Coca Cola: International Marketing Mix
INTRODUCTION:
This scope of this essay is to discuss the international marketing mix of Coca Cola, which is one of the biggest brands in the world. The debate between the global standardization and local adaptation of the marketing mix has been going on for more than four decades without a resolution (Agrawal, 1995) and globalization trends starting in the early 1980’s has further fueled the debate (Jeong, 2000). This has led the global companies to make the critical trade-off decision between economies of scale resulting from standardization and the cultural prerequisite of local adaptation. This essay looks at how one of the most successful brands, Coca Cola manages their marketing mix in a global context to get an insight into this debate.
COMPANY OVERVIEW:
The Coca-Cola Company focuses on the non-alcoholic beverage market, producing a range of drinks around the world. It is the world’s leading manufacturer, marketer and distributor of non-alcoholic beverages, primarily carbonated soft drinks. The company is active in more than 200 countries (Mintel, 2005), with the help of directly controlled subsidiaries, partnerships and franchising, thus making it a truly global company. The company sells over six million beverages every day (Coca-Cola, 2005).
The financial situation of Coca-Cola can be commented by looking at the company’s annual reports. For the year ended December 2004, the company generated revenues of $21,962 million, an increase of 4.4% on the previous year (Coca-Cola, 2005). The distribution of this revenue under the five business units is: North America 30.1%; Africa 3.9%; Asia 24%; Eurasia 31.2% and Middle East 9.7% (Datamonitor, 2005). The company’s leading brands are C ...