Challenges for HRM and Global Business Strategy: A Case Study on Coca-Cola

This report analyzes the marketing strategies adopted by Coca-Cola, a global brand, to achieve success across diverse markets. It explores the challenges faced by the company in balancing standardization and adaptation of its strategies to cater to local tastes and preferences. The report examines the company's global and local marketing strategies, including rural and urban variations, and investigates the effectiveness of different promotional approaches. The research methodology combines qualitative and quantitative research methods, including surveys, interviews, and analysis of company data. The report concludes with recommendations for Coca-Cola to further enhance its global reach and market share.

Challenges for HRM and Global Business Strategy: A Case Study on Coca-Cola
HI6008

Contents
Introduction.....................................................................................................................................2
Project Objective.............................................................................................................................3
Project Scope...................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review.............................................................................................................................3
Standardization v/s Adaption or the combined approach:.........................................................4
Research Question/Hypothesis.......................................................................................................4
Primary Question.........................................................................................................................5
Secondary Questions...................................................................................................................5
Research Design and Methodology.................................................................................................5
Qualitative Research....................................................................................................................5
Quantitative Research..................................................................................................................5
Research Limitations........................................................................................................................6
Time Schedule ( Research Plan).......................................................................................................6
Conclusion :......................................................................................................................................7
Reference List..................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
The Coca-Cola is a well known brand in soft drink industry; it deals with non alcoholic
beverages. The drinks are available in the form of cans, plastic bottles, glass and served across
the world in the restaurants, grocery shops, vending machines etc. John Pemberton founded
the company in 1886 in the United States of America. Started with a single flavor, it has
changed the flavors time to time and from country to country depending upon the demand of
time. Today, it is available in the variety of forms ranging from diet coke to Caffeine free Coca
Cola, from Cherry Coca- Cola to Coca-Cola Zero.
It was in the year 2011 that Coca Cola was declared the most valuable brand of the World. With
more 1.7 billion serving each day, it serves in more than 200 countries with almost 500 brands.
It has its headquarters at Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Muhtar Kent is the key person of the
company heading the company as Chairman and CEO. Saxena, S (2018).
The company started with intention of preparing a patent medicine but today it does
everything related to a software beverage. Right from preparing the concentrates to reaching
the customer hands, all is taken care by the company.
Project Objective
As we know, Coca Cola is one of the most successful brands, not just in a country or two but
across the globe. So here we will analyze all the marketing strategies that made Coca Cola what
it is today. We will look into all the promotional activities and marketing strategies it adopted in
order to reach that height and sustain for such a long period. Every successful company had
gone through up and downs in its journey, so we will look where the company failed and how it
was able to combat that failures. We will also look at scope of future expansion and what are
the current challenges faced by the company. One key aspect we will objectify is how it
managed to fit in the taste of people across the globe with such diversity.
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Project Scope
In this report, we try to establish a co-relation between the marketing strategies adopted by
the company and various available marketing strategies. We will also go through relevant
global theories on marketing and try to figure out from comprehensive analysis that is it a single
marketing strategy or a mix marketing strategy that resulted in making Coco-Cola a global
brand today. We also tried to conceptualize that what works for a company to make a global
impact, is it standardization of the process or adaption according to the country’s need. To
draw our conclusion, we taken the help of various research methods including a combination of
primary research and secondary research. Primary Research have been done with the help of
questionnaires, interviews, market analysis etc while the secondary research has been done
with the help of analyzing the information published by the company in its records, say it be
financial statements, sales records, consumer data reports etc. Ohbass,J(2015)
Literature Review
The basic purpose of any company to analyze how its buying-selling process works. Since, the
company we are analyzing is a global brand, umbrella marketing i.e. uses the same marketing
strategy across various country may not work since the tastes and demand vary a lot across the
geographies, cultures etc. Earlier, due to lack of advancement of technology standardization
worked out but now due to paradigm shift in the nature in which market operates, from
producer to consumer driven business. Any company has to adapt to changing needs of the
customer now known popularly as term “International Planning”. But in order to retain the
identity of the company, it needs to maintain its originality also, so now the idea is to combine
global and local i.e. “To think global but to act local”. In other words, it means to keep the basic
idea same but customize it with the needs of local markets. Umar, F. (2018).
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Standardization v/s Adaption or the combined approach:
Undoubtedly, standardization has its own benefits, but the basic questions does those benefits
overpower the harm caused by it. Standardization gives a brand a global reorganization, it
lowers the cost of product per product, it decreases the chances of adulteration and the list
goes on. But it is for the current market scenario now prevalent. Consumer has complex
demand than a decade back; it no longer gets satisfied by what is available. It wants what it
wants and there is enough competition to cater to those demands. Earlier, it used to consumer
wants the product now it is like a company wants consumer to whom it could see the products.
So in order to retain the customer, in order to retain the customer it has to give what the
consumer demand. Therefore, adaption to the local market is the need of the time.
Pageds,E(2011)
The ideal mix of standardization and adaption would us to go deeper and understand various
aspects of consumer behavior pattern as well expectation from the current product available.
Coke uses standardized branding policies but different marketing mix in order to capture a
larger share of the market while at the same time reduces cost for the company.
Research Question/Hypothesis
