The Coca-Cola Company

Introduction

The Coca-Cola Company is the world’s leading owner and marketer of nonalcoholic beverage brands and the world’s largest manufacturer, distributor and marketer of concentrates and syrups used to produce nonalcoholic beverages. Company own or license and market more than 500 nonalcoholic beverage brands, primarily sparkling beverages but also a variety of still beverages such as waters, enhanced waters, juices and juice drinks, ready-to-drink teas and coffees, and energy and sports drinks. Finished beverage products bearing our trademarks, sold in the United States since 1886, are now sold in more than 200 countries. Along with Coca-Cola, which is recognized as the world’s most valuable brand, Coca-Cola Company own and market four of the world’s top five nonalcoholic sparkling beverage brands, including Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite.

Coca-Cola is the most popular and biggest-selling soft drink in history, as well as the best-known product in the world. Created in Atlanta, Georgia, United States by Dr. John S. Pemberton, Coca-Cola was first offered as a fountain beverage by mixing Coca-Cola syrup with carbonated water. It was introduced in 1886, patented in 1887, registered as a trademark in 1893 and by 1895 it was being sold in every state and territory in the United States. In 1899, The Coca-Cola Company began franchised bottling operations in the United States.

During the first year, sales of Coca-Cola averaged nine drinks a day, adding up to total sales for that year of $50. Since the year's expenses were just over $70, Dr. Pemberton took a loss. Today, products of The Coca-Cola Company are consumed at the rate of more than one billion drinks per day.

Today Coca-Cola markets and connects with consumers using a portfolio of nearly 400 brands in over 200 different countries. Coca-Cola has five strategic business units: North America, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe, Eurasia and the Middle East.

The company adopted their strategies of success using the following strategic priorities:

• A. accelerated carbonated soft-drink growth, led by Coca Cola

• B. selectively broaden the family of beverage brands to drive profitable growths

• C. grow system profitability and capability together with our bottling partners.

• D. Direct investments to highest –potential areas across markets.

• E. Drive efficiency and cost effectiveness everywhere.

In 2003 Coca-Cola Company products comprised of about 10% of total worldwide sales of non-alcoholic beverage products. The company's' primary competitor in many

countries is PepsiCo. Other significant competitors include Nestle S.A., Cadbury Schweppes plc, Group Danone, and Kraft Foods Inc., among others. The remaining portion will evaluate the performance and give an investment outlook of the Coca-Cola Co using market and ratio analysis.

Market Position of Coca Cola in the US:

Coca Cola plays a major in its industry, not only in the U.S, but also all over the globe. Coke is single handedly the most popular soft drink anywhere, beating out its major competitor, Pepsi Co.

Overseas, Coke has established its empire from South America to Africa to all of Asia and Europe. Coke is the world's top soft-drink company. The Coca-Cola Company owns four of the top five soft-drink brands (Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Fanta, and Sprite). Among its other brands are Barq's, Fruitopia, Minute Maid, PowerAde, and Dasani water. In the US it sells Group Danone's spring water brands (Danone and Sparkletts). Coca-Cola sells Crush, Dr Pepper, and Schweppes outside Australia, Europe, and North America. The firm, which does no bottling, sells about 400 drink brands, including coffees, juices, sports drinks, and teas, in some 200 nations. Coke's position is so powerful in the market that it is the second most recognized word anywhere in the world after "OK."

Even though many nations overseas feel the impact that Coke has, the individuals at Coke has assured that their presence is felt here in the US also. Coke has established itself into many facets in the US that makes this company stand out. For instance, Coke makes a continuous effort to introduce a new product, i.e. new Vanilla Coke. Coke also boosts its market positioning the states with the many youth partnerships, TV commercials, sports, music, and community service.

Industry analysis

History and background

Coca-Cola began its existence in a three-legged brass pot in the backyard of John S. Pemberton on May 8, 1886. Pemberton was a pharmacist trying to create a new headache tonic. Pemberton took his creation to the now famous Jacob's Pharmacy, about 2 blocks from his home.

