Coca Colas Entry Strategies Into The African Market Marketing Essay

Coca Colas Entry Strategies Into The African Market Marketing Essay Coca colas entry strategies into the African market. The Coca-Cola Company is one of the largest manufacturers, distributors and marketers of nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups in the world. Coca-Colas headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia, in America. It is best known for its flagship product, Coca-Cola, and is one of the largest corporations in the United States. Today, Coca-Cola is an internationally recognized soft drinks company with ambitious plans to further grow the brand. The company owns the majority of the soft drinks available in coolers and in vending machines in the western world. Some of these brands include, Coca-Cola and sub brands1, Dr Pepper, Fanta, Sprite, Oasis and PowerAde. A full list of Coca-Colas affiliated brands can be found on their corporate website2. The 2005 Annual Report states the company sells beverage products in more than 312 countries or territories.3 The international presence of Coca-Cola is phenomenal and its logo, advertising and colours are among the most recognized in the world. When an organization has made a decision to enter an overseas market, there are a variety of options open to it. An organization wishing to go international faces three major issues: i) Marketing which countries, which segments, how to manage and implement marketing effort, how to enter with intermediaries or directly, with what information? ii) Sourcing whether to obtain products, make or buy? iii) Investment and control joint venture, global partner, acquisition? Decisions in the marketing area focus on the value chain . The strategy or entry alternatives must ensure that the necessary value chain activities are performed and integrated. . One of the critical questions to examine in establishing an international development strategy is to select the entry mode in the target foreign country and the distribution channel. Several alternative entry strategies can be considered, Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are expanding their global reach, carrying their products and brands to new and diverse markets in emerging economies. As they tailor their strategies to the local context, they have to create product and brand portfolios that match their competences with local needs. A multi-tier strategy with local and/or global brands may provide MNEs with the widest reach into the market and the potential for market leadership. However, it has to be supported with an appropriate combination of global and local resources. Foreign entrants thus have to develop operational capabilities for the specific context, which requires complementary resources that are typically controlled by local firms.One of such an organization is coca cola company. Coke has recently started to heavily invest in the African market. Africa was actually a low priority region for Coca-Cola until 1997 when citing rapid population growth and disproportionately low sales, the company developed a new market strategy aiming to double sales in 5 years. Indeed, per capita consumption in Africa has grown from 18 servings in 1986 to 37 servings in 2006. Unit case volume sales are up 4 percent from 2005 to 2006. This growth was predominantly driven by 23 percent unit case volume growth in Egypt, after Coca-Cola opened a new divisional office in Cairo. Coke has clearly decided to focus its energies on emerging markets throughout the world and Coke can honestly brag about increasing its sales volume on a global scale. However, as new countries are aggressively targeted by Cokes marketing machine, dietary patterns change, and the rate of western-style diet-related diseases increase. Entry strategies into the African market. Coca Cola Company entered into the global market using various modes of entry. The most common modes are exporting, licensing and franchising. Besides exporting beverages and its special syrups, Coca cola also exporting its merchandises to foreign distributors and companies. The company has also started licensing with bottlers around the world and supplying its special syrup necessary to produce the product. Coca cola works with more than 300 bottlers internationally to produce, deliver, market and sell products around the world. In 1984 a candy store owner Joseph A Biedenham began bottling coca cola to sell using common glass called Hutchinson. Benjamin F. Thomas and Joseph B. Whitehead have made first bottling agreement with Coca cola. During 1900-1909, three main bottlers divided the country into territories and sold bottling rights to local entrepreneurs. In 1916, a distinctive bottle called contour bottle has been designed to distinguish from imitator. The contour bottle became trademark status by U.S patent office. During 1920s more than 1000 coca cola bottlers were operating in U.S. Between 1920s and 1930s, company leader Robert W. Woodruff began expand internationally through establishing bottling operation outside U.S. In 1940, before World War II, 64 bottling plant were setup around the world. During 1970s and 1980s many small and medium-sized bottlers consolidated to better serve huge amount of global customers. Strong licensing relationship with bottlers became the base for Coca Colas entire business growth. Franchising is a special type of licensing strategy. There is various type of franchising. The type used by Coca Cola is manufactured-sponsored wholesalers franchise system. In franchising the finished products and sold to the retailers in local market. In case of Coca Cola Company licensing proved most suitable mode of market entry. T he licensing strategy must ensure ongoing competitive advantages such as export market opportunities, low-risk manufacturing relationships, and diffusion of new products. Other market entry mode such as exporting also proved useful in expanding globally. