$2$d

Objective: Develop key strategies for based on environmental analysis.

Review Chapter $4$ of the textbook by Coulter.

$2$ page responding to the questions related to this case on p$.113.$

Help with:

$1.$ From this abbreviated description, what resources and capabilities do you think The Coca$-$Cola Company has?

$2.$ Does the fact that an organization is so heavily into global markets make it more difficult to develop unique resources and distinctive capabilities?

$3.$ Do you think the company has any distinctive capability$($ies$)?$

$4.$ Go to Coke$$s Web site and$-$ find five $$fun$$ facts in the material about the company.

CASE # $2$

The Coca$-$Cola Company $($Coke$)$ is in a league by itself. It$$s the world$$s number one nonalcoholic beverage company. It has four of the top five soft drink brands $($Coke$,$ Diet Coke, Fanta, and Sprite$).$ And it$$s huge$$the company makes or licenses more than $3,500$ drinks in more than $200$ countries. As the world$$s largest manufacturer, distributor, and marketer of nonalcoholic beverages, Coke knows all about strengths and weaknesses. The company$$s flagship brand, Coca$-$Cola, competes directly with Pepsi Cola, the flagship brand of PepsiCo. However, Coke has something unique and valuable that Pepsi does not$$an iconic global brand. Each year since $2001,$ global brand consulting firm Interbrand, in conjunction with BusinessWeek, has identified the best global brands. Every year so far, Coke has been number one on the list. Having the $$best$$ global brand, at least according to this ranking, means the brand has value, just like any other asset. In another ranking of the Top $100$ Brands done by consulting group Millward Brown, Coke was one of the top six companies for the last six years. Despite its market$-$leading brand, Coke cannot take anything for granted, especially in today$$s harsh eco$-$nomic climate. What$$s Coke serving up now? CEO Muhtar Kent, who came onboard in July $2008,$ is focusing on ambitious, long$-$term growth for the company. His goals: Establish a long$-$term vision, and restore growth in North America. One of the first things he noticed about the company was its inward focus. $$Most of the meetings we were holding were just with ourselves. We weren$$t going out to see how the world was changing.$$ The organizational culture was insular, and some even described it as $$arrogant$.$ Coke has had a rich heritage of marketing successes and one noteworthy marketing blunder. In $1985,$ the company in $-$troduced $$new Coke,$$ not realizing how passionately people felt about the original Coke. The company swiftly realized its error and reversed course. But other marketing has worked, and worked well$$the company$$s polar bears, jingles, and advertisements are always popular. In the fall of $2011,$ the com $-$pany unveiled a specially designed Coke can as part of a market$-$ing campaign aimed at protecting polar bears and their habitat. Finally, Coke$$s design strategy has always been important. Although it has a rich design heritage$$from the shape of its bot $-$tle to the lettering and curves on that bottle$$company executives felt it was time to step it up and do a total top$-$to$-$bottom redesign. When David Butler was hired as vice president of global design in$2003,$ he was told, $$We need to do more with design. Go figure it out.$$ In his review of design at Coke, he found that $$Coke had$450$ brands, more than $300$ different models of vending machines, innumerable bottling and retail partners, and no consistent global design standards.$$ Initial design changes have included the alumi$-$num contour bottle, which has been called a $$sexy update of the glass bottle$$ and which feels more modern but is less expensive to produce. In addition, Coke introduced a new sleeker, sculptural cooler, which uses $30$ to $40$ percent less energy. Realizing that its vendors might not want to invest in the new coolers when they had ones that were still working, Butler$$s team designed inexpen $-$sive modular panels that could be attached to those still$-$functional coolers. But both sides $$won$$the retailer got a new fresh look, and Coke got consistency in its brand message. Butler$$s team con$-$tinually reviews all the brands in the company$$s portfolio.