Coca-Cola competitive performance analysis

I. Introduction

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In the recent years, soft drink industry is gradually overtaking hot drink ones as the biggest beverage sector in the world, with consumption rising by around 5 percent a year according to a recent report from Zenith International (Zenith International website, 2011). In this industry some major companies such Coca, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group always competes formidably to hold the high market position in the worldwide. Specifically, Coca-Cola controlled 60% global soft drink market position, while Pepsi held 30% ones and the rest 10% belonged to others in 2009 (Scribd.com, 2011). During last century, in the soft drink industry Coca always seem to be one of the most successful in setting up the strategic plans to gain the preponderant competitive performance. The evidence is that Coca is recognized as a global successful company with the most valuable brand in the world (Datamonitor, 2011). Recently, this company is global leading with more than 400 brands, including diet and light beverages, juice drink, water, teas, coffees, sport and energy drink. Coca operates in more than 200 countries through 8 segments: Africa; East South Asia and Pacific Rim; European Union; Latin America; North America; North Asia; Eurasia and Middle East (Coca-Cola website, 2011). With the success like that, whether Coca usually dominates in all competitive aspects or what issues this company also deals with. It is essential for the researching Coca situation in terms of how this company to draw out practical experiences in business management. To more understand the Coca competitive position, this case study will not analyze the whole aspects in the strategy of Coca, but concentrates on highlighting competitive performance of Coca in this industry through assessing the relation of it with other forces and to determine its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. Quantitative and qualitative methods will be employed for this project. Based on gathered statistics, reports and analysis about Coca performance as well as soft drink industrys status and trends. Effort has been put on evaluating Coca competitive position in the relation with 5 forces in the global soft drink industry and its operation performance. Then, to find out some key factors that help Coca gain the competitive advantages. Michael Porters 5 forces model and SWOT model will be applied as they are the most relevant models which provides full picture about internal and external factors. The main approach is using secondary data from companys website, annual reports, journals and results of other studies due to limited time and financial factor. This case study will first introduce and justify the topic and its objectives. Next, a review of literature will be demonstrated in section 2 and research problem and method will be proposed in section 3. After that, in section 4, the findings will be explained with critical analysis and the key ones will be presented in section 5. Finally, conclusion and limitation will be addressed in section 6. Ho Son Tung (Bi) Page 1

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II.

Literature review

This study aims to assess the competitive performance of Coca-Cola in the soft drink industry by using Porters 5 forces and SWOT model. Therefore, the main objective of this section is to demonstrate a review of literature, including theoretical and empirical ones, on Porters 5 forces, SWOT analysis and current studies about Coca-Cola in the perspective of soft drink industry. That will result in an understanding about current opinions related to the topic which could then help to critically analyse the case of CocaCola. According to Porth (2003), companies are opened systems; it means that to transform input resources into output products, requires companies not only to operate their own transformation process but also to interact frequently with the outside environment. Therefore, it is essential to apply both internal audit and external audit to understand and evaluate the company competitive performance. The fact that, to assess the factors affecting the competitive performance of a company, there are varieties of model that can be applied such as PEST model, SWOT model and Value chain analysis and Porters 5 forces model. PEST is a model applied for macro environment analysis. It included four clusters: Political, Economic, Social and Technological variables, which are evaluated to find out whether these forces bring opportunities or threats to organizational performances (Porth, 2003). The drawback of this model is PEST analysis is merely focus on general background of external environment instead of explaining the completive interaction of forces in a specific industry. On the other hand, value chain is an analysis about chain activities across a business that creates the added values for customers. Value chain analysis provides a better understanding about the major activities through that a firm develops competitive advantages and creates shareholder value, involved to primary activities and support activities (Porter, 2008). However to apply value chain, requires the wide and deep understanding about all activities in an organization, and ability to critically analyze core competences and competitive resources in companys strategy. Besides, value chain just concentrates on assessing activities of a company in its relation with suppliers and customers without the rivalries coming from its competitors and the opportunities or threats and challenges come from external business environment. It could be said that value chain analysis can be more useful tool to determine the competitive advantages than to assess the competitive performance. The combination between Porters 5 forces model and SWOT analysis might be the most suitable for this case study. Because this two model combinations brings the overview of both internal audit and external ones. Porter (1980) defined the main 5 forces Ho Son Tung (Bi) Page 2

