In the modern competitive business world, every organization needs to come up with a design and objective for each of the product and service that they produce. The two are necessary to attract customers and avoid going below their expectations thus maintain them. Therefore, it is essential for organizations to have an effective operations management to enable them to execute the designs and objectives of their products. This research discusses the operation system of Coca-Cola Company, which produces beverages and distributes them around the world.
Operations
The Coca-Cola Company is a non-alcoholic beverage firm with one of the most renowned beverage brands in the world (Company et al.). It is home to over 500 beverage brands, including Fanta, Coke, Minute Maid, Dasani, energy, and sports drinks. The corporation sells its products in more than 200 countries. The enterprises manage six operating segments, which are mostly geographically based in areas such as Europe, Africa, and America. These geographic segments produce and sell beverage concentrates and syrups to contracted bottlers who then produce the drinks and supply them to consumers.
Product / Service Development
The organization sells carbonated drinks and beverages all over the world in restaurants, stores, and its numerous vending machines. It provides its consumers with many beverage brands with the major ones being Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Stoney, and Fruitopia. Additionally, it produces the drink as a concentrate and later sells it to coca cola bottlers all over the world. The bottlers then package the drink in plastic bottles in sizes of 2 liters, 1.5 liters, 500 ml, and 200 ml. The price of these products varies according to different sizes, place, and packaging. The company also provides other services like refrigeration. Most of the customers prefer to buy chilled coca cola drinks and to satisfy that desire; the firm came up with cooling equipment. It ensures that the refrigerators are available in their retail outlets and that they function properly and are physically attractive. They also install and withdraw the equipment from the outlets for free. Other services include customer services, which consist of product information to customers through its Frequently Asked Questions section on its websites and offering internship and job opportunities and jobs
Marketing/Sales
Marketing involves planning and carrying out the concept of pricing, promotion, and distribution of goods and services to satisfy customers (Dror). Coca Cola’s mission statement is wide and impressive and seeks to inspire moments of optimism to create value and make a difference and to refresh the world. These goals greatly define their marketing strategies and campaigns and have given rise to slogans such as ‘taste the feeling,’ ‘open happiness,’ and ‘have a coke and smile.’ Coca-Cola has a diverse marketing strategy such as events like FIFA World Cup, personal selling, publicity, banner adverts, the package design, and TV adverts, but invests heavily in TV adverts. The company has target market segments that inspire the TV adverts and promotion activities. Through the TV adverts, it aims to target families to urge them to buy its drinks for dinner and other family functions. It also targets individuals such as sportsmen through the FIFA campaigns, the hip-hop and young generation through sprite adverts and also kids through their package of Fanta brand. It combines several demographic factors to promote the drink across all ages.
At a time when a lot of people love soft drinks, Coca-cola has come to be regarded as a world-class brand, and it uses such recognition to position its products. It paints itself as the refreshing and thirst quenching drink. The enterprise uses positioning in strategic ways such as emphasizing the emotions of consumers to maintain this global image. All their TV commercials invoke certain emotions such as feel good and brotherhood. The business has even personalized packages to include their consumers’ names (“Special Issue of Production and Operations Management On Marketing and Operations Management Interfaces and Coordination”). It also uses celebrities to endorse the brand and promote it. By doing so, the consumers associate the drinks as a companion for fun and entertainment occasions.
Being a global market, the company is one of the largest distribution systems. It consists of independent bottling partners and distributors and company-owned distributors. Through this wide and strong distribution system, the company continues to expand its market both to the developed and underdeveloped regions. It uses two methods of product distribution, direct selling, and indirect selling. The firm directs its products directly to retailers such as restaurants and retail stores. Besides, it uses the indirect method where it partners with wholesalers, distribution agencies, and independent bottling companies who are under contract with the company. Other than these two methods, the business uses other distribution methods such as a pre-sale system to reach customers from different geographic regions. The mentioned system separates sales and product delivery systems allowing trucks to load a variety of products. The second one is the conventional route system whereby the delivery person is allowed to make direct sales form the stock in the truck, and the third one is the telemarketing system which is combined with a pre-sale visit. Finally, there is a hybrid distribution system where the distribution track carries both the products that were previously ordered through a pre-sale system and also the products available for immediate sales. This innovative and strong distribution and sales system enable the company to build sustainable relationships with distributors and ultimately expand its market.
