INTERNATIONAL MARKETING

Batch: PGP/SS/IIPM SSP/09-12/T3

Report on Coca-Cola International Marketing

Group Members:
1. 2. 3. 4. Prakash Kumar Chaudhary Mohammed Sohaib Masood Iqbal Pritesh Asawaa

Context:
Company Description............................................................................ 3 Business Mission................................................................................... 4 Business................................................................................................ 5 Operating Segments.............................................................................. 6 Product & Brands.................................................................................. 7 Coca-Cola Manufactures,Markets & Sell................................................ 8 Distributor s System & Bottler s Agreement.......................................... 10 Promotions & Marketing Programmes.................................................. 11 Significant Equity measure Investments................................................ 12 Seasonality........................................................................................... 13 Competition.......................................................................................... 14 Raw Materials....................................................................................... 15 Patents, Copyrights, Trade Secrets and Trademarks .............................. 16 Govermentral Regulations.................................................................... 17 Employees............................................................................................ 18 Risk Factors.......................................................................................... 19 Marketing Objectives........................................................................... 21 Industry Analysis.................................................................................. 22 SWOT Analysis..................................................................................... 23 Marketing Mix..................................................................................... 25

Company Description:
The Coca-Cola Company, founded in 1886, is ranked number 94 in the Fortune 500 and number one in the beverage industry (Fortune 2007). They own four of the top five soft drink brands and serve over 6 billion consumers. Coca-Cola is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia but approximately 74% of its products are sold outside the US (Coca-Cola Datamonitor, 2007). They recorded revenues of $24,088 million in 2006 and they have an employee count of approximately 71,000 (Coca -Cola Datamonitor 2007). The Coca-Cola Company is one of the leading manufacturers, distributors, and marketers of non alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. They produce non alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups which are sold to bottling partners. The bottlers usually add carbonated water with the concentrates and sweeteners and then bottle the product and sell it to wholesalers or retailers. Coca-Cola owns more than 400 brands in which they market for in over 200 different countries (Coca-Cola Datamonitor, 2007). Coca-Cola sells a variety of soft drinks, juices, sports drinks, teas, and water. They operate in eight segments, but most of their revenues come from three of those segments. Their three major segments are North America, South Asia and the Pacific Rim, and Bottling Investments. Their five other segments include Europe; North Asia, Eurasia and Middle East; Latin America; Africa; and Corporate. Coca-Cola also has the leading brand (Coca-Cola Datamonitor, 2007).

Business Mission
Coca-Cola is passionate about their mission, vision, and values. They run their company based on three things. Their company mission includes three major things: To refresh the world in body, mind, and spirit. To inspire moments of optimism through our brands and our actions. And also to create value and make a difference everywhere we engage (Coca-Cola Company, 2006). Their vision is to maximize profits and returns to shareholders. Coca-Cola wants to have skillful workers and inspire them to do the best that they can. They want Coca-Cola to be an enjoyable place to work at and for employees to be motivated in coming to work. The company likes to obtain a product line of beverages that satisfy the needs and wants of consumers. Coca-Cola wants to build trusting relationships with their partners and suppliers along the supply chain. Also Coca-Cola prides itself in making a difference in their community and their many contributions that work to improve the environment. The business decisions that Coca-Cola makes are guided by their values. Their main values include: leadership, passion, integrity, accountability, collaboration, innovation, and quality (Coca-Cola Company 2006). Coca-Cola has remained successful by maintaining strong values, visions, and mission.

Business:
The Coca-Cola Company is the world s largest nonalcoholic beverage company. They own or license the market with more than 500 nonalcoholic beverage brands, primarily sparkling beverages but also a variety of still beverages such as waters, enhanced waters, juices and juice drinks, ready-to-drink teas and coffees, and energy and sports drinks. Along with CocaCola, which is recognized as the world s most valuable brand, they own and market four of the world s top five nonalcoholic sparkling beverage brands, including Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite. Finished beverage products bearing their trademarks, sold in the United States since 1886, are now sold in more than 200 countries. They make their branded beverage products available to consumers throughout the world through their network of Company-owned or controlled bottling and distribution operations, bottling partners, distributors, wholesalers and retailers the world s largest beverage distribution system. Of the approximately 55 billion beverage servings of all types consumed worldwide every day, beverages bearing trademarks owned by or licensed to us account for approximately 1.7 billion. We believe that our success depends on our ability to connect with consumers by providin g them with a wide variety of options to meet their desires, needs and lifestyle choices. Their success further depends on the ability of our people to execute effectively, every day. Their goal is to use their Company s assets their brands, financial strength, unrivaled distribution system, global reach and the talent and strong commitment of our management and associates to become more competitive and to accelerate growth in a manner that creates value for their shareowners.

