Aldama, Joana Morales, Nicole

Arojado, Raquel Maiquez, Jessie

Logronio, Shiela Ortiz, Sarah

II-CS2

INTRODUCTION

THE IMPACT OF COCA-COLA IN GLOBAL POPULAR CULTURE

INTRODUCTION

A global corporation, also known as a global company, is coined from the base term
‘global’, which means all around the world. It makes sense to assume that a global company is
a company that does business all over the world. There are not many companies in the world
that can boast of having a business presence in every major country. Actually, they probably
can be numbered on the fingers of both hands. The global company definition, therefore, should
be a little more lenient to accommodate this fact, which would enable more companies to call
themselves global companies. Really, a global company is any company that operates in at
least a country other than the country where it originated. Realistically, expanding to even just
one additional country is a lot of work and is therefore a great achievement. If you are operating
in one country, selling your products around the world and shipping them to customers in
countries in Europe while you are in the United States, that does not necessarily mean you are
a global company. It takes more than that to earn the name a global company. As corporations
go global, capital markets open up within them, giving companies a powerful mechanism for
arbitrage across national financial markets.(LaMarco,2018) 

The issue that is involved in global corporation is globalization of the corporate mindset
refers to a company’s ability to deal with diverse cultures. Example of this is Coca-Cola, which
was a fledgling startup in 1886. By the time of World War II, the 50-year-old company had
managed to keep its item price to 5 cents, believing that everyone should be able to enjoy the
treat. The company decided to provide its popular drink to U.S. soldiers wherever they were
stationed, still at just 5 cents.(LaMarco,2018)
 Today, people in over 200 countries enjoy not only Coke and its other regular and diet
soft drinks, like Sprite and Fanta, but over 3,800 products ranging from bottled water and iced
teas to juices, vitamin-enriched and soy-based beverages. A major reason for Coca-Cola's
success has been its strategy of looking at each market individually and providing beverages
that fit with the local culture and tastes. Sometimes that means creating new products for a
market or tweaking a beverage to be more in line with what people in that country are known
to enjoy.(Coca-Cola Australia,2019)

The Coca-Cola Company began building its global network in the 1920s. Now operating
in more than 200 countries and producing nearly 450 brands, the Coca-Cola system has
successfully applied a simple formula on a global scale: provide a moment of refreshment for a
very small amount of money -- a billion times a day.(Coca-Cola Australia,2019)

The company's global strategy during the 1980s continued to bring consumers on every
continent refreshing product for every occasion and every lifestyle. In 1982, soft-drink history
was made with the introduction of Diet Coke, the first extension of the trademarks Coca-
Cola and Coke, and the most successful new soft drink since Coca-Cola itself. Within two years,
Diet Coke had become the top low-calorie soft drink in the world.(Coca-Cola Australia,2019)

Research Questions:

1. What is the implications brought by the Coca Cola to Global popular culture?

2. How does it able to expand itself as a global corporation?

 Review of Related Literature
Founded in 1886 in Atlanta, Coca- Cola Company is the world’s leading manufacturer,
marketer and distributor of nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, used to produce
more than 230 beverage brands. It is also the world’s most inclusive brand and company. It has
already ventured regionally out of Atlanta to other states of United States since the late19th
century and its signature contour bottle was first manufactured in the early 20th century to
distinguish themselves and assuring the genuine Coca-Cola. Though the company grew rapidly
and roared into some European countries during the 1900s, its presence worldwide grew swiftly
only after World War II. Year after year, the company has been discovering new foreign markets
to bring higher profits as to fulfill its ultimate obligation to provide consistently attractive returns
to the owners of the company and to enlarge its customer base in order to achieve economic of
scale. Due to strong competition with Pepsi-Cola, Coca-Cola wants to reduce its dependence
on United States market, which is their similar domestic market, as to reduce its risk and
increase its global market share by going international. Presently, the company has already
reached six billion consumers in nearly two hundred countries. Coca-Cola Company has been
very successful in international marketing effort.