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in the industry such as rivalry among firm, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of customers, entry of new competitors and substituted products, and their interactions to create the competitive environment. It is necessary to relate a company to its industry in which it competes to evaluate the competitive performance. Porter (2008) thinks that analyzing industry in terms of five competitive forces and their underlying causes would form a critical strategy for organization to cope with even shape these forces in a company favor. While SWOT model helps to see the whole activities in a company basically. Coman and Ronen (2009) believe that SWOT methodology distils the strengths and weakness to core competences and core problems. Core competencies are the key that need to be continuously enhanced for sustainable development of organization while problems should be aware and solved. Moreover, the vantage of SWOT is not only internal examination but also external auditing a firm to acknowledge chances and potential risks (Coman and Ronen, 2009), which can become opportunities as well if firm know how to handle it successfully. There are many studies concerned to the competitive strategy of Coca-Cola and the trends of soft drink industry. This section will introduce some studies, which this research will base on to implement for argument in the analysis of finding part. Firstly, Demetris and Iain (2003) studied The strategic positioning of Coca-Cola in their global marketing operation, they look at the strategic International positioning of Coca-Cola by utilising a number of model. In their research, they defined that Coca-Colas operations in its competitive strategies are mainly standardised but with number of adaptations taking place. This companys effectiveness and profitability are obviously well supported by their strong competitive position and the market share in their primary product market. To gain the effectiveness in the global soft drink industry, Coca-Cola is adopting the differentiation and cost leadership strategy (Demetris and Iain, 2003). Secondly, another research from Zenith International about Trends and opportunities for the soft drink industry points out that changing consumer demands and preferences require new ways of maintaining current customers and attracting new ones. Amid ever-increasing competition, beverage companies must intensely court customers, offer high quality products, efficiently distribute them, ensure safety, and keep prices low all while staying nimble enough to exploit new markets by launching new products (John, 2010). The market trends for soft drink industry can be described with six main points. Specifically, customers shift toward to prefer wellness drinks; the conflicting interests in distribution system between the bottler and manufactures are growing; the retailers strength is increasing lead to a corresponding decrease in the power of soft drink companies; the growth of private labels and product/packaging causes the fierce competition; due to beverage safety issues each soft drink company must take these industry challenges into consideration, as well as its own Ho Son Tung (Bi) Page 3

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strengths and market position, when looking for ways to drive innovation, accelerate growth and increase margins (John, 2010). These factors impact remarkably the competitive performance of Coca-Cola. In summary, the managing theories and current studies concerned with Coca-Cola as well as soft drink industry are proposed for conducting this case study. To evaluate the comprehensive competitive performance of company, Potters 5 forces model and SWOT analysis would be the most feasible than others due to its both internal and external considerations. While the Coca-Cola strategic analysis and the soft drink industry market trend arguments based on previous studies of other authors play as premises for assessing Coca-Cola competitive performance. This project will applying Michael Porters 5 force model and SWOT analysis to assess Coca-Cola competitive performance, then highlight its competitive advantages in the soft drink industry. III. Research methodology and methods This case study deals with finding out how Coca competitive position has performed in the global soft drink industry, regarding to its relation with 5 forces in this industry and assessments about Coca status. Thereby, it requires the most the most appropriate and effective method for collecting and analysing data to find and evaluate comprehensively such performance. To conduct a research, according to Malik (2010) there are variety of sources and methods to collect data, ranging from primary data to secondary data source and qualitative to quantitative methods. Therefore, in this study, to find out how the Coca s competition performs in this industry in terms of both task environment analysis and internal assessment, a mixed method of secondary quantitative and qualitative method was applied. Specifically, because this case study evaluate not only internal factors but also external factors involved to the industry trends, market share, growth rate, brands, etc, of Coca situation, then highlight the factors that represents this company competitive performance, qualitative analysis by applying Porters 5 forces model and SWOT model will be the main methodology to gain understanding about reasons why Coca have a strong position in this market. According to Saunders et al. (2007), primary data can be collected through four ways such as observation, group interview or questionnaire, and can be in form of statistics or words. To conduct this case study, it would be ideal if in-depth interviews with economic experts in the beverage industry and Coca managers can be implemented or a questionnaire to consumers can be carried out to get new and interesting evidences for this case study. Nevertheless, due to limited time and financial factors, primary data collection cannot be implemented.