Acquisition of Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. s North American Business & Related Transactions:
On October 2, 2010, they acquired the North American business of Coca -Cola Enterprises Inc. ( CCE ), one of our major bottlers, consisting of CCE s production, sales and distribution operations in the United States, Canada, the British Virgin Islands, the United States Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands, and a substantial majority of CCE s corporate segment. CCE shareowners other than the Company exchanged their CCE common stock for co mmon stock in a new entity named Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. ( New CCE ), which after the closing of the transaction continued to hold the European operations that had been held by CCE prior to the acquisition. The Company does not have any ownership int erest in New CCE. Upon completion of the CCE transaction, we combined the management of the acquired North American business with the management of our existing foodservice business, Minute Maid and Odwalla juice businesses, North America supply chain oper ations and Companyowned bottling operations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, into a unified bottling and customer service organization called Coca-Cola Refreshments ( CCR ). In addition, we reshaped our remaining Coca-Cola North America ( CCNA ) operations into an organization that primarily provides franchise leadership and consumer marketing and innovation for the North American market.

Operating Segments:
The Company s operating structure is the basis for internal financial reporting. As of December 31, 2010, operating structure included the following operating segments, the first six of which are sometimes referred to as operating groups or groups : y Eurasia and Africa. y Europe. y Latin America. y North America. y Pacific. y Bottling Investments. y Corporate. North America operating segment includes the CCE North American business that was acquired on October 2, 2010. Except to the extent that differences among operating segments are material to an understanding of business taken as a whole, the description of business in this report is presented on a consolidated basis.

Products and Brands:

y Concentrates Flavoring ingredients and, depending on the product, sweeteners used to prepare syrups or finished beverages, and includes powders for purified water products such as Dasani. Syrups Beverage ingredients produced by combining concentrates and, depending on the product, sweeteners and added water. Fountain Syrups Syrups sold to fountain retailers, such as restaurants and convenience stores, which use dispensing equipment to mix the syrups with sparkling or still water at the time of purchase to produce finished beverages that are served in cups or glasses for immediate consumption. Sparkling Beverages Nonalcoholic ready-to-drink beverages with carbonation, including carbonated energy drinks and carbonated waters and flavored waters. Still Beverages Nonalcoholic beverages without carbonation, including noncarbonated waters, flavored waters and enhanced waters, noncarbonated energy drinks, juices and juice drinks, ready -to-drink teas and coffees and sports drinks. Company Trademark Beverages Beverages bearing trademarks and certain other beverage products bearing trademarks licensed to Coca -Cola by third parties for which they provide marketing support and from the sale of which t hey derive economic benefit. Trademark Coca-Cola Beverages/Trademark Coca-Cola Beverages bearing the trademark Coca-Cola or any trademark that includes Coca-Cola or Coke (that is, Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Zero and all their variations and line extensions, including Coca-Cola Light, Coke Zero, caffeine free Diet Coke, Cherry Coke, etc.). Likewise, when we use the capitalized word Trademark together with the name of one of other beverage products (such as Trademark Fanta, Trademark Sprite or Trademark Simply ), means beverages bearing the indicated trademark (that is, Fanta, Sprite or Simply, respectively) and all its variations and line extensions (such that Trademark Fanta includes Fanta Orange, Fanta Zero Orange and Fanta Appl e; Trademark Sprite includes Sprite, Diet Sprite, Sprite Zero and Sprite Light; and Trademark Simply includes Simply Orange, Simply Apple and Simply Grapefruit).

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In s e marke s certain products sold under this brand are sparkling beverages Nestea products are distributed in the United States under a sublicense from a and in various other markets worldwide through Beverage subsidiary of Nestle S Partners Worldwide ( BPW ), the Company s joint venture with Nestle S In some markets, certain Nestea products are sparkling beverages The Nestea trademark is owned by Societe des Produits Nestle S Sold primarily in Japan. Sold primarily in the United States. In some markets, certain products sold under this brand are still beverages. Dobriy juice products are manufactured, marketed and sold primarily in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus by Multon, a Russian juice business operated as a joint venture with Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company S.A. Certain products sold under this brand are sparkling beverages. The Company manufactures, markets and sells Le ao / Matte Le ao teas in Brazil through a joint venture with our bottling partners. Sold in China. The Company manufactures, markets and sells juices and juice drinks under the del Valle trademark through joint ventures with our bottling partners in Me ico and Brazil.

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Sold in Turkey. Kinley is also a sparkling beverage in certain countries. The Schweppes brand is owned by the Company in some countries (excluding the U.S., among others). In some markets, certain Schweppes products are still beverages. Sold primarily in India. Sold primarily in North America. Sold primarily in Australia and Great Britain. Sold in the United States and Canada. In some markets we offer water products or sparkling beverages in additi on to sports drinks under the brand Aquarius. Sold in the Philippines. Sold primarily in Latin America (Chile, Ecuador and Peru). Sold in Brazil.

Distribution System and Bottler s Agreements:

