The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest beverage company. With more than 300 bottling partners and operations done in more than 200 countries, the company has more than 3,500 beverage products. The bottling partners range worldwide from international and publicly-traded businesses to small family owned operations. Most of these businesses are not controlled or even owned by the Coca-Cola Company. There are bottling partners in Africa, Eurasia, European Union, Latin America, North America, and the Pacific. The bottling partners not only manufacture the products, but also distribute them to local grocery stores, restaurants, street vendors, convenience stores, movie theaters, and amusement parks around the world. It is because of the customers that Coca-Cola has become number 1 worldwide in sales of sparkling beverages, juices, and juice drinks, number 2 in sales of sports drinks, and number 3 in sales of bottled water. The Coca-Cola Company is a business-to-business electronic commerce which means it "uses the internet to facilitate the exchange of goods, services, and information between organizations." The company created its own pages on facebook, twitter, and myspace. The facebook page has over 4,000,000 fans and it gives them the opportunity to become involved in the advertising industry by allowing them to post pictures of the beverages and comment on whether they would recommend a certain product or not.
"The Coca-Cola Company is dedicated to offering safe, quality beverages, marketing those beverages responsibly and providing information consumers can trust. The Coca-Cola Company has always taken seriously its commitment to market responsibly, across the globe, across all advertising media, and across all of our beverages." - The Coca-Cola Company, Responsible Marketing. The Coca-Cola Company does not target any child under the age of 12. If the target audience of any advertisement is 35% children under the age of 12, the company will not buy the advertisement. This includes television, the radio, the internet, any mobile phones, and any kind of advertisement done on fliers or any other type of print on paper.
The Coca-Cola Company, the largest beverage company in the world, has over 3,500 products in over 200 countries worldwide. Even though there are different types of the coke beverages such as Diet Coke and Cherry Coke, consumers believe that there is no other Coke drink that is as great or better than Coca-Cola Classic.
Coca-Cola Zero was made in 2005 and since then, it "has been one of the most successful product launches in our history." It has zero calories, no source of saturated fat, no trans fat, no sugars, etc. Basically, the drink is much better than any other soda, even anything that's "diet." Over 600 million cases were sold globally in 2009 and as of September 10th, Coca-Cola Zero is available in over 130 countries.
As of October 17th, 2011, the company released Minute Maid Pure Squeezed which includes four beverages. You have a choice of No Pulp 100% Orange Juice, No Pulp 100% Orange Juice With Calcium and Vitamin D, Some Pulp 100% Orange Juice, and Light Orange Juice Beverage with Calcium and Vitamin D. This new line of product was made because in a survey taken by Minute Maid,60 percent of the people said they reach for orange juice on a regular basis.
"Coca-Cola is celebrating its 80th year as a Christmas advertiser by re-releasing its popular "holidays are coming" TV ad and by touring its branded Christmas truck around the UK.
Coca-Cola will broadcast its "holidays are coming" Christmas ad by McCann Madrid on 12 November.
The brand is also re-releasing its "snow globe" ad, set to a new song by pop star Natasha Bedingfield, which will air on 10 December.
Coke bought back its "holidays are coming" ad in 2007, after scores of people called its customer information centre to say it marked the beginning of Christmas.
This year, Coke's Christmas activity will feature a six-week long experiential tour of the Christmas truck, which will visit 100 locations across the UK from this month, supported by outdoor activity.
Coca-Cola has also released limited edition packs of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero, decorated with illustrations of Father Christmas.
The Coca-Cola sign in Piccadilly Circus, London, has been redesigned to use 20% less energy and is now the largest LED display in the UK. The new sign will feature consumers' "Christmas wishes", which can be sent to the brand through Twitter.
Zoe Howarth, Market Activation Director for Coca-Cola Great Britain, said: "Coca-Cola has a rich history in Christmas advertising, creating campaigns that resonate with consumers across the world during the holiday period.
"We're thrilled to be celebrating 80 years of Sundblom's much-loved personification of Santa, bringing his creations to a modern day audience and spreading happiness and festive cheer this Christmas.""
