When entering the environment of the global economy, an organisation is likely to face a difficult challenge, which requires it to choose between shaping its current marketing to appeal to a broad range of customers and maintaining its marketing approach to cement its brand image. The latter strategy, which implies the choice of global standardisation as the key marketing approach, demands an easily recognisable marketing technique that makes a product universally famous and instantly recognisable (Boje 2015). By using the same 4Ps of marketing across the globe, Coca-Cola has cemented its image among its target audiences and has been maintaining an increasingly strong presence in the global market.
The Coca-Cola Company is a global corporation that produces a wide range of non-alcoholic beverages, yet it is most known for its trademark drink, Coca-Cola. The company started by selling its product as medicine, yet soon switched to marketing Coca-Cola as a soft drink (The Coca-Cola Company n.d.). At present, the company is experiencing a drop in its revenue streak, with its market cap being reduced to $48.73 (The Coca-Cola Company (KO) 2018).
The company uses the marketing technique that implies focusing primarily on the titular drink; particularly, the organisation deploys the BCG matrix and interprets the specified product as its cash cow (Mohajan 2018). As a result, even with the reported drop in the net revenue by 16%, Coca-Cola still maintains at the top of its industry and manages to exert significant influence in it (The Coca-Cola Company 2017). Therefore, the company could use a change in its current approach toward marketing its products to the target demographic.
The concept of global standardisation typically implies that an organisation uses a uniform approach toward marketing its products, at the same time maintaining the average price for its goods low in order to retain its position in the global market. In its internal environment, Coca-Cola follows the specified tradition, using a uniform approach toward its pricing across the states in which it sells its products (Trefis Team 2018).
The specified approach prevents the company’ value from dropping, whereas the introduction of new products into the array of goods that it sells in the target market helps to create even greater value (Kayabas, Boyraz & Derdiyok 2017). As a result, Coca-Cola enables financial returns and continues to meet the needs and demands of its stakeholders and particularly shareholders (The Coca-Cola Company 2018).
In regard to the external environment that has a tangible effect on Coca-Cola as a business entity, one should mention the market drivers that are closely related to the shift in the dieting perspective. The propensity toward healthy eating has been a dominant force in the food industry for a while, leading to the company’s products receiving rather negative publicity (Nestle 2015). While the company has adapted to the specified trend by presenting Diet Coke in 1982, the organisation is in desperate need of new brands that could assist it in shaping its global image as one an innovative organisation (Gertner & Rifkin 2018). Thus, the Coca-Cola Company would be able to attract new investors and increase its profit margins significantly.
However, the homogenisation of buyers’ demands as a result of cultural influences can be seen as the force that allows Coca-Cola to maintain its presence in the global market and keep its revenue streak comparatively stable. Because of the uniform appeal that the organisation’s products have, it is relatively easy for the Coca-Cola Company to apply the principles of global standardisation to its processes and marketing strategies.
It should be noted that the current focus on global standardisation as the primary course for the firm’s development could use a change. In light of the recent decline in revenues and the drop in the firm’s profit margins, it would be advisable for the Coca-Cola Company to switch to a different approach toward marketing its brand. Particularly, the focus on culture-specific elements that could be introduced into the firm’s titular product might be seen as the future strategy to be adopted (Cooley et al., 2015). Nonetheless, it is critical for the firm to retain its integrity and brand image since it currently does not have the product as well marketed, famous and loved all over the world as its eponymous drink.
Therefore, the approach toward global standardisation, which the Coca-Cola Company has been using throughout its existence, has warranted its significance, yet the organisation may need to consider expanding its brand recognition to other products in order to introduce a more flexible approach toward global marketing.
Thus, the firm will be capable of appealing to other cultures and demographics, at the same time expanding the range of products that it offers and appealing to a larger range of customers by introducing a more elaborate segmentation system (Gertner & Rifkin 2018). As long as the Coca-Cola Company focuses on the integration of culture-specific approaches to its marketing and branding strategies, at the same time keeping the brand image recognisable and memorable, the current issues in regard to profits will be addressed and managed in the long-term perspective.
Reference List
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The Coca-Cola Company n.d., About us. Coca-Cola history. Web.
The Coca-Cola Company 2017, The Coca-Cola Company reports second quarter 2017 results. Web.
The Coca-Cola Company 2018, 2017 annual review. Web.
Coca-Cola Company (KO) 2018. Web.
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Gertner, D & Rifkin, L 2018, ‘Coca‐Cola and the fight against the global obesity epidemic’, Thunderbird International Business Review, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 161-173.
Kayabas, TD, Boyraz, G & Derdiyok, R 2017, ‘Examining Coca-Cola and Pepsi brands under the basis of globalisation and multinational companies’, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 7, no. 12, pp. 351-358.
Mohajan, HK 2018, ‘An analysis on BCG growth sharing matrix’, Noble International Journal of Business and Management Research, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1-6.
Nestle, M 2015, ‘Coca-Cola says its drinks don’t cause obesity. Science says otherwise’, The Guardian. Web.
Trefis Team 2018, ‘Core brands and healthy portfolio drive growth for Coca-Cola’, Forbes. Web.