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On the other hand, for secondary data, there are a number of sources where quantitative and qualitative evidences are available and accessible. According to Saunders et al. (2007), they are clarified into three subgroups: documentary which comprised written material such as company website, reports and non-written one like video; survey-based data which has been gathered and analyses for previous researches; multiple sources which are based on area and time-series such as industry statistics and reports. Because this study applied both Porters 5 forces model and SWOT model, firstly the framework of Porters 5 forces is based on theory in the book named How competitive forces that shape strategy of Michael Porter in 2008, and SWOT model based on the presentation of Crainer in the book Key Management ideas in 1998. Secondly, it requires the synthesized information has to cover internal and external environment of Coca as well as all these types of data are sought and scanning for finding relevant facts. These data are picked up from different secondary data sources such as annual reports from Coca company website, journal, Datamonitor website, e-article from Deloitte company website, and other websites. Among them, e-journal and articles which might contain comments and evaluations of specialists about Coca, its competitors and the soft drink industry are given priority. For assessment Coca competitive performance, it is necessary to consider all Coca strategic operations from financial function, manufacturing operation, strategic marketing, etc. However, due to a range of factors like the limited research scope, limited time, financial factors, and ability to access internal data, this study just limits on analysing companys internal and external environment and general assessment about company performance. IV. Description of findings

Once again, the research objectives are: - Applying Michael Porters 5 forces model to evaluate Coca competitive position in the relation with 5 forces in the global soft drink industry. - Using SWOT analysis to find out the strengths and weaknesses of Coca through the internal analysis and define opportunities and threats from the external environment. - After assessing Coca-Cola competitive performances, drawing out some key factors that help Coca gain the competitive advantages. Therefore findings will focus on the secondary data about the global soft drink industry from articles and other previous researches, specifically they are: development trends of the industry, of the regional market and of consumers, the positions of forces in

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the industry, and the typical performance of Coca-Cola. These data were picked up, edited, combined and can be described as follow: 1. Soft drink industry Globally the soft drink market is growing at a significant pace with approximately 14,6% per year (Deloite website, 2010). In this industry Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Cadbury Schweppes are three largest companies with global presence. In order to operate effectively in this industry, it requires companies to have large scale with the high fixed costs for warehouses, trucks, and labor and economies of scale (Demetris and Iain, 2003). Specially, the suppliers of this industry are mainly bottling equipment manufacturers that have a strong impact on business effectiveness of beverage companies (Scribd.com, 2011). While the direct customers of soft drink companies are mainly large grocers, discount stores and restaurants that buy products with large amount then reselling to consumers (ibid). Trends in this industry at this moment and in the next few years assume quite clearly. According to Dinesh (2007), the soft drink industry is expected to grow retail sales approximately 6% per year for the 12 years from 2008 to 2020. Besides, developing markets are expected to contribute approximately 20% of incremental population growth over the next 10 years. Personal expenditure per capita in these markets is expected to increase by 65% over the next decade (Dinesh, 2007). However, due to the recent slowdown, consumers consider the price as the top concern. Instead of premium still beverages, consumers across the industry are turning to value products (Datamonitor, 2005). In addition, increasing concern among consumers, public health professionals and government agencies of the potential health problems associated with obesity and inactive lifestyles (ibid). 2. Coca-Cola performance Overview Coca

Founded in 1886, over 125 years operating in the beverage industry, Coca company performs as the world leading soft drink maker. This company is operating in more than 200 coutries and sells 500 brands of 3500 nonacoholic beverages including diet and light beverages, waters, juice and juice drinks, tea, coffees, and energy and sports drinks. According Interbrank group, Coca is also the most valuable brand in the world, with a brand value of $70.45 billion in 2010 and $68.73 billion in 2009. The company is headquartered in Atlanta,Georgia and employs 92,800 people (Coca-Cola website, 2011). According to Coca-Cola annual report 2010, company recorded revenues of $35,119 million during the financial year ended December 2010, a increase of 13,32% compared with 2009. Sales for the Coca-Cola brand portfolio grew by 2% across Europe with a 15% boost for Coke Zero, in the three months to 31 December. The operating profit of the company was Ho Son Tung (Bi) Page 6

