IILM Institute for Higher Education

BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID PROJECT COCA COLA INDIA SUBMITTED TO

Mrs. Tulika Kiran

Of Master of Business Admiration (M.B.A) By Nandini Sharma Pratibha Jain Vishwadeep Bhatnagar
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Company History
The Coca-Cola Company is a beverage retailer, manufacturer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. The Coca-Cola Company exists to benefit and refresh everyone it touches. Coca-Cola, the product that has given the world its best- known taste was born in Atlanta, Georgia on May 8, 1886. Coca-Cola Company is the worlds leading manufacturer, Marketer and distributor of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, used to produce nearly 400 beverage brands. The corporate headquarters are in Atlanta, with local operations in over 200 countries around the world. The Coca-Cola Company began building its global network in the 1920s.Coca-Cola system has successfully applied a formula on a global scale Provide a moment of refreshment for small amount of money a billion times a day. Coca-Cola was doing successfully in India as a leading soft drink brand until 1977. But after a 16-year absence, Coca-Cola Company re-entered in the Indian market through its wholly owned subsidiary, Coca-Cola India Private Limited and re-launched Coca-Cola in 1993. Since then its operations have grown rapidly through a model that supports bottling operations, both company owned as well as locally owned and includes over 7,000 Indian distributors and more than 1.3 million retailers. Today, Coca Cola have all leading brands in most beverage segments. The Coca-Cola Companys brands in India include Coca-Cola, Fanta Orange, Fanta Apple, Limca, Sprite, Thums Up, Burn, Kinley, Maaza, Maaza Milky Delite, Minute Maid Pulpy Orange, Minute Maid Nimbu Fresh and Nestea Iced tea, the Georgia Gold range of teas and coffees and Vitingo (a beverage fortified with micro-nutrients. As a Company, their products are an integral part of the micro economy particularly in small towns and villages, contributing to creation of jobs and growth in GDP. Coca-Cola in India is amongst the largest domestic buyers of certain agricultural products.

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The Coca-Cola Company has always placed high value on good citizenship. Their basic proposition entails that our Companys business should refresh the market; enrich the workplace; protect and preserve the environment; and strengthen the community. They leverage our unique strengths to actively support and respond to local needs -- be it the need for education, health, water or nutrition. We have used our distribution network for disaster relief, our marketing prowess to raise awareness on issues such as PET recycling, and our presence in communities to improve access to education and potable water. The Coca-Cola India Foundation is now taking forward in the community at large, projects and programs of social relevance to carry forward the message of inclusive growth and development. Coca-Cola was the first commercial sponsor of the Olympic games, at the 1928 games in Amsterdam, and has been an Olympics sponsor ever since. Special aluminum bottle designed exclusively for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games Torch Relay. Since 1978, CocaCola has sponsored each FIFA World Cup, and other competitions organized by FIFA. In fact, one FIFA tournament trophy, was once called "FIFA Coca Cola Cup". Coca-Cola India is spending a lot of time and money on its rural outreach programme with emphasis on expansion of its consumer base in the rural areas. This will naturally give a boost to overall consumption. Coca-Cola has renewed its focus on the rural market in India and believes there is huge opportunity with vast growth potential in these markets. Coke is targeting small towns (tier II and III towns like Agra, Bilaspur and Lucknow) and rural markets in India.

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Objective of setting up of company

The aim and objective of Coca-Cola Enterprises is to be the best beverage sales and customer Service Company. For them 'best' means being the number one or second brand in every category in which they compete, being their customers most valued supplier and establishing a winning and inclusive culture. Coca-Cola's strategy recognizes that the well-being of communities is inextricably linked to the well-being of the business environment. A healthy business climate cannot co-exist for long with an ailing social environment. Strengthening both is therefore a goal of Coca-Cola's corporate philanthropy.

The key Drivers of the Business

There are many factors which are considered as the key drivers of sustainability growth of Coca Cola They offer huge variety of beverage for every lifestyle, life stage, and occasion based on individuals need. They want to quench every thirst of people while providing quality on which consumer can trust. They support people to lead active and healthy life by providing wide variety of beverages, Providing nutrition information and health education. They are the leader of beverage industry. They are growing also taking care of environment and climate. The packaging of products is the key factor of growth of a product. They are creating value at every stage of packaging lifecycle, through efforts to reduce, recover, and reuse. They provide a healthy and safe place to work .they have an environment where people are inspired to create superior results.