Aggressive advertising, branding and market segmentation have played an important

part in the success. It has portrayed itself as fun, playfulness, freedom, lifestyle and the
international appeal of Coca-Cola was embodied by a 1971 commercial, where a group of
young people from all over the world to a hilltop in Italy to sing “I’ll like to buy the world a Coke”.
The company has been sponsoring big events, like Olympics, Sea Games, FIFA Cup,
International Film Festivals all over the world to create awareness, credibility and to brand itself
as world-class company. It also makes big donations to organizations, charities and involvement
in the communities. These activities have aided Coca-Cola in creating a positive image and
consumers’ perception toward the company. Though the company makes the world its target
market, segmenting by diverse consumer preferences would still require to help Coca-Cola to
serve the consumers better. As different segments of different countries have various
preferences or cultures, Coca-Cola tried to expand with new flavors, brands and even reduced
the sugar contents in its Coke, to suit all the different segments. This often increases the
acceptance of new drinks that are specially designed for them. Coca-Cola entered foreign
markets in various ways. The most common modes of entry are direct exporting, licensing and
franchising. Besides beverages and their special syrups, Coca-Cola also directly exports its
merchandise to overseas distributors and companies.
 Coca-Cola is one of the most successful soft drinks company in the world. Despite all
the challenges, Coca-Cola remains a leading example of how to advertise internationally. In
fact, about ten years ago over forty percent of Coca-Cola’s market was already overseas,
specifically in Asia, but growing in others areas as well (Lieberthal & Prahalad, 1998). In India,
Coca-Cola took a fall to Pepsi, who had a more specialized marketing strategy and appealed to
Tier 2 consumers as well as the more affluent (Lieberthal & Prahalad, 1998).

The Coca-Cola Company is the largest drink company in the world, serving customers
from more than 200 countries with over 500 different brands. Although it is clear that Coca-Cola
is best known for Coca-Cola, its total range covers both sparkling and still drives and its 14-
billion-dollar portfolio include both globally known and localized brands. (The Coca Cola
Company, 2011a) As a globalized multi-national corporation, Coca-Cola also focuses with
commitment on the building of sustainability in its manufacturing plants. This is primarily done to
reduce the carbon footprint and ensure a healthy environment. (The Coca Cola Company,
2011a) “This Company is focused on initiatives that reduce our environmental footprint, support
active, healthy living, create a safe, inclusive work environment for their associates, and
enhance the economic development of the communities where they operate.” (The Coca Cola
Company, 2011a) Coca-Cola was established in 1886 by Mr. John S Pemberton and now owns
four of the largest 5 non-alcoholic brands worldwide. In December 2010 it amounted to nearly
140 thousand associates worldwide. The world penetration is such that it has been calculated
that over 1.7 billion servings per day are consumed from the Coca-Cola portfolio. This covers
more than three thousand different products ranging from juices to water to teas and coffer and
clearly to soft drinks. (The Coca Cola Company, 2011b). Currently it employs 138600 (The
Coca Cola Company, 2011c) The Coca-Cola Mission is simple but in the same time vast. It
approaches three main ideological concerts, that of refreshing the world (through higher
penetration and increasing the variety through customized and localized marketing), to inspire
“moments of optimism”, and to create value (for itself, for its shareholders and for its customers)
and to make a difference (again to all three stakeholders and also its employees) (The Coca
Cola Company, 2011a) Market Share: (Trefis, no date) The global soft drinks market is
dominated by 3 household names: Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Cadbury-Schweppes. Coca-Cola
claims 47% of the global market, compared with 21% for PepsiCo and 8% for Cadbury
Schweppes. Other major players include Cott and AmBev in Latin America This is illustrated in
table 1 below. (Vrontis & Sharp, 2003) (The Official Board, 2011) b) Produce a literature review
of a number of identified research sources for your assignment

The main topic is the multinational giant Cola-Cola Corporation, the world’s largest
beverage company serving more than 200 countries at a massive consumption rate of nearly
two billion serving per day. Several different aspects are going to be tacked from human
resource methodologies employed, to marketing challenges in particular countries, to branding
strategies and discussion on the strategic positioning in the global marketing world. The papers
used are all taken from journals also ranging in their interest such as ‘The Marketing Review’,
‘Thunderbird International Business Review’ and the ‘Corporate Communications: An
International Journal’.

