Objectives of Coca-Cola, and Pepsi are Reflected in their Marketing Strategy

The Coca-Cola Company:

It is easy to ascertain exactly why Coca-Cola is a highly respected beverage producer and marketer in today’s society. In examining, Coca-Cola we can see that this company has sought to ensure that its products meet its high expectation levels. These expectations literally revolve around its vision to aid in the improvement of the world: Acknowledging that marketing strategy requires continues adaptations to ensure success, the circular vision statement reflects that an interplay of activities between people, profit, planet, partners, and portfolio are vital to sustaining its growth on multiple scales.

By sustaining growth, its portfolio will globally address and bring products to suit people’s needs and desires. This engages the support of employees and consumers who see that the company’s actions reflects from their vision statement, and does not simply play ‘lip-service’.

Surrounding the circular vision lies a key aspect: coca-cola’s recognition that it must at all times retain a positive working relationship with its bottlers and partners; hence building up mutual trust and loyalty.

Get quality help now

RhizMan

Verified writer

Proficient in: Advertising

4.9 (247)

“ Rhizman is absolutely amazing at what he does . I highly recommend him if you need an assignment done ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

By enabling a constant positive relationship, the company will make sure that its products are going out the door in an efficient and effective manner; hence meeting its profit vision of ultimately “maximizing return to shareholders” while being cognizant of its social responsibility. From a planet perspective, the company’s vision iterates that it is a global citizen that not only makes a difference but truly desires too as well. When strife occurs, this leads to a shift from positive production to negative production.

As the old saying goes: a happy employee, is a productive one.

Via Coca-cola’s website, these components are further highlighted as the chief reasons why Coca-cola is continuously realigning itself to reshaping is strategic look at marketing. The website indicates that the vision was compiled from inquiring from 150 of their top leaders about what they believe the company’s vision should be. This attributes to the company’s vision to be a good place where people are inspired to be “the best they can be”. This reflects that Coca-cola’s managers are listened to and respected, which aids in the company’s interest in people relationships; in addition, this shows an empowered environment where managers are attuned to the objectives and direction of the company.

It was interesting to see that the company’s mission statement aligns itself well to its vision. The company steadfastly seeks “To Refresh the World...in body, mind, and spirit”, “To Inspire Moments of Optimism...through our brands and our actions”, and lastly “To Create Value and Make a Difference...everywhere we engage.” . The mission statement is more subjective versus objective or measurable in nature, but it is geared to creating positive alignment amongst its employees, consumers, marketing teams, and partners.

In evaluating which of its objectives is measurable we must turn to its portfolio to see if its objective to be a global seller is a reality or not. Overall, the company has created a shared value system (leadership, passion, integrity, accountability, collaboration, innovation, and quality) by which they live by within the company and without. This system helps create an aura of shared responsibility which is attuned to the best interests of all involved and can be measured based upon innovation and quality statistics.

Pepsi:
A plain, simple, and to the point vision statement is what Pepsi stands behind:

In evaluating the vision statement, we can see that Pepsi believes that it is sustainability because the company will always stand behind its responsibility to improve “all aspects of the world in which” they operate. Symbolically, they used the “greater than symbol, >” to indicate that tomorrow’s future must be protected and Pepsi feels that it has a responsibility to aid in that goal. The website contains speeches from the PepsiCo President and Chief Executive Officer Indra Nooyi about corporate responsibility and how it must be applied in today’s society to make a difference in our environment and various societies.

Pepsi has identified that in order to encourage other companies to partake in this responsibility it must be a role model. This vision statement is a clear point on giving back to society, but it doesn’t appear to indicate how this is to be achieved directly. It indicates why, who, where, and what must be improved but it is a little vague on how to achieve the vision. It motivates all parties involved, because no one, would state that they want the future to be handicapped by a lack of improvements made today.

For shareholders, they would not desire to see a drop in maximizing profits or loss of consumers who might consider Pepsi uninterested in improving the global market or environment. For consumers, if Pepsi did not donate or contribute to global initiatives they would turn instead to competitive brands.  Instead of titling their mission statement as such, Pepsi instead appears to call it their “commitments” or guiding principles:

These points iterate that Pepsi is truly staunchly dedicated to positions which are important to various constituencies. The sustained growth is measurable and vital to shareholders who monitor Pepsi’s annual growth and progress. Empowered people are those loyal Pepsi employees, partners, manufacturers, and consumers who stand behind a product which is created with quality in mind. These commitments are maintained based upon guiding principles that genuinely care about people, the world, truth and honesty, success in many aspects, and balancing short term goals with long term dedication to achievement and change.

