Coca Cola Case Study

1. The political environment in India has proven to be critical to company performance for both PepsiCo and Coca- Cola India. What specific aspects of the political environment have played key roles? Could these effects have been anticipated prior to market entry? If not, could developments in the political arena have been handled better by each company?

Coca Cola’s first main weakness is that it is highly susceptible to any kind of negative publicity. Every kind of negative publicity can hurt the brand badly. Some years ago after traces of pesticides were found in the products of Coca Cola, it had hurt the brand really hard. Sales had dipped in various corners of the world apart from the criticism that flowed. Any such thing can hurt the popularity and sales of coca cola. However, Coca cola can overcome this weakness by being more transparent regarding the ingredients it uses in the production of its brands.

Coca-Cola remains one of the most recognized brand names in the world today, worth more than $73 billion in 2011. However, in the 1990s and 2000s poor decisions, mismanagement, and alleged misconduct cast a shadow over the company. The following incidents exemplify some of the key crisis Coca-Cola has faced in the last several years.

1. What is PepsiCo’s corporate strategy? Briefly identify the business strategies that PepsiCo is using in each of its consumer business segments in 2008.

One big change that needs to be made is pesticide free water in the Coca-Cola products. Indians have a lot of trouble with making sure their food and water is contaminated, and things like this aren’t going to help Coca-Cola’s business because they aren’t going to want to risk their health. Indian’s need to feel safe and trustful of Coca-Cola that their products are safe for themselves. Coca-Cola made also need to use less Indian water in their products if that problem cannot be fixed. Whatever it takes for Indian’s to understand that Coke’s products are pesticide free is what Coca-Cola needs to do. The future of Coke in India is in the hands of

Coca-cola boasts of being the world’s largest beverage company serving approximately one billion customers daily. The most dominant products distributed by Coca-cola are Coke, Fanta, Sprite and Diet Coke. This strategy is aimed at ensuring that every customer gets satisfied whenever they use a Coca-cola brand. Coca-cola has large distributions across the globe making it the largest distributor in the world. The late Roberto Goizueta termed Coca-cola to be an American company with large international business and a sizeable American business (Ferrell, 2008). This has helped a lot with brand selling as it is the most recognized brand in the whole world. “Coca-Cola has the most valuable brand name in the world and, as one of the most visible companies worldwide, has a tremendous opportunity to excel in all dimensions of business performance” (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2008). Coca-cola, however, has not been smoothly running over the decades in operation. It has on numerous occasions been criticized for overlooking some ethical standards that it should have rather upheld. This essay aims at looking into some of the issues facing Coca-cola, the most significant of them, how they were resolved and how Coca-cola should have solved them.

Leaving the country on a non-cordial note with the government in 1977 had negative repercussions when Coca-Cola tried to re-enter. After being turned down on initial proposed joint venture with Godrej it finally reentered the Indian market in the early 90’s via a joint venture with Britannia Industries. This market entry was forced on Coca-Cola because its major competitor PepsiCo had already entered the Indian market in 1986. Entering later in the market had costs associated with it – (1) spending greater time, energy and money in building relationships with key government officials because PepsiCo had a headstart of about four years in the game; (2) spending maximum money on advertising to woo customers away from Pepsi’s substantial base in the cola market.

Pepsi-Cola is a carbonated beverage that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo. It is sold in stores, restaurants and from vending machines. The drink was first made in the 1890s by pharmacist Caleb Bradham in New Bern, North Carolina. The brand was trademarked on June 16, 1903. There have been many Pepsi variants produced over the years since 1903, including Diet Pepsi, Crystal Pepsi, Pepsi Twist, Pepsi Max, Pepsi Samba, Pepsi Blue, Pepsi Gold, Pepsi Holiday Spice, Pepsi Jazz, Pepsi X (available in Finland and Brazil), Pepsi Next (available in Japan and South Korea), Pepsi Raw, Pepsi Retro in Mexico, Pepsi One, and Pepsi Ice Cucumber in Japan .Pepsi cola is situated is an Industry that is dominator by two Competitors Coca

Coca cola should enhance the relationship with the government. Strong government relations are important in India and give them an opportunity to communicate all the benefits and investments they provide to the economy.

Who would have known that Coca-Cola debut to the world was all because of a pharmacist? And just a touch of carbonation has truly made it a refreshing and an enjoyable carbonated soft drink. It is within “arms reach of desire” as former CEO Robert Woodruff notes. The Coca-Cola Company ultimately cares about its customers and prides itself into providing good citizenship. One of Coca-Cola’s largest international investors was India, from 1993 up until 2003, Coca-Cola invested more than US$1 billion into the country. In August of 2003, CEO of Coca-Cola India, Sanjiv Gupta came to a standstill where he had to further anticipate his next move for the company. The company faced a crisis where the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) issued a press release affirming that three samples of the 12 cold drink brands sold in and around Delhi containing pesticide residues were of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo brands.

Last year, Coca-cola saw its sales decreased in the European market. In order to increase the sales, Coca-Cola needs to define a new strategic communications plan. As mentioned above the image of Coca-Cola has been damaged quite a lot for the past 2 years by different factors. A hard work needed to deal with consequences of this damage in the image of the company.

Coca-Cola is a big recognized brand that produces many products than just soda drinks. With all the money and brand recognition the company possesses, there are possibilities for the company to past the scandals and keep up in the business market, like we have discovered the company has invested money to cover illicit activities. However, it is very important for the company to act ethically and respond to the scandals that the company has been accused. If Coca-Cola responds morally correct, it will shows the customers that the company cares about social responsibility, but if the company does not act fast and ethically, it exists the possibilities that the company’s sales keep declining.

2.) Critically analyze the strategy adopted by Pepsi to sell itself to the Indian government. Do you think the biggest factor responsible for the acceptance of its proposal by the regulatory authorities was its projection of its operations as the solution to many of Punjab’s problems? Why/Why not?

Long before now has branding been considered as one of the peripheral aspects of business. Manufacturers, investors and other key players focused on the product without paying much attention to the consumer. But as the business landscape got tougher, marketing became not just an integral part of business but one of the fundamental principles of success.

PepsiCo, Inc. is one of the most successful consumer products companies in the world, with 2000 revenues of over $20 billion and 125,000 employees. The company consists of: Frito-Lay Company, the largest manufacturer and distributor of snack chips; Pepsi-Cola Company, the second largest soft drink business and Tropicana Products, the largest marketer and producer of branded juice. PepsiCo brands are among the best known and most respected in the world and are available in about 190 countries and territories.