Coca Colas Strategic Choices

Coca Colas Strategic Choices Strategic choices are concerned with decisions about an organisations future and the way in which it has to respond to the myriad of pressures and influences as a result of its immediate and macro environment. To this end there are three basic choices to be made as shown below. Methods for pursuing strategies The choices about how strategies are to be pursued Strategy directions The choices of products and markets available to an organisation Bases of competitive Strategy The choices as to how an organisation positions itself in relation to competitors Bases of competitive Strategy directions Methods for pursuing Strategy strategies Source: Adapted from Johnson, Scholes and Whittington; exploring corporate strategy 2008: pp217. Bases of competitive strategy This area has to do with how Coca-Cola has positioned itself in relation to its competitors. The Coca-Cola Company competes in the non-alcoholic beverages segment of the commercial beverages industry. The non-alcoholic beverages segment of the commercial beverages industry is highly competitive, consisting of numerous firms. These include firms that, like Coca-Cola, compete in multiple geographic areas, as well as firms that are primarily regional or local in operation. Competitive products include numerous non-alcoholic sparkling beverages; various water products, including packaged, flavoured and enhanced waters; juices and nectars; fruit drinks and dilutables (including syrups and powdered drinks); coffees and teas; energy and sports and other performance-enhancing drinks; dairy-based drinks; functional beverages; and various other non-alcoholic beverages. These competitive beverages are sold to consumers in both ready-to-drink and other than ready-to-drink form. In many of the co untries in which Coca-Cola does business, including the United States, PepsiCo. Inc. is one of its primary competitors. Other significant competitors include, Nestl ´e, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc., Groupe Danone, Kraft Foods Inc, and Unilever etc. In certain markets, its competition includes beer companies. Coca-Cola also competes against numerous regional and local firms and, in some markets, against retailers that have developed their own store or private label beverage brands. The strategy clock: competitive strategy options High Differentiation 2 4 Hybrid 5 Focussed differentiation 3 Perceived Product/ Service 2 Low price 6 7 1 No frills Strategies destined for failure 8 Low High Low Price Source: Adapted from Johnson, Scholes and Wittington; exploring corporate strategy. 2008; pp 225 The strategy clock above represents different positions in a market where customers or potential customers have different requirement in terms of value for money. Coca-Cola has therefore taken the strategy option of hybrid, in which case it maintains its price but tries to differentiate itself from competitors. The Company has had a mix of pricing, advertising, sales promotion programs, product innovation, increased efficiency in production techniques, the introduction of new packaging, new vending and dispensing equipment, and brand and trademark development and protection. In this regard Coca-Cola has increased its annual marketing budget substantially, launched many new products, and developed a model to help its retail customers maximize their sales while it continue to plan for the future. The risk of this choice is that one could lose market share due to its low prices but then it can be tackled through economies of scale where the company produces in large quantities to cover cost and tries to penetrate different geographies as is the case of Coca-Cola. This choice has actually proved beneficial to Coca-Cola even though its market share has not grown tremendously as one would think over the last ten years but it definitely has a much higher market share than its competitors, especially Pepsi Co. This has been possible for Coca-Cola due to its recognised brand name and strong presence in so many geographies including Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America and the Pacific spanning across 200 countries. Strategy direction This has to do with the scope of a company in terms of its products. Over the last few years Coca-Cola has introduced a lot of products to its portfolio, including the recent Coca-Cola zero, which sold more than 600 million cases globally. Today Coca-Cola does not only deal in non-alcoholic soft drinks, but it also makes a lot of juices and juice drinks, still and carbonated products. As a matter of fact Coca-Cola has more than 3,300 products in more than 200 countries. In general one can rightly say that Coca-Cola has gone into diversification since it has not only shifted from soft drink to juices and even energy drinks but has also ventured and penetrated larger market over the years. Diversification is simply a strategy that takes the organisation away from both its existing market and its existing products. We have therefore used the Ansoff matrix below to identify the strategy direction which Coca-Cola is taking Box D, which is diversification. The Ansoff matrix provides a simp lified way of generating four basic alternative directions for strategic development. Strategic directions (Ansoff matrix) Products Existing New A B Market penetration Product development Consolidation C D Market development Diversification Existing Markets New Source: Adapted from Johnson, Scholes and Wittington; exploring corporate strategy. 2008; pp258 Diversification happened to be a good strategic option for Coca-Cola as it helped the Company to break new grounds in business. For instance a new product like the Coca-Cola zero did so well in terms of sales. This therefore impacted positively on the companys market share. Again shifting from soft drinks to energy and sports drinks also gave Coca-Cola an opportunity of a larger market share. However diversification can be capital intensive as not all organisations will be able to cope with the finances involved since a lot of finances will be needed to go into research and development for the new product. For instance Pepsi-cola once came up with a new product called Meca cola but it wasnsuccessful and the product was withdrawn later on. Surely there will be a lot of laboratory works and feasibility studies to go with a new product and this will equally require skilled people getting involved and consequently hiring more employees so if the organisation does not have enough finances it may not be able to cope. Again the organisation which decides to diversify will put in place an adequate amount of public awareness in terms of advertisements and trainings. This may involve using news papers, television, internet etc. All these can be very enormous so diversification requires careful planning. Methods for pursuing strategies Most of Coca-Cola products are manufactured and sold by its bottling partners. The Company typically sell concentrates and syrups to its bottling partners, who convert them into finished packaged products which they sell to distributors and other customers. Separate contracts (Bottlers Agreements) exist between the Company and each of its bottling partners regarding the manufacture and sale of Company products. Subject to specified terms and conditions and certain variations, the Bottlers Agreements generally authorize the bottlers to prepare specified Company Trademark Beverages, to package the same in authorized containers, and to distribute and sell the same in (but, subject to applicable local law, generally only in) an identified territory. The bottler is obligated to purchase its entire requirementof concentrates or syrups for the designated Company Trademark Beverages from the Company or Company-authorized suppliers. Coca-Cola agrees to refrain from selling or distributing, or from authorizing third parties to sell or distribute, the designated Company Trademark Beverages throughout the identified territory in the particular authorized containers. The Coca-Cola Company has created and achieved a strategic lock-in such that it has achieved dominance in the industry. For instance many people will think of Coke once they think of using or taking a soft drink.

