SWOT ANALYSIS (2014)
Swot Stands for strength, weakness, opportunities and threats. Swot analysis is an overall evaluation of a company current state by looking at its strength, weakness, opportunities and threats.
Swot analysis is considered to be a source of information for strategic planning which aims to develop full awareness of the company situation that will help in strategic planning and decision making of the company.
COCACOLA COMPANY PROFILE
The Coca-Cola Company is a global company with some of the world's most widely recognized brands
It is the largest non alcoholic beverage company in the world with over 550 brand names offering in over 200countries; they produce everything that is of food and beverages including tea, orange juice, energy drinks such as monster, sports energy drinks and carbonated drinks
The company was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1886 by Dr John s Pemberton who is the inventor of the Coca-Cola beverage. The brand name and logo of the “Coca-cola” was suggested by Dr Pemberton’s bookkeeper called Frank Robinson.
Some of the Coca-Cola brands are produced and sold worldwide like Sprite and Fanta, while some brands are produced and sold for specific countries, For example Ambasa is a milk-based soft drink sold by The Coca-Cola Company in Japan.
Coca-Cola also operates on franchise business in which it produces syrup for beverages that are sold to its franchisee in different countries that produce Coca-Cola products.
Name | Coca-Cola Company |
Logo | |
Industries Served | Food and beverages |
Target group | All age group from kids to adults |
Positioning of the product | A beverage brand for the entire family |
Geographical areas served | Worldwide |
Headquarters | U.S.A, Atlanta , Georgia |
Current CEO | Muhtar Kent |
Revenue | $ 48.01 billion (2012) |
Profit | $ 9.01 billion (2012) |
Employees | 146,200 (2012) |
Estimated consumer serving per day | 1.5 billion |
Associates | 90500 worldwide |
Mission | To refresh the world, To inspire moments of optimism. |
STRENGTHS
Strengths are features of the business that provide an advantage over others in the industry. It includes organizational capabilities such as processing capabilities, financial resources, Products and services and customer locality.
Coca-Cola company strength include the following
1. BRAND RECOGNITION AND REPUTATION WORLDWIDE
Coca Cola is an extremely recognizable company. Its products have Global reach with presence in over 200 countries.
Popularity is one of its superior strengths that are incomparable with other companies. Coca Cola is known very well worldwide. It's branding is easily recognized. Their products are well known to major parts of the world and customers accept the products.
Coca-Cola is the leading player in the global beverage industry that is found everywhere in the world.
2. EXTENSIVE DIVERSIFIED RANGE OF PRODUCTS
Coca-Cola sells and manufactures many different products including carbonated drinks and energy drinks.
The company produces several products that are known worldwide and some products that are produced on specific countries, for example Ambasa is a Soft drink sold in Japan and Korea,
Apollinaris is a German naturally sparkling mineral water owned by Coca-Cola,
Bibo is a Fruit flavored juice produced in Turkey, South Africa, Mozambique and Canada.
3. STRONG MARKETING AND ADVERTISEMENT
Coca-Cola has got the best incredible marketing teams that have excellent marketing and advertisement techniques. They dedicate themselves on each and everything within their capability and power in order to sell their products.
The major technique they use in their advertisement and marketing techniques is by associating celebrity and brand amassadors in their advertisement, For example now there is coke studio which basically advertise cocacola using celebrities in form of songs, In Tanzania there is Lady Jay dee, Diamond and others in different countries
Other advertisement techniques include
I. T-shirts and hats that people do wear, they normally do get them during promotion of Coca-Cola
II. Football stadiums of different countries in the world
III. Effective and efficient packaging technique that attracts customers and giving emphasis on recycling and reusing
IV. Televisions and radios advertisement. For example there was this advertisement of Coca-Cola on TV which identifies Coca-Cola as a beverage for the whole family; this advertisement shows the whole family having a feast on a table with Coca-Cola as their drink.
Coca-Cola advertisement can also be found in movies, both international movies and our own Tanzanian movies.
Also In Dar es salam one of the marketing technique used by Coca-Cola to encourage consumption of its product is the acquisition of free call time minutes for Vodacom users if a customer buys a Coca-Cola. When a customer buys the product, he will get the offer by peeling the plastic of bottle cap, get the numbers, send them to the Vodacom Company and obtain the minutes.
4 .STRONG MARKET SHARE IN BEVERAGE
Coca-Cola is considered to be the world largest market share that holds the largest beverage market share in the world which is about 40%. Its major competitor Pepsi covers 31% and the remaining shares are covered by other companies.
5. CUSTOMER LOYALITY
Another strength which is very important to Coca Cola is customer loyalty. Eighty percent of their profit comes from 20% of their loyal customers.
Many people/families are extremely loyal to Coca Cola. It would not be rare to constantly find bottles and cases of a product such as coke in a house. It seems that some people would drink coke religiously like some people would drink water and milk. This is an improbable feat. Customers will continually purchase these products, and will probably do so for a very long time. If two parents were good Coca Cola drinkers, this will be passed down do their children as they grow loyal to the company. With Coca Cola’s ability to sell their product all over the world, customers will continue to buy what they know and what they like which are the Coca Cola products.
