Research Paper on Global

Influence of Coca-Cola

Mayank Pandey
112
MBA Tech (I.T)

Research Methodology
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Global Influence of Coca-Cola Coca-Cola is a company that is known worldwide for its
product. It is a drink that spans all ages, colors, races, and countries. The Coca-Cola
Company is one that has been around for over 100 years, and has used this time to perfect its
marketing strategy. The Coca-Cola Company is the world’s leading manufacturer, marketer,
and distributor of non alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. The Company and its
subsidiaries employ nearly 31,000 people around the world. Syrups, concentrates and
beverages bases for Coca-Cola, the Companies flagship brand, and over 230 other Company
soft-drink brands are manufactured and sold by the Coca-Cola company and its subsidiaries
in nearly 200 countries around the world. The company’s operating management structure
consists of five geographic groups plus The Minute Maid Company (the companies juice
business). The North America Group comprises the United States and Canada. The Latin
America Group includes the Company’s operations across Central and South America, from
Mexico to the tip of Argentina. As you can see from the above geographic groups, everyone
around the world has access to Coca-Cola. One important fact that is often overlooked is that
Coca-Cola does not just deal with the soft drink coke. The Coca-Cola Company also owns
the Minute Maid Company. The Minute Maid company’s products include Minute Maid
Premium Orange Juice with calcium, Minute Maid Premium Lemonade Iced Tea, Minute
Maid Coolers, Hi-C Blast and Five Alive. One of the Coca-Cola Company’s strongest
strengths lies in its ability to conduct business on a global scale while maintaining a local
approach. The company has business relationships with three types of bottlers: independently
owned bottlers, in which there is no ownership interest; bottlers in which the company has
invested and have a non-controlling ownership interest; and bottlers in which the company
has invested and have a controlling ownership interest. Coca-Cola is considered one of the
first truly global companies. The Coca-Cola company is not only this “world-wide”
operation, but it also a local operation with a source of commitment in nearly 200 countries.
The following are brief overviews of a few countries where Coca-Cola has used their
strategies to help their drinks become part of the culture… Argentina – Coca-Cola production
began in Argentina in 1942. At present, Coca-Cola de Argentina S.A. sells around one
thousand times more products annually than during that historic first year. Belgium –
Belgium was introduced to Coca-Cola in 1927. Today, Belgium is among the world’s top 20
countries in terms of per capita consumption of Coca-Cola products. France – Coca-Cola was
introduced in France in 1933 in the “Café de l’Europe” in Paris. Coca-Cola has been the
number one soft drink in France since 1966, and its total sales have doubled in eight years.
Today, French consumers drink an average 88 servings of Coca-Cola products each year.
Italy – Coca-Cola was first introduced in Italy in 1927. The Coca-Cola business system
currently employs approximately 3,000 people in Italy. Today, Italian consumers drink an
average of 100 servings of Coca-Cola products each year. There are 12 bottling plants
throughout the country, serving more than 500,000 retail outlets, producing a wide range of
Coca-Cola products, including Fanta, Sprite, Nestea, Kinley Tonic Water, Beverly, Bonaqua
and Minute Maid products. Japan – Japan is one of the most competitive soft drink industries
in the world. There are more than 7,000 different soft drinks sold in the country and 500
different soft drink manufacturers. Coca-Cola is the market leader in soft drinks in Japan. The
Coca-Cola product range in Japan includes more than 25 brands and 60 flavors. The Coca-
Cola system maintains 930,000 vending machines, more than two times as many in its nearest
competitor. Coca-Cola, as a company, realizes this. The Coca-Cola Foundation was formed,
with the sole purpose of helping those in need. With operation in nearly 200 countries, the
company frequently encounters the great gap between those who thirst for learning and the
adequate educational resources available to them. The Coca-Cola Foundation supports global
education, and emphasizes innovative programs that foster understanding, such as Michigan
State University’s global fellowships that allow high school teachers to venture abroad. The
focus that the company has on global understanding leads the Coca-Coca Foundation to make
possible the annual J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding, awarded in
1997 to Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel. Also, in China, the Coca-Cola Foundation,
the Coca-Cola China offices and bottling partners – in partnership with the China Youth
Development Foundation – supports Project Hope, which improves schools in rural areas. At
the present time, Coca-Cola is learning to think smaller. A few simple truths animate the
Coca-Cola Company today. China, which opened its doorways to Coca-Cola in 1979, had a
billion people and a per capita consumption of one – one lone soft drink each year. That made
just the United States a $46 Billion dollar market. Bordeaux, France is a place where Coca-
Cola never really caught on. In other areas, the company tried futuristic approaches. When
the Berlin Wall collapsed in 1990, the company rushed into East Germany, where a consumer
survey showed 99% of the public still knew the name of Coca-Cola, even though the product
had not been for sale there since World War II. As the Soviet Union broke apart, the Coca-
Cola executives opened up new plants throughout the newly capitalist nations of Eastern
Europe, finding that Coca-Cola was welcomed both as a source of cash and a symbol
Western freedoms. When the 1996 Summer Olympics were awarded to Atlanta, a reporter
asked a Coca- Cola executive if he was excited about having the Games come to the
company’s backyard. The above are perfect examples of Coke’s advertising and media
strategies, which tell a lot about the companies discourse of globalization. Eighty percent of
Coca-Cola’s income now comes from foreign places. The following quote sums up the main
reason why Coca-Cola is the global conglomerate that it is today: “Anywhere you go in the
world, Coca-Cola is a hometown business… in Poland, we are a Polish business, and in
Indonesia, we are an Indonesian business.”