Coca Cola as a Vision Brand

Coca-Cola as a multinational refreshment company and the leading manufacturer, marketer, and retailer of nonalcoholic beverage syrups and concentrates has been named a vision brand since it has been part of a popular culture for over a hundred years (Mubayi, 2012, p. 540). The company has a special way to communicate with its customers and has many strategies that make it stand out from the many competitors in the beverage industry (Abdullah Saif, 2015, p. 14). The mission of the firm has not only been selling products but also creating crucial changes that make the world a better place (Cleland, 2015, p. 451). Creating value that makes a difference, inspiring moments of optimism and happiness, and refreshing the world are some of the key elements of the mission statement of Coca-Cola (Veale, 2015, p. 16). In the recent years, the company has realized that its marketing strategy has yielded positive outcomes over the years and there is need to evolve from creative to content excellence (Belloc, 2014, p. 450). In the 21st century, content marketing is key to the success of the company in the social web (Marren, 2014, p. 37). Coca-Cola as a brand has a presence in more than two hundred countries who play a critical role in the growth plan. Focus on profit growth and driving revenue are strategic actions that have made the company increase revenue in the emerging markets (Eshun, 2016, p. 156). Additionally, keeping the Coca-Cola products affordable and striking a balance between pricing and volume has been successful in improving the profit margins of the company. Creating value for both the company and the customers has been a key priority for Coca-Cola.

Also, continuous investment in firm brands and business, being more efficient in terms of rebuilding the growth momentum, simplifying the company, and focusing on the core business model have been critical issues behind the past success of Coca-Cola (Employer-Employee Relationship In Co-Operation, 2012, p. 42). Notably, despite having the unique formula for the syrup concentrate, Coca-Cola has to adopt long-term strategies that make the company successful during the next ten years (Ted Prince, 2013, p. 16). More and better marketing methods that focus on innovation to grow the business must be implemented to guarantee the future success of the company (Chen, 2013, p. 25).

1.2 Research Questions

First of all, the project primary focus is the strategy that makes Coca-Cola Company be successful in the next ten years. After that, the research project aims to find out how the strategies contribute to the success of the company and ensure that it has a competitive advantage in the market despite the high-level competitiveness in the beverage industry (Strohhecker and Größler, 2014, p. 570). Notably, the research might go further deep into explaining the road-map that Coca-Cola is willing to follow to remain relevant in the market and the secret behind the large customer base the company has enjoyed over a long period of time (Ammari and Jaziri, 2016, p. 17). Therefore, the project needs to focus on the relationship between the strategies used by the company and the potential success in the next decade (Crawford, 2016, p. 49). The staff of any organization is at the forefront to execute the strategies put together by the management in achieving the set goals and objectives (Aaker and Moorman, 2014, p. 110). Therefore, the project will focus on the employee management of Coca-Cola and how the workers are involved directly or indirectly to implement the vision and mission of the company (Mokhov and Ryabukhin, 2018, p. 68). The working relationship between the management and the workforce is important since the two should work together to find the way forward in implementing the various agendas set out by the business (Mayer, 2016, p. 204). Coca-Cola has a history of ensuring job security for their workers who remain committed to delivering quality services that reflect on the high value of the products (Pettigrew, 2016, p. 50).

Furthermore, the company has spread its wings across over two hundred countries in the world. Remarkably, each country has a unique market with customers who have different needs and preferences (Bullas, 2014, p. 405). The success of Coca-Cola is highly dependent on the ability of the management to find and implement the strategies in the various markets where it operates (Wang, 2015, p.11). Besides, each country requires special skills of the investor to study the demands of the residents to produce goods and services (Vrontis and Sharp, 2013, p. 289). Coca-Cola has to find out the various strategies to employ in each nation to ensure penetration and success of its products in the market (Yuvaraju, Subramanyam and Rao, 2014, p. 122). Secondary searches on the internet will be helpful in finding the competitive advantages of the company in addition to other relevant data on the topic of the study.

Moreover, questionnaires and surveys will be used to gather information from the various employees of Coca-Cola and the managers at different levels (Cokins, 2013, pp. 20). The methods of data collection are useful since they make it easier to analyze the gathered data quantitatively through assigning the numerical values (GOODWIN and GOODWIN, 2016, p. 384). Also, the results got from the methods are generally easier to analyze using the qualitative techniques and it is convenient to analyze and compare the posttests and pretests thus saving time (Booth, 2015, p. 19-20)

. Furthermore, through interviews conducted over the phone or in person, more detailed information will be given by the respondents who would help in understanding the dynamics of Coca-Cola.