Wendy Clark is the senior vice president of Integrated Marketing Communications and Capabilities of the Coca-Cola Company. With her help, the company has done great global designing, marketing communications, media, sponsorships, and interactive marketing. They also launched a worldwide campaign in 2009 called "Open Happiness." The main message of this campaign was for people to pause and refresh themselves with a Coke and to share and enjoy happiness.
The Coca-Cola Company has launched the 2010 FIFA World Cup program which was The Coca-Cola's "largest marketing activation." This allows fans to express their love for football (soccer) through active dancing and celebration. Roger Milla, a 1990 legendary FIFA World Cup hero, had danced after scoring a goal. He showed his happiness through dancing and has motivated and caused other football players to show off their dance moves after scoring a goal. Coca-Cola created their number one commercial titled "History of Celebration", which was inspired by Roger Milla because of the way he expressed his passion for the game.
The Coca-Cola Company has made over 3,500 products available in over 200 countries. Their products vary from coffees, energy drinks, and juices and juice drinks to soft drinks, sport drinks, water, and teas. The Coca-Cola products are a consumer's product because they are "bought to satisfy an individual's personal wants". There are over 800 low and no calorie beverages. The coffees are caffeinated, decaffeinated, brewed, roasted, iced, flavored, or instant. The energy drinks contain caffeine or taurine and herbal flavors such as ginseng and vitamins and minerals. The juice and juice drinks are pulp free, not from concentrate, from concentrate, frozen concentrate, and flavored juice blends. The soft drinks come in regular, low calorie, no calorie, caffeinated, and caffeine free drinks. There's green tea, herbal teas, caffeinated and decaffeinated teas, and iced teas. The waters sold are bottled water, tap water, spring water, sparkling bottled water, and tonic water. The labels on the beverages provide the amount of energy, protein, carbohydrate, fat, total sugars, and sodium. The Coca-Cola Company provides nutrition information at a site called Nutrition Connection. It tells you the amount of energy which is the balance between calories in and calories expended. There's also information about bone and dental health, hydration, low calorie sweeteners and caffeine and also tips for including physical activity in your daily routine.
The Coca-Cola Company has been using sales promotion tools since 1887, a year after the beverage was first made. Coupons were distributed to introduce the people to the new drink and to encourage them to try one free glass. Till this day, coupons are being used on a daily basis globally. You can get a dollar off your purchase or buy a certain amount of Coca-Cola and get a certain amount free.
As of 2009, the company has created a touchscreen soda fountain called Coca-Cola Freestyle. The machine is called Coca-Cola Freestyle because you can mix whichever drinks you want to satisfy your taste. It has 125 drink choices to choose from and new flavors such as Raspberry Diet Coke and Fanta Grape. So far, the machine is only located in select cities such as Dallas, Chicago, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, and a few more in the west, south, and east regions. You can win VIP tickets to the 2011 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships and the 2012 FIS World Cup in Park City, Utah thanks to Coca-Cola Freestyle.
The Coca-Cola Company awards its consumers by recognizing those who take part in community activities such as recycling and water stewardship. On June 9,2011, the company awarded $27 million to 65 organizations in the United States for helping the environment. In March of 2011, there was a scholarship for $100,000 called Sprite Step Off, which encouraged college students to express themselves through step. These are only a couple of the hundreds of awards and giveaways by the Coca-Cola Company which makes sure that while the people are consuming its products, they are also being given an extra treat.
As the years passed by from 1886 to now, Coca-Cola has impacted the lives of people all around the world. They learned about the company and its products from its first newspaper ad in 1886 in The Atlantic Journal, where it persuaded people to try "the new and popular soda fountain drink." Sales increased from 3-4 drinks sold a day, to nine drinks sold per day. As of 2009, Coca-Cola had become the world's #6 advertiser by spending an estimated $2.44 billion for global advertising. They "expense production costs of print, radio, internet and television advertisements as of the first date the advertisements take place. Advertising expenses including in selling, administrative, and general expenses were approximately: 2006: $2.6 billion 2005: $2.5 billion 2004: $2.2 billion 2003: $1.8 billion 2002: $1.7 billion 2001: $2.0 billion 2000: $1.7 billion 1999: $1.7 billion 1998: $1.6 billion 1997: $1.6 billion 1996: $1.4 billion 1995: $1.3 billion 1994: $1.1 billion
(1950s)
(2011)
Starting in 1931, the Coca-Cola Company started using Santa Claus in their magazine ads, which was created by artist Haddon Sundblom. The company wanted to show people that Coca-Cola wasn't only meant to be drank in the warm weather, but at any time and any season, so they came up with the slogan "Thirst Knows No Season" in 1922. Even though Santa Claus first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, it also became popular in Ladies HomeJournal, National Geographic, The New Yorker, and many other magazines. Coca-Cola first started using the polar bear for advertising in France in 1922. A commercial called "Northern Lights" made the animated polar bear one of Coca-Cola's most popular advertising symbols.