In fact, the Coca Cola Company has developed bought and conglomerated more than
three thousand five hundred different drinks and has successfully or otherwise marketed and
positioned these drink, for example Coca Cola or Diet Coca Cola but a whole range of
beverages. In fact, the Coca Cola Company has developed bought and conglomerated more
than three thousand five hundred different drinks and has successfully or otherwise marketed
and positioned these drinks in the global market. (The Coca Cola Company, 2011a) Having
such a huge portfolio of products and ranging such a different spectrum of customers, cultures
and mind sets needs a very specific and energetic marketing approach both as a global
marketing strategy, narrowing down to a more focused cultural approach to specific country
particular marketing strategies. A strategy that works in one country could be irrelevant to
another. The first paper to be discussed is one which was published in 2005 in the ‘Thunderbird
International Business Review’ called ‘Coca Cola’s Marketing Challenges in Brazil: The
Tubainas War’. In this paper, the author discusses the marketing challenges of the Coca Cola
company as it combats its competitors, both its nemesis Pepsi but also hundreds of local brands
(called tubainas), some which are supported by the government through specific tax incentives,
thus effectively effecting the price. Brazil is clearly an important strategic country since it
corresponds to Coca Cola third largest operation while having a significantly low consumption
rate of only 144 bottles per day when compared with the bench mark of the US with 462 bottles
per year. To try and grow in the emergent market, Coca Cola employed many different
marketing strategies, from lowering the price of its products in 1999 (from R$1.80 to R$1.25) to
expand the number of brands in the market. They also expanded on the particular type of drink
that was more in line with the taste of the Brazilian population. In fact, focus was given to Kuat,
a particular drink flavoured with Guarana, a Brazilian Popular Amazonian fruit. In fact, the
Brazilian subsidiary planted 200 hectares of this fruit to try and win back the Brazilian market.
Eventually the ‘winning strategy’ was a mix of price positioning, changing the bottling technology
(from plastic going back to glass). To judge the effectiveness of the strategy that Coca Cola
employed in Brazil, it is relevant to see the current consumption of the drinks under the Coca
Cola umbrella. According to Coca Cola’s own figures, last year’s consumption for Brazil was
229 per capita, an increase from the 144 of 2005. This amounts to nearly 60% growth in five
years, a mammoth growth in such a small time period. Clearly more work could be done to
reach the consumption of other high consumers that hit the 675 per capita. It is interesting to
note that in Malta, the Coca Cola consumption is the second highest in the world with a
staggering 606 bottles per capita! (The Coca Cola Company, 2011d) Continuing on the
marketing aspect but now going over to the European side of the globe, more specifically to
Spain, one can appreciate the different marketing techniques employed to enter into the
Spanish market. In the paper ‘Brand communities on the internet – A Case Study of Coca-
Cola’s Spanish virtual community’, the authors Maria Sicilia and Mariola Palazon discussed the
‘technological’ approach the Coca Cola took to penetrate this market. The innovative approach
was the use of virtual communities as an alternative strategy. The paper first deals with what
are virtual communities and how they function. The data that the authors collected was from the
period September 2006 to July 2007. The paper is offers a very interesting exposition of this
virtual reality, social networking concept when seeing the growth from 2000 to 2010, the
Spanish consumption grow from 251 to 284, a growth of 13% whereby the overall European
market grow by 20% and the Worldwide market grow by 33% ! (The Coca Cola Company,
2011e) The third paper discussed in this literature review deals with the strategic positioning of
Coca Cola in their Global Marketing Operation. This means that now we are going to zoom out
from the individual country and go to the less specific. The paper written in 2003 by Demetris
Vrontis and Iain Sharp is titled ‘The Strategic Positioning of Coca-Cola in their Global Marketing
Operation’ and was published in the Marketing Review journal. This paper examines how Coca-
Colas has strategically positioned itself within the world’s softdrink marketing. The paper
focusing at the models that Coca Cola has utilized for such a ‘global take over’. This paper
explains that the Coca-Cola Company has adopted both a Differentiation and a Cost Leadership
Strategy. Differentiation for Coca-Cola is achieved through perceived superior quality product,
which surpasses their nearest rivals, and high brand image and recognition. The company has
also used their promotion and packaging as a means of further differentiation, for example, the
Coca-Cola bottle, which has become an internationally recognized symbol. (Vrontis and Sharp,
2003) These are basically the two overall methods that Coca Cola employees for its strategic
management and direction. With these measures, Coca Cola managed to diverse from its
competitors and create a product which provided a unique value to its customer. The products
generated were well incorporated into a comprehensive product portfolio which enabled world
penetration and the ability to hold on to this huge market share. It is clear that to manage a
corporation this big, involves challenges in Human Resource management which are not to be
disregarded. Specifically, in this line of literature, the next paper will discuss aspects of Human
Resource management specifically with respect to mentoring and coaching. The paper is called
‘Case Study: Mentoring and Coaching as part of a human resource development strategy: an
example at Coca-Cola Foods’. This paper, written by David J Veale and Jeffrey M Wachtel,
published in the Management Development Review in 1996 highlights the three approaches
that Coca Cola took to this aspect of training. These three approaches include the need to
strengthen the link between their business strategy and development focus, the need to involve
leadership of the organization in all aspects of development and to use of a variety of
development tools to match personal and organizational needs better. The three approaches
were employed to reach the first of the companies’ vision: ‘People: Be a great place to work
where people are inspired to be the best they can be’. (The Coca Cola Company, 2011f) This
paper explains that Coca Cola manages to use both coaching and mentoring methods
concurrently for the benefit of its employees. Coca Cola believes that both mentoring and
coaching have their own important role in the HR development effort.