There the syrup was mixed with cold tap water and sold to ailing customers for 5 cents. As the story goes, a customer in great pain came in and ordered the syrup and the soda jerk accidentally mixed it with carbonated water instead of regular tap water. The customer loved the new drink, declaring it "Delicious and Refreshing!"

Frank Robinson, Pemberton's partner and bookkeeper, suggested the name "Coca-Cola", taking each part of the name from a key ingredient in the product and proclaiming that the two C's would look good in advertising. Mr. Robinson penned "Coca-Cola" in the unique flowing script that is now famous worldwide!

In 1886, sales of Coca-Cola averaged 9 drinks per day. That first year, Pemberton sold only 25 gallons of syrup. For his efforts, Pemberton grossed $50.00 and spent $73.96 on advertising.

As John Pemberton's health grew worse, he sold the company off. Asa Candler took sole ownership of the company by 1891 for a mere $2,300.00!!! (that included all rights, including his initial investment!)

In 1894, Coca-Cola was first bottled by Joseph Biedenharn, owner of the Biedenharn Candy Company of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Candler believed that the bottling idea was crazy and that people would never go for it! As the popularity of Coca-Cola increased, many imitators came onto the scene, offering products such as "Koca-Kola", so the company decided that they needed a bottle that would be easily recognizable so as not to be confused with any other. The Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana designed the now famous "contour bottle" or "hobbleskirt". This bottle design was first patented in 1915 and then again December 25, 1923. In the year 1928, bottle sales first surpassed fountain sales, proving that the bottling idea had been a great success!

Asa Candler's merchandising flair helped expand the company to every state and territory by 1919. In that year, Candler (who then went on to become mayor of Atlanta, Georgia) sold the company to Ernest Woodruff and a group of investors for $25 million and in 1923 Robert Woodruff (Ernest's eldest son) became president of the company. Robert Woodruff's more than six decades of leadership took the business to unrivaled heights of commercial success, making Coca-Cola an institution the world over!

At the beginning of WWII, Robert Woodruff issued an order to "see to it that every man in uniform gets a bottle of Coca-Cola for 5 cents wherever he is and whatever it costs the company!" In 1943, during World War II, Eisenhower sent a telegram requesting 10 additional Coca-Cola bottling plants overseas for our troops. At the beginning of the war, Coke was bottled in 44 countries. At the close of the war, 64 additional bottling plants had been established abroad. The presence of Coca-Cola did more than lift the morale of the troops...it gave many local people in those countries their first taste of Coca-Cola, paving the way for unprecedented worldwide sales after the war!

The cover page of the May 15, 1950 issue of Time magazine features a Coca-Cola advertisement. It was the first time that a consumer product had been featured on their cover. That same issue also contained a detailed story about Coca-Cola's extensive distribution and franchising system.

In 1981, Robert Goizueta became president of Coca-Cola and soon became one of the most successful businessmen in the world. Mr. Goizueta had come to America from Cuba with little more than a suitcase.

In 1985, the Coca-Cola Company introduced its new formula for Coke, calling the product "New Coke" and then "Coke II". The public demanded their original formula back and the company soon began producing "Coca-Cola Classic".

Today, Coca-Cola is available in nearly 200 countries around the globe and its trademark is written in approximately 80 languages! It is one of the most recognizable logos in the world!

Porter's 5 forces analysis

The threat of the entry of new competitors

Advertising and Marketing

Soft drink industry needs huge amount of money to spend on advertisement and marketing. In 2000, Pepsi, Coke and their bottler’s invested approximately $2.58 billion. In 2000, the average advertisement expenditure per point of market share was $8.3 million. This makes it exceptionally hard for a new competitor to struggle with the current market and expand visibility.

Customer Loyalty/ Brand Image

Pepsi and Coke have been investing huge amount on advertisement and marketing throughout their existence. This has resulted in higher brand equity and strong loyal customers’ base all over the globe. Therefore, it becomes nearly unfeasible for a new comer to counterpart this level in soft drink industry.