For my retailing experience, I went to Rite Aid in Richmond Hill, Queens. When I stood in front of the beverage section, I was honestly surprised by the vast amount of Coca-Cola products. They had 20 oz bottles, 1 liter bottles, 2 liter bottles, and 12 cans in the 12 oz packs.
The drinks ranged from Coca-Cola Classic to Sprite to Fanta and to Minute Maid. There was also Coca-Cola Zero, Coca-Cola Cherry Zero, Diet Coke, Ginger Ale, and Dr.Pepper. The 20 oz bottles were $1.69, except for Sunkist, which was $1.59, the 1 liter bottles were $1.89 and the 2 liter bottles were $1.99. As I took note of the beverages and the prices, I noticed that there were hardly any Coca-Cola Classic and Diet Coke left after a full day of work and that the competition, Pepsi products, were all stacked right next to the Coca-Cola products.
The Coca-Cola Company is an independent retailer. This means that the "retailers are owned by a single person or partnership and not operated as part of a larger retail institution." The company has relationships with three types of bottlers: "independently owned bottlers where the company has no ownership interest; bottlers where the company has invested but has non-controlling ownership interest; and bottlers where the company has invested and has a controlling interest."
Most of Coca-Cola's products are produced and distributed by bottling companies that aren't owned by the Coca-Cola Company. There are stores that don't only sell the Coca-Cola products but also merchandise, apparel, and accessories. The Coca-Cola Store in Atlanta, Georgia, lets you have a behind the scenes view of the bottling process, meet the Coca-Cola panda, and sample over 60 products from around the world. There's also a store in China (http://www.coca-colastore.com/), New York (http://www.coca-cola.com/en/index.html), and many other states and countries.
Coca-Cola products are basically sold in department stores, supermarkets, drugstores, convenience stores, supercenters, restaurants, and automatic vending. They're either packaged in cans or bottles in a box or in a fridge or in the food section in the store in liter bottles, regular sized bottles, regular cans, or even the small cans.
With three times the number of beverages offered 10 years ago, the Coca-Cola Company has more than 3,300 beverages with more than 800 low and no calorie beverages. Consumers are offered a beverage for every lifestyle and occasion, ranging from juices and juice drinks, water, sports and energy drinks, teas, coffee, dairy and soy based beverages, and full, reduced, low, and no calorie sparkling and still beverages. Consumers are making their purchases based on the health, nutrition, and the well being of their families. They also base it on the great taste and quality of the products and the character of the company. "People want to interact with brands and companies that share their values and are doing their part to protect and enhance people's lives, communities and the world." The following link, Benefiting the Consumers, tells you about "Quenching Consumers' Thirst, Innovating To Foster Active Healthy Living, Product Safety and Quality Consumers Can Trust, and Communicating Sweeterner Safety." The Consumers purchase the coca-cola products because the company delivers the needs and expectations of the customers. For example, there's a demand for low or no calorie sweeterners so the Coca-Cola Company's investing in research and working to educate the consumers about the sweeterners used in the products. Coca-Cola is not just another drink that people buy because they want to drink it, but because they need to. On April 23rd, 1985, the Coca-Cola Company changed its formula for the first time in 99 years and referred to it as "New Coke". This caused such an uproar that consumers filled their basements with cases of Coca-Cola and one man even bought $1,000 worth of Coca-Cola from a local bottler. There were protests all over the country and people wrote songs to honor the original coke. The original formula was bought back a few months later on July 11, 1985.
