Coca Cola

MarketLine Case Study
Coca-Cola
The world’s most recognizable
brand
Reference Code: ML00001-026
Publication Date: December 2011
WWW.MARKETLINE.COM
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OVERVIEW
Catalyst
This case study focuses on The Coca-Cola Company and how it has succeeded in becoming the world’s most
recognizable brand.
Summary
 Coca-Cola has placed an increased focus on the still beverages market to increase its sales and exposure
worldwide.
 Coca-Cola has responded to socio-cultural trends to keep its brand relevant in an environment of changing
tastes and ideas.
 Coca-Cola has used technology to further its exposure and brand image.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Overview ............................................................................................................................................................................... 2
Catalyst.............................................................................................................................................................................. 2
Summary ........................................................................................................................................................................... 2
Analysis ................................................................................................................................................................................. 6
Coca-Cola: the world’s most recognizable brand ..............................................................................................................6
Coca-Cola has almost doubled its market share in the soft drink beverages market ....................................................6
Coca-Cola Around the World ................................................................................................................................................ 7
Varying positions in different markets................................................................................................................................ 7
One of the major factors behind the continuing success of Coca-Cola has been an increased focus for the company
in its main market of North America ............................................................................................................................... 7
Coca-Cola has performed well in its less developed markets, which has been the key to its increasing status globally
....................................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Coca-Cola targets India ................................................................................................................................................. 7
Responding to Socio-Cultural Trends ................................................................................................................................... 9
Change of strategy from sparkling to still beverages.........................................................................................................9
Across the soft drinks market, Coca-Cola has shifted its presence away from its traditional hub of sparkling
beverages and towards still products like juice ..............................................................................................................9
Coca-Cola incorporates Minute Maid into its mainstream portfolio..............................................................................10
Strategic acquisitions in the still beverages market .....................................................................................................10
Coca-Cola employs universal branding tactic ..............................................................................................................10
The increase in Coca-Cola’s sales of still beverages is a result of the company’s response to a growing consumer
interest in healthy beverages ....................................................................................................................................... 11
Coke Zero: The healthy option..................................................................................................................................... 11
Coca-Cola has introduced freestyle dispensers to enhance consumer experience ....................................................11
Coca-Cola harnesses technology to produce greener bottles and packaging.............................................................12
Setting the Trends in Advertising ........................................................................................................................................ 13
Coca-Cola constantly rebrands and advertises its products in order to keep sales consistently high ............................13
Coca-Cola has popular advertising campaigns ...........................................................................................................13
Coca-Cola aims at customer loyalty ............................................................................................................................ 13
Coca-Cola is using technology to further its reach ......................................................................................................13
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................................................... 15
Focus on individual markets and constant innovation has made Coca-Cola the world’s most recognizable brand........15
Originality has been a major part of Coca-Cola’s success ..........................................................................................15
Coca-Cola has also made sound investments.............................................................................................................15

Coca-Cola has used technology to gain an advantage ...............................................................................................15
Appendix ............................................................................................................................................................................. 16
Further reading ................................................................................................................................................................ 16
Ask the analyst ................................................................................................................................................................ 17
About MarketLine ............................................................................................................................................................ 17
Disclaimer ........................................................................................................................................................................ 17

TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure 1: 2010 Global Soft Drinks Market Share ..................................................................................................................6
Figure 2: Coca-Cola per Capita Consumption in 2010 (Unit Case Volume Growth) ............................................................7
Figure 3: Coca-Cola per Capita Consumption (In 8 fluid ounce servings) by Country in 2010 .............................................8
Figure 4: Total Unit Case Volume Mix of Coca-Cola Beverage Sales (2000 & 2010 % Share) ...........................................9
Figure 5: Universal Branding Across Juice Range..............................................................................................................10
Figure 6: Coca-Cola has Emphasized its Green Campaign ...............................................................................................12
Figure 7: Various Coca-Cola Advertising Campaigns .........................................................................................................14

ANALYSIS
Coca-Cola: the world’s most recognizable brand
Coca-Cola has almost doubled its market share in the soft drink beverages market
The Coca-Cola Company engages in the manufacturing, distribution and marketing of non-alcoholic beverage
concentrates and syrups. The company owns the world’s most valuable brand: Coca-Cola. Furthermore, it markets four
of the world's top five non-alcoholic sparkling brands, the others being Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite. The company's
finished beverage products are sold in more than 200 countries worldwide. The Coca-Cola Company is headquartered in
Atlanta, US and employs around 139,600 people.
Coca-Cola has gone from strength to strength and in the last decade has almost doubled its market share in the soft
drink beverages market. By 2011, Coca-Cola was the world’s most recognizable brand.
As of 2010 Coca-Cola held a market share of 23.9%, almost double that of its nearest competitor.
Figure 1: 2010 Global Soft Drinks Market Share
SOURCE: MARKETLINE MARKETLINE
The next biggest brand was PepsiCo, which has a market share of 13.5%.

