Coca-Cola Company Analysis

The article includes a preliminary analysis of the corporate website for the Coca-Cola company. The company, a typical American multinational beverage conglomerate with its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, promotes, retails, and produces syrups and concentrates for nonalcoholic beverages. The company is well known for Coco-Cola, which serves as both its flagship product and brand. Upon first inspection, the company's website was found to have excellent features that allow the business to optimize its online exposure. The website presents the business as a forward-thinking, professional one thanks to its attractive design, which encourages readers to explore the different links offered. Notably, the search engine is visibility of the website is ranked and thus making it easier to use. The design is also the user experience that motivates them to stick around the site since it is easy to understand the various components and the navigation architecture is built in a logical way and in a hierarchy that makes sense to the web user. Remarkably there are minimal silos in the website that could get the user lost, and thus the navigation is as shallow as possible, and the dropdowns, buttons, and other items in the site are put in logical locations where the user can easily find them.

Additionally, the website of the company is well optimized to enhance search purposes. Therefore, through the investigation engine optimization, the site can earn traffic and the contents, and the keywords are developed to align themselves with the terminologies that users want to find. Also, the website is optimized for mobile visitors. With the advancement in technology, browsing is not a reserve for desktop users, and thus the company has ensured that it has used the responsive website design that optimizes search for various devices used by the user to access information in the website. Also, there are social sharing features in the website and enable customers to share the content of the site with their networks in the effort of growing the presence in the company in content marketing (Sundar, 2012). The business locations of the group are indicated in the website and give a guideline on how the user can access the goods and services of the firm in the various parts of the world where the company operates. Facilitation of the business locations is done through a ‘contact us’ page and through a persistent address in both the headers and the footer of the website. Finally, the site has minimal extraneous information and media that could make the speed for loading the pages slowly.

The corporation has vision, mission, and goals that are aimed at improving the competitive strategy, branding, and marketing. Therefore, the roadmap to the profitability of the company starts with an enduring mission that helps the management to weigh their decisions and actions. Creating a difference and value, refreshing the globe, and offering inspiring moments of happiness and optimism are some the issues that are entailed in the mission of the corporation (Hartogh, 2016). The framework for the roadmap that guides every investment decision made by the company is provided by the vision with the aim of achieving a continuous quality and sustainable growth (Foster, 2014). Therefore, the idea of the firm aims at providing an environment where people can work and be inspired to reach their level best and build a portfolio that satisfies the needs and the desires of the people. Also, the company visions to create partners that have an enduring and a mutual value and providing a thriving network of suppliers and customers.

Furthermore, the company envisions a world where there are responsible citizens and supports sustainable societies and maximizes the profits of the stakeholders and being mindful of their overall responsibilities. It is within the culture of the company to increase its productivity and cultivate behaviors and attitudes among the employees that would ensure that the long-term vision of Coca-Cola is achieved (Wang, 2015). Notably, quality, diversity, passion, accountability, integrity, collaboration, and leadership are some of the values that define the actions and behavior of the company around the globe. The focus on the market is a crucial aspect of the corporation especially the need of the customers, consumers, and other business partners in addition to listening, observing, and learning of the needs of the market. Coca-Cola has a smart work policy that enables the employees to work with urgency and remain responsive to changes in addition to having the courage to change the way of doing things if demanded by the market. Therefore, as a brand, the company inspires fun, optimism, passion, and creativity.

Globalization being the exclusion of the geographical boundaries when conducting business, the company has taken measures to ensure that it operates internationally. Coca-Cola has adopted information and communication technologies that have helped the firm to work globally. In the effort of efficiently dealing with the worldwide competition, the company has a strong marketing presence that bars new entrants in the soft drink industry. There are only handful competitors in the industry including Pepsi, and Coca-Cola can strike intimate relationships with the retailers to defend their products through various tactics such as discounting (Hartogh, 2016). Therefore, it is difficult for other players to enter the industry as there is the need to overcome the high marketing muscles of the company created by its established brand name that has existed for an extended period. In the effort of ensuring its sustainability in the market, the company does not allow its bottlers to handle any other competitive brands that might bring the conflict of interest.

