Coca-Cola is the most favored beverage globally currently, and its history can be traced by to 1886. The formulae for Coca-Cola got invented in May 1886 by Dr. John Pemberton, a pharmacist in Atlanta. Pemberton mixed coca leaves, cinnamon, lime, and seeds from a Brazilian shrub to come up with the beverage. He took a gallon to his friends who said the drink was excellent, and his bookkeeper, Frank M. Robinson, suggested they name the drink Coca-Cola. Coca-cola only sold 25 bottles during its first year in business. Currently, the company’s headquarters is still based in Atlanta, Georgia, but they sell the drink in more than 200 countries. The company has more than five hundred brands of soft drinks that are sold globally, and in the U.S. only, the company sells more than 800 drink varieties. Some of the company’s beverage categories include sparkling soft drinks, water, dairy product, juices, coffees, and teas. The company is amongst the globally renowned companies with sales worth 37.3 Billion dollars and a market value of more than 18 Billion dollars. Despite being one of the world’s largest public company’s coca-cola, it is experiencing some issues it is dealing with.
The mission statement of coca-cola refreshes the world, inspiring moments of happiness and optimism, creating value, and making a difference. The mission statement communicates to all stakeholders where the firm is currently. The vision statement of Coca Cola Company explains where it wishes to be in the future. For the Coca-Cola Company to train its mission, it has several goals that it works towards achieving. Therefore, the company’s vision statement is more comprehensive, as it is channeled towards different factors. Firstly, it is on the people, and the Coca-Cola Company aspires to be a fantastic workplace where individuals get inspired to be the best they can get. Secondly, it is on the portfolio, and the company wants to come up with a collection of high standard beverages that satisfy the needs and desires of people. Thirdly, it’s on the partners where the Coca-Cola Company seeks a winning network of suppliers and customers. It believes that together with the partners, they can come up with mutual and enduring value. Fourthly, the company’s vision on the planet is to be a responsible citizen that creates a difference by helping in building and supporting sustainable communities. Fifthly, on profit, the company aims at maximizing a long-term return for the shareowners while being mindful of all its overall responsibilities. Lastly, the company desires its productivity to be highly efficient, lean, and to become a fast-moving corporation.
The objective of the Coca-Cola Company is globally known as a firm that does its business ethically and responsibly, to accelerate sustainable growth for operation in the future. The objective sets the basis for the decision making of the company processes.
Coca-Cola Company uses numerous strategies and tactics to attain its objectives. Importantly, it desires to become known globally, which they achieve by targeting different regions globally with multiple ranges of beverages and making their brand name more famous. The company has bottling partners who work closely with the customers by making the drink readily available in places like street vendors, movie theatres, grocery stores, and even supermarkets. Moreover, the company evaluates and reviews their performance and business plan to improve its earnings and assess its competitive position in the industry. Lastly, the Coca-Cola Company realigns its business models to match their objectives and trends in the industry.
Marketing Strategy
The marketing strategy of Coca-Cola Company comprises of numerous elements, all of which are correlated and connected. The strategies integrate with the fundamental goal of attaining the marketing goals of the organization. Markedly, Coca-Cola is a notable example showing that successful marketing can result in building up a known and liked brand globally. The company basis its marketing strategies on proper analysis and researching all the relevant aspects.
Marketing segmentation refers to a group of consumers who share similar sets of wants and needs. Every organization should always have a target group of customers. Then, firms should work on understanding their clients and giving them everything that they want. Several marketing segments are associated with the Coca Cola Company.
Targeted Marketing vs. Mass Marketing
Every person is a target customer for the Coca-Cola Company, but its segmentation is mainly focused on income level, family size, and the age of purchases. Age is amongst the most crucial segments which the company uses in deciding its clients. It has segmented the products to the first group of people, mainly aged between 10-35 years, and another group aged above 35 years. That explains why, in most instances, the company uses pop stars and young influencers to promote its products. Then, the company also has diet products, which are mainly focused on individuals aged more than 35 years.
Secondly, the company uses income for market segmentation. It offers its beverages in different sizes and packaging at different price levels. This makes the products to be affordable for the middle-class, students, even families. Similarly, this segmentation is inked to family size because the bottle size and packages are diverse for different family sizes.
Thirdly, geographical segmentation is also a crucial aspect of the company’s marketing strategy. Despite selling its products in more than 2000 countries, the Coca-Cola Company uses different strategies for different regions. That is mainly because the needs for potential buyers in the various areas vary depending on customs, culture, climate, and the like.
Gender is also a crucial aspect of analyzing the marketing strategy for the Coca-Cola Company. The company targets both females and males. Nonetheless, the company uses different tastes and preferences to lure diverse genders. For instance, Coca-Cola light is preferred by women and girls, whereas Coca-Cola zero, has a more robust flavor and is more preferred by their make customers.
Human Resource Management
Human resource management is the process of finding, developing, and keeping the right individuals to form a qualified workforce for a company, and it is a crucial aspect for every company.
As a global corporation, the Coca-Cola Company focuses on acquiring and retaining highly skilled and knowledgeable workers to maintain its reputable position in the industry. Human resource management at Coca Cola Company is in charge of recruiting employees, training them, evaluating their performance, compensation, and other aspects that deal with the staff’s relationship. The department does this by checking the workers’ job descriptions and analyzing it to understand the staff work activities. Additionally, the department the organization also does the background check to understand employee’s characters and how to fit they are for the position.