Retail Distribution

This industry provides significant margins to retailers. For example, some retailers get 15-20% while others enjoy 20-30% margins. These margins are reasonably enough for retailers to entertain the existing players. This makes it very difficult for new players to persuade retailers to carry their new products or substitute products for Coke and Pepsi.

Fear of Retaliation

It is very difficult to enter into a market place where already well-established players are present such as Coke and Pepsi in this industry. So these players will not allow any new entrants to easily enter the market. They will give tough time to new entrants which could result into price wars, new product line, etc in order to influences the new comers.

Bottling Network

In this industry manufacturers have franchise contracts with their presented bottler’s that have privileges in a definite geographic area in eternity such as both Pepsi and Coke have contracts with their presented bottler’s. These contracts forbid bottler’s from taking on new competing brands for similar products. Latest consolidation between the bottler’s and the backward integration with Coke buying considerable numbers of bottling firms, it makes very difficult for new player to contract with bottler’s agreeable to distribute their brands.

The intensity of competitive rivalry

The industry is almost dominated by the Coke and Pepsi. This industry is well known as a Duopoly with Coke and Pepsi as the companies competing. These both players have the majority of the market share and rest of the players have very low market share. Otherwise; competition is comparatively low to result any turmoil of industry structure. Coke and Pepsi primarily are competing on advertising and differentiation rather than on pricing. This resulted in higher profits and disallowed a decline in profits. Pricing war is nevertheless experienced in their global expansion strategies.

Composition of Competitors

Except the Coke and Pepsi other competitors are of unequal size especially in local markets. Coke and Pepsi both players have the majority of the market share and rest of the players have very low market share.

Scope of Competition

Scope of competition in this industry is generally global; Coke and Pepsi are approximately presents in 200 countries.

Market Growth Rate

The soft drinks business will not see growth in near future, with the smoothie and bottled water sectors mainly hit by a decline in 2008, and across all sectors volume declined by 1.1 percent.

Fixed Storage Cost

This industry needs huge manufacturing plants and contracts with bottling network companies. These contracts make sure that bottler’s must have standard manufacturing plant; these plants need huge capital and exertion.

Degree of differentiation

Marketing and Product differentiation have become more significant. Coke and Pepsi mainly are competing on advertising and differentiation rather than on pricing. Coke has diverse advertisement campaigns according to conditions. Coca-Cola is recognized as the best-known brand name in the globe. More prominently, its consumers would not do without it, and have established a loyalty.

Strategic Stake

Coke’s core operation is the manufacturing and distribution both for itself and beneath franchise, of non-alcoholic beverages and related products. Because of the strategic stake the main brand of the Coke has been around for a lot of years.

The threat of substitute products

This industry is enriched with enormous statistics of substitutes such as: water, tea, beer, juices, coffee, etc presented tothe end-consumers. But all the suppliers of these substitutes need massive advertising, brand equity, brand loyalty and making sure that their brands are effortlessly accessible to the consumers. Most of the substitutes cannot counterpart the existing players’ offers or diversify business by offering new product lines of the substitute products to safeguard themselves from rivalry.

Aggressiveness of substitute products in promotion

Soft drink industry companies spend huge amount of money on advertisement and marketing to differentiate their products from others and also create brand equity, base of loyal customers and increase visibility.

Switching Cost

Switching cost of the substitute products is very low so consumers can easily shift towards the substitute products.

Perceived price/ value

Perceived price/value in this industry is very low because all products are comparatively same and are only differentiated by promotional activities.

The bargaining power of Customers (Buyers)

The most important buyers for the Soft Drink industry are fast food fountain, vending, convenience stores, food stores, restaurants, college canteens and others in the categorize of market share. The profitability/revenue in each of these segments obviously demonstrates the bargaining power of the buyers to pay different prices.