In their paper ‘Strategic Lessons from the Asian Crisis’, Singh and Yip explain the main
actions taken by Coca Cola Indonesia. The companies first response was a price increase (to
increase profitability), then a change in the mix of packaging (from high cost aluminum to a
lower cost glass), to reduce manufacturing cost and increase further more the profitability.
Finally, having assured itself of a certain amount of cash (following the above actions), Coca
Cola Indonesia focused on asset buying. In fact, Coca Cola was one of the very first companies
to buy assets immediately after the Asian Crisis. Coca Cola raised its investment in its Thai
bottling plant from 5 per cent to 49 per cent, acquiring its South Korean and Philippines bottling
plants and expanded operations in India, Vietnam and other countries. (Singh and Yip, 2000).
 DISCUSSION

The implications brought by the Coca Cola corporation in global popular culture are
Coca-cola began on World war II. Simply because the soldiers in world war II represents a hero
to every country, so it have a big impact of what soldiers drink. the company has been
discovering new foreign markets to bring higher profits as to fulfill its ultimate obligation to
provide consistently attractive returns to the owners of the company and to enlarge its customer
base in order to achieve economic of scale.The company has been sponsoring big events, like
Olympics credibility and to brand itself as world-class company. It also makes big donations to
organizations, charities and involvement in the communities.

The Coca Cola Corporation expands itself as a Global Corporation by advertising,

branding and market segmentaion. They also use their power of being a leading company by
sponsoring a big events. Having a high gross income they make big donation to organization
and charities. Hill (2009), states that Pepsi is one of the top rivals for Coca-Cola. Thomas
(2007), pointed out with the help of a documentary “Dispatches” that people prefer Coca-Cola to
Pepsi mainly because of localisation and flavour. Porter (2000, cited in Hill (2009)), specified
that differentiation and low-cost are the two prime factors that help in achieving competitive
advantage in the market. According to Hill (2009) Coca-Cola focuses on creating an exclusive
product and approach differently in its brand-building process, which makes Coca-Cola stand
out amongst its rivals. Coca Cola Corporation has been successful in the global market because
it follows the local strategies and is able to deliver as per the needs of the local people (Hill,
2009). Also coca-cola adopted the standardisation strategy to produce and sell its standardised
products globally (Rodrigues, 2009). The company have an approach where in, their business
does not get influenced by the area of sales. To globalise further they also created a post of
Chief Learning Officer (CLO), who will be responsible for the global development of the
company and acquiring the human talent, while also focusing on exploiting the knowledgebase
resources that is available in the company (Rodrigues, 2009).
 The RRL stating the facts about what happened before and what are the doings of
Coca-cola corporation hat helped us to answer our research questions. The RRL clearly defined
and informed us what kind of corporation the Coca Cola is. How they manage to reach the top
by just selling beverages only.

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