Athletic Training Education Program Essay -- Education School Athletic

Athletic Training Education Program To achieve a degree in Athletic Training, there are many tasks and skills to be learned. The Education Council under the National Athletic Training Association put together an education program filled with a set of guidelines of what has to be taught to graduate with a degree in Athletic Training. Before you can learn and understand Athletic Training, you must know the Anatomy and Physiology of the human body. This includes bones, muscles, levels of organization, tissue levels, systems of the body, skeletal structure, articulations, integrative functions, sensory function, blood, and embryology (Martini, 2001). Besides Anatomy and Physiology, the methods of taping is also extremely critical to this career. Before you can understand what each taping techniques are used for, you must also know about sports injuries. Athletic Training is all about the prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and evaluation of athletic injuries. Another skill that must be learned in the Athletic Trai ning Education Program is how to provide immediate emergency care. That includes everything from background information to actually being able to save an athlete’s or any one else’s life. You must be aware of legal considerations, how and when to approach a victim, the human body systems, examining the victim, basic life support, bleeding and shock, identifying wounds, sudden illnesses, injuries, and how to care for them; also you must be aware of cold and heat related injuries, and how to rescue and move victims (Thygerson, 2001). Other information to be learned includes nutrition, health, and professional development. There are several other topics of Athletic Training; however, there are just to many to s... ...from http://www.doh.state.fl.us/mqa/athtrain/at_ceu.html Hansen, PJ. (2001). The Preferred Learning Styles of Student Athletic Trainers and Certified Athletic Trainers in NATA District IV and DistrictV. Journal of Athletic Training, 36 (2), 45. Retrieved March 7, 2003, from www.journalofathletictraining.org/jatsupplement/athletic.htm Martini, F. (2001). Fundamentals of Anatomy & Physiology. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. NATA Education Council Continuing Education Committee. (2003). Retrieved March 7, 2003, from http://www.csuchico.edu/~sbarker/CEC/index.html Pitney, W. (1998). Continuing Education in Athletic Training: An Alternative Approach Based on Adult learning. Journal of Athletic Training, 33 (1), 72. Retrieved March 6, 2003, from Academic Search/ EBSCO database. Thygerson, A. (2001). First Aid and CPR. Massachusetts: Jones and Bartlett.