Fast Food Fountain

Pepsi and Coke mainly regard this segment as “Paid Sampling” due to small margins. This division of buyer’s is the slightest profitable because of the high bargaining power of the buyers. The bargaining power of the buyers is high because they purchase in bulks.

Vending Machines

Vending Machines provide products to the customers in a straight line with enormously no power with the buyer.

Convenience Stores

This segment is tremendously fragmented and has no bargaining power due to which it has to pay superior prices.

Food Stores

This segment of buyers’ is fairly merged with few local supermarkets and numerous chain stores. Since this segment presents best shelf space it demands lower prices.

The bargaining power of Suppliers

Most of the raw materials desirable to manufacture soft drink are basic merchandise such as flavor, color, caffeine, sugar, and packaging etc. The suppliers of these commodities have no bargaining power over the pricing due to which the suppliers in soft drink industry are relatively weak.

Number of important Suppliers

Raw materials for soft drink are basic commodities which are easily available to every producer and have low cost which makes no difference for any supplier.

Switching cost

All the raw material ingredients are basic merchandize and easily accessible to manufacturers. Switching cost to the suppliers is very low; manufactures can easily shift towards the other suppliers.

Availability of substitutes

Soft drink products have standard raw material ingredients which could not have any alternatives or used instead of the actual ingredients.

Threat of forward integration

Threat of forward integration is very low in this industry because manufacturers of the soft drinks need huge manufacturing plants, bottling network, strong distribution network and best shelf space. Suppliers could not afford such kind of well-established network.

Importance of buyer industry to suppliers

Soft drink industry is very important to the suppliers because buyers purchase larger amount of raw material. This encourages suppliers to remain in good contact with buyers.

Suppliers’ product an important input to the buyer’s

Product of the suppliers is very important input for the manufacturers in this industry because these products do not have any substitute.

Industry trends

The Group of Eight (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US) generated almost $291 billion in soft drinks sales in 2010, according to MarketLine. The group’s global soft drink industry is predicted to hit almost $310 billion in 2015. The US leads the group with a near 43% share in the market, generating almost $125 billion in sales. In 2015, the US soft drinks market is predicted to exceed $127 billion.

The soft drink industry spans sparkling drinks, concentrates, juices, bottled water, smoothies, ready-to-drink tea and coffee, and functional drinks. Soft drinks do not usually contain alcohol, though can have up to 0.5% alcohol content. They are generally made on a still or carbonated water base with added flavors and sweeteners, and sometimes fruit juices or caffeine.

Packaging is key, with more than 1,500 patents filed in the US in the early stages of the soft drink industry for bottle closures such as lids, caps and corks. The industry is reliant on the production of quality bottles and drinking packs to keep products fresh. Popular soft drinks on the market include cola, root beer, ginger ale and sparkling lemonade.

Key Market Products

Carbonated, or sparkling drinks, are expected to generate more than $209 billion in revenues in 2014, reports MarketLine. In 2014, the world carbonated soft drink industry is expected to produce over 197 billion liters, a 10% rise in five years. Cola leads the market with a 42% stake. Americas represent over 54% of the world market. Coca-Cola is the market’s top company, accounting for over 42% of the overall market. Carbonates represent 40% of the global soft drink industry. Other large companies on the market include: Red Bull, Dr Pepper Snapple and PepsiCo.

The global functional drinks market, which encompasses sports drinks, energy drinks, and nutraceutical drinks, is expected to exceed $62,000 million in 2015, according to MarketLine. This will represent a near 30% increase in five years, bringing market volume to over 16,135 million liters. Energy drinks lead the market segment with a near 58% stake. Americas represent more than 38% of the global functional drinks market. PepsiCo is the number one company in this category generating more than 24% of overall market volume. Sports drinks comprise a well-established market with steady consumption, whereas energy drinks promises great potential and is a rapidly growing market. Energy drinks are becoming increasingly popular as consumers show greater awareness and assume more responsibility for health-related issues.