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Products of Coca cola

The coca cola provide wide a wide variety of products to the customers including beverages, fruit, and juices and bottled mineral water.

Coca-Cola
Brand Name: Coca-Cola

Drink Type: Soft Drink Coca Cola Coca-Cola: Coca-Cola is the most popular and biggest selling Soft drink in history, as well as the best-known product in the World.

Fanta
Brand Name: Fanta

Drink Type: Soft Drink

Fanta: Available in Europe since the 1940s, Fanta was introduced in the United States in 1960. Consumers around the world, particularly teens, fondly associate Fanta with happiness and special times with friends and family. This positive imagery is driven by the brand's fun, playful personality, which goes hand in hand with its bright color, bold fruit taste and tingly carbonation. Fanta

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 Limca
Brand Name: Limca Drink Type: Soft Drink Limca: This thirst-quenching beverage features a fresh, light lemonlime taste and fun-loving attitude. It's a home-grown, national treasure in India, where it was acquired by The Coca-Cola Company in 1993. Limca continues to build a loyal following among young adults who love the lighthearted way it complements the best moments of their lives. Limca

Sprite
Brand Name: Sprite Drink Type: Soft Drink Sprite: Introduced in 1961, Sprite is the world's leading lemon-lime flavored soft drink. Sprite is sold in more than 190 countries and ranks as the No. 4 soft drink worldwide, with a strong appeal to young people. Millions of people enjoy Sprite because of its crisp, clean taste that really quenches your thirst. But Sprite also has an honest, straightforward attitude that sets it apart from other soft drinks. Sprite encourages you to be true to who you are and to obey your thirst. Sprite

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 Maaza
Brand Name: Maaza Drink Type: Juice/Juice Drink Maaza: With the real fruit taste kids love, plus added calcium, Maaza's tagline, "Yaari-DostiTaazaMaaza," means "friendship moments with fresh Maaza" in Hindi. Available in the following flavors: Mango, Orange Maaza

Kinley soda
Brand Name: Kinley Soda Drink Type: soda Kinley soda: It is launched in 2002 .It is the no. 1 soda brand in India.

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The Target Audience

In general, beverages are for all consumers. Coca-Cola is the beverage that provides refreshment for the mind, body and spirit because only ice-cold Coca-Cola makes the moment more special by combining the unique Coca-Cola sensation with whats real and genuine, providing a source of enjoyment in everyday life. Coca cola servers its products using mass marketing technique, which obviously falls in undifferentiated marketing, and undifferentiated marketing means no segmentation, but there are minor factors on which we can say that the coke segments its products and then targets the customers somehow. These factors are as follows: Age:

The target market for the Coca Cola is based on age. The target audience of Coca Cola is youngster or youth. It is a wide range for targeting. It ranges from the age of 15-25 and also reaches to 40 plus, as they are serving this age group also. Their targeting not based on gender but the results also show that both genders like this product and use it. Family type:

Coke introduces its economy pack, and thats how they focus family and groups. Income:

Coke segments different income levels by packaging. Like for small income people it has small returnable glass bottle, for middle people it has non returnable bottle and for higher income people it has coke tin. Occasions:

By providing different schemes and offers on the special occasions like fair, festivals. Benefits Sought: Sometimes, for the promotion strategy of coke, they introduce prizes in the top cover. So they segment people by benefit sought, i.e. by giving them prizes
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Marketing challenges faced by Coca Cola

Underdeveloped People and Underdeveloped Markets
The number of people below poverty line has not decreased in any appreciable manner. Thus underdeveloped people and consequently underdeveloped market by and large characterize the rural markets. Vast majorities of the rural people are tradition bound, fatalistic and believe in old customs, traditions, habits, taboos and practices.

Lack of Proper Physical Communication Facilities:

Nearly fifty percent of the villages in the country do not have all weather roads. Physical communication of these villages is highly expensive. Even today most villages in the eastern parts of the country are inaccessible during the monsoon.

Media for Rural Communication:

Among the mass media at some point of time in the late 50s and 60s radio was considered to be a potential medium for communication to the rural people. Another mass media is television and cinemas. Statistics indicate that the rural areas account for hardly 2000 to 3500 mobile theatres, which is far less when compared to the number of villages.

Many Languages and Dialects:

The number of languages and dialects vary widely from state to state, region to region and probably from district to district. The messages have to be delivered in the local languages and dialects. Even though the number of recognized languages are only 16, the dialects are estimated to be around 850

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Dispersed Market:

Rural areas are scattered and it is next to impossible to ensure the availability of a brand all over the country. Seven Indian states account for 76% of the countrys rural retail outlets, the total number of which is placed at around 3.7 million. Advertising in such a highly heterogeneous market, which is widely spread, is very expensive.