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Coca-Cola has massive world appeal. The products image is loaded with over-romanticizing, and this is an image many people have taken deeply to heart. The Coca-Cola image is displayed on T-shirts, hats, and collectible memorabilia. This extremely recognizable branding is one of Coca-Colas greatest strengths.7 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Additionally, Coca-Colas bottling system is one of their greatest strengths. It allows them to conduct business on a global scale while at the same time maintaining a local approach. The bottling companies are locally owned and operated by independent business people who are authorised to sell products of the Coca-Cola Company. Because Coke does not have outright ownership of its bottling network, its main source of revenue is the sale of concentrate to its bottlers. Other brands owned by the Coca Cola company that have a strong brand image.8 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Seasonal advertising awareness e.g. TV Christmas advert and summer advert. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Coca-Colas brand name is known well throughout 94% of the world today à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Coca-Colas bottling system also allows the company to take advantage of infinite growth opportunities around the world. This strategy gives Coke the opportunity to service a large geographic, diverse area. . Coca-Cola has successfully employed the hub-and-spoke model in multiple rural emerging markets. In Africa, for instance, 9 Coca-Cola set up Manual Distribution Centers in which an independent person was given the rights to distribute Coca-Cola products within a defined radius14. Similarly, in India local entrepreneurs sell Coca-Cola using all possible means of transport, ranging from trucks, auto-rickshaws, cycle rickshaws and hand carts, to even camel carts in Rajasthan and mules in hilly areas, to transport its product from the nearest hub.15 (See exhibit 3) As Colgate and Coca-Cola have shown, the hub-and-spoke model for FMCG products works well because it addresses the inventory cost and transportation infrastructure issues that are associated with distributing products in rural emerging markets while also providing for good product availability at the small-village level. In the villages, farmers earn the bulk of their income during two to three peak harvest months, earning nothing during troughs. Farm labors get a daily wage when thereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸s work to do; at other times they sit around idle, migrate to towns, or scratch a living from other sources.36 Equally important is the ability to execute on the ground and deliver consistently across this wide variety of markets, even as they change and mature over the longer term. Many of the early entrants to Africa have established successful, profitable businesses. Companies have been able to generate competitive advantage by influencing consumer preferences, building brand loyalty and shaping industry structure before competitors have a chance to become established. The majority of emerging market nations continue to have largely rural, agrarian-based economies.1 In Africa alone, of the seven hundred million residents , roughly five hundred million people lived in rural areas.2 Delivering products and services into this market presents both unique challenges and enormous opportunities for companies. The nature of rural emerging markets makes building a successful marketing channel challenging. The population is widely dispersed, transportation infrastructure is poor or non-existent, household incomes are low and sporadic, and traditional methods of creating brand trust and awareness will not work. I propose that an entering company needs to design marketing channels that both successfully deliver products to customers in a capital-efficient way, and that unlock the latent desire that customers have to purchase and receive those products. In this manner, not only are transporters and warehouses part of a successful marketing channel, but so are entities that educate customers about products and services they may not know they need, as are the financial programs that help customers finance their purchases. The key points coca cola company should focus on when designing their rural distribution networks in emerging markets are as follows: 1. The company should choose the distribution network model that is appropriate for the product or service it is selling. 