As the world's largest beverage company, Coca-Cola has over 3,500 beverage products and operates in over 200 countries. They're number 1 in sales of sparkling beverages, juices, and juice drinks, number 2 in sales of sports drinks and number 3 in sales of bottled water. The Coca-Cola Company has a "roadmap" that was created by their 2020 vision. As I've mentioned before in the post about the mission statement, the company's vision consists of the 6 Ps: People, Portfolio, Partners, Planet, Profit, and Productivity.
People: "Be a great place to work where people are inspired to be the best they can be."
Portfolio: "Bring to the world a portfolio of quality beverage brands that anticipate and satisfy people's desires and needs."
Partners: "Nurture a winning network of customers and suppliers, together we create mutual, enduring value."
Planet: "Be a responsible citizen that makes a difference by helping build and support sustainable communities."
Profit: "Maximize long-term return to shareowners while being mindful of our overall responsibilities."
Productivity: "Be a highly effective, lean and fast-moving organization."
The Coca-Cola Company has been making its products since 1886 and was and still is "dedicated to offering safe, quality beverages, marketing those beverages responsibly and providing information consumers can trust." With more than 3,500 beverages, from water to coffee and tea, fruit juices to diet and regular, and even milk and soy based beverages, the Coca-Cola Company has become a global leader in the beverage industry. Even though the beverages are for all consumers, there's a "market segmentation". There's a primary target of ages 13-24 and a secondary target of ages 10-39.
According to the company, "We have a global Responsible Marketing Policy that covers all our beverages, and we do not market any products directly to children under 12. This mean we will not buy advertising directly targeted at audiences that are more than 35% children under 12. Our policy applies to television, radio, and print, and, where data is available, to the internet and mobile phones. In 2010, we evolved our global Responsible Marketing Policy and redefined the appropriate audience threshold for children's programming from audiences that are more than 50% children younger than 12 years of age to audiences that are more than 35% children younger than 12. This means we will not buy advertising directly targeted at audiences that are more than 35% children younger than 12."
A value of the company is to "Focus on the Market.
Focus on the needs of our consumers, customers and franchise partners
Get out into the market and listen, observe and learn.
The ethics of the Coca-Cola Company are based on the "Code of Business Conduct". (This page will tell you about the "Code of Business Conduct for Coca-Cola France, Refreshment services and Coca-Cola Midi" and the "Code of Business Conduct for Non-Employee Directors.")
The company's social responsibilities are in a campaign called Live Positively, which is their "commitment to making a positive difference in the world." There are seven important factors in this campaign that helps it accomplish and keep its commitment.
Beverage Benefits "Strive to offer beverages for every lifestyle and occasion while providing quality that consumers trust."
Active Healthy Living "Support active healthy lives through product variety, nutrition education and physical activity programs."
Community "Foster sustainable communities through economic development, philanthropy and the creation of economic and social opportunities."
Sustainable Packaging "Aspire to make our packaging a valuable resource for future use."
Water Stewardship "Work to safely return to nature and communities an amount of water equivalent to what we use in our beverages and their production."
Workplace "Create diverse, healthy and safe work environments aligned with internationally respected human rights principles."
The Coca-Cola Company recognizes and rewards those who take the
The company's strategy has to do with the "health and wellness" of the people. They believe that "substantial growth" is what helps them succeed in the business. According to the company, "With the world's most recognized family of brands, we deliver more than 3,500 beverages to over 200 countries around the world-not just soft drinks, but juice and juice drinks, sports drinks, water, even coffee and milk. And every day we explore new ways to create and share beverages to energize, relax, nourish, hydrate and enjoy. As the world's largest distributor of non-alcoholic beverages, we maintain a trusted local presence in ever community we serve. We are constantly looking ahead to anticipate what our communities may need and gathering resources to support them. We've increased our annual marketing budget substantially, launched many new products, and developed a model to help our retail customers maximize their sales while we continue to plan for the next one, five and ten years in business."
According to the Coca-Cola Company, their mission statement is "to refresh the world...to inspire moments of optimism and happiness...and to create value and make a difference." The company's vision consists of the 6 Ps: People, Portfolio, Partners, Planet, Profit, and Productivity. "People: Be a great place to work where people are interested to be the best they can be. Portfolio: Bring to the world a portfolio of quality beverage brands that anticipate and satisfy people's desires and needs. Partners: Nurture a winning network of customers and suppliers, together we create mutual, enduring value. Planet: Be a responsible citizen that makes a difference by helping build and support sustainable communities. Profit: Maximize long-term return to share-owners while being mindful of our overall responsibilities. Productivity: Be a highly effective, lean and fast-moving organization."