The global market for bottled water is expected to exceed $126 billion in 2015, reports MarketLine. This represents 27% market expansion in five years, bringing market volume to almost 183 billion liters, 20% more than in 2010. Still unflavored water represents 65% of the bottled water market. The EU holds more than half of the overall market, which is lead by Danone with a 14% stake in terms of volume. Market drivers include greater health awareness, higher consumer spending, larger population and

lifestyle trends. Marketing and product differentiation are key with companies focusing on product innovation, and packaging in terms of weight and brand image.

The global juice market, which encompasses fruit and vegetable juice, nectars, and fruit drinks, is expected to see growth slow to under 2% yearly to exceed $92 billion by 2015, reports MarketLine. The segment is lead by 100% fruit juice with over 30% market share. According to Global Industry Analysts, the global fruit and vegetable juice market will exceed 64 billion liters by 2015. Market drivers include rising awareness surrounding health and nutrition.

Industry Leaders

The three main players on the global soft drink market are Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Cadbury Schweppes. US-based Coca-Cola employs almost 140,000 people and sells over 3,500 products in more than 200 countries. Headquartered in New York, PepsiCo has 19 leading brands that bring in over $1 billion in yearly retail sales and two dozen other brands with yearly sales of between $250 million and $1 billion.

Market Outlook

The US carbonates market remains strong as juice and water markets decline. The industry continues to feel the effects of the global recession, as consumer confidence remains low. Moving forward, companies are likely to concentrate on product innovation to coax consumers back.

Evolving lifestyle trends toward healthier options and widespread awareness of health epidemics such as obesity and diabetes may see categories like carbonated drinks stall slightly, but also represents greater potential for other markets such as energy drinks and juices.

Firm's Analysis

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Coca Cola is an extremely recognizable company. Popularity is one of its superior strengths that is virtually incomparable. Coca Cola is known very well worldwide. It's branding is obvious and easily recognized. Things like, logos and promos shown on t-shirts, hats, and collectible memorabilia. Without a doubt, no beverage company compares to Coca Cola's social popularity status. Some people buy coke, not only because of its taste, but because it is widely accepted and they feel like they are part of something so big and unifying. At the other end of the spectrum, certain individuals choose not to drink coke, based solely on rebelling from the world's idea that coke is something of such great power. Overwhelming is the best word to describe Coca Cola's popularity. It is scary to think that its popularity has been constantly growing over the

years and the possibility that there is still room to grow. If you speak the words “Coca Cola”, it would definitely be recognized all around the world. Money is another thing that is a strength of the company. Coca Cola deals with massive amounts of money all year. Like all businesses, they have had their ups and downs financially, but they have done well in this compartment and will continue to do well and improve. The money they are earning is substantially better than most beverage companies, and with that money, they put back into their own company so that they can improve. Another strength that is very important to Coca Cola is customer loyalty. The 80/20 rule comes into effect in this situation. Eighty percent of their profit comes from 20% of their loyal customers. Many people/families are extremely loyal to Coca Cola. It would not be rare to constantly find bottles and cases of a product such as coke in a house. It seems that some people would drink coke religiously like some people would drink water and milk. This is an improbable feat. Customers will continually purchase these products, and will probably do so for a very long time. If two parents were avid Coca Cola drinkers, this will be passed down do their children as they grow loyal to the company. With Coca Cola’s ability to sell their product all over the world, customers will continue to buy what they know and what they like…Coca Cola products.

