Coke Case Study

1.Do you think Coca-Cola is driven by a production, selling or marketing philosophy? Why?

i. In my opinion, before 1995 under the top management Reberto Goizueta , Donald Keough and Dough Ivester, Coca-cola is driven by selling orientation. Their purpose of marketing is to sell more carbonated coke soda to more people, more often for more money to make more profit. Under legendary CEO Roberto C. Goizueta Coke stock soared 3,500 percent over 16 year, with little real threat from competitors.

Their aim at that time is to sell what they make rather than make what the market wants. It was thought that brand awareness of Coke was so strong that the product could sell itself. The syrups concentrate on distribution through as many bottlers as possible to find right customers for their product. They believed more coke consumed, the more money would flow into the Coca-Cola Company, which produced the concentrate. More money meant greater profits, which would lift the stock price, making all the people who had invested in it or the stakeholder happier and achieve the company objectives.

For example, in 1994 Dough Ivester President of Coca-Cola Company doing a market research by hired a camera crew to survey the market places in Rome. The research aims is to get information whether the coca cola widely sell in the market. He was frustrated because of the negatives result. He urged all distributions channel or bottlers to make sure Coca-Cola sell widely in the market includes the potential stores such as convenience stores, out on the street in barrels packed with ice, vending machines, school hallways, the basements and pantries of peoples houses , restaurants, ball parks, movie theaters, hotels, cruise ships, gas station and all the other places where people spend their time. The mainly marketing objective at that times was selling.

ii. After 1995 total cola market has been shrinking and this downward trend is expected to continue. Then Coca-cola shift to marketing philosophy, not to find the right customers for their product, but the right product for the customer and still maintain to produce cola syrup concentrate and other new drinking and food product.

Its objective is to satisfy customer wants and need than those offered by competitor and distinguish between their product. Coke marketing efforts on new products such as clear colas, iced teas, fruit drinks, sport drink and mid-calorie cola that use less artificial sweetener than the diet colas is one of marketing philosophy at fulfilling the customers need and wants.

They start doing research on customer needs and wants to defined target market especially youth, which is a new involvement for buying their product. Then the new product such as energy drink, sport drink and fruit drink had been lunch. The strategy is to satisfy customers requirement than those offered by the competitor.

Coke also try to achieve organization objective in marketing orientation by maintaining higher market share and optimizing stakeholder share price for higher profit in stock exchange. All this can be done by Coke Company when top management integrated the organization activities through bottlers whose their major distributor channel to use the same advertising, production concept, increasing sales volume and good relationship all around the world. The coca cola co and its network of bottlers comprise the most sophisticated and pervasive production and distribution systems in the world.

2.Why is the domestic market important to coke? Why does coke not focus most of its attention to growth opportunities in international market?

i. Domestic market important to coke because it provides a base on which the company build its business around the world. The coca-cola Company produces a syrup concentrate, and sells to various bottlers through the world who hold Coca-cola franchises. Coke as the first coca-cola recipe invented in USA and had reached the status of a national icon for USA in its 50th anniversary, try to maintain the goodwill as a brand name that positioning their whole product all around the world.

USA is a wide nation and provides huge markets. Every country in the world like to sell their products there because of its good potential markets. Coke get this free opportunity in USA market to achieve organization objective by increasing stakeholder share in stoke exchange and also the market shares that can provide a good base to attract old and new bottlers to became their end user production and distribution channel. Governments might come and go, but Coke would always find a way to increase sales in the cafйs and the bus stations, its shapely image evident as the smoke cleared in American way. Coke in USA not just selling a soft drink, they are selling a little tiny piece of people's lives because the history of coke developed their product according to the history of American. If the base or domestic coke keeps on decreasing so the bottlers will lose their confident to invest more in coke activities and it will reduce the production of syrup concentrate for bottles around the world, and no more coke sales internationally.

ii. Coke not focus most of its attention to growth opportunities in international market because Coca -Cola company owns minority shares in some of its largest franchisees for one or more geographical areas, like Coca-Cola AMATIL, Coca-Cola FEMSA and independent bottlers. That mean Coke international market is driven by local company to cater for local tastes. Most of the bottlers, wherever they were, worked hard to make sure they got everything they wanted out of their franchises. They made plenty of money and keep on buying syrup concentrate from Coca-cola company.

Most of international markets are driven by bottlers, to produce coke in their region, that how Coke Company distribute their product all a round the world just selling their syrup concentrate and the brand. International market always involve countries regulation that coke can't control and it may destruction their investment under uncertainties, for example: in India the Coca-cola Company finally bows to political pressure to divest 49% of its equity to Indian investors because the government regulation required by Indian Law.

The only way Coke Company want to stabilize their business is provide a good base in USA itself because it is a product of American proud.

3.What marketing activities and marketing institutions are required to get cola products from producers to consumers?

i. Marketing activities that performed to move cola from producers

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