Date: 19/Dec/13

Assignment No. 9

Name: Salman Shahid Registration No. CIIT/FA10-BBA-125/LHR Submitted To: Mr. Shahid Malik

Coca-Cola India
Case Study Analysis
Coca-Cola is the most successful brand in world-wide beverage industry. It has gone through over a century to establish its name and current place. Behind this strong name lies a very powerful tool; marketing. After success in US industry, coke identified opportunities in the world market and entered suitable places with strong focus on cultural and societal norms. The brand maintained its quality and worth by sticking to its traditional norms and values and by depending on its own resources and expertise. Within a period of one century, coke was fully established and strengthened. It successfully captured large part of the worlds beverage industry. An admirable marketing strengthened the trust of customers with the brand. It used several slogans at different times to attract people from diverse demographics. India has been a very attractive market for many businesses for its interesting culture, weather, demographics and market size. Although, its a country with majority belonging to middle and lower middle class, yet, different brands have experimented here and many have succeeded. Coke too entered this market as a soft drink but eventually failed due to conflicts with the conservative government and local laws. Instead of compromising on its values, the company exited from the country and waited for a long period before its re-entry. But this time the first move was from its key competitor Pepsi which took first mover advantage. Although coke managed to secure many other advantages associated with the market. It identified a new segment; rural areas and redesigned itself for entering the market. The strategy worked and later coke focused on market penetration to make it even more successful. The Indian beverage industry was very large as people of this region were fond of thanda (cold drinks) found in every street of rural and urban areas. Coke identified it as an opportunity and matched coke with other local and foreign brands. Coke launched separate advertising campaigns for different target groups and successfully replaced all other thands sellers from coke. It also established other similar brands with different price groups.

In order to build strong public relations, coke worked on several Corporate Social Responsibility (CSF) projects simultaneously. Some of them have been listed below: Provided direct and indirect jobs to over a hundred thousand people. Supported social causes like Aids control programs. Worked for the preservation of environment and encouraged used of environmental friendly machinery. Stopped the wastage of water and compliance with all legal regulations. Efficient use of electricity. Apart from all the success and fame, the brand has gone though many controversies. There have been incidents where coke was directly or indirectly found involved. The company spent billions of dollars in justifying and recovering their brand popularity. Similarly in India, the brand had to go through controversies when a local non-for-profit organization alleged the soft drink industry for making soft drinks that are harmful for health. The matter was taken up by the industry as a whole and the major players of soft drink industry joined together to defend with a clear denial of the allegation. The reaction of coke and other soft drink brands was natural and somewhat justifiable. In my opinion, such NGOs usually target large multinational organizations for multiple reasons; for gaining popularity, working for other brands to destroying brand equity of others or for black mailing and settling the terms privately with MNCs. But the results of such allegations can be serious for brands like coke because the allegations create confusion in the minds of customers. Organizations like coke have certified quality control systems and such large organizations cannot be ignorant for such critical issues.