COCA-COLA AROUND THE WORLD
Varying positions in different markets
One of the major factors behind the continuing success of Coca-Cola has been an
increased focus for the company in its main market of North America
This is seen most clearly through Coca-Cola’s end of year figures. In the year 2000, annual revenue In North America
was $7,978.62 million, accounting for 39.0% of total company revenue. By 2010, Coca-Cola had increased revenues
from its North American division to $11,126.7 million, accounting for 46.4% of total revenues. The 40% increase in
revenue totals for North America is testament to the focus of the company on its flagship market.
Coca-Cola has performed well in its less developed markets, which has been the key
to its increasing status globally
Figure 2: Coca-Cola per Capita Consumption in 2010 (Unit Case Volume Growth)
SOURCE: COCA-COLA ANNUAL REPORT 2010 MARKETLINE
As Figure 2 shows, the growth rates over five years in Eurasia & Africa, Latin America and the Pacific region outperform
the more developed markets of North America and Europe.
Coca-Cola targets India
Coca-Cola is also investing heavily in its less developed markets, where it has failed to establish itself as market leader
in the soft drinks market.
India is a major focus for the company, as Coca-Cola’s penetration into this nation of over 1 billion people is minor in
comparison with other markets.

In India, Coca-Cola is preparing to repair its damaged reputation, as the company has been accused by local
communities of damaging land and water resources.
Figure 3: Coca-Cola per Capita Consumption (In 8 fluid ounce servings) by Country in 2010
The damage to Coca-Cola’s reputation in India is confirmed by the fact that it has the lowest per capita consumption of
any of its markets worldwide.
In order to rectify its position in India Coca-Cola has launched several initiatives including:
 It will invest $2 billion in the Coca-Cola System in India over the next five years, beginning in 2012, to further
capture the opportunities in the Indian soft drinks beverage market.
 The company and its bottling partners are planning to invest in innovation, consumer marketing and brand
building, expansion of distribution and cold drink equipment placement, and further development of
manufacturing capacity.
 In 2011, Coca-Cola launched a major advertising campaign for the Indian holiday Diwali. The campaign
included commercials, a song and integration with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s film Ra.One.

RESPONDING TO SOCIO-CULTURAL TRENDS
Change of strategy from sparkling to still beverages
Across the soft drinks market, Coca-Cola has shifted its presence away from its
traditional hub of sparkling beverages and towards still products like juice
As can be seen from Figure 3 below, an increasing portion of products sold by the company are still beverages, which by
2010 comprised almost a quarter of total volume sales. This is up from the 13% share that such products held in 2000.
Figure 4: Total Unit Case Volume Mix of Coca-Cola Beverage Sales (2000 & 2010 % Share)

Coca-Cola incorporates Minute Maid into its mainstream portfolio
A major reason for the increase in still beverages produced by Coca-Cola is its full merger with its still juice brand Minute
Maid in 2003.
In 2001, Coca-Cola launched a new brand of still juice in North America under the label of the Simply Orange Juice
Company. By 2003, the brand was being distributed nationwide.
The success of Minute Maid is now global, with the Minute Maid Pulpy variant sold in China becoming a billion dollar
brand in 2010. This means that Coca-Cola now has 14 billion dollar brands under its ownership.
Strategic acquisitions in the still beverages market
Coca-Cola has made strategic acquisitions to increase its presence in the still beverages market. The UK market
highlights a good example of this, with the purchase of a 30% stake in Innocent Drinks in 2009. Innocent Drinks sells
approximately 2 million smoothies per week in the UK and holds 75% of the country’s smoothies market. In 2010, Coca-
Cola increased its holding in the company to 58%.
This increased presence has translated into Coca-Cola becoming the first brand to top £1 billion in annual grocery sales
in the UK in 2010.
In 2010, Coca-Cola sold over 2 billion unit cases of juice and juice drinks across seventy different brands.
Coca-Cola employs universal branding tactic
Other still beverage brands acquired by Coca-Cola include Jugos del Valle, Multon and Nidan.
Another of Coca-Cola’s tactics has been to employ a similar design across several of its products in terms of colours and
design to create a universal product experience for customers. This can be seen with Minute Maid, Del Valle, Cappy and
Cepita products.
Figure 5: Universal Branding Across Juice Range
SOURCE: GOOGLE IMAGES MARKETLINE

