Price Adaptation And Changes: Coca-Cola

Price: Pricing decisions should take into account profit margins and probable pricing response of competitors.

Thirdly, option is to strategically adjust the prices of their products because consumers are often very price sensitive. By doing so the company can either create more value that defines the quality and quantity of the product.

Have you ever wondered how the goods and services you purchase become available to you, and have you ever wondered how the prices are determined? Even though economics involves many concepts, supply and demand, as well as trade, are among the most important forces in an economy because of their effect on prices, consumer behavior and economic growth.

Since there are a wide range of products available, the pricing for both Coca Cola and Pepsi is done according to the Market demands and the geographic segment and thus both the products pricing are set around the same level. Neither of the brands can win if they enter into a price war, simply because the cost of manufacturing and transportation is huge. The advantage to either of the companies was if they enter into a brand war. Since, Coca Cola always had competitors constantly driving them to be smarter, better and faster and since they were successfully been existing for more than a century, they have had to remain consistent with their pricing strategy. Throughout the years, Coca Cola has made many pricing decisions, but eventually the ultimate goal is to maximize the shareholder value. Coca Cola uses lower price point to penetrate new markets to face competition and also to raise brand awareness. This strategy is strongly implemented till it repositions itself as the Premium beverage as compared to its competitors.

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

Coca Cola has differentiated its product and services that are valued by its customer. Its product are based on customer’s preferences, with affordable price and made easily accessible.

The history of Coca Cola began in 1886 when Dr. John S Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist created a tasty soft drink which could sell at soda fountains. Since then, Coca Cola grew to be a global brand and touched great heights. Today, it sells across 200 countries and is just as popular across all the markets and nations. The company today, owns or licenses and markets more than 500 non alcoholic beverage brands. The brand has only few major competitors in the global market. The daily servings of coca cola are estimated to be at 1.9 billion globally. (Coca-Colahellenic, n.d.) This is just another proof of the popularity of the brand which has a very large and diversified

Macro environment are the large forces which not only affects a company but ratter the whole industry itself. The macro-environment of Coca Cola Company consist of sociological, technical, economic, environment, political and cultural changes.

The Coca-Cola Company is the world’s leading beverage company, with markets in over 200 countries and over 1,100 brands under their portfolio. The company was founded in 1886 and is currently headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. This paper seeks to explain the impact of globalization on the standardization versus adaptation decision using examples from the Coca-Cola Company’s performance and strategies since their inception as a company.

Coca Cola choose the Product Line Pricing, which sets the price steps between various products in a product line based on cost differences between the products, customer evaluations of different features, and competitors’ prices.

Pricing is an important factor that determines retailers' profitability. Among many success stories, the airline industry is regarded as one prominent example in which pricing optimization techniques have successfully resulted in increased revenues \citep{Phillips:05}. Other examples include electricity pricing, hotels and rental cars, etc. According to \cite{Sullivan:05}, companies that employ price optimization technique were able to raise their gross margin ranging from one percent to three percent, and in some cases up to ten percent. \cite{Elmaghraby:03} point out the availability of customer data along with decision support tools for analyzing such data as well as new technologies that make price changes easy as the driver for the development of dynamic pricing strategies. %Such strategies change prices as a function of both inventory level and time remaining, allowing the sellers to maximize potential profit with sophisticated price model and to eliminate excess inventory quickly in response to higher inventory levels.

The pricing technique of Coca-Cola has supported the firm to compete and grow in the soft drink effectively. The volume discount and pricing penetration are the vital aspects to provide the firm generates its sales in the market. For instance, Coca-Cola partners with large supply chains such as Costco, Sam’s Club, and Walmart to provide great discount pricing in order to generate its sales substantially in the U.S and the global market. Equally, the firm also distributes its

Figure 1 demonstrate that when Coca-Cola price goes down from $2.00 to $ 1.50 the demand of quality rises from 4 to 6. When Coca-Cola wants to get their consumers attention price is no the only factor that matters and sure it doesn’t determinate how much people will pay for the product.

Coke was a company ruling the markets before Pepsi entered. Earlier the price of coke was cost based i.e. it was decided on the cost which was spent on making the product plus the profit and other expenses. But after the emergence of other companies especially the likes of Pepsi, Coca-Cola started with pricing strategy based on the basis of competition. Nowadays more expenses are spent on advertising rather than on manufacturing.

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.