Weaknesses

Coca Cola is a very successful company, with limited weaknesses. However they do have a variety of weaknesses that need to be addressed if they want to rise to the next level. Word of mouth is probably a strength and weakness of every company. While many people have good things to say, there are many individuals who are against Coca Cola as a company, and the products in which they produce. Word of mouth unfortunately is something that is very hard to control. While people will have their opinions, you have to try to sway their negative views. If bad comments and views are put out to people who have yet to try Coca Cola products, then that could produce a lost customer which shows why word of mouth is a weakness. Another aspect that could be viewed as a weakness is the lack of popularity of many of Coca Cola’s drinks. Many drinks that they produce are extremely popular such as Coke and Sprite but this company has approximately 400 different drink types. Most are unknown and rarely seen for available purchase. These drinks do not probably taste bad, but are rather a result of low profile or non existent advertising. This is a weakness that needs to be looked at when analyzing their company. Another weakness that has been greatly publicized is the health issues that surround some of their products. It is known that a popular product like coke is not very beneficial to your body and your health. With today’s constant shift to health products, some products could possibly loose customers. This new focus on weight and health could be a problem for the product that are labeled detrimental to you health.

Opportunities

Coca Cola has a few opportunities in its business. It has many successful brands that it should continue to exploit and pursue. Coca Cola also has the opportunity to advertise its less popular products. With a large income it has the available money to put some of these other beverages on the market. This could be very beneficial to the company if they

could start selling these other products to the same extent that they do with their main products. Another opportunity that we have seen being put to use before is the ability for Coca Cola to buy out their competition. This opportunity rarely presents itself in the world of business. However, with Coca Cola’s power and success, such a task is not impossible. Coca Cola has bought out a countless number of drink brands. An easy way to turn their profit into your profit is too buy out their company. Even though this may cost a vast amount of money initially, in the long run, if all goes to plan, it results in a large profit. Also, the company will no longer need to worry about this product being part of the competition. Brand recognition is the significant factor affecting Cokes competitive position. Coca Cola is known well throughout 90% of the world population today. Now Coca Cola wants to get there brand name known even better and possibly get closer and closer to 100%. It is an opportunity that most companies will ever dream of, and would be a supreme accomplishment. Coca Cola has an opportunity to continue to widen the gap between them and their competitors.

Threats

Despite the fact that Coca Cola dominates its market, it still has to deal with many threats. Even though Coca Cola and Pepsi control nearly 40% of the entire beverage market, the changing health-consciousness attitude of the market could have a serious effect on Coca Cola. This definitely needs to be viewed as a dominant threat. In today’s world, people are constantly trying to change their eating and drinking habits. This could directly affect the sale of Coca Cola’s products. Another possible issue is the legal side of things. There are always issues with a company of such supreme wealth and popularity. Somebody is always trying to find fault with the best and take them down. Coca Cola has to be careful with lawsuits. Health minister could also be looked at as a threat. Again, some people may try to exploit the unhealthy side of Coca Cola’s products and could threaten the status and success of sales. Other threats are of course the competition. Coca Cola’s main competition being Pepsi, sells a very similar drink. Coca Cola needs to be careful that Pepsi does not grow to be a more successful drink. Other product such as juices, coffee, and milk are threats. These other beverage options could take precedent in some people’s minds over Coca Cola’s beverages and this could threaten the potential success it presents again.

Market Position

The positioning strategy used by Coca-Cola has allowed them to paint a suitable image of themselves in the mind of their customers as the only “Real One”. They have designed their positioning strategy so as to draw an effective picture of their products offered for their customer. Once they had decided the market segment they wanted to target and compete in, they clearly developed a picture of that targeted market segment and properly defined their products as part of their positioning strategy. Through their positions strategy they emphasized on their distinct and unique characteristics with relation to their competitive brands stressing on their individuality. They associated their product with the customer's values and knowledge highlighting their benefits. Their positioning strategy also included comparison of Coca-Cola's products with those of their rivals, like Pepsi, so

that drive their customers to believe that Coca-Cola's products had higher quality and standard.

The Coca-Cola brand has turned out to be one of the most recognizable and a popular brand of all times and their beverage company is among the world's largest beverage companies. They have become a successful brand since they have used a number of different brand management strategies depending on the market situation and target market. The strategies include hybrid, manufacturer, individual, private, family and generic brand management strategies. However, the most utilized brand management strategy she used is the individual brand management strategy since all of their major products have individual brand names, like Sprite and Fanta. Coca-Cola's world-wide recognition comes from the fact that they have spent billions of dollars to promote and develop their trademark and brand name. Due to this today more than 95% of our global population recognizes Coca-Cola along with their special writing and their prominent red and white color.