The human resource management of Coca Cola Company is always involved in the planning and forecasting strategies of all company departments because it helps them understand the processes and find the company’s positions that need filling. The department then makes the required procedures to hire new and train new staff. Similarly, the HR department looks into employee benefits. The company prioritizes workers’ satisfaction and well-being because they know they are the cornerstones behind their success. The company offers several benefits to the workers, including social security, training and development, team building, medical facility, bonuses, and the basic salary. The workers also have job security, which makes them not to get worried about their future.
Coca-Cola Company treats its employees as assets, which makes it provide conditions that enable them to develop a sense of unity amongst themselves and have a personal attachment to the corporation. The workers understand that the management appreciates in them and minds about their general well-being, which makes them perform their tasks willingly and in an efficient manner.
SWOT Analysis of Coca-Cola Company
SWOT is an overview of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a company. The analysis helps an organization in decision making for it to understand what it can change, or what it should invest more on. The company’s weaknesses and strengths deal with internal matters of the organization, while the threats and opportunities of the firm apply to external factors.
Strengths of Coca-Cola Company
The brand name of Coca-Cola is the strongest strength of the company. Markedly, the company has been in existence for a long time, and it continuously works towards improving and developing its relationship with customers and other stakeholders.
The exceptional marketing strategy of the Coca-Cola Company has contributed to the organization’s success, which also increases the brand’s awareness. The company uses celebrities like renowned actors and singers as influencers for its products, which raises its aware
Moreover, Coca-Cola has a significant market share in the non-alcoholic beverages that are sold globally. It serves 3.2% of the total beverages that are consumed globally. Then, the diversity in the products which the company sells makes it to attract customers from diverse areas.
Then, the extensive distribution network of the Coca-Cola Company makes the beverages easily accessible in about 200 countries. The massive production rates help the company to manage costs effectively.
Weaknesses
Most of the beverages which are sold by the Coca-Cola Company are not healthy. With the increase in lifestyle diseases, people are opting for more robust products. Consequently, coca-cola is losing several customers to more healthy beverages, which results in to decrease in revenue.
Water management is also an issue of great concern for the company. Water is the crucial ingredient for all beverages, but people also rely on water for agricultural processes and other activities. Therefore, the company has faced negative publicity for drinking water bodies.
Opportunities
Coca Cola has a chance of venturing in the production of more healthy beverages since its target customers prefer that. Having an already established brand name, people will embrace it effectively.
Threats. The greatest threat for Coca Cola Company is on the water scarcity. Markedly, it has been accused previously of exploiting the limited resource. The company needs a lot of water and if it becomes scarce. This could affect its production significantly.
Financial Analysis of Coca Cola Company
Coca-Cola is a highly profitable corporation, and in the last financial year, it made a profit of ten billion dollars out of sales worth 37.2 billion dollars. The three main liquidity ratios of a company comprised of the cash ratio, quick ratio, and the current ration. The liquidity ratio refers to the total current assets of a company divided by the current liabilities. The liquidity ratios of Coca Cola Company reduced from 2017 to 18, and also from 2018 to 2019. The quick ratio is computed as the total receivables, cash, and marketable investments of a company divided by the current liabilities. The quick ratio of coca-cola Company also decreased from 2017 to 2018, and also from 2018 to 2019. Cash ration is the total cash and marketable investments of a firm divided by the current liabilities, and this has also been decreasing for the company since 2019. Therefore, the company needs to work on reducing its liabilities and increasing its total assets.
The gross profit margin of the company improved significantly from 2017 to 2018 but reduced from 2018 to 2019. Nonetheless, the net profit of the firm, which is computed as the net income dived by the revenue has been improving significantly since 2018 up to date. The debt to equity ratio of coca-cola Company, which is computed by the total debt divided by the total equity of shareholders, has decreased significantly from the last quarter of 2019 to the second quarter of 2020. This shows that the company is getting more financing from creditors like bank loans that the contribution of shareholders. The debts to assets ratio are computed by the debts of the company divided by the assets. A comparison of the last quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, these ratios have decreased, which shows that the company has increased its assets compared to the debts. Then, the financial leverage ratio computes the total assets of the company divided by the shareholder’s equity, which has increased in the past two three quarters. Therefore, the company has more assets than the money it owes shareholders.
From the financial analysis, it is evident that the Coca-Cola Company is deteriorating in its general performance.
According to the New York Stock Exchange, Coca Cola is currently undervalued, and the rates have been decreasing for the past few years. Despite the high amount of revenue and shareholders’ equity, coca-cola has large amounts of debt and numerous other liabilities. Nonetheless, the company has an opportunity to increase its income through various cost-saving measures. For instance, Coca Cola spends a considerable amount on revenue. The organization should consider cost-saving measures, which will help it to save on cost.
Conclusion
Coca-Cola Company has spent a lot of money, time, and marketing to create its brand name, which is renowned globally. Nonetheless, they need to venture into the productivity of other food-related products, in order to continue occupying the large market share. Additionally, the company should consider ways of cutting costs for them to increase their financial productivity.