Apply Input – Transformation –Output technique
The production of coca cola follows a franchising model whereby the company only produces a syrup concentrate and later sells it to bottlers who hold the coca cola franchises. The bottlers then produce the drinks by mixing the syrup with filtered water and sweeteners and then carbonate them before packaging them in bottles and cans for sale. The carbonated soft drink is subject to strict quality control and procedures, which ensure that the product meets international standards.
The ingredients of Coca-Cola soft drinks commonly referred to as Coke is carbonated water, phosphoric acid, caramel color, sugar, caffeine, and natural flavoring. The formula of the natural flavoring, however, remains a trade secret. The first step of production is filtering, softening, and disinfecting the water or removing all impurities. Sugar is then added along with the suitable beverage concentrate to form a syrup, which is the main component of the drink. The mixture is then saturated with carbon dioxide under high pressure and low temperature to give the drink its famous fizziness. Automated machines dispense the precisely measured solution to bottles or cans. The containers then move to another machine where they are labeled and given barcodes before they are packaged for distribution and sale.
The Four V Model of Coca-Cola Company
Variation of the Brand
Two years ago, Coca-Cola changed its celebrated philosophy of open happiness to taste the feelings. This, however, was not the first change by the brand. It has evolved over the years, not only its philosophies but also other aspects such as logos and bottles. Its logo, for instance, has changed over the years from swirls to a fishy shape to having a wave included in the logo and at one time the logo had names inserted. The packaging too has changed over time to the famous contour bottle design. The same applies to its TV commercials which have evolved to more personalized content that touch people’s feelings and emotions. It has also evolved from being a brand in sports to a fan of sports and actively takes part in FIFA by sponsoring the federation.
Variety of the Brand
Coca-Cola is committed to providing its consumers with a variety of products. It has a wide range of beverage products and different designs and sizes of packaging. The enterprise has over 500 beverage brands, which include more than 3500 beverages. These drinks range from low and non-calorie beverages to soft drinks like coke Fanta and sprite to waters and fruits juices, teas, and coffee which are all made of high-quality ingredients.
Volume Of The Brand
The wide variety of Coca-Cola drinks and beverages come packaged in containers of different sizes and shapes so one can choose his or her preferred portion and one that best suits one’s lifestyle. One can choose from a small can of soft drinks or the large two-liter bottle of coca cola to share with families or at a party. Moreover, the company has expanded the range to suits all kinds of taste. From the
Visibility
Coca-cola is a production company, and so it has little visibility to customers. Clients only enjoy the end product. Although the firm indicated the ingredients of its products on the side of their bottles or cans, the extract formula of one of its ingredients, the natural flavorings, has never been revealed. It is a secret that enables the corporation to retain the uniqueness of its beverages. A popular claim is that only two executives have access to the secret formula to limit the chances of it being divulged to competitors. Therefore, consumers have little insight into the production process of the coca cola company.
Corporate Social Responsibility
In each organization, corporate responsibility is aimed at coming up with an activity or business process that will impact the society positively. However, it is not always that the activities of an organization impact the society positively as they could be negative. The Coca-Cola Company has had both the positive and the negative impacts on the society. Through its foundation, which was founded in 1984, the company develops the community by creating job opportunities. Particularly, it intervenes in negative situations that a community cannot control. For example, it intervenes through providing enough clean water for the community, educating the poor children by granting them scholarships and building infrastructure and mobilizing the society to recycle waste and reduce littering. The foundation also caters for the community’s health and ] works with the community to manage the HIV epidemic. During catastrophes, the foundation offers relief services in the form of water and vehicles to distribute aid. On the negative side, the products of the coca cola company are not healthy. They make consumers prone to lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and heart diseases. Although the company is of great help to the society, it needs to scrutinize the criticisms and act accordingly for the benefit of their consumers and their goodwill.
Works Cited
Company, Our et al. “Our Company – The Coca-Cola Company.” The Coca-Cola Company, 2018. https://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company. Accessed 27 Oct 2018.
Dror, Shuki. “Linking Operation Plans to Business Objectives Using QFD.” Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 2017, pp. 1-16. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.1080/14783363.2017.1300053.
“Special Issue of Production and Operations Management On Marketing and Operations Management Interfaces and Coordination.” Vol 15, no. 3, 2009, pp. 470-470. Wiley, doi:10.1111/j.1937-5956.2006.tb00258.x.