Coca-Cola SWOT Analysis: Opportunities, Threats and Market Share

This report presents a SWOT analysis of Coca-Cola, focusing on the opportunities and threats the company faces in its operating environment. Opportunities include diversification into health and food businesses, expansion in developing nations, growth in packaged drinking water demand, efficient supply chain management, marketing of lesser-known products, adapting to healthier living trends, developing innovative products, expansion through partnerships, and leveraging technological advancements. Threats encompass raw material sourcing challenges due to water scarcity, indirect competition from healthier beverage options, intense competition in the soda industry, rising costs of raw materials and labor, legal and regulatory constraints, changing consumer tastes, competition from Pepsi, false media coverage, and high dependence on bottling partners. The analysis concludes that Coca-Cola must leverage its brand and adopt innovative strategies to mitigate threats and capitalize on opportunities for sustainable growth. Desklib offers a wealth of similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

Opportunities and threats of Coca-Cola 0
SWOT Analysis
Opportunities and threats of Coca-Cola company
Student’s Name
12/31/2018

Opportunities and threats of Coca-Cola 1
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Main Body..................................................................................................................................2
Opportunities For the company..................................................................................................2
Threats for the company.............................................................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................8

Opportunities and threats of Coca-Cola 2
Introduction
A SWOT analysis is a powerful tool that acts as a guide in developing the business strategy.
It helps in analysing the strength and weakness inside the organization and can be controlled
through the actions of the organization as well as the opportunities and threats that lie in the
external environment. This tool helps the company in sustaining its competitive advantage
and developing a niche in the market (Seth, 2015). It helps in altering the actions that can be
a threat to the company and enables the organization to expand its market share. This tool
builds a strong strategy for the company to enhance its existing business or to develop new
strong business.
Microenvironment analysis depicts the factors that affect the business performance, strategy
and success of the enterprise. It includes factors such as competitors, customers, suppliers and
employees of the company (Mose, 2016). The company aims to analyse the opportunities and
threats associated to forecast future trends and take effective actions to increase its market
share.
Main Body
Opportunities For the company
Opportunities exist in the external environment within which the company operates. The
company focuses on implementing strategies to increase profitability, market share and brand
recognition.
Diversification
Expansion of health and food business provides the opportunity to the company by
creating demand for their goods and the company can earn more revenue by
distributing the supply chain cost with the other companies.
Opportunities in developing nations
The company has the opportunity to expand its business in the developing countries
because they are more attracted towards the carbonated drinks and the consumption is

Opportunities and threats of Coca-Cola 3
double at the times of summer. Such provides the opportunity to the company to
expand its business.
Packaged drinking water
Due to increase in hygiene factor, the demand for the packaged drinking water is
increased so it provides the opportunity to the company to expand Kinley drinking
water and build the Bisleri level of trust among the customers.
Supply chain management
The company must have strict control of the supply chain management because the
company has the main business of production and distribution and however leads to
an increase in the cost. The company must make continuous efforts to control the
supply chain cost of the company (Gattorna, 2017).
Marketing of the lesser known products
The company has the opportunity to market its less developed products by using the
appropriate marketing strategies and make the customers aware which in turn will
help the company to increase its market revenue and diversify its product categories.
The company has the opportunity to use technology advancements such as digital and
AI to market its less developed products (Ireland, 2018).
The shift toward healthier living
It is observed that there is a shift in the behaviour of humans towards healthy living.
Such shifts in the perception of the customers create the demand of the diet coke, coke
zero in the UK and expand the demand of the company’s product, which in turn will
help the company to increase its market revenue and generate higher profits
Development of innovative products
The company has the intent to become a growth-oriented company and focuses on
bringing innovation to continuously adapt the changing requirements of the
customers. The company brings the innovation by launching its zero sugar soft drink
and has the opportunity to expand its market share by expanding its share in the
Europe market. Development of healthier products will bring the opportunity for the
company to expand its operation because the new generation is becoming health
conscious and demands healthier products (Seth, 2015).
Expansion through partnerships
The company has the opportunity to expand its business operation by developing
partnerships with the other competitors and reducing the cost of the company.
Technology advancement