Coca-Cola vs Pepsi

Coca Cola and Pepsi are the two most popular and widely recognized beverage brands in the United States. Pepsi and Coca Cola contrast each other on their taste, its associated colors and themes, and ingredients. Coca-Cola and Pepsi differentiate in more ways than one. Coca-Cola has more of a coke flavor taste. It is fizzier than that of Pepsi. It is smoother going down, and after about six hours it changes flavor and becomes more watery and bitter. When you drink it doesn’t feel as hard on your teeth as Pepsi.Pepsi on the other hand has a sweeter taste than that of Coca Cola due to the addition of artificial sweeteners and leaves a mild chemical taste after you drink it. When drinking Pepsi compared to Coca Cola, Pepsi tends to have a more â€Å"fruity† taste to it. Additionally when drinking Pepsi the bubbles maintain all the way down your throat. If left sitting out for six hours Pepsi becomes stronger in flavor. By way of color, Coca-Cola is red, a warmer color and P epsi is blue, a cooler color. The color trademarks indicate the particular culture about the product.Coca-Cola openly uses themes involving family, love, Christmas, and hospitality because they suggest warmness. As a matter of fact, it has found its way through holidays particularly valentine’s days, national and patriotic holidays and sports. Even white bears were used to advertise the product! This is the usual theme commonly used for Coca-Cola. For Pepsi, since it started later than the Coca-Cola, they had to think of a better way to distinguish itself from then popular brand, and the best choice was blue.As a result, from starting out with the opposite color, they had to continue with everything else about Coca-Cola. Blue became the basic theme of Pepsi. Unlike Coca-Cola, everything in the Pepsi website indicated the cooler color. On the Pepsi website they claim that everything is blue and new! The modern trend has been what Pepsi uses to target teenagers. Coca-Cola and P epsi have a lot of the same ingredients. Although Coca-Cola claims they do not have sugars in their soda so the sugar must come from the other ingredients.Coca-Cola contains carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, Phosphoric Acid, Caffeine, and Natural Flavoring. Pepsi contains carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, phosphoric acid, caffeine, citrus acid, sugar and natural flavoring. The difference in ingredients of Coca-Cola and Pepsi is the amount of sugar, citrus acid, and amount of caffeine. In conclusion to the taste of the two sodas, their colors, themes, and ingredients Coca-Cola and Pepsi are comparable in many other ways than that mentioned!

Economic Research On Trade Deficit - 842 Words

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An economic measure of a negative balance of trade in which a country ’s imports exceeds its exports is a form of trade deficit. A trade deficit represents a large amount of money of domestic currency to foreign markets. When breaking down trade deficit, the economic theory represents that a trade deficit is not necessarily a bad situation because it can often be corrected over time. However, some economists are worried that trade deficit has been reported and growing in the U.S for the past few decades. This means thatShow MoreRelatedEssay on The J-Curve Phenomenon in Jamaica: Fact or Fiction?950 Words   |  4 Pagesinfluence that the increasing exchange rate has on the trade balance deficit in developing countries. This paper contributes to the literature by investigating and testing whether the J-curve phenomenon exists in Jamaica. 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