Effective Communication of Coca-Cola Company †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Effective Communication of Coca-Cola Company. Answer: Brief introduction Coca-Cola Company is ranked as the worlds biggest organization that deals with selling of refreshments. Its operations are in more than 200 countries and hold a market portfolio of more than 3000 drinks. These drinks include sparkling beverages and refreshments such as juice drinks, water, squeezes, espressos and beverages that are caffeinated. The company has its headquarters in Atlanta Georgia and has close to 93,000 co-partners which are in six working groups of Africa, Europe, Latin American, pacific region and North American. The production process of Coca-Cola lays its focus on the manufacture of refreshment syrups and bases and this has made its mark very exceptional (Chester and Montgomery, 2007). It also provides packaging operations. The company is in possession of brands and licenses for legal operations. For it to unify its client base the company invests heavily on advertisements that incorporates TV and print promotions, use of retail store shows online, engagement in sponsorships, bundle plans and challenges. The company has for a long time been able to meet the ever changing refreshment needs of its consumers in the world through the focus on the production of beverages and advertisements. Many people simply perceive it as Coca-Cola but in real sense its framework has operations in various channels that are linked to it (HBC, 2013). Apart from producing beverages it also contracts production of syrups and drinks for packaging operations and in this manner it claims the marks and its therefore responsible for the advertising activities of the purchaser marker. This kind of system is very effective that it has ensured the suppliers of the company are able to sell products to consumers at a rate close to 1.6 billion servings per day. Background Coca-Cola Company has been in existence for many years and its history dates back to the year 1886 (Coca-Cola Company, 2013). A drug specialist by the name John Pemberton was driven by some basic interest to have some positive transformation on peoples lives. In one of the evenings he made some mix up of a fragrant i.e. caramel hued fluid where he sent it to some pharmacy (Jacobs pharmacy). Its in this pharmacy that the fluid was mixed up with some carbonated water and some clients inspected it coming to a conclusion that it was a new beverage. Frank Robinson who was by then Pembertons clerk then named the beverage Coca-Cola and in the first year Pemberton was selling 9 glasses of the beverage per day. At the end of one century the Coca-Cola Company had made drastic changes and it was selling close to 10 billion gallons of syrup. In 1888 Pemberton died and he could not live long to witness the growth and popularity of his business (Haenlein and Kaplan, p 3). This led to Candler being made the companys first president and he is actually the pioneer that brought the real vision of Coca-Cola business and brand. His taking of office saw the packaging operations kick start in Hawaii and was spread to France, Philippines, Bermuda, Belgium, Honduras, Colombia, Mexico, Italy Haiti and Burma in the years that followed. By the year 1940 Coca-Cola soda was being packaged in 40 countries globally. Various trademark items have since then been infused by the marketing and promotion of these beverages (Euromonitor, 2013). Such trademarks include but not limited to, the pause that refreshes used in 1929, have a coke and a smile used in 1979 and always Coca-Cola a slogan used in 1993 and by this year the companys sales had surpassed the 10 billion mark globally. With the tremendous evolution in the world of business there is dire need for the companys managers to adopt more techniques that are strategic and visionary if it has to keep succeeding in the industry of beverages. This is because the completion has taken another high level. The company has to always look ahead and make projections of the trends in business (Kaplan and Haenlein, p 873). This involves a lot of investment in effective communication with its various stakeholders and maximizing on the use of e-communication. Synopsis of non-electronic communication methods and practices that the company uses to engage its stakeholders Coca-Cola Company uses various means of no electronic communication stakeholder engagements by engaging in different dialogues that have long term impacts. These dialogues are important in informing decision making and have helped the company to make continuous improvements and progress towards their sustainability commitments of the year 2020. This form of communication can either be formal or informal and it happens across the entire system of Coca-Cola Company. (Dooley, 2007). This has enabled the company to be able to address pressing global challenges. The proactive communication with some of the external stakeholders has enabled the company to be able to identify and deal with issues by consolidating different expertise, passion and knowledge of different individuals and organizations. Coca-Cola has varied stakeholders and this therefore means adoption of different means of non electronic communication and methods (Dignan, 2007). Therefore key stakeholders are engaged differently; Bottling partners; with these stakeholders there is a constant day to day interaction, carrying out of joint projects, engaging in business plans and being involved in functional groups on strategic issues such groups include top to top seniormanagement forums and global environmental council. With its consumers the