It all started in May of 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia, where pharmacist John Pemberton created the caramel colored syrup that is known worldwide as Coca-Cola. He took the syrup to Jacob's pharmacy where it was mixed with carbonated water to create a drink that was "delicious and refreshing." On May 8th, 1886, Jacob's pharmacy started selling the drink at the soda fountain for 5 cents a glass. John Pemberton's bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, named the creation Coca-Cola and scripted the logo that is still famous today. Even though only 9 glasses were sold a day for the first year, 10 years later more than 10 billion gallons of syrup was produced by the coca-cola company. Unfortunately John Pemberton died in 1888 and was never able to see the success that was made by his invention. From the years of 1888-1891, Asa Griggs Candler secured rights to the company for $2,300 and became the first president of the company. Coupons were given away for complimentary first tastes of the drink and there were distributions of clocks, urns, calendars, and apothecary scales with the coca-cola brand in 1896. In 1894, a Mississippi businessman named Joseph Biedanharn was the first to put the drink in bottles, but when he sent 12 bottles to Candler, the president wasn't even interested. In 1899, 2 Chattanooga lawyers named Benjamin F. Thomas and Joseph B. Whitehead secured exclusive rights from Candler to bottle and sell the drink for the sum of a dollar. They wanted to be sure that the people were getting the original coca-cola and not a copycat, so they held a contest for designing the signature bottle. The root glass company of Terre Haute, Indiana, won the contest where the design of the bottle was recognized in the dark. In 1900, there were only 2 bottlers, but by 1920 there were 1,000 bottlers. Ernest Woodruff purchased the company from Candler in 1919 and in 1923, his son, Robert Woodruff, became the president of the company and remained its leader for over 60 years. He led the expansions overseas by first introducing coca-cola to the Olympic games with the United States' team at the Amsterdam Olympics. He also developed and distributed the 6 pack and the top cooler and when America entered World War 2 in 1941, he ordered that "every man in uniform gets a bottle of coca cola for 5 cents, wherever he is, and whatever it costs the company." From the mid 1950s until 1960, the number of countries with bottling operations nearly doubled and the imagery of advertising were basically happy couples at the drive-in or a group of smiling teenagers or little kids.
New flavors started developing from the 1940s; Fanta was developed in the 1940s, but introduced in the 1950s, sprite was in 1961, TAB in 1963, and Fresca in 1966. In 1960, the coca-cola company acquired the minute maid company and moved into Cambodia, Montserrat, Paraguay, Macau, Turkey, and many more countries. The 1970s became the important years of the business, which was about advertising. In 1971, there was an international commercial showing a group of young people from all over the world gathered on a hilltop in Italy singing "I'd Like To Buy The World A Coke." The People's Republic of China selected coca-cola as the only company to sell cold beverages in 1978. In 1981, Roberto C. Goizueta became chairman of the Board of Directors and the CEO of the company. He had a strategy called "intelligent risk taking" where he took risks suck as organizing a new public company called Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. and introducing the diet cola in 1982, which became the top lower calorie drink in the world. For the first time in 99 years, he also changed the original formula to a new taste in 1985 called new coke, but the people begged for the original formula back and the critics called it "the biggest marketing blunder ever", so the company bought back the old formula as coca-cola classic. In the 1990s, coca-cola had the support of the Olympic games, FIFA World Cup Football, Rugby World Cup, and the National Basketball Association, and the coca-cola classic became the official soft drink of NASCAR racing. The "always coca-cola" advertising with the coca-cola polar bear was introduced in 1993 along with new beverages such as Powerade sports drinks, Qoo children's fruit drink, and Dasani bottled water. By 1997, over 1 billion servings of coca-cola was served each day and today more than 1.7 billion servings are sold per day. Now, coca-cola has over 500 brands such as limca, maaza, and thums up in India, barq's root beer in the United States, inca kola in Peru, and cadbury schweppes beverage brands.
