COCA-COLA Strategic Choice Analysis: Ansoff Matrix and SWOT

This report provides a strategic analysis of the COCA-COLA company, focusing on its strategic choices, including the use of SWOT analysis, Ansoff matrix, and product diversification strategies. It examines the company's approach to market positioning, highlighting the importance of threshold features, distinctive resources, and competitive advantages. The report also discusses the hybrid pricing strategy, product innovation, and market penetration tactics employed by COCA-COLA to maximize sales and maintain market share. Furthermore, it assesses the challenges and opportunities associated with diversification, such as the potential for new product development (e.g., diet cola, energy drinks) and the financial considerations involved. The conclusion emphasizes the significance of continuous strategic assessment to ensure the organization's target orientation and future-proofing in a competitive market.

Organizational Strategic Choice-2

Strategic capability analysis: Threshold and distinctive resource
Strategic capability generally analyses the customers' preferences of the product and service
attributes, and so it is necessary for a company to recognize the threshold features that must be
offered to sustain in the market. An organization should consider the critical success factors,
necessary resources and competence to survive and outperform in the market. On the other hand,
Distinctive resources create competitive advantage and organization sometimes needs to invest
in the resources to be in the business.
SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is a model of assessing Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threats, and helps
a company reduce the chances of failure by eliminating problems and provide a good overall
understanding of the company (Mohammad Arabzad an, 2012).
Figure: SWOT Analysis
Strengths are a fundamental part of the business organization that distinguishes it from its
competitors and drive the business.
Weaknesses are inherent features that can be gathered by focusing on resources, processes, and
people, and they are the areas to improve or practices that need to avoid.
Strengths Weaknesses
Opportunities Threats

Opportunities are the sign that something positive can happen and usually arise from outsides
situation, so these need regular monitoring. Opportunity increases companies’ ability to compete
and lead in the market.
Threats are the outside negative factor that could hamper the progress of the business, such as
market requirement shift, problems in supply chain and other external challenges.
Development of Strategic Choices
In our case of COCA-COLA company, a manufacturer of soft drinks, it undertakes the hybrid
pricing strategy meaning it maintains price along with differentiating itself from its competitor as
customers have the different requirements for the time value of money. The company follows
price mixing, product innovation, increased production techniques, sales promotion brand
promotion and development, improved packaging and to achieve its goal, it increases marketing
budget, launches different new products and new brands in order to maximize its sales. The
inherent idea behind this choice is that if one loses its market share, the company could survive
through economies of scale producing large quantities and covers the cost and also penetrating
different geographies. It has to work on the scope of the company in the field of product
diversification like soft-drinks, diabetic drinks, juice and juice drinks. The COCA-COLA
company can use the Ansoff matrix, a simplified way of generating way, to identify its strategic
direction.

Figure: Ansoff model of product Diversification used by COCA-COLA company
(Young, 2015)
Diversification, helping the company in breaking new grounds, has been proved to be a profound
strategic option for COCA-COLA company. A new product like diet cola has huge potential in
the market and can impact positively on market share. So, a shift from soft drinks to energy and
diet drinks can create the opportunity of grabbing a large market share.
However, diversification is capital intensive and incurs high research and development costs, so
financing could be a big problem for a relatively small firm. There is a good chance of product
failure, but laboratory works and feasibility studies need a huge amount of money. So, proper
branding, an adequate amount of public awareness and advertisement is a must in case of
diversification.

Conclusion
The formal and the rational process that is depicted here can help any organization achieve its
strategic positioning of brands and products, they slightly differ industry to industry, though.
Product diversification, product development, and market penetration have been worked as a key
strategy of strategic positioning in our study of COCA-COLA company, a soft-drink
manufacturer. Since the strategic positioning forms an essential part of the strategic management
process, the organization should keep assessing the current strategy and should determine the
effective changes needed to make the organization target-oriented and future-proof as well.