QUESTION 1:

Describe the extent of Coca‐Cola’s international presence?

We began building our global network in the 1920s. Our global growth expanded during World
War II when Coca-Cola President Robert Woodruff believed that every American service man
and woman should have a Coke at their disposal, no matter where they were or the cost to the
company. Woodruff’s vision during this critical period in American history helped establish
Coke as a global corporation by introducing the product to different markets. Now operating in
more than 200 countries and producing nearly 500 brands, our system has successfully applied a
simple formula on a global scale provide a moment of refreshment for a very little amount of
money a billion times a day.

Coca-Cola Company is world known organization. Coca-Cola Company is world known

organization. The growing market around the world mostly depends upon the technologies,
knowledge and integration of market, it clearly demonstrates the flow of knowledge, services,
goods and capital through different nations and in which creating the competition on a world-
wide basis creating an integrated global space is called globalization.

Coca‐Cola is the iconic American soda maker that has long been among the most international of
enterprises. In 1902, the company made its first move outside the United States, when it entered
Cuba. It was marketed in 76 countries by 1929. In World War II, Coke struck a deal to supply
the US military with Coca‐Cola. During this era, the company built 63 bottling plants around the
world. Its global push continued after the war. Over 80% of Coke’s case volume was in
international markets.  

Up until he early 1980s, Coke’s strategy could best be characterized as one of considerable
localization. In 1981 Roberto Goizueta, became CEO of Coke. Goizueta placed renewed
emphasis on Coke’s flagship brands, which were extended with the introduction of Diet Coke,
Cherry Coke, and similar flavours. His prime belief was that the main difference between the
United States and international markets was the lower level of penetration overseas, where
consumption per capita of colas was only 10 to 15% of the US figure.  
Goizueta pushed Coke to become a global company and marketing activities at the corporate
headquarters in Atlanta. It is focusing on core brands, and taking equity stakes in foreign bottlers
so that the company could exert more strategic control over them. This one‐size‐fits‐all strategy
was built around2 standardization and the realization of economies of scale. By the late in 1990s,
the dive toward a one‐size‐fits‐all strategy was running out of steam as smaller. In 2000, Coke
began failing to hit its financial targets for the first time in a generation,

Daft instituted a 180‐degree shift in strategy. He thought that strategy, product development, and
marketing should be tailored to local needs. He laid off 6,000 employees, many of them in
Atlanta, and granted country managers much greater autonomy. Daft’s move was, in part is
influenced by the experience of Coke in Japan. This the company’s second most profitable
market, where the best‐ selling Coca‐Cola product is not a carbonated beverage but a canned,
cold coffee drink, Georgia Coffee.

In 2002, the trend was moving back toward more central coordination, with Atlanta exercising
oversight over marketing and product development in different nations outside the United States.
Under the leadership of Neville Isdell, who became CEO in March 2004, senior managers at
corporate headquarters now reviewed and helped to guide local marketing and product
development.

Having seen the success of this beverage in Japan, in 2007, Coke entered into a strategic alliance
with Illycaffè, one of Italy’s premier coffee makers, to build a global franchise for canned or
bottled coffee beverages. In 2003, the Coke subsidiary in China3 developed a low‐cost
noncarbonated, orange‐based drink that has rapidly become of the bestselling drinks in that
nation. Sensing the potential of the drink, Coke rolled it out in other Asian countries such as
Thailand, where it has been a huge hit.