Coca-Cola’s Strategy & Positioning Analysis
Coca-Cola’s Strategy & Positioning AnalysisErnesto Orozco, Bridgette Hale, Esperanza Valencia, Kesha Andrews, & Du Juana CollierMarketing 421October 24, 2016Instructor: Maria KellerTitle of PaperTriple click your mouse anywhere in this paragraph to replace this text with your introduction. Overview of OrganizationSince the mid 1700’s people developed a liking to bubbly flavored carbonated waters, due to a general belief that it was good for health. Coca-Cola was first marketed as a tonic and it contained extracts of cocaine. The first soft drink was sold at a soda fountain in Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta on May 8, 1886. (History and Origins of your Favorite Beverage, About money) The first year of sales showed a $20K loss. John Pemberton spent over $70K in expenses and sales were about $50K in the first year. It was not until after 1887 when Asa Candler bought Coca Cola for only $2,300, that Coca-Cola began to make true profit. Due to Candler’s aggressive marketing plan and heavy advertising, Coca-Cola became very popular and began selling across the U.S. and then went international. Then on April 23, 1985, Coca-Cola came out with the release of “New Coke”. Since then, Coke has been dominating the soft drink industry with its many products including but not limited to Coke, Diet Coke, Fanta, and Sprite. As well as bottled water, sport drinks, juice drinks, coffees, ready to drink teas, and energy drinks.
Description of Product/ServiceTriple click your mouse anywhere in this paragraph to replace this text with the description of your product or service.SWOT AnalysisStrengths (Internal)Weaknesses (Internal)Kept up with the times / InnovationStrong advertisement campaignsRecognized globally by brand nameNo healthy productsElastic in nature (a slight increase in price of product affects Coke’s bottom line)Opportunities (External)Need to target younger generationsNeed of healthy sugary or carbonated productsNeed to acquire local bottling plants/local brandsNeedBuying out the CompetitionThreats (External)Elastic in nature, a slight increase in price would be a problemThe competition (Nestle S.A., Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc., and Pepsico)Marketing, advertising, general labor, and administrative expensesConsumer IncomeConsumer Taste preferencesNew government policies and regulationsStrengths: Coca-Cola has clearly kept up with the changes in technology and knows its customer base very well. Coca-Cola’s aim at its target are its advertisement campaign which have been one of its strongest, such as personalizing the can with a person’s first name. Now you can even request a batch of Coke’s with the names of your group on it. Of course you pay extra for that plus the shipping and handling but what other soft drink company is doing that? The other big hit campaign is its snip bits of lyrics from the most popular songs out there. This opened up a new money making area for them as artists are knocking at their door trying to get their lyrics on their cans. Even before these advertisement campaigns, Coke had already become recognized globally by name alone. These latest advertisement strategies however, have been a big hit with Coca-Cola’s target consumers: Children, adults, younger generation and sports personalities. Coke is already a well-established brand globally. At the present time Coca-Cola has operations in over 200 countries around the world and continues dominating that segment of the market.