Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz
When the chief executive officer of The Coca-Cola Company made his maiden visit to India in August 2017, it was clear that he wanted the Indian branch of the company, Coca-Cola India Private Limited, to achieve many ambitious goals. These included reducing the sugar content in the company's products, introducing more juice-based drinks and water, and making small entries into the dairy segment. For a company that had long stressed its carbonated and fruit-based drink segments, Coca-Cola India Private Limited was now indicating its strong intent to steer away from its core competency. The aim was to recast the company as a "total beverage company," with possible ventures across all relevant beverage categories. Should the company take a chance and move away from its core competency? Should it tweak existing products, seek to extend its brands, or try to create entirely new offerings? How could Coca-Cola India Private Limited succeed in its shift towards "total beverage" solutions, and what challenges should it prepare for as part of this shift? Sandeep Puri is affiliated with Asian Institute of Management. Shreya Gupta is affiliated with Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad.
Swot Analysis of "Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz" written by Sandeep Puri, Archit Kacker, Shreya Gupta includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Coca Cola facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Branding, Manufacturing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, there is backlash against globalization, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, increasing energy prices,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Coca Cola, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Coca Cola operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Coca Cola
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Coca Cola
Strengths Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Coca Cola in Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Coca Cola
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Coca Cola does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Coca Cola is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Coca Cola digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Coca Cola has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Analytics focus
– Coca Cola is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Sandeep Puri, Archit Kacker, Shreya Gupta can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Coca Cola has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Coca Cola in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Coca Cola is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Coca Cola in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Coca Cola is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Coca Cola is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Coca Cola has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Coca Cola is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Coca Cola in the sector have low bargaining power. Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Coca Cola to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Coca Cola has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Weaknesses Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Coca Cola, firm in the HBR case study Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Coca Cola has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Coca Cola has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz HBR case study mentions - Coca Cola takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Coca Cola has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Coca Cola is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Coca Cola has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Coca Cola has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Coca Cola even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz, is just above the industry average. Coca Cola needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Coca Cola has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Coca Cola is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Coca Cola needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Coca Cola to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Coca Cola to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Coca Cola to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Coca Cola can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Coca Cola has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Coca Cola to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Coca Cola can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Buying journey improvements
– Coca Cola can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Coca Cola to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Loyalty marketing
– Coca Cola has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Coca Cola can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Coca Cola can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Coca Cola can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Coca Cola to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Coca Cola can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Coca Cola can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Coca Cola operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Coca Cola to increase its market reach. Coca Cola will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Threats Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Coca Cola can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Coca Cola can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz .
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Coca Cola business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Coca Cola can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Coca Cola with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Coca Cola has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Coca Cola needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz, Coca Cola may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
Increasing wage structure of Coca Cola
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Coca Cola.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Coca Cola in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Coca Cola.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Coca Cola high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Coca-Cola India: More than Just Sugar and Fizz is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Coca Cola needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.