Opportunities and threats of Coca-Cola 4
The development of technological advancement provides the opportunity to the
company to market its product and create high brand awareness (Dyer et al,
2015). The company adopts the aggressive marketing strategy to expand its market
share and ability to sustain its brand image in a competitive environment.
It is analysed that the company has the opportunity to market its product in the
untapped areas using advanced technology and can increase the revenue for the firm.
It is observed that the demand for the packed water in increasing which in turn creates
the opportunity for the firm to expand its share. The company must focus on
expanding its business by having a partnership with the other companies.
Threats for the company
Threats also lie in the external environment within which the company operates. The
company focuses on analysing the threats that can occur in future to make the deviations in
the strategy. It will help the company in overcoming the barriers, which can hinder the
growth of the organization.
Raw material sourcing
It is analysed that the products of the company majorly require water for the
production and the scarcity of water creates a major threat to the survival of the
company. The countries are facing the problem of scarcity of water, which creates a
threat for the company to utilise water for its production and in turn will lead to
falling in the market share of the company (Flynn and Okuonzi, 2016).
Indirect competitors
The companies like Starbucks, Costa coffee, café coffee day creates indirect
competition for the company by launching healthier drinks for the customer. Although
the company has its strong market share it decreases the sales of the company and acts
as a threat to the company
Heavy competition in the soda industry
The competition in the soda industry in increasing fast and the company adopts the
aggressive marketing strategies to maintain its competitive advantage. Such activities
create cost expansion and act like a threat to the company (Sarsby, 2016).
The increasing cost of raw material and labour

Opportunities and threats of Coca-Cola 5
Due to the scarcity of water, the cost of the raw material and the labour increases
which leads to an increase in the cost of the company and however reduces the
revenue of the company.
Legal and the regulatory laws
The creation of laws related to the food quality, labour laws and the environment
protection laws creates a threat for the company (Baah and Bohaker, 2015). It
becomes difficult to operate with such regulation and however hampers the growth of
the organization because the company is not able to manufacture the products and will
lead to a fall in revenue
Changing the taste of the customer
The changing taste of the customers is the major threat for the company because the
consumers expect the development of new products, which are unique in taste and
create the need for the company to make continuous innovation for maintaining its
competitive advantage (Gourlay and Boots, 2013).
Closest Competitor
It is observed that Pepsi is the closest competitor of Coca-Cola and provides almost
the same taste, which leads to the high bargaining power of the buyers because they
easily switch to other brands and has the high price elasticity.
False media coverage
It is analysed that due to the involvement of high competition among the firms it uses
the media tool to provide the false information about its competitor’s brand, which in
turn hampers the brand image of the company (Bose, 2008).
High dependence on the bottling partner
The company uses the strategy to develop partnerships with the bottling companies
but it also involves the risk to the brand image of the company because the company
depends upon the demand of the bottling companies and in turn become complex to
increase its market share.
It is analysed that apart from the opportunities available the company also faces
threats that can decrease the sustainability of the firm (Santos and Laczniak, 2015).
The major threat for the company is the scarcity of the raw material, which in turn
hampers the growth of the business, and the increased competition in the soda
industry creates the need to make continuous innovation in the products. The
company needs to create innovative products to meet the changing requirements of

Opportunities and threats of Coca-Cola 6
the customer because Pepsi has developed its market share in other product also
which reduces its threat to the scarcity of water.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is concluded that Coca-Cola is the most famous global brand,
which delivers unique taste to its customers and focuses on the vision to provide maximum
satisfaction to its customers. The company operates in a competitive environment and
considers all the threats and opportunities to sustain its competitive advantage and deliver
unique products for its customers. The company must position its brand by using aggressive
marketing strategies and deliver a high-quality product.

Opportunities and threats of Coca-Cola 7
References
Baah, S. and Bohaker, L., (2015) The Coca-Cola Company. Culture, 16(1), pp.17
Bose, R. (2008) Competitive intelligence process and tools for intelligence
analysis. Industrial management & data systems, 108(4), pp.510-528.
Dyer, J.H., Godfrey, P., Jensen, R. and Bryce, D. (2015) Strategic management: Concepts
and cases. United States of America: Wiley Textbooks
Flynn, A., and Okuonzi, S.A. (2016) Coca-Cola's multifaceted threat to global public
health. The Lancet, 387(10013), pg.25
Gattorna, J. (2017) Introduction: In Strategic supply chain alignment. Newyork: Routledge
Gourlay, A., and Boots, A. (2013) The end of competitive advantage: how to keep your
strategy moving as fast as your business. United States of America: Harvard business review
Mose, A. (2016) Analysis of macro and microenvironment on the marketing strategy
formulation and the influence to the competitive advantage (case study). Academy of
Strategic Management Journal, pp. 15
Santos, N., and Laczniak, G. (2015) Marketing to the poor: A SWOT analysis of the market
construction model for engaging impoverished market segments. Social Business, 5(2)
Sarsby, A. (2016) SWOT Analysis. London: Lulu.com
Seth, C. (2015) SWOT analysis. London: Lemaitre publishing