INB-601-3313

Company Overview

For my analysis, I chose Coca-Cola Company. The firm is a multi-national corporation established in 1886 by a pharmacist namely Peter Pemberton. Coca-Cola Company headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. The enterprise operates in the non-alcoholic beverage industry boasting of occupying a 50% market share worldwide of soft drinks. The beverages include energy and sports drinks, juice drinks, waters, and ready-to-drink teas and coffees. The firm has different brands of beverages. The organization has over 300 brands all over the world, but some of its famous brands include; Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Krest, Frutopia, Stoney, Dasani, and Minute Maid. The Coke brand has other products such as Coca-Cola Zero and Coca-Cola Lite. The exclusive Cola brands are designed with lower sugar contents to capture the attention of potential diabetic customers (Coca-Cola, 2017).

Distribution Channels and customers

The multinational company sells around 1.5 billion drinks on a daily basis in over 200 countries worldwide. The enterprise has become a household name due to its quality. Before release to the market, each product undergoes almost 450 different tests to ascertain the ingredients and packaging meet the company standards. The company uses several distribution channels to increase its market penetration in various parts of the world. In every country in which Coca-Cola operates there are several bottling plants to cover particular regions. The different bottling plants are aimed to improve the Coca-Cola products. The company sells its beverage drinks to wholesalers/ distributors, petrol stations, Automated teller machines, retail outlets, restaurants, and night clubs. The company offers fridges to its deals to store the cold beverage drinks (Patil, 2012).

Competitors

The only serious competitor of Coca-Cola Company is PepsiCo Company which is known for manufacturing Pepsi-Cola. The two companies occupy over 75% of no- alcoholic beverage market share in the USA. Coca-Cola share stands at 43.6% while PepsiCo has 31.6%. The other Coca-Cola competitor is Cadbury Schweppes which produces 7UP, and Dr. Pepper brands and Nestle’ S.A. PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have been in a stiff competition due to the shift from carbonated drinks regarding health issues. Despite the stiff competition and it is slightly reducing its market share, Coca-Cola has been the leading non-alcoholic beverage company. To counteract the competitors, Coca-Cola has focused on Powerade energy drink which has lately received positive acclamation.

Organizational structure

The Coca-Cola organizational structure is that of Separate International Division Structure. The international staffs operate separately and in seclusion from the head office. Coca-Cola has five continental divisions with a president assigned to control each unit. The regions include Pacific Group, North America Group, Europe Group, Latin America Group, and Eurasia & Africa Group. The vice presidents in each region control the sub-regions and the market countries. This organizational structure helps in efficient running the huge Coca-Cola customer base. Regardless of the location, all areas are managed in the same manner and sell the same Coca-Cola brands (Oladipupo, 2014).

Issue of analysis

In my final project, I want to address Coca-Cola marketing strategies. The company has designed powerful marketing mechanism to maintain its customer loyalty and keep expanding its market share. In a nutshell, some of its strategies include marketing four of its cola brands, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Zero sugar under the name Coca-Cola. The company uses celebrities to market its products and organizing mega events such Coke- Studio. Coca-Cola Company manufactures products targeting people of all ages.

References

Coca-Cola, C. (2017). History. The Coca-Cola Company. Retrieved 9 May 2017, from

http://www.coca-colacompany.com/history

Patil, B. (2012). The effectiveness of distribution channel of coca cola project report.

Slideshare.net. Retrieved 9 May 2017, from