Chapter 5: Developing a Global Vision.

           
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. 

1. People: "Be a great place to work where people are inspired to be the best they can be."
2. Portfolio: "Bring to the world a portfolio of quality beverage brands that anticipate and satisfy people's desires and needs."
3. Partners: "Nurture a winning network of customers and suppliers, together we create mutual, enduring value."
4. Planet: "Be a responsible citizen that makes a difference by helping build and support sustainable communities."
5. Profit: "Maximize long-term return to shareowners while being mindful of our overall responsibilities."
6. Productivity: "Be a highly effective, lean and fast-moving organization."

        

Chapter 4: The Marketing Environment.

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.

The link, Coca-Cola Nutritional Information, will show you the nutrition information of a variety of the company's products.

                   

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.
• Possess a world view
• Focus on execution in the marketplace every day
• Be insatiably curious"

Chapter 3: Ethics and Social Responsibility

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. 

1. Beverage Benefits "Strive to offer beverages for every lifestyle and occasion while providing quality that consumers trust."
2. Active Healthy Living "Support active healthy lives through product variety, nutrition education and physical activity programs."
3. Community "Foster sustainable communities through economic development, philanthropy and the creation of economic and social opportunities."
4. Energy Efficiency and Climate Protection "Aim to be the beverage industry leader in energy efficiency and climate protection."
5. Sustainable Packaging "Aspire to make our packaging a valuable resource for future use."
6. 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."
7. 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 

campaign seriously. 10 teenagers were chosen to be torchbearers for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay based on their involvement in balanced living, the community, and recycling. ("Coca-Cola Launches Search For Teen Torchbearers In The U.S. For Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay.")

In 2011, 10 teens were also chosen to be torchbearers in the London 2010 Olympic Torch Relay, but they had to be involved in healthy, active living, the community, and the environment. ("Coca-Cola to Give Exceptional Teens a Chance to Shine in London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay")

Chapter 2: Strategic Planning For Competitive Advantage.

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."
         

Coca-Cola's Mission Statement.

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."

                                                                

The History of Coca-Cola.

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.