Branded beverage products available to consumers in more than 200 countries through a network of Company-owned or controlled bottling and distribution operations, bottling partners, distributors, wholesalers and retailers the world s largest beverage distribution system. Consumers enjoy finished beverage products bearing trademarks at a rate of approximately 1.7 billion servings each day. They are continuing to expand their marketing presence and increase their unit case volume in developed, developing and emerging markets. Our strong and stable system helps us tocapture growth by manufacturing, distributing and marketing existing, enhanced and new innovative products to consumers throughout the world. The Coca-Cola system sold approximately 25.5 billion, 24.4 billion and 23.7 billion unit cases of products in 2010, 2009 and 2008, respectively. Sparkling beverages represented approximately 76 percent, 77 percent and 78 percent of our worldwide unit case volume for 2010, 2009 and 2008, respectively. Trademark Coca -Cola Beverages accounted for approximately 50 percent, 51 percent and 51 percent of our worldwide unit case volume for 2010, 2009 and 2008, respectively. In 2010, unit case volume in the United States ( U.S. unit case volume ) represented approximately 20 percent of the Company s worldwide unit case volume. Of the U.S. unit case volume for 2010, approximately 71 percent was attributable to sparkling beverages and approximately 29 percent to still beverages. Trademark Coca-Cola Beverages accounted for approximately 51 percent of U.S. unit case volume for 2010. Unit case volume outside the United States represented approximately 80 percent of the Company s worldwide unit case volume for 2010. The countries outside the United States in which our unit case volumes were the largest in 2010 were Mexico, China, Brazil and Japan, which together accounted for approximately 31 percent of our worldwide unit case volume. Of the non-U.S. unit case volume for 2010, approximately 78 percent was attributable to sparkling beverages and 22 percent to still beverages. They reserve for themselves in their designee the right: y To prepare and package such beverages in such containers in the territory for sale outside the territory. y To prepare, package, distribute and sell such beverages in the territory in any other manner or form. Territorial restrictions on bottlers vary in some cases in accordance with local law. Being a bottler does not create a legal partnership or joint vent ure with bottlers. The bottlers are independent contractors but not their agents. But under most of the Bottler s Agreements they generally have complete flexibility to determine the price and other terms of sale of the concentrates and syrups that they sell to the bottlers, as a practical matter, the Company s ability to exercise its contractual flexibility to determine the price and other terms of sale of its syrups, concentrates and finished beverages is subject, both outside and within the United States, to competitive market conditions.

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Promotions and Marketing Programs:

In addition to conducting their own independent advertising and marketing activities, they provided promotional and marketing services/funds to their bottlers. In most cases, they do this on a discretionary basis under the terms of commitment letters or agreements, even though they are not obligated to do so under the terms of the bottling or distribution agreements between Company and the bottlers. Also, on a discretionary basis in most cases, Company may develop and introduce new products, packages and equipment to assist its bottlers. Likewise, in many instances, they provide promotional and marketing services/funds/dispensing equipment and repair services to fountain and bottl e/can retailers, typically pursuant to marketing agreements. The aggregate amount of funds provided by Company to bottlers, resellers or other customers of Company s products, principally for participation in promotional and marketing programs, was approxi mately $5.0 billion in 2010.

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Significant Equity Method Investments:

They make equity investments in selected bottling operations with the intention of maximizing the strength and efficiency of the Coca-Cola system s production, distribution and marketing capabilities around the world. These investments are intended to result in increases in unit case volume, net revenues and profits at the bottler level, which in turn generate increased concentrate sales for our Company s concentrate and syrup business.

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Seasonality:
Sales of ready-to-drink nonalcoholic beverages are somewhat seasonal, with the second and third calendar quarters accounting for the highest sales volumes. The volume of sales in the beverages business may be affected by weather conditions.

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Competition:
Coca-Cola competes in the nonalcoholic beverages segment of the commercial beverages industry. The nonalcoholic beverages segment of the commercial beverages industry is highly competitive, consisting of numerous companies. These include companies that compete in multiple geographic areas, as well as firms that are primarily regional or local in operation. Competitive products include numerous nonalcoholic sparkling beverages; various water products, including packaged, flavored and enhanced waters; juices and nectars; fruit drinks and dilutables (including syrups and powdered drinks); coffees and teas; energy and sports and other performance-enhancing drinks; dairy-based drinks; functional beverages; and various other nonalcoholic beverages. These competitive beverages are sold to consumers in both ready-to-drink and other than ready-to-drink form. In many of the countries in which the business, including the United States, PepsiCo, Inc., is one of primary competitors. Other significant competitors include, but are not limited to, Nestle, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc., Groupe Danone, Kraft Foods Inc. and Unilever. In certain markets, competition includes beer companies. They also compete against numerous regional and local companies and, in some markets, against retailers that have developed their own store or private label beverage brands. Competitive factors impacting business include, but are not limited to, pricing, advertising, sales promotion programs, product innovation, increased efficiency in production techniques, the introduction of new packaging, new vending and dispensing equipment, and brand and tradema rk development and protection. Competitive strengths include leading brands with a high level of consumer acceptance; a worldwide network of bottlers and distributors of Company products; sophisticated marketing capabilities; and a talented group of dedica ted associates. Our competitive challenges include strong competition in all geographic regions and, in many countries, a concentrated retail sector with powerful buyers able to freely choose among Company products, products of competitive beverage suppliers and individual retailers own store or private label beverage brands.