company uses non electronic communication such as plant tours, surveys, focus groups and research so as to ensure they dont lose their consumer base. When it comes to communicating with its customers Coca-Cola company makes regular visits , use account teams that are dedicated, engage in joint business planning with their customers as well as joint value creation initiatives, communication is also done using customer care centers where customers can visit and register their concerns and use of one on one surveys (Gillin, 2007). The company also plans community meetings on regular basis and engage in lectures in universities. The company communicates with their staff in surveys, town hall meetings etc. for the government and regulatory authorities Coca-Cola engages with them through chambers of commerce and foreign investment advisory councils. Coca-Cola also organizes annual meetings with shareowners to ensure whatever information that is necessary has been communicated to the right recipient. There has always been an annual supplier conference that ensures effective non electronic communication between the company and its suppliers. Overview of the key electronic media and communication strategies used by the company Its clear that most of coca colas communication strategies with its stakeholders are done via advertisements because their main aim is to attract many consumers worldwide (Polaris Institute, 2005). Media has been adopted by many companies to ease and facilitate effective communication among stakeholders. Its a facilitating institution that suggests appropriate message in the operative constrain of space. Its therefore the most effective means of communication or advertisement among many marketing practitioners. It can either be in form of a publication or visual media forms. The media that is published may include magazines, professional press, internet and newspapers. The visual media include radio, cinema, TV, billboards, posters and use of direct mails. Coca-Cola has engaged in the use of newspapers to communicate with its stakeholders for more than 100 years as well as use of magazines at a global level for their advertisements (Coca-Cola, 2013). The companys choice of magazine has been influenced by the readability of the magazine by their target customers. In most cases its advertisements are found occupying a whole page so as to maximize on the positive impacts of the initiatives of marketing. The online communication is mostly undertaken using banners, pop up ads and onsite sponsorship in many global websites which are mostly dedicated to funs of Coca-Cola. The company spends a good amount of financial resources to promote communication via television and radio. The company has as well taken advantage of using cinemas to communicate with its clients by putting adverts in some movies just before they kick off, or use of product placements in various movies by ensuring its drink is featured in the movies (McKinsey, 2007). The company has also invested in posters and billboards where they are placed in busy and central places like cities to ensure their message reaches a wider clientele. Coca-Cola has maximized the use of face book in electronic communication by attracting close to 64 million fans on its face book page. On this page a lot of information regarding its brand image and awareness has been accessed by its users. The company has over 700,000 followers on its twitter account and it has separate twitter feeds for its local markets. Its social team on twitter responds to huge numbers of mentions on a daily basis such s complaints and complements. This has thus contributed to effective communication. Coca colas social team has made use of Pinterest to communicate with its global clients and it engages in Pinterest competition which has recently become a good tactic of driving awareness and increasing number of stakeholders (Ford, Stephens and Cooper, 2007). All these efforts are done to ensure effective electronic communication between the company and its various stakeholders and especially consumers who are the main stakeholders. SWOT Analysis on the companys overall communication methods and practices (RM, 2013). Strengths The companys biggest strength its the marketing strategies which are strong. Its campaigns attract people of all ages and from different backgrounds. Its good at global advertisements. Its brand equity is also good and the company has ensured strong presence in its partner countries globally. Its brand holds the highest value in the world. The company is also good at customer loyalty and this is as a result of the larger customer base it commands globally. Its investment in low calorie brands such as coke zero has given it more than 80% absolute growth in the business market. Weaknesses The company has not fully invested in healthy beverages. It has proven difficult for the company to brand itself as a healthy option for many. Most of its products are taken to be junk and unhealthy and therefore the healthy beverage market is not easy to penetrate. The companys image and brand has almost been tainted by cases relating to pesticides. There has not been exploration of foods and snacks by the company. The company has also been criticized for advertising its products to children who do not know how to decide on what product to buy. Opportunities The company is better placed to expand into markets that they have not yet tapped into. The company can still conduct more advertising and marketing in other new markets. The company is in a good position to get more companies so as to boost its operations. Coca-Cola has room to expand its product portfolio