Opportunity & Threat Analysis:
Coca Cola, the world’s major beverage company has been making its own recognized beverage products availing to consumers on the global stage via a network of organization owned or proscribed distribution operations along with wholesalers, retailers and bottling partners.
Opportunity Analysis:
Diversification:
The organization has been striving hard in exploiting its abundant war chest in building an existence in the speedily growing beverage category. It has taken in 16% of Keurig Mountain and has developed a newly made Keurig Kold appliance. According to Arnold, along with the Keurig Mountain, it also confirmed in 2016 the purchase of 17% wager in the Monster beverage. This deal offered Coca Cola with admission to its accepted energy drink growth section. These transactions bolstered the top and bottom lines of the organization. Such joint ventures have been delivering Coca-Cola with recognized inroads to younger consumers’ base. In the future, the organization would be looking to counterfeit increased relationships with other coffee and businesses of health drink.
Improvement in Supply Chain:
For any organization, supply chain can sometimes be a key sinkhole of cost with the increase in the cost of transportation on regular basis. The entire business of Coca Cola depends on the network of transportation and distribution. Improvements are part of everyday business and in the segment of supply chain, there would always be probable enhancement if Coca Cola keeps a strict eye on the factor of supply chain and keep recovering by bringing the cost down.
The organization has involved ITC Infotech and SAP consulting for improving its Supply Chain Management and attaining amplified visibility. Coca Cola was having problems in getting reliable metrics across plants, where gathering information for comparing things was becoming difficult. As per Hansen, using of comparable KPIs were not even simplifying things like stock out and rates of filling up. It implemented Advanced Planning & Optimization (APO) from SAP, Coke has still been struggling with the accurate amount of intelligence that was appropriate for its markets.
Market the lesser selling products:
In the product assortment of Coca Cola,, there are more than a few products that have not been finding any acceptance in the market. Coca Cola needs to ponder on the marketing strategies of such products as it has been understood that the organization does invest lot of expenses in launching of the same. Marketing and consequent rise in the sale of such products would help generate substantial revenue for the company. However, such a task is not impossible for Coca Cola with the kind of power and authority it has.
Threat Analysis:
Nutritious Selections:
Of late, the soft drink providers have suffered because of nutrition policy and taste preference of consumers changing with every passing day. There has been an immense cultural shift towards the organic and natural products leading many to opt for smoothies, nutritional waters and other different options of healthy beverages (Rana, Jyoti and Satish). The items that have fallen out of favors are soda offerings with large amount of sugar and artificial sweeteners. This trend of consumers preferring nutritional products does not seem to subside as the consumers have been constantly boosting up their knowledge of appropriate dietary obligations and other exercise programs. According to Peng, health professionals around the world have been calling for eradication of beverages and food surrounding heavy amounts of sugar elevating the risk of augmenting diabetes and other heart diseases. The evolving of negative perception of these beverages has gushed due to the desire of federal regulators in placing surfeit on sodas and sugary squashy drinks.
Indirect Competition:
Organizations like Starbucks (SBUX) and Dunkin Brands Group (DNKN) are not in direct competition with Coca Cola, but these businesses have been placing a indentation in the market share of the organization. As per Corea, these chains have been offering their customers with certain other healthier unconventional, exclusive choices and rewards for customer loyalty that are not easily coordinated by Coca cola. The smaller franchises along with the retail chains have been offering patrons with private-level surrogates for the conventional Coke products, facilitating businesses in delivering beverages at inferior price. Industry data have been suggesting that the probable consumers would continue to be towed away from the selection of basic drinks in support of customizable option carrying better nutritional advantage.
Conclusion:
Coca Cola have been possessing a good transaction of assurance for the future because of the overall size, financial strength positioning it in an advantageous position for worthwhile acquirement of targets. Coca Cola’s brand appeal has been such that it would linger as the top-tier beverage provider moving forward. The immense distribution network enables enhanced volumes success in the rapidly increasing markets.
References:
Arnold, Paul. "Evidence and leading indicators of change success." Strategic direction 31.10 (2015): 1-5.
Corea, Gabriele. "Global value chain: the Coca-Cola system." (2016).
Hansen, Jonas Thybo. "Constructing a Product Brand Identity: The Case of Coca-Cola." (2016).
Peng, Mike W. Global. Nelson Education, 2015.
Rana, Jyoti, and Satish Ahuja. "Tapping the potential of Indian rural market through marketing strategies." International Journal of Research in Finance and Marketing 4.5 (2014): 1-9.