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Raw Materials:
Water is a main ingredient in substantially all of their products. While historically they have not experienced significant water supply difficulties, water is a limited resource in many parts of the world and the Company recognizes water availability, quality and the sustainability of that natural resource for both operations and also the communities they operate as one of the key challenges facing our business. In addition to water, the prin cipal raw materials used in business are nutritive and non-nutritive sweeteners. In the United States, the principal nutritive sweetener is high fructose corn syrup ( HFCS ), a form of sugar, which is available from numerous domestic sources and is historically subject to fluctuations in its market price. The principal nutritive sweetener used by our business outside the United States is sucrose, another form of sugar, which is also available from numerous sources and is historically subject to fluctuations in its market price. The Company generally has not experienced any difficulties in obtaining its requirements for nutritive sweeteners. In the United States, it has purchased HFCS to meet bottlers requirements with the assistance of Coca -Cola Bottlers Sales & Services Company LLC ( CCBSS ). The principal non -nutritive sweeteners we use in business are aspartame, acesulfame potassium, saccharin, cyclamate and sucralose. Generally, these raw materials are readily available from numerous sources. However, Company purchases aspartame, an important non-nutritive sweetener that is used alone or in combination with other important non-nutritive sweeteners such as saccharin or acesulfame potassium in low-calorie sparkling beverage products, primarily from The NutraSweet Company and Ajinomoto Co., Inc., which they consider to be their primary sources for the supply of this product. They currently purchase acesulfame potassium from Nutrinova Nutrition Specialties & Food Ingredients GmbH, which is consider to be primary source for the supply of this product, and from two additional suppliers. Company generally has not experienced any difficulties in obtaining its requirements for non-nutritive sweeteners. Coke has sold a number of products sweetened with sucralose, a non -nutritive sweetener. They work closely with Tate & Lyle, our primary sucralose supplier, to maintain continuity of supply, and we do not anticipate difficulties in obtaining their requirements. They also purchase Truvia, a non-nutritive natural sweetener made with rebiana, which is derived from the stevia plant, from Cargill under a multi-year agreement, and do not anticipate any supply issues with this ingredient. With regard to juice and juice-drink products, citrus fruit, particularly orange juice concentrate, is principal raw material. The citrus industry is subject to the variability of weather conditions. In particular, freezing weather or hurricanes in central Florida may result in shortages and higher prices for orange juice concentrate throughout the industry. Due to their ability to also source orange juice concentrate from the Southern Hemisphere (particularly from Brazil), they normally have an adequate supply of orange juice concentrate that meets the Company s standards. Company-owned or consolidated bottling and canning operations and finished products business also purchase various other raw materials including, but not limited to, PET resin, preforms and bot tles; glass and aluminum bottles aluminum and steel cans; plastic closures; aseptic fiber packaging; labels; cartons; cases; post-mix packaging; and carbon dioxide. They generally purchase these raw materials from multiple suppliers and historically have n ot experienced material shortages.

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Patents, Copyrights, Trade Secrets and Trademarks:

Coke owns numerous patents, copyrights and trade secrets, as well as substantial know -how and technology. This technology generally relates to our Company s products and the processes for their production; the packages used for products; the design and operation of various processes and equipment used in business; and certain quality assurance software. Sparkling beverage and other beverage formulae are among the important trade secrets of Company. They own numerous trademarks that are very important to the business. Depending upon the jurisdiction, trademarks are valid as long as they are in use and/or their registrations are properly maintained. Pursuant to Bottler s Agreements, They authorize bottlers to use applicable Company trademarks in connection with their manufacture, sale and distribution of Company products. In addition, we grant licenses to third parties from time to time to use certain of trademarks in conjunction with certain merchandise and food products.

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Governmental Regulation:
y y y y A safe harbor to be established. Naturally Occuring. Result of Necessary Cooking. Subject to another applicable exemption.

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Employees:
They refer to employees as associates. As of December 31, 2010 and 2009, Company had approximately 139,600 and 92,800 associates, respectively, of which approximately 4,900 and 17,900, respectively, were employed by consolidated variable interest entities ( VIEs ). The increase in the total number of associates in 2010 was primarily due to the impact of acquisition of CCE s North American business, partially offset by the sale of our Norwegian and Swedish bottling operatio ns to New CCE and the deconsolidation of certain entities due to the Company s adoption of new accounting guidance issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board ( FASB ). As of December 31, 2010 and 2009, Company had approximately 70,400 and 11,700 associates, respectively, located in the United States, including Puerto Rico, of which approximately 720 and 190, respectively, were employed by consolidated VIEs. Through its divisions and subsidiaries, it has entered into numerous collective bargaining agreements. As of December 31, 2010, approximately 18,600 associates in North America were covered by collective bargaining agreements. These agreements usually have terms of three to five years. They currently expect that they will be able to renegotiate such agreements on satisfactory terms when they expire. The Company believes that its relations with its associates are generally satisfactory.