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$8,449 million in FY2010, a increase of 2.6% compared with 2009. The net profit was $11,859 million in FY2010, an increase of 71% over 2009 (Coca-Cola annual report, 2010). Some typical points of Coca-Cola global performance In positive aspects, as mentioned above Coca-Cola owns strong brand with a wide range of products (Coca-Cola website, 2011). Specially, this company operates in North America and Europe market with a high level growth, Coca-Cola is also rapidly expanding into emerging economies of Asia which provide a huge potential market compared to the developed regions (Scribd.com, 2011). According to Datamonitor, in North America, this company owns 9 still beverage production facilities, 10 principal beverage concentrate and syrup manufacturing plants and four bottled water facilities. Outside North America, CocaCola owns and operates 20 principal beverage concentrate manufacturing plants. In addition, the company partly controls 112 principal beverage bottling and canning plants located globally (Datamonitor, 2010) Turning negative aspects, Coca-Cola was involved in a couple of products recall. For instances, in March 2010, Coca-Cola has to recall the Pet Bottles because they did not meet the FDAs quality standard for bottled water (Scribd.com, 2011). Also, in November 2009, Coca-Cola Israel recalled various products including 1.5 liter bottles of Coca-Cola and Diet Coca-Cola among others as traces of benzene and sulfur were found in the drinks (ibid). On the other hand, the research of Datamonitor (2010) pointed that, in September 2009, Costco, one of Coca-Colas wholesale retailers, stopped restocking some Coca-Cola -Colas products in its stores nationwide, because Coca-Cola refused to cut the prices that it charges the retailer. Accordingly, Coca-Cola faced an unattractive choice of losing share to rival Pepsi. If Coca-Cola blinks and cuts prices to Costco, other heavyweight retailers such as Wal-Mart would also demand lower prices (Datamonitor, 2010). V. Analyze findings 1. Porters 5 forces analysis Rivalry among firm

In the soft drink industry, the pressure came from rival beverage companies is assessed as the greatest competition (Demetris, 2003). Three largest companies in this field are Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Cadbury Schweppes with global presence, among them Coca-Cola and Pepsi are known as two main competitor having a power struggle during last century. In the competitive history of two companies, Coca-Cola usually overtakes Pepsi with a wide gap in all business categories. However, in 2006, Pepsi dominated North America market with sales of 22 billion USD, whereas Coca-Cola only had 7 billion USD (Scribd.com, 2011). Besides, these companies also use customers brand loyalty as

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the prominent competitive tools. Evident for this, in 2006 the brand loyalty for Diet Pepsi product was ranked at 18th while Diet Coke products ones just stood at 47 th (ibid).It shows that the rivalry between Coca-Cola and Pepsi are always fierce in this industry, and CocaCola always copes with activity. 2. Buyers bargaining power According to Denish, the buyers of Coca-Cola and other soft drinks are not only the final consumers but also big grocers, restaurants and discount stores (Denish, 2007). Both two customer groups have strong bargaining power. The intermediate customers can require the low price because they often buy in large volume. And due to the changes in consumers preference from soft drinks to healthy drinks, the final customers also pressure Coca-Cola to innovate their products to meet healthy criteria (Deloite, 2011), or it leads to the decrease of customers demand to Coca-Cola. So the bargaining power of buyer could start increasing. 3. Suppliers bargaining power Coca-Cola has two main suppliers are bottling equipment manufacturers and packing suppliers (Coca-Cola website, 2011). In its operation process, Coca-Cola does not bottle its products, this company hires Coca-Cola Enterprises to implement this stage as outsourcing activity, and it owns about 36% of Coca-Cola Enterprises (ibid). The fact that, between Coca-Cola and its powerful independent bottlers always exist simmering tensions involved to benefits of each party (Demetris & Lain, 2003). Some bottlers have even caused drawbacks to Coca-Colas operations and introduce new products process. The conflict with the bottlers can be a major threat to Coca-Cola. Turning to other equipment manufacturing suppliers, because they provide the same products, so it is fairly easy for Coca-Cola to switch suppliers (ibid). This takes away much of the suppliers bargaining power. 4. Threat of substitute products In the beverage industry Coca-Cola has to deal with a wide range of substitute products such as coffee, tea, energy drink, and bottle water, etc (Deloite, 2011). Due to the trend towards the health conscious consumer, bottle water and sport drinks are becoming more popular and being closest substitutes of Coca-Cola. In addition, coffee and tea are prominent competitive substitutes because they also provide caffeine. All these substitutes have low switching costs for the consumer therefore it makes the threat of substitute products very strong. 5. Threat of new entrants The soft drink industry is becoming to be saturated (ibid) and to be dominated by two strong companies: Coca-Cola and Pepsi. It is not easy for any new entry into this Ho Son Tung (Bi) Page 8 parallel competitive responses from Pepsi in each strategic