The corporate social responsibility of the company promotes the vision of the firm in the effort of enhancing accountability of the full range of stakeholders that include the shareholders and other investors in the business. Protecting the welfare of the workers, society, and that of the environment are the key aspects of the corporate social responsibility of Coca-Cola (Sundar, 2012). The management of the firm is aware that they cannot operate in isolation as an economic entity disregarding the society and thus it has exploited all the available variables of the corporate social responsibility. Moreover, the management of the company does not apply any dishonest means of increasing profitability but ensures that it contributes to the prosperity of the society. The code of ethics of both the employees and the management is appropriately developed and executed, and the proper conduct of business is communicated to all the partners involved in the distribution chain of the company products. Besides, Coca-Cola has adopted practices such as taking part in charitable contributions and rolling out employee volunteer programs that are aimed to boost the relations of the company with the society (Hartogh, 2016). The expectations from the corporate social responsibility policy of Coca-Cola are that it will take care of the working surroundings of the employees and be environmentally conscious. The tangibility of the company policies is evident in the competitive advantage the firm has over rival businesses in the market. The organization has substantial financial and technological resources that boost its competitive edge. The company is leading in addressing the global issues that touch on workplace and human rights as stipulated by the United Nations and the International Labor Organization and holds they cannot be violated.

According to a recent annual financial report of the company, after accounting for the fixed and variable costs, the revenue percentage that represents the profit margin was at 15.94% (Hartogh, 2016). For the last five years, the company has been having a positive trend in its profitability and the gross profit indicates that the company has an efficient management that uses the supplies and labor in the process of production. The conclusion that can be drawn from the financial statements is that Coca-Cola is on the right track and despite the many challenges it faces in some countries such as resistance and boycott of its products, the company has tried to maintain a positive growth in its profitability through reinventing its soft drinks all over the world.

Various strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats face the company and mainly affect its profitability. One of the major powers of the firm is that it has a brand value of more than $77,839 billion and thus it has a competitive advantage in the market as compared to rival brands such as Pepsi (Hartogh, 2016). Also, the company is one the most significant beverage business in the world and that it has a broader market base. Remarkably, the organization has spread its wings in more than two hundred countries in the world and thus increasing its profitability. Additionally, the company has a strong advertising and marketing strategies that enable it to always be ahead of the rest of other business in the soft drink industry. However, the firm has significant weaknesses that affect its growth and profitability margins. Firstly, the organization overlies on carbonated drinks and thus lacks diversification (Hartogh, 2016). Therefore, if customers can boycott its products, the company has no alternative goods and services to offer. Conspicuously, in some countries, the business has suffered negative publicity where citizenry and the government have raised concerns over the health problems of the carbonated soft drinks offered by the company. As a result, the management has been denied chances to operate in those regions. One of the most excellent opportunities of Coca-Cola is the recent growth of beverage consumption in the world.

Due to its constant product promotion as the leading brand to quench thirst in different situations, there is increased consumption of the brand’s products all over the world. Also, the company there is an increasing demand of bottled water in the world, and thus the organization can take advantage of the growth and that of the reduced cost of production materials in the states where the firm bottlers operate. Also, the company is faced with the threats of a user demand change for other drinks and brands provided by the competitor businesses. Mainly, there is increased struggle in the industry of the carbonated beverages, and thus Coca-Cola has to be innovative to stay in business (Hartogh, 2016). Finally, there are local brands of drinks in the different countries that they operate, and they provide stiff competition with the company products in the market. Given the vision, mission, and the strategic plan of the firm, Coca-Cola has the potential to fulfill its diplomatic purposes while increasing the profit margins. Their supply of soft drinks in the market has remained constant over the years and thus boosting customer royalty resulting in an ever-increasing consumer base and profit margins.

To sum it up, Coca-Cola has a well-designed webpage that is user-friendly and allows one to navigate without difficulty. The information contained in the site is authentic and provides a clear set of products offered by the company and the specific locations and countries that the firm is in operation. The heavy product promotion that that organization has invested in has helped to create awareness of the brand in many countries in the world. The corporate social responsibility of the firm helps the business to bond with the environment and ensure a mutual relationship between the customer and the company. The profit margins suggested by the various chief executive officer of Coca-Cola indicate it is a worthy investment that has created employment opportunities for many people worldwide.

References

Foster, R. (2014). Corporations as Partners: “Connected Capitalism” and The Coca-Cola Company. Polar: Political And Legal Anthropology Review, 37(2), 246-258. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/plar.12073

Hartogh, M. (2016). It's Still the Real Thing: A Profile of the Coca Cola Company. SSRN Electronic Journal. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1030577

Sundar, D. (2012). Unleashing the Entrepreneurial Potential of Women:initiative of Coca Cola Company. Global Journal For Research Analysis, 3(8), 1-3. http://dx.doi.org/10.15373/22778160/august2014/175

Wang, M. (2015). Brief Analysis of Sports Marketing Strategy Adopted by Coca Cola Company. Asian Social Science, 11(23). http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ass.v11n23p22