2. While continuing to meet the customers needs, the company should aggregate consumer demand into central locations as much as possible in order to decrease inventory and transportation costs. 3. The company should consider taking advantage of rural entrepreneurs (REà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸s) to facilitate last-mile product delivery and sales. Such rural entrepreneurs include retailers and kiosk operators. Although consumers in rural emerging markets clearly have low and sporadic incomes, it would be a mistake to assume that these consumers necessarily desire to purchase cheap products. Instead, as Prahalad writes, the consumers are very brand-conscious and are motivated to buy quality goods. However, at the same time, they are by necessity very value-conscious.37 The challenge for companies entering this market is to offer consumers high-quality products and brands while also offering . When AIDS advocates in Africa noticed that Coca-Cola products were available in remote African villages, it sparked the idea that perhaps the companys supply chain experts could assist in delivering life-saving drugs to AIDS victims. The drugs are typically hard to come by, especially in the outlying regions of poor countries. In some regions, it is not uncommon for the drugs to take 30 days to get through a nonprofits supply chain before arriving at their final destination. In 2009, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria asked Coke for assistance improving the organizations supply chain. The company agreed to help with a project in 2010, and the corporation worked with the Global Fund, Tanzanias Medical Stores Department, the Gates Foundation and Accenture Development Partnerships to get life-saving drugs to far-flung villages in Africa. What we noticed was that Coca-Colas products always seemed to get to every remote region, and we thought that if they could get their products there, with their support, maybe we could, too, said Gabriel Jaramillo, the Global Funds general manager, according to the Daily Beast. The drug supply chain hasnt been perfected, according to a study from the Yale School of Public Health. However, it has greatly improved access to medication in rural regions. Ill patients now have an 80 percent chance of receiving the correct medication, up dramatically from only a 50 percent chance two years ago. While the old delivery systems took a month to get drugs to the correct area, supply chains have been optimized and delivery time is now estimated at merely five days. Coca-Cola isnt doing all the work for the project they give expert advice and input, but Tanzanias Medical Stores Department is chipping in and having its employees learn the basics of supply chain management, logistics and distribution. However, the project doesnt only involve learning about how supply chains operate. All the partners are working to develop infrastructure in poorer developing areas, so Coke products and medications can more easily get where theyre needed most. Due to the success of this program, it has expanded to Ghana and Mozambique, where supply chains are still too underdeveloped to get rural residents the drugs they need. By working with one of the worlds largest distributors, groups looking to expand access to AIDS medication have developed a new system to better serve ill patients in remote regions.

Avian Influenza in the Media

The article that I chose to discuss is entitled â€Å"Avian Flu: Is the Government Ready for an Epidemic?† and was published on the ABC News website on September 15, 2005. The journalists name was not published. The article opens with the lines â€Å"It could kill a billion people worldwide, make ghost towns out of parts of major cities, and there is not enough medicine to fight it. It is called the avian flu.† Throughout the rest of the article, the journalist goes on about the horrors that could occur if avian flu were to mutate so that it was able to be transferred from human to human, and not just from bird to human as is now the case. The journalist quotes Dr. Irwin Redlener, the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness as saying â€Å"The tipping point, the place where it becomes something of an immediate concern, is where that virus changes, we call it mutates, to something that is able to go from human to human,† and then states that scientists around the world are now working around the clock as they wait for that tipping point. However, at no time does he inform the reader that all viruses mutate naturally over and over again, and that the chance of the H5N1 strain, mutating into a strain that could pass from human to human is in no way an eventuality, or even a likely outcome. He just takes quotes from various scientists around the world who are expressing a worry about what could happen in the event that H5N1 were to mutate, and uses them to imply that this is a very likely possibility. The journalist also likens an Avian Flu pandemic to Hurricane Katrina, an event that was at the foremost of people’s minds when the article was published and uses purposefully disturbing imagery that has been shown on TV about Hurricane Katrina, such as people dying in the airports and the utter helplessness of the