and accommodate foods and snacks. Threats There have been previous allegations of Coca-Cola manufacturing products with negative effects on health especially with excessive consumption. The company has faced challenges of dealing with government regulations of different countries. The company had to face the inflation rates and global economic instabilities. Stiff competition from rivals like red bull and Pepsi has been a great threat to the company. Findings From the SWOT analysis the company has much strength compared to weaknesses and the opportunities far outweigh the threats. From the analysis its therefore important for the company to support a strategy that is aggressive. Despite facing several threats and weaknesses it has very good potential for growth and increase of market share by adopting a strategy that is growth oriented. Communication practices of Pepsi and Star buck companies as the main Coca-Cola competitors These two companies are among the leading Coca-Cola competitors in the beverage industry. Pepsi Pepsi Company has recently made some changes to its communication strategies owing to increased competition in the beverage business world. The company has adopted the basket weave which is a structure that provides many touch points across its business units so as to have a corporate strategy that is cohesive and responds more readily on different ideas. The company has put up centers of excellence where sustainability and crisismanagement sectors have been assigned to SVPs to facilitate constant communication across units (Anfuso, 2005). There has been a digital revamp where the internal intranet and Mypepsi.com were relaunched and they have added capabilities such as blogs which enables its many associates to be aware of whatever happens in the company. The company has also embraced global meetings where it aims at consolidating its various stakeholders in conferences to share the companys information. Starbucks The communication strategies for Star bucks are very effective for instance the company has constant branding. Their brand personality comes through in every communication. The logo, storefront and store presence all have looks and feels that are familiar. They make use of the web as their content hub. The clients can access a lot of information on the companys website such as rewards, new brands, access to a nearby stall etc. they make use of videos to tell stories of their consumers and tie in an appropriate message. They have integrated their content across channels such as subscriptions to their information via emails where interesting information about the products can be accessed (TSF, 2009). Its presence in social media is quite good. Their reward delivery mechanisms are via direct mails. They are making use of mobile experience where one can view their products via a Smartphone and therefore one can easily get any information anywhere. It has even launched an app dubbed the star bucks app. The company has also made it easier for consumers to share their contents using one click options by asking one to share the relevant information. A site called Myideas has been created by the company to engage their consumers and the web serves as the hub of the experience and people are allowed to make submissions or comments on ideas and its social team provides quick feedback (Walter, 2012). Suggestions and recommendations for how the company can improve its communication The company should encourage the art of sharing, dialogue and input. This will ensure good internal communication which has to flow in two ways. People should be taught on giving feedback on any information they get and the company should reward open dialogue. The company has to ensure its mangers lead by example so that the employees can get the psyche of communicating (SMI, 2013). The managers should be told to share, comment and give feedbacks. Coca-Cola should get employee buy in by showing and providing value to employees. This can be done by exciting them on the cause of information sharing. The companys goals and objectives should be made public this has been a successful process in companies like Google. The company should reduce on meetings and instead use online tools to make communication very effective and faster (Weill and Vitale, p 7). It can adopt the online team update and reporting tools. It should shun from big information blasts and instead establish regular proces ses with granular real time updates. Its stakeholders should be trained in the language of sharing the companys information to attract more consumers and remain relevant in the market (Prince, 2007). There is need to provide more tools for internal work related sharing using tablets and phones. The company should run regular employee surveys to get answers and be aware of their current state. The company should be ready to listen and encourage inputs from all ranks. Conclusion Coca-Cola Company is among the leading companies in the beverage industry and this success is partly attributed to the effective non electronic and electronic communication it uses to run its business. Despite being top in business the company faces some weaknesses and threats which it need not assume despite having many strengths and opportunities related to effective communication. It should therefore maximize on the opportunities so as to remain relevant in the beverage business environment. The company should embrace the suggested ways of improving on its communication strategies so as to constantly outcompete its main competitors such as Pepsi and Starbucks. References Prince, L. (2007). 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