As a matter of fact, Coca-Cola Company came into being in 1986 and within the past 2 decades, it has been able to establish itself as one of the leading beverage companies in the world. At the beginning, Coca-Cola has used modern marketing techniques and she is even viewed as the “founding father of our present day marketing model”. The brand used a number of modern marketing techniques which has immensely benefited the business. This includes aiming their marketing concept totally towards their customers and allowing the focus of their customers to percolate trough almost every department whether human resource, production or finance. Another beneficial modern marketing technique includes taking of all of their important decisions with relevance to the existing market considerations, position and segmentation. Apart from placing importance on market implications, there are 3 techniques of modern marketing which the company can highly benefit from - focusing on customers, coordination and profit orientation. The company's focus should always be on the consumer's viewpoint so that they can totally understand which product or service the buyer needs. Since the marketing mix is an interconnected system, the entire marketing program needs to be considered and designed as a whole.

In addition, the marketing techniques used by Coca-Cola allow them to listen to the needs and demands of the people all over the world who want beverages that extend over a wide variety of occasions and tastes. Their marketing strategy has allowed them to produce great beverages which contribute towards each and every community of our world. Their marketing techniques display their commitment towards diversity, health, education and wellness, thus establishing them as one of the most successful and powerful brands of all time. Coca-Cola's marketing techniques consists of an extremely efficient marketing mix strategy combining product, price, promotion and place. They not only provide the customers with their products, soft drinks, but also several services, like movies and holidays, allowing the consumers to be completely satisfied. Their main pricing strategy includes penetration pricing which has allowed them to grab a footing in their target market by winning a major part of the market share. After establishing customer loyalty, Coca-Cola then slowly raised their product prices. Coca-Cola has

always been among the fore-runners in gimmicks and advertising styles and techniques which fall under promotion of marketing techniques. They have effectively use their promotional strategies for persuading their customers into buying their original products and trying the new ones. They have used a combination of public relations, advertising, personal selling and sales promotion as a part of their marketing techniques. Coca-Cola have also carefully chosen the place or distribution techniques for their company. Their techniques include direct, selective, intensive and exclusive distribution. It is completely apparent from their widespread popularity and reputation that these marketing strategies used by Coca-Cola has helped them establish themselves as among the most powerful and successful brand of modern times, one which will fortunately be a complex yet vital part of our modern world culture.

In a highly competitive world such as ours effective branding and positioning strategies are extremely essential since it plays as a major force for the company and allows it to retain its stronghold all over the world. The branding strategies of a company accurately define the individuality of the company, its products and services. Every company, whether small or large, consider their branding strategies to be an important part of the entire business. Through their branding strategies they establish themselves as a brand name which represents quality and standard to their customers. A brand name helps the differentiation among customers based on their unique qualities from other similar products.

Additionally, the positioning strategy of a company helps it to establish the profitability of their various products and services. In order for a company to be successful simply having a quality product is not enough in our capitalistic world economy. The products and services must have a distinct and clear image and should be offered to the target customers at competitive prices. This is what a positioning strategy creates. Therefore, positioning strategies helps companies create a useful and desired image of the product for the customers, producing a direct contact between them and the company.

Conclusion

The argument that the brands or brand names along with its brand position and brand management of a business like Coca-Cola, under which its goods or services are marketed, embodies as much an asset as their tangible counterparts, is increasingly gaining momentum. Realizing the requirement of implicating the value of brands in the accounts, some large corporations in the UK have initiated the capitalization of the value of their brands in their documented financial declarations. The issue logically crops up with regards to whether the implication of this entity as an asset in the financial documents serves any real significant function or is merely another effort by the brand accountants to create more opportunities for themselves.