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industry because a variety of reasons. Firstly, the new market growth is too small to get more benefit from it. Secondly, the current rivals have strong brand name and superior distribution channels, and they can enjoy the experience curve effect and economies of scale. New entrants cannot stand the price war without economies of scale, and if want to operate in this industry, new firms have to invest a large capital in warehouses, trucks, and labor. So new entrants are not a strong competitive force. Swot analysis Strengths Leading the market with a strong brand Restocking of products because Strong manufacture and distribution the consumer preference shifts to value capabilities. Strong presence in many emerging countries. Opportunities Growing per capita consumption in developing economies Growing soft drink industry Acute competition Dependence on bottling partners Evolving consumer preferences Threats products Weaknesses Tarnishing brand image scandals

1. Strengths a. Leading the market with a strong brand Coca-Cola is one of the largest beverage manufacturers with the revenues in 2010 is $35,119 million (Coca-Cola annual report, 2010). Over the years, the company has made large investments in establishing strong brand equity. The Coca-Cola brand was valued at $70.45 billion in 2010, an increase of 2,5% over 2010 (ibid). The company's strong brand value enables Coca-Cola to attract customers to penetrate new markets and maintain its presence in the existing ones. b. Strong manufacture and distribution capabilities. Coca-Cola 's operations are supported by a strong infrastructure across the world as described above. Thanks to the worlds largest beverage distribution system including a network of bottling partners, distributors, wholesalers and retailers, Coca-Cola enables its

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products to be available to customers all over the word. Therefore, this distribution model is costly for its competitors to imitate, and has acted as a sturdy barrier to entry in the industry. c. Strong presence in many emerging countries. With the presence in several geographical regions help Coca-Cola diversify revenue stream and reduces the business risk. It also makes the company less vulnerable to the vagaries of a single economy. In addition due to the effective operation in the high growth emerging markets that tend to grow at a faster pace after the economic crisis of 2008-2009, Coca-Cola can keep the high growth speed. For example, in the first quarter of 2010, volume grew 11% in the Eurasia and Africa segment and 5% in the Pacific region (Scribd.com, 2011). This indicates that the geographical positioning to a certain extent enabled the company to weather the decline in its largest market. 2. Weaknesses Tarnishing brand image scandals Recently, Coca-Cola was involved in a couple of products recall as mentioned above. They resulted in two applications for class action suits against the Central Bottling Company (ibid). Product recalls affect negatively the brand image of Coca-Cola reductions in company revenue and customer loyalty. Restocking of products because the consumer preference shifts to value products Due to the recent slowdown, consumers consider the price as the top concern. Instead of premium still beverages, consumers across the industry are turning to value products (Datamonitor, 2005). However the consequences of restocking of product situation in September 2009, would lead to more fierce competition on price, as both Coca-Cola and Pepsi would battle to keep their products in the stores of their large retail customers (ibid). It indicates that the pricing power of the beverage manufacturers could be impaired in the retail channel. 3. Opportunities Growing per capita consumption in developing economies According to Dinesh, developing markets are expected to contribute approximately 20% of incremental population growth over the next 10 years. Personal expenditure per capita in these markets is expected to increase by 65% over the next decade (Dinesh, 2007). As a result, if per capita consumption of Coca-Cola -Colas products in all developing countries moves to 150 units per year by 2020, and per capita consumption remains where it is today in other countries, Coca-Cola would derive a 6.2% compound annual growth rate between 2009 and 2020 (Scribd.com, 2011). Further, the developing markets will contribute approximately one quarter of Coca-Colas incremental unit case volume by 2020. Growing Ho Son Tung (Bi) Page 10 and consumer confidence in the company's products, the consequences of them probably leads to the

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per capita consumption in emerging economies augurs well for the revenue generation capacity of Coca-Cola in the long term (ibid). Growing soft drink industry Globally the soft drink market is growing at a significant pace. The soft drink industry is expected to grow retail sales approximately 6% per year for the 12 years from 2008 to 2020 (Denish, 2007). By 2020, Coca-Cola believes that the soft drink industry will add more than 60,000 million unit cases and expand retail sales by nearly $600 billion (Coca-Cola website, 2011). This growth will increase retail sales in the soft drink industry to more than $1 trillion by 2020 (ibid). This projected growth is being fueled by increase in middle-class consumers and fast-growing urban societies expected to form in the future (Scribd.com, 2011). These trends indicate that there will be more people with more disposable income who potentially will tap into refreshment and convenience. 4. Threats

