SWOT Analysis And Strategies For Carbonated Soft Drink Brand

Background

Assessment Title: SWOT Analysis and Strategies for Carbonated Soft Drink Brand

Based on the information of main brand (focus on corporate brand, for instance, The Coca-Cola Company) you analysed in assessment 2, you are required to thoroughly scan the internal (strengths and weaknesses) and the external (opportunities and threats) environments (commonly called SWOT Analysis) of the main brand and suggest strategies to mitigate risk and materialise the opportunities. Please note that this assessment is based on the activities performed in assessment 2 and some secondary research, so there is no need to do market visits for this assessment.

You are required to perform the following tasks:

1. Conduct a thorough external environmental scan of your main brand (of assessment

2) using political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal (PESTEL) analysis

2. From PESTEL analysis, identify key forces (opportunities and threats) that may affect your brand strategy

3. Conduct a thorough internal environmental scan of your main brand and analyse elements of organisational culture, vision, mission, values, long term strategic orientation and capabilities (core competence and resources)

4. From the analysis of the internal environment, identify key strengths and vulnerabilities (weakness) that may affect your brand performance

5. Summarise your findings in the form of a table

6. Suggest how you can use your Strengths to mitigate the effect of Threats and materialise the Opportunities. Also, recommend strategies to strengthen your Weaknesses and avoid Threats by utilising Opportunities. Report Format and Specific Tasks

The following format can be used to present the findings:

1. Introduction: Summary of your report structure, introduce the concept of SWOT analysis and its importance for effective strategy formulation.

2. Background: Provide a brief summary of the selected corporate brand, its market share, global presence and key competitors. Use secondary information sources (with appropriate citations) to retrieve information.

3. SWOT Analysis: Conduct a thorough external and internal environmental analysis of the selected corporate brand. Use secondary information sources to identify key factors from the PESTEL model that may affect the brand strategies. Also, the information provided on the brand website and other secondary sources can be used to reflect on the internal environment of the brand. Internal environmental forces may include, but not limited to, organisational culture, vision, mission, values, long term strategic orientation, products and services, business partners, and capabilities (core competence and resources) (Subject Learning Outcome 1, 2, 3 & 5)

4. TOWS Matrix Strategies: Explain in details how organisational abilities (Strengths) can be used to pursue potential Opportunities and counter disabilities (Weaknesses) and threats. Use the TOWS matrix tool provided in Appendix B for a succinct description of particular strategies.

5. Conclusion: Summarise key findings of your study and limitations, if any, concerning strategies suggested in the TOWS matrix section.A

The following assignment is based on the SWOT analysis of the carbonated soft drink which has been already discussed in the previous assignment. The aim of this report is to analyse the secondary research of the company which is famous world wide as Coca Cola (SHTAL et al., 2018). The purpose of the assignment is to cater and examine the SWOT analysis from the PESTLE analysis that has been conducted previously. With the assistance of the political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors the SWOT analysis will be conducted. However these are the factors that affect the branding strategy and will assist in enhancing the skills. Hence the SWOT analysis will help in providing a good way for the company to examine the negative and positive attributes within the single analysis that determines the best in order to complete in the market at large.  These steps will help in decision making process and create a between awareness in order to rectify the areas of weakness (Wang, 2015). Later in the report the TOWS matrix strategies will explain on the organisation ability which can be used to pursue the particular strategy in order to counter disability and threats. The conclusion section will reflect on the key findings of the report where suggestions will be mentioned for the better functioning of the management.

The company background of Coca Cola is an American founded company which was founded in the year 1892. In today’s world the company targets to manufacture and produce the carbonated soft drink which gives a texture of sweet fizzy taste beverage which is a cultural institution in the United States and a global symbol of the American taste (Radis, 2015). It is known as the largest beverage in the distributor and manufacturer in the entire world and is one of the largest corporations in the United States with its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. The market share of the company as per the report of 2019 is estimated around 130 billion juice market where 31.4% of the market share is with the Parle Argo which is presently having 22.5% share and whereas PepsiCo is having 14.4% (Njonjo 2015). Therefore the global presence of the company along with the bottling partners is estimated with a contribution of a strong network which is over the range of 2.6 million retail outlets that comes across all the comers in the entire world. It caters to contribute job opportunity to the people who has the potential to work across all the regions in the world. Therefore it can be said that the major competitor of the firm is PepsiCo.

SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis is conducted with an intention to examine the company’s strength, weakness, threats and opportunities that are attached with the organisational framework (Baah & Bohaker 2015). With reference to the company Coca Cola it can be discussed that there are possibilities of the company to examine the areas of threats and opportunities and alter them with the innovative ideas. There are two important division of the SWOT which are the internal factors and the external factor. The internal factor of Coca Cola is the area of strength and Weakness and the External region is the threat and opportunity.

As the internal factor of the company, Coca Cola witnesses the following strong brand identity as there is highly popular brand in the entire world. Costumer often recognizes the brand with the help of the logo and the background color (Lin & Scott, 2019). The soft texture of the carbonated drink is the most selling soft drink in the world. On the other hand it is recorded as the highest brand equity which is undoubtedly one of the most renowned brands with the highest brand equity. The company has been rewarded as the highest brand equity award in the year 2011 by Interbrand. The company plays a dominant role as there are two largest manufactures in the world. Out of which Coca Cola serves to be the leading producer of soft drinks in the beverage segment. With the presence of the largest market share it comprises of Diet Coke, Fanta, Limca, Maaza, Sprite and Coke as the highest growth drivers for the company (Collier et al., 2016). Therefore the major strength of the company is its ability to be listed as the 3^rd best global brand in the world’s Annual Interbrand ranking. It has an estimation of $79.96 billion as it is retained on the top position for many years.

