One example of Coca Cola taking a risk is buying of other companies brands. Coca Cola bought Glacéau Vitaminwater from Darius Bikoff in 2007 for $4.1 billion. This was a huge risk that eventually paid off. The reason Coca Cola bought this brand was because in 2007, there was an increase in people going to gym; Darius Bikoff (the previous owner of glacéau Vitaminwater) had taken advantage of this and made a tasty energy drink with a variety of colour so it would attract to customers.
Another example of how Coca Cola have taken on risks is by inventing new brands. Inventing new brand costs a lot of money for researching, developing and advertising the product. They are also likely to face competition for every new drink they make. This however has paid off. Relentless is the second most popular energy drink behind red bull even though Relentless has just been released recently.
This has affected Coca Cola’s profit objective as taking risks will mean that investing money in order to get a bigger turn thus increasing their profit. However risk taking can also occur in a loss for example, when a new product that is launched, isn’t successful. This will cause a decrease in profit.
One more example of how Coca Cola have taken a risk is by changing the taste of their Coca Cola drink during the 1970’s. This however didn’t prove to be successful as people had gotten fond of the original taste. This resulted in a lot of customers moving to competitors such as Pepsi which forced Coca Cola to turn back to their old flavour. This product is still sold nowadays as there are still people how still like it. It is now called ‘Coke Classic’
This has affected Coca Cola’s portfolio objective as they’re providing a new product to their customers; widening their portfolio.
However not Coca Cola’s entire risk taking has lead to a profit. For example, Coca Cola had introduced Dasani Water. This was steadily making sales when researchers found in had contained bromide – a substance found in tap water. This led the researchers to believe the product was just tap water and as a result, the product has to be removed from the UK.
This has affected their profit objective as the launching of the Dasani Water has caused Coca Cola to lose money due to it being withdrawn from some countries and people not buying it other countries due to its bad reputation.
Identifying and exploiting marketing opportunities:
Being able to identify and exploit marketing opportunities is an important skill for a business in order to be successful.
An example of how Coca Cola have exploited a marketing opportunity is when the new film ‘James Bond Quantum of Solace’ released. The movie had made £11.4 million on its opening weekend of release and took more than £50 million at the British Box Office. Coca Cola had taken advantage of this by releasing the limited edition Coca Cola packaging based on the film. This method was used to boost sales of Coca Cola and was proved to be successful.
Another similar campaign is when Coke Zero partnered up with Avatar to provide their customers with exclusive content in a variety of different way. One of these is the website: . This website allows users who buy the special Avatar Coke bottles/cans to view some special 3D affects using just their webcam. This made people want to buy their Coca Cola as they wanted to see these special affects for themselves.
Coca Cola have identified this marketing opportunity as Avatar made revenue of $1.3 billion making it the second most successful movie before titanic.
One major marketing Coca Cola has exploited is buying the rights to sell their product at the world cup matches. The world cup is the most widely watched sport worldwide. The product sold at the world cup matches all belong to Coca Cola whether it be Sprite, Coca Cola or Fanta. Coca Cola have taken advantages of this and have set a high price which the people at the world cup have no choice but to pay.
Being able to identify and exploit marketing opportunities has enabled Coca Cola to gain profits through various campaigns therefore allowing them to achieve the profit objective. This has also helped them to achieve their partner objective as they are working with various different partners in order to exploit these marketing opportunities.
This links in with risk taking as Coca Cola has to be able to identify and exploit marketing opportunities in order to take risk. For example if Coca Cola identify a company that is successful, they have to take the risk in buying it to make a profit.
Ability to innovate
Coca Cola continues to make develop their products in order to meet the needs of their customers. One example of this is introducing the ‘zero’ or ‘diet’ range. These products contain zero or very little sugar to meets the needs of customers who have diabetes, are trying to lose weight or for parents buying it for their kids.
Coca Cola have introduced different bottle shapes to appeal to their audience. For example, during the world cup, Coca Cola introduced the football shaped bottle. This was used to attract football fans from all around the world to buy their product. This worked because Coca Cola is a typical sports drink.
Coca Cola have also introduced different coloured bottles to resemble the flavour of the drink. For example Coca Cola had made an orange bottle to resemble the Coca Cola orange flavour. This was used so that their customer could easily recognise what flavour the drink was without going up to it and reading it.
Coca Cola have also introduced a few limited edition products for example Coca Cola Vanilla and Coca Cola with lime. These were used to widen their portfolio to their customers who enjoy the taste of coke.
Being able to be innovative has affected their portfolio objective as they’re providing more brands and beverage to their customers. It has also affected their profit objective as these promotions have meant more people have bought their products.
Ability to build teams and inspire
In order to get things done, the employees at Coca Cola have to work as a team.
Being the market leaders in the soft drink market has meant the employees at Coca Cola have to work as a team to generate ideas and to carry out research. Inspiring the employees to work as a team has helped to motivate them which means they can get things done faster.
This has affected their people objective as their employees are working as a team. They are also providing their employees with a great place to work in.