Acute competition Positioning to operate in the global soft drink industry, Coca-Cola always faces competitions originated from variety regional markets as well as the international rivals (Deloite, 2010). Competitive pressures from many sources put the upper limitation on company s pricing decisions, require Coca-Cola spend much more budgets on advertising, sales promotion programs, product innovation, simultaneously force company to focus on brand and trademark development and protection (Demetris & Lain, 2003). Intense competition could impact Coca-Colas market share and revenue growth rates. Dependence on bottling partners As mentioned previous analysis, independent bottlers, who Coca-Cola relies on so much, are the great threats to Coca-Cola. As independent companies, sometimes its bottling partners make their own business decisions that may not always be in line with the companys interests even cause company a handful of obstacles in deploying business plans (Scribd.com, 2011). In addition, many of its bottling partners have the right to manufacture or distribute their own products or certain products of other beverage companies (ibid). Evolving consumer preferences Increasing concern among consumers, public health professionals and government agencies of the potential health problems associated with obesity and inactive lifestyles represents a significant challenge to Coca-Colas industry (Deloite, 2011). In addition, some Ho Son Tung (Bi) Page 11

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researchers, health advocates and dietary guidelines are encouraging consumers to reduce consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, including those sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, a form of sugar, or other nutritive sweeteners (ibid). Although Coca-Cola responded to the changing preferences by developing a range of diet and light beverages, evolving customer preferences will adversely impact the sales of its carbonated beverages which will in turn impact its overall profitability. VI. Conclusion:

In conclusion, the results drawing from analysis of this study show that although CocaCola has a superior competitive position, this company also has been being under large pressure in the global soft drink industry, those coincide with Danishs (2007) research as well as Demetris and Ian s ones (2003). Specifically, new trends in the soft drink industry bring to Coca-Cola the new opportunities such as growing per capita consumption in developing countries gives the high and stable growth for the revenue generation capacity of Coca-Cola in the long term. CocaCola can capture this growth with innovative products and targeted go-to-market strategies, which help company, drive the competitive forces in the global beverage. As a leading company with the strong brand, the global widespread presence, and effective distribution channel and manufacturing processes; Coca-Cola can enjoy the economies of large scale allowed it to lead to demands in upcoming markets and enhance its revenue generation capacity. Moreover it can receive an exceptional competitive advantage and in turn enhance its bargaining power. On the hand, the evolving consumer preferences, serious threats from close substitutes, and unqualified product scandals caused the demand for Coca-Colas products decrease considerably. Besides, the fierce rivalry among firms, especially strategic responses from the main competitor Pepsi, always is the greatest threat to Coca-Cola competitive position; specifically they could impact Coca-Colas market share and revenue growth rates. It requires Coca-Cola need to invest much more in product innovations, and deploy suitable strategic plans to deal with these challenges. Other weakness of Co is such dependence on third parties like bottling partners leads to a weak link in Coca-Colas operations and increases the companys business risks. These evidences above indicate that in the soft drink industry Coca-cola plays as the world leading manufacture, marketer and distributor of non alcoholic beverage with relatively ideal competitive advantages but this company also assumes some drawbacks and be lost gradually these advantages due to changes and challenges from business environment unless Coca-Cola realizes them and has suitable changes. These findings and analysis have highlighted the relationship between Coca-Cola and other forces in the industry, and Ho Son Tung (Bi) Page 12

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have exploited the strengths and weaknesses of Coca-Colas performances as well as the opportunities and threats from outside environment, then give the answer for the research question how the competitive performance of Coca in this industry ?. By applying Porters 5 forces model and SWOT analysis, which just consider major quality factors but ignore weighting each factor and assessing financial operating indicators of this company and the whole industry, this case study is limited at assessing the general and typical performance. Further more the limitations of using secondary data due to time and budget limitation could not be avoided. It would be better if the future research can apply more another tools to assess in detail each operation in the competitive performance of Coca-Cola such as: PESTLE analysis to determine the macro-economics effect, value chain model to find out the core competences, and Ansoff matrix to analyze the product and market development strategies. In addition it is recommended that future research such as collecting primary data should be conducted to enrich the analysis. And last but not least, it would be beneficial to draw the useful experience lessons from Coca-Colas situation to apply in the practical management.

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