Coca-Cola Business Factors Essay Example

other beverage entities to be able to diversify and expand Coca-Cola's product line "Chronicle").

Efforts were made through the 1960's-70 to market to more international markets, but were met with conflict from foreign beverage companies. Coca-Cola took a philanthropic stance to win over foreign markets. In the 1980's to 1990's new leadership sought to revise the product with new flavors, and was met with great resistance from consumers who wanted the original recipe of the product.The late 1990's, Coca Cola was hit particularly hard by the global economic crisis, as well as a massive recall of their products that effected nearly 2/3 of their sales ("International Directory). In the early 200Us the company laid-off about 30 percent of its workforce due to a new restructuring plan as well as faced several class action lawsuits for racial discrimination. In 2005 - 2011, Coca Cola continued to acquire foreign beverage companies, Including one of its largest bottlers.

Plans for the future Include new manufacturing facilities, new distribution systems, and new marketing investments in emerging economies.Coca-Cola Current Business Coca-Cola is a beverage company. According to its Business Summary, it owns or licenses and markets nonalcoholic beverage brands, primarily sparkling beverages nd a range of still beverages such as waters, enhanced waters, juices and juice drinks, ready-to-drink teas and coffees. and energy and sports drinks. Its primary 1 nonalcoholic sparkling beverage brands include Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Fanta, and Sprite.

The Coca Cola Company markets, manufactures and sells beverage concentrates and syrups, including fountain syrups, to independent bottling operations.It also distributes certain Monster brands, primarily Monster Energy beverages, and certain Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. brands, in certain territories in

the U.

S. and Canada. According to CNNMoney. com, Coca Cola is 57th on the Fortune 500 list for 2013 with $48 billion in revenues, whereas its largest competitor, Pepsico, is 43rd with $65. 4 billion in sales.

Pepsi's soft drink brands include Pepsi, Mountain Dew, and their diet alternatives. Pepsi also sells Tropicana orange Juice, Gatorade sports drink, SoBe tea, and Aquafina water.The company also owns Frito-Lay, the world's #1 snack maker with offerings such as Lay's, Ruffles, Doritos, and Cheetos. The Quaker Foods unit makes breakfast cereals (Life, Quaker oatmeal), Rice-A-Roni rice, and Near East ide dishes. Pepsi products are available in 200-plus countries; the US generates 50% of sales.

The company operates its own bottling plants and distribution facilities (Pepsi Company Profile). Coca-Cola's factors of production include natural resources, capital resources, labor/human resources, and entrepreneurs.An example of a natural resource that Coca-Cola uses is water in the production of its product. The company also uses lumber and oil for machinery and packaging.

In terms of human resources and labor, Coca-Cola has a variety of office Jobs, marketing and distribution ositions, as well as factory Jobs that deal with packaging or the making of the product. Capital resources are the machines run by the employees in the factories used to bottle and package the product. Employees also need or gain special skills to be able to do their Job every day.Coca-Cola utilizes entrepreneurship to combine each element of the factors of the production to ensure that their product is well made, advertised, and marketed effectively. Coca-Cola's Major Challenges In the last several years, Coca-Cola has had a few product recalls due to lax

quality control (Coca-Cola SWOT). The company recalled several popular Schweppes brands due to glass fragments in the bottle.

Another recent recall was due to finding small levels of chlorine in the water used to produce the product. Products, such as themed drinking glasses, were recalled because they were found to have toxins in the paint used to decorate them.Such recalls can blemish a company's image. In comparing its company profile to that of Pepsicds, Coca-Cola has an undiversified product range. Coca-Cola is still focusing only on selling beverages, which puts the firm at disadvantage. The overall need/want of soft drinks is deteriorating and Coca Cola Company will find it hard to enter into other markets (selling food or snacks).

The market for non-alcoholic commercial beverages is highly competitive nationally and globally. Because of this competition, there are price wars, which may force the company to drop their prices.Some of Coca-Cola's competitors have greater resources and may be able to adapt to changes in technology, advertise their products more effectively, and acquire client contacts for financing of expanse projects. Competition among beverage companies can pose a major challenge to the company in retaining its market share and keeping its profitability. Another concern is the health issues that surround some of their products that contain artificial sweeteners and other chemical additives.

With todays constant shift to health products, some products could possibly loose customers.The customer's focus on weight and health could be a problem for the product that is labeled harmful to your health. However, Esterl and Ziboro report that the company said it would include nutrition labels on all its drinks worldwide and increase global distribution

of its low- and no-calorie beverages. Having drawn attention for rising obesity rates, Coca-Cola lso said it would increase its sponsorship of physical-activity programs. The volatility of raw material costs could have a major impact on the operational performance of the company (Coca-Cola SWOT).

Coca-Cola is often criticized for high water consumption in water scarce regions.It also uses aspartame, cocoa, corn, corn sweeteners, flavorings, flour, fruits and fruit concentrates, potatoes, sugar, wheat, etc. Due to the increase in the commodity prices, the cost of raw materials has also increased. Access to raw materials are subjected to weather conditions, natural isasters, strikes, supply shortages and government regulations causing fluctuations in price, thus effecting product costs and operations of the company.

Opinion of Coca-Cola As a person who holds stock in the Coca-Cola Company, I believe that this company will continue with solid growth due to it being one of the best known brands in the world.When consumers see the Coca-Cola logo, it marks milestones in their personal history and in historical events. There is also strong customer loyalty to the brand. Despite competition, Coca-Cola holds a large percentage of the everage market share and continues to grow through the acquisition of international companies, strong marketing and advertising, and an extensive beverage distribution channel. I believe that Coca-Cola also is able to exert significant power over its suppliers to receive the lowest price available for them as the largest beverage producer.