Pepsi’s objectives lie hand in hand with its commitments and guiding principles. One of Pepsi’s objectives as seen in its proxy statement is to sustain its long term performance by stretching out its financial goals, maintaining its great retirement plans for employees, and continue to nominate managers into governing positions within Pepsi who support Pepsi’s vision and mission statement.

Both financial as well an non-financial objectives are referred to in the proxy statement, which reflects how well balanced these objectives truly are. Overall, Pepsi’s vision, values, mission statement, and objectives all intertwine around the idea of sustainability; whether it be sustainability of people, governance of Pepsi, global market, partnerships, marketing strategies, development, success, or growth.

Assignment: Question 2

In order to evaluate if TCCC (The Coca-Cola Company’s) vision and objectives is conforming to its strategic business model, we must uncover from its annual reports, SEC 10-K Form, and other such public documents if this is so. TCCC’s strategy and business model lies in its desire to have sustainable and long term growth by relying on its key visions: inspiring employees in the workplace, globally bringing a solid beverage portfolio of products which addresses peoples desires, creating a network of loyal partners, maintaining an inspirational global citizenship practice on our planet, and maximizing profits for shareholders.

Recognizing that strategy and business models must forever be willing to adaptive to changing conditions, TCCC has sought to reevaluate its consumer marketing via advertising investments geared to make consumer aware of their products. Such efforts have included activities such as sales promotions, advertising, and point-of-sale merchandising of TCCC items. Furthermore, the company’s strategy has included obtaining feedback from consumers which has enabled the company to know what its present consumers feel and what they would like to see change.

As the firm sells its products to various global retailers it must identify and conform to the needs of those clientele. Hence, TCCC has made differentiated package offerings which are adjusted to the expectations and needs of all kinds of retailers. This allows for the company to directly compete with its competitors. Considered a “work in progress” the SEC 10K Form iterates how the company uses the right promotional tools to enhance value in their products for various retailers seeking to growth their businesses or distributional facilities.

As the business model and strategy adheres to the idea of new business approaches, TCCC’s annual report indicates that it constantly has new franchise options and new leadership approaches which tend to allow for an overall flexibility between the parent company and its consumer’s wants and needs. As the supply chain network of its bottling partners is a resilient procession it has used this growth to aid in its competitive edge. Part of maintaining this edge is identifying distinctive elements that pose as opportunities, risks, or direct threats to the company well-being. This shows that TCCC is on the right track because it gauges its own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats on many different levels of marketing and advertising.

The annual report indicates that some threats include obesity problems among its consumers, water quality and quantity on the part of its risk management program, consumer preferences that are in constant change, and increased competition in the marketplace. TCCC has positively made action plans which seek to respond to these market conditions. Partaking in obesity programs and donating to research of diet foods, the firm has seen that this would aid in its sustained growth because consumers would feel that diet items are a viable alterative beverage. In terms of water quality and quantity problems, the firm knows that as water is a limited resource, alterative programs must be in place with provide water treatment or risk evaluation of the dire situation.

This collaborative partnership with research and other beverage companies has shown the firm as having a strong dedication to social responsibility. From an external perspective, should TCCC not participate in such programs then consumers would be driven to advocate switching to other beverage companies. These factors have led proponents to challenge the health component of the quality of products being produced. This way TCCC can point out that it has heard the feedback and acted on it.

By promoting and employing surveys and research, TCCC has strengthened its capabilities to monitor and adapt to consumer preferences to diet beverages while maintaining a strong consumer brand loyalty. Its corrective measures have shown that its business model is prospering and being measured via increases in its annual profits.  Acknowledging that there might be required adjustments to its business model to ensure that the company was making a profit, TCCC discloses concerns over foreign exchange due to monetary fluctuations overseas, interest rate changes between fixed and variable rate debts, and value at risk increases.

By monitoring and simulating how these external elements could adversely affect the company, TCCC can also evaluating the overall company performance in terms of shareholder equity and cash flow generalizations. These public reports all reflect that TCCC’s business model and strategy are constantly being monitoring and adjusted as the need arises. By communicating to shareholders the affects or predictions of changes made, TCCC can promote new marketing ideas or suspend activities if called for.  This is all a positive support of the company’s mission and objectives because it allows for TCCC to remain on its toes in the event of a need to make a strategic or business model modification.

2 Websites Used:-References:
Coca-Cola’s Official Website: http://ir.thecoca-colacompany.com/ and annual report: http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/investors/pdfs/form_10K_2006.pdf

Pepsi Official Website’s: http://www.pepsico.com/