Mgmt 499 Recommendations / Future Directions / Potential

Running head: MARKET ANALYSIS AND MARKET STRATEGY

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SHORTENED TITLE UP TO 50 CHARACTERS

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Individual Project unit 3

Olawoyin Ibitoye

American intercontinental University

August 9, 2022

Professor Eric Freeman

Introduction

Atlanta, Georgia serves as the headquarters for The Coca-Cola Company, an American global beverage company that was established under Delaware's General Corporation Law. Non - alcoholic beverage extracts and syrups are a business that The Coca-Cola Company is involved in producing, selling, and marketing. Asa Griggs Candler and John Stith Pemberton, better known as Coca-Cola, launched the business on January 29, 1892, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.

Market Analysis

An evaluation of a market's quality and quantity is a market analysis. It examines the market's size, both quantitatively and qualitatively, as well as the different consumer categories and purchasing trends, the level of competition, and the overall business environment, including entry hurdles and regulatory framework (Luo, 2022).

So therefore, understanding the fact that Coca-Cola is a well-known company in the market is crucial when discussing it. The most profitable corporation in the world, with products sold in more than 200 different countries and regions and the world's most identified brand in the world, it is also an American number one company brand that receives 15 percent of its total income from the United States. Given that the majority of its advertisements are seen on television and on billboards. Hence, this makes Coca-Cola the most advertised and marketed brand in the whole world (Luo, 2022).

Target Market

Since every product is geared at a different segment of society depending on the region, Coca-Cola's target market is practically a global sensation. The company's ultimate goal is to advertise worldwide in every country or location that allows it to do so profitably. Given this, young people are the overall potential customers for any kind of beverages. Most people think of soft drink as a refreshment for kids, something to have while rushing or when in need to kick off the day. Even while Coca-Cola does not exclusively sell soda alone, it is unquestionably their biggest market.

In addition, girls and women enjoy Coca-Cola light quite a bit, but the males like Thums up and Coca-Cola zero both of which are sold in India, which have higher concentration of solutes. According to research, 50 % of Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 report drinking regular soda. Which means men in this age group are likely to drink soda in one way or the other.

Industry Analysis

The Coca-Cola Company's mission statement outlines the important and adaptable characteristics of general financial market for the establishment of corporate commitment values. The principles of the Coca-Cola Company are interwoven with portfolio expansion, partner network development, global citizenship duty, lean fast-moving organizations, and maximizing long-term shareholder return (Coca-cola.co). The Coca Cola Corporation's mission statement guarantees the qualities of corporate ethical values that demonstrate the accomplishment of institutional goals, and the company has created a strategy for upholding consumer values in the modern period of the beverage market.

SWOTT Analysis

· Strength: Coca-Cola has a huge amount of brand value, the biggest corporate valuation of over $80 billion, global presence since it has one of the largest target audiences, and market share. Hence it also shows that the brand is bent on a continued expansion (Leigh, 2010).

· Weakness: Coca-Cola's shortcomings are seen to include the lack of product variety in its key categories, direct competition with Pepsi, and a lack of focus on healthy foods and drinks (Leigh, 2010).

· Opportunity: Targeting healthy items with its primary offers, such as drinks, provide a chance to enter the growing target audience effectively. At the same time, attention must be paid to drinking water in an efficient style of packaging or branding (Leigh, 2010).

· Threats: The threat to the Coca-Cola firm comes from indirect forms of competition including cheap drinks, regional drinks, and the challenges the company has finding raw resources (Leigh, 2010).

Market Segment

Coca-Cola targets both genders with its vast range of drinks whenever it is having to do with market segmentation and focused marketing. Due to the size and accessibility of this market to both sexes, there is a higher potential for product variety. Contrarily, in psycho-graphic segmentation, Coca-Cola customers are categorized into several categories according to their values, personalities, or way of life.

Competition

With approximately 145,000 employees worldwide, Coca-Cola is the leading distributor of beverages. Coca-Cola compete with other firms that produce soft drinks in almost every area of the global market where beverages or foods are offered. Even though the Coca-Cola company solely produces the syrup for its well-known soft drink brand, it is rare to find a place in the world where you will not find Coca-Cola.

Market Strategy

Coca-Cola's marketing plan is designed in a distinctive way, that it enhances and gains its general global awareness. Product, promotion, pricing, and place serves as the cornerstones of Coca-Cola's marketing strategy, and the marketing strategy method used is otherwise known as the 4ps. Hence, the company also uses the marketing mix approach (Luo, 2022).

Four Ps

· Product: The marketing mix may be used to analyze the strategic plan of Coca-Cola, which has a large range of soft drink products available internationally. Below includes Coca-Cola's company products Diet Coke, Coca-Cola, PowerAde Zero, Coca-Cola Life, Coca-Cola Zero, and Sprite, Light Minute Maid, Fanta, and so on (Goi, 2009).

· Price: For roughly 73 years, Coca-Cola's pricing was stable. Over time, it only cost $5. With rivals like Pepsi, which is Coca-Cola's main rival, competition in the market is on the rise. The corporation must thus adapt to its pricing approach (Goi, 2009).

· Place: More than 200 nations sell Coca-Cola products because of their extensive supply system and worldwide presence. The company operates in six regions which are, North America, Europe, the Pacific, Eurasia, and Latin America, for bottling, packaging, and distribution. Which made the business depends on its partners.

· Promotion: Coca-Cola concentrates on various marketing and promotional techniques because of the fierce competition within the industry. They concentrate primarily on aggressive marketing. hence, Profit, People, Portfolio, and Partner are additional 4Ps (Goi, 2009).

Price Strategy

For the fact that Coca-Cola has to be viewed as unique but also accessible, it adopts a pricing approach called "meet the competition," where product prices are set at roughly the same level as those of their rivals (Dhar et al., 2005).

Promotional Strategy

To further disseminate its branding, Coca-Cola has used a variety of promotional methods, including television commercials, global awareness campaign, sponsorships, print ads, social media platforms, billboard ads, and many more (Lacy-Nichols et al., 2020).

Sales Forecast

In the fourth quarter of 2019 after years of slowing growth, Coca-Cola had a 16% sales gain, indicating momentum prior to the pandemic. However, the business concluded the year with an increased sales of 11% reduction for the whole financial year, despite a 28% decline in sales in the second quarter of 2020 and difficulties during the pandemic outbreak.

Reference

Dhar, T., Chavas, J.-P., Cotterill, R. W., & Gould, B. W. (2005). An econometric analysis of brand-level strategic pricing between Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo. Journal of Economics Management Strategy, 14(4), 905–931. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-9134.2005.00087.x

Goi, C. L. (2009). A review of Marketing Mix: 4Ps or more? International Journal of Marketing Studies, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v1n1p2

Lacy-Nichols, J., Scrinis, G., & Carey, R. (2020). The evolution of Coca-Cola Australia’s soft drink reformulation strategy 2003–2017: A thematic analysis of corporate documents. Food Policy, 90, 101793. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2019.101793

Leigh, D. (2010). SWOT analysis. Handbook of Improving Performance in the Workplace: Volumes 1-3, 115–140. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470592663.ch24

Luo, T. (2022). Strategic analysis of Coca-Cola Company based on Harvard Framework. BCP Business & Management, 17, 16–21. https://doi.org/10.54691/bcpbm.v17i.342