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Risk Factors:
The risks described below are not the only risks facing by Company. Additional risks not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial also may materially adversely affects the business, financial condition or results of operations in future periods. y Obesity and other health concerns may reduce demand fo r some of the products. y Water scarcity and poor quality could negatively impact the Coca-Cola system s production costs and capacity. y Changes in the nonalcoholic beverages busines s environment could impact the financial results. y If they fail to realize a significant portion of the anticipated benefits of the acquisition of CCE s North American business, the value of investment in their Company may be adversely affected. y They may incur higher than expected costs in connection with the integration of the acquired CCE North American business, which could hurt thei r financial performance in future periods. y The indebtedness following completion of the acquisition of CCE s North American business is substantially greater than their historical level of indebtedness, which will increase their borrowing costs and interest expense in future periods and, therefore, may adversely affect their financial performance. y The pension expense has substantially increased as a result of the acquisition of CCE s North American busin ess and mayincur multi-employer plan withdrawal liabilities in the future, which could negatively impact their financial performance. y Continuing uncertainty in the credit and equity market conditions may adversely affect financial performance. y Increased competition could hurt business. y If they are unable to expand operations in developing and emerging markets, the growth rate could be negatively affected. y Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates could affect financial results. y If interest rates increase, net income could be negatively affected. y They rely on bottling partners for a significant portion of business. If they are unable to maintain good relationships with bottling partners, business could suffer. y If bottling partners financial condition deteriorates, business and financial results could be affected. y Increases in income tax rates or changes in income tax laws could have a material adverse impact on financial results. y Increased or new indirect taxes in the United States or in one or more o f other major markets could negatively affect business. y If they are unable to renew collective bargaining agreements on satisfactory terms, or bottling partners experience strikes, work stoppages or labor unrest, our business could suffer. y Increase in the cost, disruption of supply or shor tage of energy could affect profitability. y Increase in the cost, disruption of supply or shortage of ingredients or packaging materials could harm business.
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Changes in laws and regulations relating to beverage containers a nd packaging could increase costs and reduce demand for products. Significant additional labeling or warning requirements may inhibit sales of affected products. Unfavorable general economic conditions in the United States or in other major markets could negatively impact financial performance. Unfavorable economic and political conditions in international markets could hurt business. Litigation or legal proceedings could expose us to significant liabilities and damage reputation. Adverse weather conditions could reduce the demand for products. If they are unable to maintain their brand image and corporate reputation, the business may suffer. Changes in, or failure to comply with, the laws and regulations applicable to products or business operations could i ncrease costs or reduce net operating revenues. Changes in accounting standards could affect reported financial results. If they are not able to achieve their overall long-term goals, the value of an investment in their Company could be negatively affected. If they are unable to protect their information technology infrastructure against service interruptions, data corruption, cyber -based attacks or network security breaches, operations could be disrupted. They may be required to recognize additional impairment charges which could materially affect financial results. If they do not successfully integrate and manage Company-owned or controlled bottling operations, our results could suffer. Climate change may negatively affect business. Global or regional catastrophic events could impact operations and financial results.

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Marketing Objectives:
Future growth for Coca-Cola will emerge from their focus shift towards the global market as well as the health conscious market. They are implementing and continuing to build on their global strategy (FrontPage, 2007). Coca-Cola would like to continue to market to countries around the world outside of the United States. They are having growth in emerging ma rkets in Latin America, the BRIC, and Western Europe ( FrontPage, 2007). This will be their major focus in the future, because they feel this is where their major growth opportunities lie. Consumers are moving towards a healthier lifestyle, which in turn is causing Coca-Cola to expand their products to continue to meet their needs. They would like to focus on providing juices, sport drinks, and water lines that will aim at the more health conscious market. Coca-Cola has been performing trials on their Minute Maid Heart Wise orange juice to prove that it does help lower cholesterol and improve health. Also they are having trials for their Enviga green tea which can help boost metabolism. This new market is huge and creates a lot of growth opportunity for Coca -Cola (Credeur, 2007). The core of our business is healthy and it s poised to capture significant growth over the coming years ( Credeur, 2007). Consumer behavior is changing therefore Coca -Cola must adjust their marketing strategies and product lines to m eet the consumers needs.

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Industry Analysis:
The Coca-Cola Company falls in the beverage industry with many other developing companies. Leading the beverage industry by generating revenues of $24,088 million dollars, Coca-Cola s closest competition in this industry is Coca -Cola Enterprises and Anheuser-Busch. Others that fall into the industry include Pepsi Bottling, Molson Coors Brewing, Constellation Brands, Pepsi Americas, and Brown -Forman (Fortune 2007). The beverage industry is moving toward the more health conscious consumer. The market is shifting from soft drinks to juices, sport drinks, and water products. To remain competitive Coca-Cola must also enter into this market and follow the healthier trends. In many European countries, the increasing consumer trend toward a healthier lifestyle continues to grow demand for functional beverages that offer physical or mental well being, lower calories and other added values (Fuhrman, 2007). Consumers value products that are going to help them live a healthy lifestyle and feel better both physica lly and mentally.

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SWOT Analysis:
Strengths
Coca-Cola has a lot of strength in their marketing plan and business. They are the world s leading brand name, and they have a large scale of operations, and have continuing revenue growth in all of their three segments. Coca-Cola s three major segments are Latin America; East, South Asia, and Pacific Rim; and Bottling Investments. These are the segments that earn the highest revenues. Each of these segments continuously grows in revenues each year. The revenues earned in these segments have helped The Coca-Cola Company to grow and expand (Coca-Cola Datamonitor, 2007). Coca-Cola s brand name is valued higher than their biggest competitor, Pepsi. Business Week valued Coca-Cola at $67,000 million and Pepsi at only $12,690 million. The brand of Coca-Cola is known globally and allows the company to enter new and emerging markets. Having a strong brand name also allows them to expand their company by adding products such as Cherry Coke and Coke with Lem on, and allowing them to meet different consumers needs. Coca-Cola owns the brand names of Coca -Cola, Diet Coke, Sprite, and Fanta which are four of the leading brands in soft drinks (Coca -Cola Datamonitor, 2007). Coca-Cola, with large scale operations, is the leader in manufacturing, distributing, and marketing nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. Selling in 200 countries, Coca Cola owns 32 beverage concentrate manufacturing plants. They also own bottle water production and beverage facilities. The company s large-scale of operation allows it to feed upcoming markets with relative ease and enhances its revenue generation capacity (CocaCola Datamonitor, 2007).

