Coke Marketing Plan

The purpose of this comparative analysis is to provide a summary of financial and accounting information to a potential investor who is looking to invest in either Coca-Cola or PepsiCo. This research will cover some facts from the financial statements of both companies for the year of 2004.

The market share of soft drink industry actually has to maintain by spending and investing huge amount of money on advertisement and marketing. The advertising cost of Coca-Cola was $3.3 billion in 2012. Such a high cost makes it very hard for a new competitor to survive in the market and expand visibility. Moreover, due to the highly recognized brand name of Coca-Cola, the strong loyal customers’ base would not easy to switch to a new product. Therefore, it is nearly impossible for a new comer to compete in the soft drink industry.

What I find to be the biggest indicator of concern is that PepsiCo’s profitability is currently declining, despite its ever-increasing sales figures. It has lost 2% on both its profit margin, and return on assets. The return on common stockholder’s equity, has dipped by 4%, and they lost $.02 over every dollar invested in assets in 2005. This goes back to my assessment of their sales and net income figures. Here again, I see indications that their spending has increased dramatically, which is having a negative impact on profitability. Since the soft drink industry is a high-volume, low-overhead industry, controlling and minimizing expenses is of paramount importance. I find this trend to be very troubling, considering PepsiCo’s sales haven’t stopped climbing, yet they are starting to lose their profitability. Should their sales dip, they will be very hard put to maintain themselves.

Coca-Cola is one of the world’s biggest and most well-known beverage brands. During its heydays when the company was led by CEO Goizueta, Coca-Cola’s stock was on a steady rise. As late as the 1990s, Coca-Cola Co. was one of the most respected companies in America, a master of brand-building and management in the dawning global era (Carvens & Piercy, 2009). Over the last couple of years, however, Coca-Cola’s stocks have been falling and profits have been decreasing from quarter to quarter.

What is the SWOT? SWOT stands for; Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. SWOT is an analysis technique to look at business; look at where their strengths are and where their company is weak at and what are there opportunities and last what their businesses pose a threat.

The political situation of a country affects its economic settings and economic environment affect the business performances. Coca-Cola sales are impacted by a set of economic factors that beyond are beyond the company’s control. These factors include the level of economic growth in the country and in the industry, tax rates and currency exchange rates, interest rates, labor costs and others. The global economic and financial crisis of 2007 – 2009 is a relevant example of an economic factor that greatly impacted the majority of businesses around the globe. However, the crisis has impacted Coca-Cola to a lesser extent compared to many other businesses. Its’ operating margin remained at industry-front 22% despite the crisis, although dividend yield was reduced to 2.6 % Quarts. (Timmons, H. (2014). Economic factors relate to goods, services, and money. Despite directly affecting businesses, these variables refer to financial state of the economy on a greater level –whether it be local or global, inflation increases cost of production. Consequently, Coca-Cola had to face the uncontrollable problem of increasing their pricing. With this increase they risk losing customers who cannot afford their products because it is a desired product not a necessity. Due to inflation in 11 years the price of an identical bottle of Coca Cola has doubled in price. Alternatively, Coca Cola could be forced to lower their prices to facilitate an increase in consumption

In 1886, the Coca Cola Company was developed but it wasn't until 1898 that the fierce competitor Pepsi-Cola entered into the market. These 2 companies are the two major players that dominate the consumer beverage (soft-drink) industry. Coke and Pepsi have since been competing to rein the global market in consumer beverages. The market of drinks in the United States alone is valued at more than thirty million dollars annually. With the growth of these two companies, PepsiCo has developed and acquired additional products outside the scope of just the consumer beverage industry, these products have helped the company to increase their exposure and position in the global market. This has not been the case for the Coca Cola Company; they

One of the external factors that have an effect on Coca-Cola is the newer technology. People know that Coca-Cola first provide their product in a form of a fountain drink. It has a fixed ingredient ready for people to get some ice and get Coke from their fountain. But with the advances in the technology today, Coke has invented a new Freestyle soda machine that allows people to create a custom beverage for themselves. Their new machine benefits Coca-Cola because it can shake up the market. It gets people to become curious and want to try it out the new machine. This is an opportunity that could boost the sales for coke and their other fountain drink products.

The trend in Coca-Cola’s net profit margin the past five years has significantly deteriorated from 2010. Analysts believe this is due to multiple factors: Coke is primarily a North/South American and Western Europe company; there has been significant uncertainty within the economy of Western Europe; and, the Coke brand has not truly taken hold in Asia. (Zacks Equity Research, 2015). Pepsi’s net margin has seen nominal up-down ticks during this same five year stretch. Both soft drink companies have seen a reduction in 2014. However, Monster made a bold statement finishing with a positive 20.70% in net profit margin; a year-to-year increase of almost 32% in 2014. (YCharts, 2015) Coke and Monster remained above the industry benchmark line while Pepsi fell just below.

Another important weakness is that the company’s products are seen as a major cause of obesity. (Melser, 2013) The beverage sales are affected by various factors including change in trends and preferences. Recently, beverage sales have fallen because of people’s increased preference for the health drinks. Around the world, obesity is a major problem and the Coca Cola products are seen as a major cause of obesity. As people are getting health conscious they are moving towards low calorie healthy drinks. This affects coca cola’s profitability and popularity. However, the brand can overcome this situation by increasing the number of low calorie products in its brand portfolio. It will need to add more healthy choices for its customers in its product portfolio.

It has taken much more than simply the brand and product to grow Coca-Cola in the number one leader in the soft drink market. Over the past 100 plus years, Coca-Cola has built a huge network of distribution and manufacturing networks. These collaborations that are superior to all others and all types of relationships are a distinctive competency for Coca-Cola. The way that they organize and plan their contracts has proven to be extremely successful and continues to keep Coca-Cola at the top of the market. They have been able to build relationships with suppliers, buyers, bottlers, manufactures, retailers and consumers that are strengthened by the degree of loyalty from both sides of these relationships. They continue to manage their company

This presentation may contain statements, estimates or projections that constitute “forward-looking statements” as defined under U.S. federal securities laws. Generally, the words “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “estimate,” “anticipate,” “project,” “will” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, which generally are not historical in nature. Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from The Coca-Cola Company’s historical experience and our present expectations or projections. These risks include, but are not limited to,

SWOT analysis helps you decide your position against your competitors, identifies best future opportunities, and highlight current and future threats. SWOT analysis is an acronym for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat. Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors that you have within your business on which you have full control whereas opportunities and threats are external factors on which you have no control.

Political factors: A good share of the Coca-Cola Company operates within the boundaries of the United States and other Western countries. These are relatively stable governments which make for a safe and secure political environment. The Company’s operations outside of the Western world present a different challenge. On one hand, the political environment is less stable and leaves the product more susceptible to robbery, copying, and other transgressions. On the other hand, there is almost no movement against the Company’s products; in the Western world people are becoming much more health conscious and the United States government is getting involved at levels not seen before. The soft drink industry is obviously concerned about health care legislation and is funneling money into its lobbying interests at a record level. (Euromonitor, 2011) (Open Secrets, 2012)

The global beverages industry is currently a low-growth market, with an expected compound annual growth rate of 5.7% between 2017 and 2025 (Grand View Research 2017). Additionally, the industry is quite saturated with firms that offer increasingly differentiated products. However, due to this low growth rate, companies have been engaging in price competition to gain competitive advantage and increase their market share. Nevertheless, Coca Cola is a dominant force in this market, controlling 40% of the industry, and is therefore at a low risk of losing its position.