The second internal environmental factors of the company are the area of weakness where the company is diversified and comprise of low product diversification. One of the major competitors of the company is PepsiCo where it was leading in producing snacks like Lays whereas Coca Cola was lagging in brining in the segment of snack into their product line (Kayabaº,  Boyraz & Derdiyok, 2017). When it comes to the biggest rival of Coca Cola it is PepsiCo which has been a consistent rival from the beginning and is a clear market leader in the beverage industry. Lastly the areas of weakness can be highlighted with reference to the health concern as excessive consumption leads to obesity and diabetes (Gertner and Rifkin, 2018).

TOWS Matrix Strategies

The opportunity of Coca Cola in the external environment witnesses the introduction of the new product line in the market with diversity in segmenting the product. It has the ability to introduce new offering in the health and food segment. Secondly the opportunity which the market shares is its increase presence in the developing nation. There are many regions in the world that has hot climate hence the company should increase their retail outlets in entries like UAE and African countries (Banks, 2016). Thirdly the company has the opportunity to bring in healthy drink in the market just like the product Kinley it can introduce tetra pack fruit juice.

There has been much criticism that Coca Cola has faced in terms of waste management issues. There have been many environmental and social claims that the company consumes a vast amount of water from the water scarce region. They have also been blamed for using pesticide in water to clear the contamination (Bista, 2019). Next they received threat from the Greenpeace censured in the year 2017 that they have been using plastic bottles that was causing harm to the environment after it was disposed.

With reference to the potential of the company and analysing its strengths it can be examined that the points of strength and ability can be utilised for eradicating the disabilities and threats connected to the company. Taking into consideration the factor of competing with the rival form it can be said that Coca Cola needs to produce its goods on service thinking about the health of the customers or the target audience. Just like PepsiCo it should start its production in the manufacturing snack which can combine with the elements of health ingredients. This will enable the company to overcome the issue of not competing enough on the ground of the rival form (Pichler, 2015). The reason is Coca Cola is one of the leading manufactures of the beverage area and in order to be the sole priority of the firm it needs to go hand in hand with the rival firm and produce product which are unique in form.

The weakness of the company has also been identified in the area of manufacturing product with high content of sugar fizz drinks. Whereas the product line of Coca Cola also comprise of the Diet version but it is a myth that some sector of the consumers think in a negative manner when the company line offers a substitute product. In order to eradicate this thought process Coca Cola has given emphasise on its brand and logo which plays an integral part of the process (Santos & Laczniak, 2015). When a company has a unique brand identity and logo it is not possible for some of the customers to bring down the reputation of the company. Thinking about the health conscious people or the target audience who likes to consume Coke it has came up with its Diet Coke Version which does not have any content of sugar present in the drink.

Conclusion

With the assistance of the opportunity that the brand has in catering the audience in the hot climatic regions it can increase its sales and revenue and eliminate the problem of environmental and social claims. It is the primary motive of the form to look after the problems of the environmental and not dumb any waste in the water bodies or in vast stretch of vacant land. The measures are care of and the company ensures using water free from contamination of pesticide (F & Yazdanifard 2015). With the assistance of increasing its range of opening more of retail store in the world it will be able to create more of awareness within the people. The inclusion opening its new venture in places like Africa and UAE it will not only be applicable to eliminate the issues of using pesticide but can also engage the people who are unemployed in these places. On the other hand the inclusion of new venture will cater to reduce the level of unemployment in the places and contribute to the GDP of the country (Koly, 2017). The company can bring in the more of revenue as a result of expansion of business in the international market and will cater to aware the people with their wide variety of products involves in their product line.

Lastly the weakness that has been analysed is its lack of product that can be introduced in the market if manufacturing healthy snack. Just like its rival firm who is the leading producer of Lays is contribution a large portion of its share in the PepsiCo market. With the help of its strength where the company is the third leading producer of global brand it can open a new market where health conscious people can be the target audience and cater the market with a regular snack which can be make available in small packets and with minimum price strategy (Batey, 2015). Maintaining its high brand equity the customer can easily recognise the new product launch in the market and will easily attract the consumer from all the regions. The attractive logo acts as strength for the company and will assist in eradicating the weaknesses and threats attached with the company.

Conclusion 

Hence it can be concluded that the opportunity and strength of the company are vast and these are the positive notes which will assist the other issues in weakness and threat area to overcome. With the reference of developing its market in the international countries the brand will have its presence in the countries and cater to move towards the healthy beverage. The developing countries there are still companies that are producing the carbonated drinks. On the other had when the marketing strategies is viewed Coca Cola has always won the people’s heart. The target audience is continuously changing and the target audience is recorded to be the youngsters. In order to increase the market strength the company also promotes its brad with the help of celebrities. This will allow more of audience to experience their product and their wide offering from the same product line. The areas of weakness and threats are taken care of with the positive of strengths in the company and this will enable them to increase their brand loyalty which also adds on to the strength list of Coca Cola. With the presence of the major competitor in the market like PepsiCo, Coca Cola is the clear winner in this prospect and is witnessing the largest market share of the beverage market. On the other hand the threats can be eliminated with the assistance of the distribution network of the company which is wide and huge and is catering the audience worldwide. It is because of the goodwill of the company that there is demand from various regions and the distribution network is vast. Therefore Coca Cola has a strong stand both in the national and in the international market.

References

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