca-Cola sells brands that are considered basic. Again, the soft drinks are sold at a relatively low price which means that most people can afford it regardless their economic status. Thirdly, the social/cultural environment entails the trends and fashions of the society. Clearly, Coca-Cola products appeal to people of all ages. Lastly, the technological environment affects the profitability of the Coca-Cola Company. The reason for that is because technology affects the demand for the existing brands and introduces new ways of satisfying needs. Here, Coca-Cola could apply new technology to improve its products to make them more appealing.

Customers

Coca-Cola enjoys the largest share of the soft drink industry. The customers prefer Coca-Cola products since they have a great flavor and are relatively cheaper (Amine, and Raizada, 2015). Again the corporation has a good distribution network. It, therefore, means that Coca-Cola beverages can be found at any retail store. Such convenience is an advantage to the Coca-Cola Company. Again, the internet and social media assists in popularizing the brands of Coca-Cola to all parts of the globe. Furthermore, Coca-Cola products can be consumed at any time of the year. Therefore, the frequency of purchase is persistent throughout of the year. Customers can either buy a unit of the Coca-Cola brands or buy boxes. It is essential to learn that Coke is consumed regardless the trends that arise.

Collaborators

Coca-Cola distributes its products through its distributors. Corporations with a superior distribution channel like Coca-Cola can move products to the consumer more efficiently. Again, the company has formed alliances that are very useful to the company. Coca-Cola makes concentrated syrup whereas other partners do the rest of the work including bottle manufacturing, bottling, and packaging (Amine, and Raizada, 2015). Independent manufacturing partners produce more than eighty percent of the volume. The company has maintained a strong relationship with its partners.

Issue 3

Coca-Cola generates petabytes of data from multiple sources. The sources include multi-channel retail data, social media data, competitor data, supply chain data, transaction and merchandising data, sales and shipment data from bottling partners, and customer profile data. For instance, the company has almost seventy million Facebook followers who enable the company to enhance the brand advocacy and generate data. Additionally, Coca-Cola conducts qualitative data to collect more data. Qualitative research is research that entails statistics. Such a research answers how and why the research has been conducted through surveys and interviews. For instance, Coca-Cola carried out research on happiness from consuming Coca-Cola. Another example is the Consumer Care Survey conducted by the corporation.

Coca-Cola survey involves five stages to achieve maximum amount data. First, the survey can either be primary or secondary. Primary research entails investigations, experiments, and tests that are carried out to obtain first-hand information. For instance, Coca-Cola invested four million dollars...