Research Question or Hypothesis means why this research is meant to be done or what is the
purpose of the Research. Here are primary focus is on ‘Adaption’ and ‘Standardization’, so the
discussion would carry on the same lines. Slideshare.net. (2018).
There are two research questions where we will primary focus. The first question is what
strategies are adopted globally and how they are different from locally available strategies. And
to see, which is more suitable in the current scenario and any company can implement
combination of both to achieve success globally.
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The second question which we will focus upon: how to implement various global and local
marketing strategies, each further categorizing into rural and urban strategies of each type for
any global grand. This is primarily done to know the view point of audience regarding both.
Asaf,M(2013
Primary Question
The primary question that we will deal here would be done in from of literature survey.
The question would be “Would you prefer standardized product or the customized product?”
Secondary Questions
The secondary question would be from the data of the company collected from websites,
already published research papers, financial statements etc.
Few of the questions scrutinized are:
How are research methods by Coke different from retailers, promoters and wholesalers?
Which promotion strategy is most efficient and does it vary from region to region?
How do they change their strategy in rural area as compared with that of urban areas?
Research Design and Methodology
During the research process, it is needed that the outcome of the research be described and
explained. During research phase, the policy that helped the researchers gather more and more
information was known as the explorative policy. This, in a way, facilitated the flexibility of the
research. Once the findings of the research were out, need came to explain the findings to put
forward a suitable approach. Hence there was the need to explain the analytical data and plot
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them along the experimental data. Thus the method of descriptive research came into play.
Ling (2016).
Qualitative Research
Qualitative Research is done to understand the perspective of the public in general. The sample
selected should be diverse and should present an unbiased opinion.
Steps Involved:
Step 1: Prepare a questionnaire with all necessary questions.
Step 2: Select a proper sample from varied regions.
Step 3: Survey the sample under proper supervision so that no biasness arises out of it.
Step 4: Compile all the survey answers together and present itself in a more readable form such
as graph, charts etc.
Step 5: Analyze the result to arrive at conclusion.
Quantitative Research
This is done mostly with the help of numbers; hence mostly secondary data is used as a
reference.
Steps Involved:
Step 1: Select appropriate reports that could be helpful to you.
Step 2: Take out relevant data from those reports.
Step 3: Present that data in a more readable form.
Step 4: Analyze the data to arrive at the conclusion.
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Research Limitations
In every research, there are certain limitations associated with it. It can be stated as following:
The primary research could have a lot of biasness involved.
The reliance on secondary data increases than that of primary data.
The scarcity of data in certain areas could be another obstacle during the research.
The sample size of primary data is another issue.
The further research plan includes inclusion of primary data, unexplored market of soft
beverages, including the strategies adopted by the competitors as well as a detailed analysis of
unbiased consumer pattern.
Time Schedule ( Research Plan)
Time schedule of the research plan tells us approximately when which task would be
performed, for example when the data would be collected. The proper deadlines are illustrated
by the company for the research purpose; else there is no end of the research. Also, one
important aspect that needs to take care of is not much data to be research because in today’s
world of digitization the amount of data is immense. Food Dive. (2016).
For primary research, the deadlines should be set as how many questions to be included in the
questionnaires. Also, how many people needs to be in total and on per day basis so that , we
get approximately idea how long will be able to complete the entire research and analysis of
one questionnaires. On the basis of availability of time, we would be able to decide on number
of questionnaires and people to be surveyed per questionnaires.
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For secondary research, as such so particular deadlines are defined but it is necessary to decide
on the ultimate deadline so that we do not waste our time in doing unnecessary research. So
after deciding on what is to be researched and how many reports are to be analyzed, we can
decide on the final deadline. Rest all the things can be planned on the basis of the final deadline
and worked upon.
Conclusion :
After the analysis of various research finding by primary and secondary research, we came with
several conclusions in which in turn made us focus on the recommendations that can be
worked upon. However, we should remember that Coca-Cola sells because of its USP, so while
implementing any changes in any marketing or promotional strategy, it should not be deviated
from its USP. The basic idea of this research was to increase its sales in existing nations and also
to target new areas while still the presence is either not there or negligible i.e. niche markets.
One of the primary reasons of success of any company is its strong distribution channel and
coca-cola is known for that. The brand could be find in every corner today, so the major focus
should remain the same, with the objective of reducing the cost each day.
As discussed earlier, customization is the new demand of the time. Although the Coca-Cola
offers wide variety of production like Minute Maid, Limca, Coke, Thumbs Up , so should
continue with the same and focus even on increasing that based on the demand of the
customers.
It was also observed in the report that a major demand of the product comes from the urban
segment , so the company should try to increase its reach to the rural areas and develop
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promotion and marketing strategies for the same as still half of the population of any country
are located in rural areas.
Reference List
Food Dive. (2016). 8 major challenges facing the food and beverage industry in 2016. [online]
Available at: https://www.fooddive.com/news/8-major-challenges-facing-the-food-and-
beverage-industry-in-2016/411408/ [Accessed 23 Apr. 2018].
Ling (2016). The Coca-Cola Company. [online] Slideshare.net. Available at:
https://www.slideshare.net/AngelinaLing/the-cocacola-company-64756812 [Accessed 23 Apr.
2018].
Saxena, S (2018). [online] Available at:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a16c/b070e2f74ccc046b026f2c1ed2ad02da6d0e.pdf
[Accessed 23 Apr. 2018].
Slideshare.net. (2018). International Business Strategy Coca-Cola.. [online] Available at:
https://www.slideshare.net/vaidsanjay/international-business-stratedgy-cocacola [Accessed 23
Apr. 2018].
Umar, F. (2018). Strategic Resources Management: A case study of Coca Cola Company. [online]
Academia.edu. Available at:
http://www.academia.edu/10943606/Strategic_Resources_Management_A_case_study_of_Co
ca_Cola_Company [Accessed 23 Apr. 2018].
Asaf,M(2013)https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
243754087_The_PIMS_Principles_Linking_Strategy_to_Performance
Ohbass,J(2015)https:/www.researchgate.net/publication/
233658633_The_Strategic_Positioning_of_Coca-Cola_in_their_Global_Marketing_Operation
Pageds,E(2011)https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235296492_Culture-
sensitive_adaptation_or_global_standardization_-_The_duration-of-usage_hypothesis
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