1.3 Plan of the research

There are nine crucial stages of the research project. The introduction is the first step where the subject of the research is chosen mostly during the first and a half second week of the term. For the next three days, I will consider looking into the outline and the research proposal (Posch, 2017, p. 321). Also, at the same time, I will consider the research questions which will guide my project to completion. Next. I will carry out data collection concerning the topic of the research in addition to carrying out the literature review of the subject under research. In this stage, it will be prudent to look into the previous studies that have been conducted to shed light on the issue under research. In the effort of analyzing and collecting qualitative and quantitative research, I will give the employees of Coca-Cola and the management the survey of their marketing strategies. Protection of the privacy of the respondents will be of paramount importance. Therefore, the survey will be anonymous in nature and the various phone or personal interviews will not be recorded. After conducting the survey, the next two days will be spent in collecting and analyzing the survey data. Finally, the research report will be written based on the information gathered from the surveys and literature reviewed from the third and the final stages of the entire report. The report feedback will be requested from the tutor after finishing and subsequent submission, to give room for correction of mistakes.

April May June

Introduction

18/04-5/05

Research proposal

06/05-08/05

Literature review

09/05-16/05

Create questionnaires

30/04-01/05

Questionnaires

02-05-05/05

Data collection and analysis

06/05-07/05

Writing research report

8/5-14/5

Editing research report

15/5-16/5

Presentation

15/05-18/05

1.4 Structure of the report

This research project has five chapters, appendices, and references. Chapter 1 is the introduction and covers motivation, research questions, and research plan concerning the strategies making Coca-Cola be successful during the next ten years. The second chapter will explain the related works about the strategies set out by Coca-Cola to be successful in the next decade. The third chapter entails the methodology of the research project such as interview and questionnaire. In the fourth chapter, the results from the interview and the questionnaire will be analyzed using the SPSS software. Usually, both qualitative and quantitative research are covered in chapter four. In the fifth chapter, the research recommendations and questionnaires will be discussed.

References

Aaker, D. and Moorman, C. (2014). Strategic market management (pp. 107-110).

Abdullah Saif, N. (2015). How does Marketing Strategy Influence Firm Performance? Implementation of Marketing Strategy for Firm Success. International Journal Of Innovation And Economic Development, 1(3), pp.7-15.

Ammari, N. and Jaziri, E. (2016). How Co-creating Enhances the Quality of a Brand-consumer Relationship, using the U&G Approach: The Coca-Cola Case. Journal of Marketing Research and Case Studies, pp.1-17.

Belloc, H. (2014). Success of a business (pp. 450-451). Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press.

Booth, W. (2015). A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations (pp. 29-30).

Bullas, J. (2014). An employee‐management consensus approach to continuous improvement in safety management. Employee Relations, 21(4), pp.405-418.

Chen, S. (2013). Strategic management of e-business. Chichester [u.a.] (pp. 20-29): Wiley.

Cleland, D. (2015). Strategic management of teams (pp. 450-500). New York: Wiley.

Cokins, G. (2013). Strategic business management (pp. 19-30).

Crawford, C. (2016). Strategies for new product development. Business Horizons, 15(6), pp.49-58.

Employer-Employee Relationship In Co-Operation. (2012). Indian Journal of Applied Research, 1(11), pp.42-43.

Eshun, J. (2016). Business incubation as strategy. Business Strategy Series, 10(3), pp.156-166.

GOODWIN, L. and GOODWIN, W. (2016). Qualitative Vs. Quantitative Research or Qualitative and Quantitative Research?. Nursing Research, 33(6), pp.378???384.

Marren, P. (2014). High‐functioning business strategy. Journal of Business Strategy, 28(6), pp.37-39.

Mayer, J. (2016). The Coca-Cola Center for Marketing Studies: A Model for Marketing Research and Education. SSRN Electronic Journal, pp. 204-234

Mokhov, V. and Ryabukhin, M. (2018). Sustainable development program «COCA-COLA HBC RUSSIA». Investment and innovation management journal, (4), pp.68-72.

Mubayi, S. (2012). Alexandra Chreiteh, Always Coca-Cola [Dāʾiman Coca-Cola]. Trans. Michelle Hartman. Northampton, MA: Interlink Books, 2012. Pp. 121. Journal of Arabic Literature, 43(2-3), pp.540-542.

Pettigrew, A. (2016). The management of strategic change. Oxford: Blackwell (pp. 49-50).

Posch, A. (2017). Book Review: Embedded Case Study Methods: Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative KnowledgeEmbedded Case Study Methods: Integrating quantitative and qualitative knowledgeScholzRoland W. & TietjeOlaf, 2002Thousand Oaks: Sage. European Educational Research Journal, 4(3), pp.321-323.

Strohhecker, J. and Größler, A. (2014). Implementing Sustainable Business Strategies. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 29(6), pp.547-570.

Ted Prince, E. (2013). Research & Development. Journal of Business Strategy, 14(5), pp.16-17.

Veale, D. (2015). Mentoring and coaching as part of a human resource development strategy: an example at Coca‐Cola Foods. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 17(3), pp.16-20.

Vrontis, D. and Sharp, I. (2013). The Strategic Positioning of Coca-Cola in their Global Marketing Operation. The Marketing Review, 3(3), pp.289-309.

Wang, M. (2015). Brief Analysis of Sports Marketing Strategy Adopted by Coca Cola Company. Asian Social Science, 11(23).

Yuvaraju, D., Subramanyam, D. and Rao, P. (2014). Advertising Strategy of Coca-Cola at Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt.Ltd. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 16(6), pp.122-131.