Superbowl, to cause people to panic and worry that bird flu is likely to devastate the country at any second in order to bring to light the Government’s unpreparedness for an outbreak. He then goes on to discuss what he calls an â€Å"inadequate stockpile of medicine† and blames the Government for not having stockpiled enough Tamiflu, which he equates to a miracle drug which will stop H5N1 in its tracks. However, while he is happy to imply, in the beginning of the article, that the H5N1 virus is likely to mutate at any time, he conveniently ignores this when he talks about Tamiflu, and nowhere does he state that while this drug can help people who have contracted bird flu, it is only useful to the current strain of the virus and if it mutates, which he assures us it will, there is no guarantee that it will be of any use to those infected. I feel that these are unforgivable exaggerations of the disease and its dangers and that the journalist was simply interested in sensationalism and causing a public outcry and panic. Expert opinions on the dangers of the H5N1 virus are currently very varied and divided and a lot is still unknown about the disease, but at no time does this article bring that to light. Laura Chang, of the New York Times said it best when she said that journalists shouldn’t â€Å"write articles that might feed a sense of panic, such as telling people to stock up on Tamiflu, or dramatizing how a pandemic would spread through a particular city. Sometimes silence is the best journalism.† Website: http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Investigation/Story?id=1130392&page=1 MRSA in the media This article on MRSA, or the Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, was published in the British newspaper, the Sunday Metro, under the headline â€Å"Strain of superbug ‘may be new HIV.'† The article opens with â€Å"A deadly new drug-resistant strain of the superbug MRSA could spread rapidly through the gay community, experts have warned.† It then goes on to equate MRSA to the HI virus when it says: The infection is already moving through parts of San Francisco in the same way as HIV and Aids did in the early 1980s. The bug, which can lead to a deadly flesh-eating form of pneumonia, is 13 times more prevalent among the city's gay men than other people. However, at no time does the article explain what MRSA is or that it is not in fact, anything like HIV or AIDS. MRSA is in fact caused by a bacterium, already a vast difference from the virus that causes aids, that is responsible for difficult-to-treat infections in humans. The organism can also be further classified into either Community-Associated MRSA or Hospital-Associated MRSA depending on the circumstances in which the patient acquired the disease. The article goes on to focus on one strain of the disease, a strain known as the USA300 strain and the journalist notes that â€Å"the USA300 bug, is not caught in hospitals but spreads through a community, often by casual contact† which is true, as it is a community-associated strain of MRSA that is spread by skin to skin contact. However, the journalist then goes on to suggest that this strain, which is as a particularly antibiotic resistant epidemic that is responsible for rapidly progressive, fatal diseases, is only likely to affect the gay community. However this is not the case and as MRSA is not a sexually transmitted disease there is no way it could only affect only the gay community. The USA300 strain is passed on by skin-to-skin contact and therefore cannot be liked to HIV which is transmitted only through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected individual. While practicing homosexuals are at risk of being affected by the USA300 strain, the disease has also been reported by people in athletic teams, correctional facilities, military recruits and newborn nurseries. I believe this article is simply an example of sensationalism in the media. It does not focus on any of the facts, and makes purposefully sweeping and false statements about MRSA and its similarity to HIV, which couldn’t be further from the truth. The two are nothing like each other, one caused by a bacteria and one by a virus. One transmitted sexually and the other just by touching someone that has been infected. It was written simply to get people to by the newspaper, and should be ignored. Website: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=83921;in_page_id=34;expand=true

Quotations for an 18th Birthday