Weaknesses
Coca-Cola has three major weaknesses that occur internally in the company, they include: negative publicity, poor performance in North America, and decrease in cash from operations. In 2006, Coca -Cola was accused of selling a product with pesticide residues in India and received negative publicity. These residues contained harmf ul chemicals that could damage the nervous and reproductive systems and could potentially cause cancer. Coca-Cola was plagued with harmful publicity much like this scenario throughout the year. This type of publicity can affect their brand image and decrea se demand for their products (Coca-Cola Datamonitor, 2007). Coca-Cola focuses on North America as their major target market; therefore it is important for them to have a good performance for the target market. In 2006, Coca -Cola did not perform well and its market growth ceased in North America. The company actually got worse. If this poor performance continues, it could affect the overall company s growth in the future and could allow their competitors to surpass them (Coca -Cola Datamonitor, 2007). Coca-Cola had a decrease of 7% in cash flows from operations in the year 2006. This affected the company by reducing the amount of funds available for Coca -Cola to reinvest in the company (Coca-Cola Datamonitor, 2007). Coca -Cola must then finance their growth with debt which makes them vulnerable to interest rates.
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Opportunities
Major opportunities for growth for Coca -Cola include acquisitions, the bottled water market, and the growing Hispanic population in the United States. This growing demographic segment gives Coca-Cola an opportunity to try and reach new consumers and expand their product lines. Some acquisitions of the Coca -Cola Company are Kerry Beverages Limited in 2006 which is headquartered in Hong Kong. By acquiring Kerry Beverages Limited Coca-Cola gained control over distribution and manufacturing joint ventures in nine major Chinese provinces (Coca -Cola Datamonitor, 2007). They also acquired Apollinaris in Germany, which sells sparkling and mineral water. Coca -Cola also took over TJC Holding, a bottling company located in South Africa. They even acquired companies in Australia and New Zealand. This enabled Coca -Cola to have a strong hold on the global market, which as a result helped their international operations grow and get stronger. It also gives them an opportunity for growth and to enter into new markets. The increasing health conscious market is just one of the new markets that Coca -Cola has shown a growing interest in, like the bottled water market. Bottled water is one of the most fast-growing segments in the world s food and beverage market owing to increasing health concerns (Coca-Cola Datamonitor, 2007).

Threats
Even a large and successful company like Coca-Cola has external threats. Three of their major threats are intense competition, de pendence on bottling partners, and slow growth of carbonated beverages. The nonalcoholic beverage industry is highly competitive, leaving Coca-Cola with many competitors in their industry. Their largest ones are PepsiCo, Nestle, Cadbury Schweppes, Groupe D anone, and Kraft Foods. This intense competition influences Coca-Cola and their strategies. Key aspects that are affected are pricing, advertising, sales promotion programs, product innovation, and brand and trademark (Coca -Cola Datamonitor, 2007). The high dependence Coca-Cola has on their partners and suppliers makes them vulnerable. Most of the revenue that Coca -Cola generates comes from selling concentrates and syrups to bottlers, in which they have no ownership control. These distributors and bottling partners make their own business decisions and Coca -Cola has no say in the choices they make. Not having control over a major aspect of their business is a major threat. (Coca Cola Datamonitor, 2007).

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Marketing Mix: Product, Place, Price, Promotion

Product:
In order for an organization to be successful it needs to have a well -defined marketing mix. The marketing mix consists of the four P s; product, place, price, promotion (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 48). Product is defined as everything, b oth favorable and unfavorable, that a person receives in exchange (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 48) . The Coca-Cola Company s products consist of beverage concentrates and syrups, with the main product being the finished beverages (Coca-Cola Datamonitor, 2007). Coca-Cola s products can be viewed as both business and consumer products. Ultimately, the main goal of the Coca -Cola Company s is to satisfy a consumer s personal want, which is the definition of consumer products (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 248). The type of consumer product the Coca Cola Company creates is convenience product. Convenience products normally require a wide distribution in order to sell sufficient quantities to meet profit goals (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 285). In addition, the Coca -Cola Company often pays a certain amount to retail stores to resell their product. Therefore the Coca -Cola Company products can be considered a business product. The Coca-Cola Company has a fairly large product mix which contains abou t 400 brands, including diet and light beverages, waters, juice and juice drinks, teas, coffees, energy, and sports drinks (Coca-Cola Datamonitor, 2007). The Coca -Cola Company has increased its product mix width since 1960. This enabled the Coca -Cola Company to spread risk across many product lines rather than depend only on one and to help generate sales and boost profits within its organization (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 287). The Coca -Cola Company also packages its products different sizes to appeal to certain consumers (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 286). For example, Diet Coke is available in twelve -ounce or even six-ounce cans and various plastic containers, ranging from two liters to twenty ounces (Coca-Cola Company, 2006). The Coca-Cola Company has increased its product mix by product line extensions as well as creating new products. The Coca-Cola Company has extended its product line by introducing a variety of drinks ( Will New Cokes , 2006). These include Vanilla Coke, Cherry Coke, Cherry Vanilla Coke, Coke Plus and many more to attempt to meet the needs of all of its consumers. The Coca-Cola Company also increases its product mix and broadens its market by the innovation of new juice and sport drink products (Marcial, 2007). T his fairly large product mix enables the Coca -Cola Company to satisfy the needs of their consumers thirst, whatever it may be. This type of product mix allows the Coca -Cola Company to achieve its mission statement in which it states that it wants to ref resh the world (CocaCola Company, 2006 ).

