Case Study: Coca -Cola Company
Coca-cola Company is the largest manufacturer, distributor, and marketer of nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups in the world, and one of the largest corporations in the United States. The company is best known for its product COCA-COLA
Recent changes in the business environment of Coca-cola
Raising public opinion against the Coca-Cola product’s quality and purity has affected the business growth of the company badly. Coca-cola has faced many legal suits about the fulfillment of their public liability. The public opinion about the product’s quality of the company is continuously diminishing.
It is time for Coca-Cola to seriously examine and address the adverse impacts of its operations in India. Coca-Cola needs to stop treating the issues in India as a public relations problem and assign it to the appropriate department that will genuinely address the issues of over-exploitation of water (leaving the community with scarce water resources) and pollution of water sources as a result of its operations. (Corp Watch-Communities reject Coca-cola in India –by Amit Srivastava ).
The quality of the company’s product is questioned by scientific personnel in various countries. They identified the presence of pesticide content in the product. Due to this many states have banned the use of cola products in their area. This has affected the company’s goodwill badly. Without the fulfillment of public liability, no business can survive in this world
Extensive pumping out of millions of liters of water from hundreds of sites around the world by coca-cola and Pepsi is serious destruction faced by the community in this century. The unethical behavior by corporations that pollute our environment affects the global community as a whole. ( The South Asian – Coke Steals, Pollutes and Spins).
The Killer Coke campaign is charging the company with crimes against humanity elsewhere as well, especially in India. Coke-affiliated bottlers, activists charge, are depleting that country’s potable water supply through the manufacture of soft drinks, and to add insult to injury, are selling those drinks with dangerous levels of toxic residue.. (Depleting water, Poisonous Drinks: The Unproven case against Coca- Cola – by Dr. Car F. Horowitz).
The threat of substitutes
The availability of substitute products is the other important threat faced by the Cola Company. Substitute products such as mineral water and energy food drinks are now more accepted by the public than cola products. This also affected the business growth of the firm. They have to compete with substitute products for attaining the market.
How the company can eliminate these threats?
As a way to minimize these risks or threats, the company can adopt the followings steps.
The company should take great care to discharge its public liability. They must take steps to ensure the quality and safety of their product. They should follow the standard quality control techniques to ensure the purity of their product. They should ensure that their product is free from all kinds of malpractices and does not contain any elements which are harmful to human lives. The allegations regarding environmental pollution must be deal with by them with great care and interest.
For avoiding the threats of substitute products the cola company can introduce a variety of tasty products. Before introducing new brand products they should understand the changing interest of the public through public opinion surveys. They may also adopt the technique of product diversification. This will help them to attain new customer groups over their existing customers.
The scarcity of freshwater all over the world also affects the working of the Cola Company severely. Many public groups have an allegation that the presence of Cola plants in their areas is causing the reduction in the water levels on their earth. To avoid the risk of freshwater scarcity the company should take care to plant their business in the least populated areas. This may help them to avoid the allegation of the public against them.
These steps may help the company to avoid or minimizing the risk with their business.