When you turn 18, you become an adult in many ways. In the U.S., you can vote, enlist in the armed forces, marry without parental consent, and be held accountable for your own actions in a court of law. At the same time, however, youre still a teenager and, very likely, still relying on your parents for both moral and financial support. And in the U.S., unlike many countries, youre still too young to drink alcohol legally. Some famous thinkers, writers, actors, and comedians have had a lot to say about turning 18. Some think its the perfect time of life; others have a very different point of view! The famous comedian Erma Bombeck felt it was an ideal time for parent liberation: I take a very practical view of raising children. I put a sign in each of their rooms: Checkout Time is 18 years. What Happens When You Turn 18 While no one instantly becomes responsible or wealthy at age 18, you are suddenly handed the tools to make financial and personal decisions. At the same time, parents lose the right to make decisions on your behalf unless you hand those rights over. For example: Parents can no longer make health decisions for you unless you sign a document assigning them those rights.Parents cant stop you from or force you to make legal decisions or agreements. That means you can just go off and get married, lease an apartment, or join the military on your own.You can sign waivers for doing dangerous activities such as skydiving or bungee jumping without your parents approval.You can run for many political offices.You can legally drink alcohol in many countries including Canada and France. At the same time that you gain all those freedoms, though, you also lack the experience and knowledge you might need to make the right decisions. Is it really a good idea to move out of your parents home before you have a job, for example? Many people do leave home at age 18; some handle the change well, but others have a hard time managing on their own. 18 Is the Perfect Age Some famous people see (or saw) age 18 as the perfect age. Youre old enough to do what you want to do and young enough to enjoy it! Youre also at a good age for having dreams for your future. Here are a few great quotes about the freedom and idealism connected with age 18. John Entwistle: I mean, eighteen years old is the age of consent in Europe and you can go anywhere and do anything you like. In America, it is dumb. At eighteen you should be able to do anything that you like, except get married. Selena Gomez: ...at the end of the day, Im eighteen, and Im going to fall in love. Mark Twain: Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen. Bryan Adams, from the song 18 Till I Die: Someday Ill be 18 goin on 55! / 18 til I die. 18 Is the Age of Confusion Writers and musicians look back at their 18th year and remember feeling confused and unsure about who they were and how they should move forward. Some, like Albert Einstein, saw 18 as the year when people believe theyre adults even though they arent. Alice Cooper, from the song Im 18: I got a babys brain and an old mans heart/Took eighteen years to get this far/Dont always know what Im talkin about/Feels like Im livin in the middle of doubt/Cause Im/Eighteen/I get confused every day/Eighteen/I just dont know what to say/Eighteen/I gotta get away. Albert Einstein: Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen. Jim Bishop: Nobody understands anyone 18, including those who are 18. 18 Is the Age of Dreamers When youre 18, you feel empowered, and you know your whole life is yet to be lived. Later, you may have a different opinion! Gracie May: When I turned 18, the whole world was ahead of me. When I turned 19, it felt like my whole world was behind me. F. Scott Fitzgerald: At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide. Liv Tyler: I cried on my 18th birthday. I thought 17 was such a nice age. Youre young enough to get away with things, but youre old enough, too. Eric Clapton, from the song Early in the Morning: When a girl  reaches  the age of 18/She begins to think shes grown​/And thats the kind of little girl/You can never find at home.

Lincoln s Rights Of Slavery - 1730 Words

Lincoln has always hated slavery; he thought it was something cruel. He noticed that the nation started dividing because of this issue and he wanted to fix, at any cost. However he thought he did not the given power to end slavery and furthermore because the constitution protected slavery, yet he interfered with this institution after his 1860 election. Though Lincoln had no plan â€Å"to interfere† with slavery when the war started, by 1862 Lincoln understood that in order to save the Union and win the war, he had authority as commander in chief to emancipate all the slaves in the Confederate States, where the states were in a status of rebellion. Abraham Lincoln naturally hated slavery yet he believed he could not do anything about where it already existed; his only mission was to stop its expansion. As he says, â€Å"I have no purpose directly indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it already exists† . Lincoln believes that he has â€Å"no lawful right to do† he additionally has â€Å"no inclination to do so† . His main purpose is to stop the expansion of slavery into other free states. Even though that as early as 1854 he â€Å"cannot but hate, hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery it† . Lincoln hated the Kansas Nebraska act because there was a chance that popular sovereignty will make slavery expand in the Louisiana territory. This act repeals the Missouri compromise of 1820, which in a way he liked because it at least limited the slavery inShow MoreRelatedAbraham Lincoln Was A True Abolitionist1383 Words   |  6 PagesAbraham Lincoln was a true abolitionist; he was very committed to the end of slavery in America even though people thought differently of him. Lincoln spent a majority of his presidency making sure slavery, if it wasn’t during his term, was abolished for good. 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