Place/Distribution:
Another crucial part of the marketing mix is place and distribution of an organizations product. Place and distribution strategies are concerned with making products available when and where customers want them (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 48). The Coca 25

Cola Company states in its mission statement that it wants to offer its products to all consumers globally (Coca-Cola Company, 2006). The Coca-Cola Company uses intermediaries (i.e. retailers and distributors) instead of directly selling to distribute its products worldwide (Coca -Cola Datamonitor, 2007). The Coca -Cola Company also uses intensive distribution strategies to make sure their products can be available everywhere. One low profile type of retailing that the Coca -Cola Company does to increase its distribution of its product is the use of automatic vending machines. These can be found in a number of places, such as schools and concert venues (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 411). Since their product is a convenience product, it requires a wide distribution in order to meet profit goals (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 285). Recently the Coca-Cola Company has focused more on their global strategy to help them increase their growth. Much of this growth is coming out of Latin America, the BRIC, and Western Europe ( Innovation, acquisitions , 2007). Currently many Europeans are beginning to be more worried about their health, which has increased Coca -Cola s Diet Coke and Coke Zero sales (Fuhrman, 2007). In addition, the Coca -Cola Company is in many other countries including India that are in the growth stage of the product life cycle ( Marketing: New products , 2007). The Coca -Cola Company s growth in these areas are caused by their improved marketing to consumers, better relationships with bottlers, their live happily campaign in 200 markets, and the launch of Coca -Cola Zero. They also launched Minute Maid juice in India as well as China and Korea ( Marketing: New products , 2007). Their innovation and introduction of new products as well as their winning culture has helped them begin to grow again worldwide.

Price:
Price of the product or service is another important part of the marking mix. Price is defined as what a buyer must give up to obtain a product (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 49). Price is the quickest and most flexible element to change in the marketing mix. The prices of the Coca-Cola's Companies products vary according to the brand and the size in whi ch they come in (Coca-Cola Company, 2006). The Coca-Cola Company's products are sold by a wide variety of distributors and retail stores, such as convenient stores and gas stations, as well as vending machines (Coca-Cola Datamonitor, 2007). The distributo rs and retail stores that the Coca-Cola Company deals with often implement their own pricing strategy (Coca -Cola Datamonitor, 2007). Gas stations and convenient stores usually sell Coca -Cola products at a fixed price. However, the retail outlets use a var iety of pricing methods and strategies when selling Coca-Cola products (Coca-Cola Datamonitor, 2007). There is often competition pricing of the Coca-Cola products and prices are set around the same level as its competitors. In addition there are also psyc hological pricing strategies that are used to make consumers perceive that the products are cheaper than they really are.