Low Levels of Literacy:

The literacy rate is low in rural areas as compared to urban areas. This again leads to problem of communication for promotion purposes. Print medium becomes ineffective and to an extent irrelevant in rural areas since its reach is poor and so is the level of literacy.

Prevalence of spurious brands and seasonal demand:

For any branded product there are a multitude of local variants, which are cheaper, and, therefore, more desirable to villagers.

Different way of thinking:

There is a vast difference in the lifestyles of the people. The kind of choices of brands that an urban customer enjoys is different from the choices available to the rural customer. The rural customer usually has 2 or 3 brands to choose from whereas the urban one has multiple choices. The difference is also in the way of thinking. The rural customer has a fairly simple thinking as compared to the urban counterpart.

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Quick Learnings- Coca Cola and it paradigm shift toward Rural Awareness
Coca-Cola India as an organization is currently spending a lot of resources in terms of time, money and labour on its rural outreach programme with an effective objective of aiming all the heights of extending the consumer base in the rural areas. The beverage giant is planning to unfold a series of region-specific campaigns and is using every possible strategy to woo potential customers. Awareness is what has been truly identified by Coca Cola to hit on to the minds of not only towards the urban market, but also towards the rural domain. The soft drinks major is planning to close 2011 with a consumer base of more than 30 crore for carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) and an additional 40 crore for its soft drinks concentrates (SDCs). Coca-Cola officials said that the targeted a huge market base for almost 30 crore consumer base and would be hopefully successful enough to spread the products including Thumbs Up, Sprite, Fanta, Limca and Coca-Cola. The company had a consumer base of 24 crore during 2011. Coca-Cola is fortifying its rural marketing to build on its consumer base. According to the Coke official, per capita consumption of CSDs in rural India is as low as 3, while overall it is 10. To fuel its rural penetration drive, the company has recently cut down prices significantly. The company is also planning to expand its retail network by 24 per cent taking the figure to 10,24,000 outlets by end-2012. Along with the mentioned marketing challenges Coca Cola has not winded themselves up from the fact of approaching with that same target rather they have formulated some attractive practices and methodologies so as to promote the awareness amongst the consumers. They have formulated some innovative strategies so as to be the defeated holder for the entire Indian market. With slowdown in developed markets, companies like Coca-Cola are looking at emerging markets like India and China for grow Coca-Cola claims that till date, it has covered 1,70,000 villages in India. The company hopes to cover another 40,000 villages by the end of 2011.

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Suggestions and Recommendation

The Coca-Cola Company (Coke), the worlds largest non-alcoholic beverage company can be surely provided with some innovative strategies and recommendation which when formulated can yield a lot of strategically developed and renewed focus on semi-urban and rural markets in India. Targeting rural India with innovative ways of projecting market focus - The soft drink consumption market in India is mainly concentrated in urban cities. Even, market research data suggests that consumers in urban cities spend ten times more than consumers in semi-urban and rural markets. However, Coca-Cola should focus on the rural market in India and start believing that there is huge opportunity with vast growth potential in these markets. The company should formulate some methodologies in order to promote training programs for small Shop owners (traditional retailers) where training should be given on displaying and stocking products well. The goal of the innovative training program would be to provide traditional Indian retailers with the skills, tools and techniques required to succeed in a constantly changing retail scenario. Presentations (including audio/visual technology) in local Hindi language would help small retailers to better understand the concepts involved. Each retailer would also receive a Coca-Cola Certified Retailer certificate at the conclusion of the program. This would further enhance ways for the company to penetrate into the market better. Coca Cola should formulate some practices related towards making the consumers prevailing in that domain for adapting themselves to local culture and taste. Another prevailing aspect which would surely promise the company a stabilized platform for this particular market would to flood the market well with all the latest schemes and facilities (Coupons, prize and sample product) along with a bottle which would surely arouse interest in the minds of the customers and would initiate them to try out the product for those who are the first-timers. Such kind of opportunities by providing them with some needful items would help the company take a respectable stand in the rural market.
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Implementation of Moving down from a price strategy to stepping up distribution-Coke had already targeted rural consumers by bringing down the entry price (Rs.5 a bottle) for its product. Now, it should be implementing stepped up distribution of its 200-ml (pricing at Rs.7 and Rs.8) returnable-glass-bottles

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