6. WELL KNOWN SPONSORS ON IN THE WORLD
Coca-Cola are well known sponsors in the world. They have Long association with international sports events, sponsorships etc
Coca-Cola have sponsored different Olympics games in different countries
The Coca-Cola Company is one of the longest-standing corporate partners of FIFA, Coca-Cola is the official sponsor of Fifa World cup
7. STRONG DISTRIBUTION NETWORK
Coca-Cola has Strong and efficient supply chain network, ensuring that all the products are available even on the most places in the world including Africa, Asia, America and Europe markets.
It has the largest distribution network because of the demand in the market for its products. On the other hand, due to this successful distribution network, Coca cola has been able to command such a high market presence.
WEAKNESS
These are characteristics that place a company at a disadvantage relative to others; they reduce the capability of the firm to attain its goals and future growth. Weakness include poor technologies, Poor employee performance and limited financial resources..
Coca cola consist of the following weaknesses
1. ABSENCE IN HEALTH BEVERAGES AND FOCUSING
Coca-Cola does not produce any health beverage; Most of their products are not good to health and results to obesity since they contain large amount of calories. Societies are now becoming aware of obesity harmful effects, the business environment is changing and people are taking measures to ensure that they are not obese, this means the consumption of beverages in developed countries might go down as people will prefer a healthy alternative, hence lost of customers to coca-cola company if they don’t produce health beverages.
2. COMPETITION WITH PEPSI THAT OUTSALES COCA-COLA IN SOME AREAS
Pepsi is usually in second to coke in sales. It out sales Coca-cola in some markets areas, for example in Oman and Saudi Arabia they prefer Pepsi rather than Coca-Cola. Also in India and Pakistan they prefer Pepsi, Pepsi seems to sponsor most of the cricket teams in India and Pakistan
3. NEGATIVE PUBLICITY
The presences of traces of pesticides in the cola beverages have caused damage to the brand image. People have blamed Coca cola for mixing pesticides in the water to clear contaminants Negative publicity occur in India during September 2007 where Coca-Cola was accused of selling products with pest side residue. This reduced the Coca-Cola market in India as well as some places in the world.
Also on water management issues several groups have raised lawsuits in the name of Coca cola because of their vast consumption of water even in water scarce regions
OPPORTUNITIES
Opportunities refers to chances which arise that can make a company earn greater profit in its business environment
They occur when an organization can take benefit of the current situation in its environment to plan and execute strategies that enable it to become more profitable. The following are the opportunities of the Coca-Cola company.
1. INCREASING SALES OPPORTUNITIES ON DEVELOPING NATIONS
Developing nations such as India and Tanzania do have hot summer. The consumption of cold drinks in these places during hot summer is almost doubled. Thus the higher consumption in developing business environment can be a good opportunity for Coca cola to increase its revenue
2. BOTTLED WATER CONSUMPTION GROWTH
With hygiene becoming a major factor in the consumption of water, packaged drinking water has found its way into people’s mind. Coca cola has a presence in the packed drinking water segment though Kinley. Although Kinleys expansion is slow as of now, Kinley has a huge potential of expansion. Thus Coca cola as a company should focus on the expansion of Kinley as a brand and take it up to Bisleri ‘s level of trust
3. SUPPLY CHAIN IMPROVEMENTS
Supply chain can be a major cost sink hole with the transportation costs always rising. Coca cola’s complete business is based on transportation and distribution. There will always be possible improvements in this area. Thus Coca cola should keep strict watch on its Supply chain and keep improving to bring the cost down
4. INCREASING DEMAND FOR HEALTHY FOOD AND BEVERAGES
The marketing of healthy beverages and food is widely seen and it is still growing in demand. The company can try to create and provide more healthy drinks in the market since people in the world are paying more attention to their health at present. Healthy drink markets will have great potential in the future. If Coca-Cola can produce healthy beverages and food in the future, it will obviously boost its revenue
THREATS
Threats are elements in the environment that can cause trouble to the business. Threats include competitors, changing customer needs, Changes in government regulations and Changes in economic of the country.
Coca cola does face the following threats.
1. INTENSE COMPETITION
Coca-Cola is getting intensive competition from different manufactures both locally and internationally. Pepsi is the leading competitor of Coca-Cola; Hence Coca-Cola should have innovative ideas in order to make its past customers to stay, grab more future customers and to continue leading the beverage market industry worldwide.
For example In Tanzania Coca-Cola faces local competition from Bakhresa and Mohd Enterprises Company,
2. CHANGING HEALTH CONSIOUSNESS OF THE SOCIETY
There are changes in consumer preference in the society, Societies focus on drinking health beverages. People are changing their altitudes and keep their mind on consuming health drinks in order to avoid diseases such as obesity.
Today, there is a trend of consuming healthy drink and many existing drink companies have tried to invent a great variety of innovative drinks. If the Coca Cola Company only insists on providing tasty soft drinks and little healthy drinks, its sales must be affected.
3. WATER SCARCITY
Water is the major threat to Coca cola. The threat here is that water scarcity is on the rise, with the climate changing, and regions of various countries facing scarcity of water, sooner or later someone might raise fingers on beverage companies.
If water is limited or rationed, Coca cola can experience a major downfall in their revenue and capacity of distribution.
All in all this a Swot analysis of the Coca-Cola that identifies some of the strength, weakness opportunities and threats of the company