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Promotion:
The fourth aspect of the marketing mix is promotion of a product. The promotions role in the marketing mix is to bring about mutually satisfying exchanges with target markets by informing, educating, persuading, and reminding them of the benefits of an organizations product (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 49). Since the Coca -Cola Company operates on a global scale, their promotional strategy needs to consider the external environment in which their products are. These external environmental factors include culture, economic and technological development, political structure, demographic makeup and natural resources (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 77). For example, the Coca -Cola Company promoted its new Coke Zero in Australia differently than it did in the United States because of the different external environmental factors associated with that segment (Alarcon, 2007). In addition, the Coca -Cola Company often has to adapt its advertisements in different cultures. For example, an ad in Singapore portraying teenagers careening down a store aisle on a grocery cart was perceived as too rebellious (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel , 2006, p. 129). The ultimate goal of any promotion is to get someone to by a good or service. There are four main aspects of the promotional mix that integrate together to create a competitive advantage for an organization. The four aspects of the promot ional mix are advertising, public relations, sales promotion, and personal selling (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 411) The advertising part of the promotional mix allows the organization to reach the masses with its product. The Coca -Cola Company was built heavily on advertising and marketing investments. Today the Coca-Cola Company spends most of its money on advertising that maintains the brands awareness (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 468). Thus advertising is a main source in increasing consu mer awareness. The Coca-Cola Company uses many forms of advertising, from TV advertisements to magazines and billboards (Steinberg & Vranica, 2004). One target segment that the Coca -Cola Company is having trouble trying to advertise to is the more outdoor, health conscious and environmentally friendly consumer (Steel, 2007). The advertisers are unsure how to advertise to them in a green fashion where the advertisement achieves its goals of persuading, informing, and reminding as well as being environmentally friendly. Public relations part of the promotional mix helps maintain an organizations image and educate consumers (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 444). Many organizations hire outside professional help to deal with public relations within an o rganization. Public relations are the element in the promotional mix that evaluates public attitudes identifies issues that may elicit public concern, and executes programs to gain public understanding and acceptance (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 44 1). The type of public relations tools that the Coca-Cola Company uses widely are product placements and sponsorships (Steinberg & Vranica, 2004). The Coca-Cola Company often uses is a spokesperson to appeal to the younger more youthful (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 163). An example of this can be seen in China where the Coca-Cola Company has increased advertising containing younger Chinese celebrities to help inform, persuade, and remind their target segment (Flagg, 1999). The Coca-Cola Company also uses publicity to try and create a good company image. An
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example of this is when the Coca -Cola Company invested 60 million dollars in creating a recycling plant in South Carolina. By creating this plant the Coca -Cola Company hopes to help eliminate carbon dioxide emissions and recycle a mast majority of their plastic bottles (Truini, 2007). This effort in trying to help reduce the carbon dioxide emissions strengthens the Coca-Cola Company image of wanting to create value and make a difference everywhere they go. Personal selling allows the organization to build relationships with their consumers or other business associates (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 444). Personal selling is defined as direct communication between a sales representative and one or more prospective buyer (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 443). Personal selling in the Coca -Cola Company often is done in a business-to-business fashion. An example of this is seen when the Coca -Cola Company was trying to boost their sales in No rth America by forming alliances with Nestea to create coffee and tea drinks (McKay & Corderio, 2007). This demonstrates how the Coca Cola Company uses personal selling in a business -to-business atmosphere to provide its consumers with a larger variety of products that can satisfy their need. The Coca-Cola Company also uses sales promotions to increase their effectiveness of their promotional efforts. The essence of sales promotion is to help stimulate a purchase (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 444). Some examples of sales promotions that the Coca-Cola Company uses are coupons and rebates and are used frequently because they are more likely to influence customers buying decision (Hair, Lamb, & McDaniel, 2006, p. 442). Another type of sales promotion that the Coca-Cola Company is currently using is their coke rewards points promotion. My Coke Rewards is customer loyalty marketing campaign from the Coca-Cola Company. Customers enter codes from specially marked packages of Coca-Cola products into a website. These codes are converted into virtual "points" which can in turn be redeemed for various prizes or sweepstakes entries ( Coca-Cola Company, 2006). The ultimate goals and tasks of promotion mix are to inform, persuade, and remind the target audience.

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Marketing Research
The Coca-Cola Company is a mass company with many marketing channels. They are widely distributed throughout the world. Many marketing decisions they face are backed with data or conflicts that result in them creating a fancy or reasonable solution. Even t hough CocaCola does an excellent job of quenching one s thirst, they sometimes have trouble understanding what regions of the world to emphasize marketing certain products towards. To stay competitive, Coca-Cola conducts marketing research to try and bet ter understand their consumers. Coca-Cola creates products and services that will help fit into the needs and wants of their marketplaces. They have found that people expect more from their beverages. To try and fill this desire Coca -Cola has developed the Beverage Institute For Health and Wellness. This institute develops and tries new product ideas that can contribute to their product line. In additions, the Institute works with the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences to research the active ingredients in Chinese medicinal beverages and soups for the potential development of new beverages (The Coca -Cola Company Annual Review, 2006). Coca -Cola wants to be able to keep their market alive and constantly drinking their line of refreshments, so they co ntinue to do research that will benefit their consumers, as well as being potential profits for the company. Coca-Cola within the last decade has been slowly grasping the idea of introducing and emphasizing products that may not be profitable in certain r egions to other cultures where they may find value in such a product. For instance, Coke Zero is a product that carries no carbohydrates or calories and was not quite meeting the expected profits in the United States, but Coca-Cola started to advertise it more in Europe to areas that to enjoy it. This region seemed more concerned about their health and well being, which contributed to Coke Zero becoming more of a profitable product. Coca-Cola also develops interesting marketing techniques such as business to business strategies to make their products more appealing to the younger generations. According to marketing research, younger generations will pay more attention to consumer products when they are advertised in a modern and hip way. For example, Coc a-Cola united with iTunes, so that whenever someone purchased a Coca -Cola product they would receive free songs to promote both products (Fuhrman, 2007).Since in younger generations are very music oriented. This relationship proves to be effective in promo ting their products and attracting to the youth. Even though Coca-Cola has interesting ways to promote their products, they need to find an effective way that will sell and promote their whole product line. With more marketing research, Coca-Cola is now being scrutinized for selling their product in public schools. Upset parents and school faculty see the carbonated drinks as contributing to the nation s obesity. The ban limits the company to selling products in schools to children less than twelve years old. The company has also agreed to only advertise healthier products towards this targeted market.

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A solution to this could be that Coca -Cola should input their marketing skills to other products, as well. In addition, The soft drinks giant would do bet ter to concentrate its advertising efforts on newer products with greater growth potential (Datamonitor). With the Classic Coke, being one of the most popular carbonated drinks in the world. Coca -Cola could try and promote their other products that would acquire to different tastes. Coca-Cola could put more efforts towards their Dasani, Inc. brand, known for their bottled water. Bottled Water is a non carbonated drink that is becoming increasingly popular and more of a competition towards the carbonated and other drinks.

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Thank you!
reading the report.
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for