The increase in Coca-Cola’s sales of still beverages is a result of the company’s
response to a growing consumer interest in healthy beverages
The growing trends surrounding societal concerns, attitudes, and lifestyles are important to consumers. For instance, in
the United States and Europe, people are becoming more focused on healthy lifestyles.
Consumers' awareness of health issues such as obesity and inactive lifestyles represent a serious risk to the carbonated
drinks sector. The trend is causing the industry’s business environment to change as firms differentiate their products in
order to increase sales in a stagnant market.
Coca-Cola has done this in several markets, both through innovation of its own products and the acquisition of existing
brands.
Coke Zero: The healthy option
In light of the changing socio-cultural trends, Coke Zero was launched in 2006 and hailed as Coca-Cola's biggest product
launch in 22 years. Its target market is young adult males, and it has even been nicknamed "Bloke Coke."
Coke Zero is marketed as a low calorie version of Coca-Cola and differentiated from other diet versions of Coca-Cola, on
the basis that such brands are mostly associated with women.
Coca-Cola has expanded its Zero range with the introduction of Caffeine Free Coca-Cola Zero. The product has been
launched in France, Japan and Spain, with future launches planned for Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Coca-Cola has emphasised the low calorie label to promote and develop many of its products, with more than 800
beverages – almost 25% of the product portfolio – now labelled as low or no calorie.
In the space of five years, Coca-Cola has managed to launch Coke Zero in more than 130 different countries.
Coca-Cola has introduced freestyle dispensers to enhance consumer experience
Coca-Cola began rolling out its freestyle dispensers in late 2010 and early 2011. Unlike typical soda fountains, the
freestyle dispenser allows consumers to create their own beverages by choosing from over 100 drinks in various
combinations.
The freestyle technology allows for a greater variety of drinks to be created using its computer-like interface, and also
records information concerning consumers' drink choices then sends the data back to Coca-Cola as market research.

Coca-Cola harnesses technology to produce greener bottles and packaging
Coca-Cola introduced greener bottles and packaging in 2009, producing 2.5 billion of its products using less petroleum.
The practice has been so successful that other companies, such as Heinz, have harnessed the technology to create
greener packaging as well. By 2010, this new technology had eliminated 30,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or the
equivalent of approximately 60,000 barrels of petroleum.
Figure 6: Coca-Cola has Emphasized its Green Campaign

SETTING THE TRENDS IN ADVERTISING
Coca-Cola constantly rebrands and advertises its products in

order to keep sales consistently high
Coca-Cola has popular advertising campaigns
Over the years Coca-Cola has fashioned a reputation for producing trend setting advertising campaigns.
Among its major advertising successes has been its targeting of holiday seasons. With a slogan of the "Holidays are
coming!" the visual campaign focuses on a train of red delivery trucks, carrying a decorated Coca-Cola logo. Travelling
along a snowy landscape the trucks cause everything that they pass to light up.
The popularity of the campaign on public conscious was seen in 2001 when Coca-Cola decided to drop the campaign.
This caused a flurry of complaints to Coca-Cola’s information centre from disgruntled consumers who “considered the
campaign to mark the beginning of Christmas.” As a result of this Coca-Cola reintroduced the advert in 2007.
The company is also a recognisable symbol of major sports events such as the Olympic Games (since 1928) and the
FIFA Football World Cup (since 1974).
Coca-Cola aims at customer loyalty
Coca-Cola has also attempted to create a loyal consumer following within a market where consumer options are plentiful.
The My Coke Rewards which was introduced in 2006 is a customer loyalty campaign which allows consumers to earn
points by entering codes from specially marked packages of the company’s products into a website. The points can be
redeemed for various prizes or sweepstakes entries.
In terms of customer loyalty the company has introduced campaigns into domestic markets. The most recent example of
this is seen in Australia in 2011 with the, “share a Coke" campaign, where the Coca-Cola logo was replaced on the
bottles and replaced with the 150 most popular names in Australia.
Coca-Cola is using technology to further its reach
It is noticeable that the “share a Coke” campaign was paired with a website page, a Facebook page and an online "share
a virtual Coke." This is an example of Coca-Cola’s use of technology to further its reach.
With the growing use of the Internet and other electronic technologies, global communication is rapidly increasing. This is
allowing firms to collaborate within national and international markets. It has driven competition greatly as companies
strive to be first movers.
Coca-Cola has maintained a visible presence on Facebook and other social networking sites such as Twitter. With over
34 million fans as of 2011, Coca-Cola harnesses the power of social networking to spread the word concerning new
products, test advertorial campaigns, invite users to play games, and connect Coca-Cola products with positive feelings.
Using social networking technology enables a brand to stay young, fresh and current.
This visible presence on social network platforms and its innovative advertising campaigns are all part of Coca-Cola’s

strategy to target the younger generation of consumers by identifying the brand with the youth and energy that this target
market expects.
The following statement from the Company confirms its strategy in this area: “In the next ten years, the U.S. teen
population will become the third largest in the world after India and China. Using digital platforms, we are well-equipped
to capture opportunities within the growing segment.”
Figure 7: Various Coca-Cola Advertising Campaigns

CONCLUSION
Focus on individual markets and constant innovation has

made Coca-Cola the world’s most recognizable brand
Originality has been a major part of Coca-Cola’s success
The original Coca-Cola formula itself has been a success for over a century, but in terms of diversification the company
has been a trend-setter.
This is confirmed by the fact that the company has fourteen billion dollar brands under its ownership.
Four of the top five soft drinks brands (Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite) are all owned by the Coca-Cola
Company.
In terms of advertising, Coca-Cola has not only produced popular adverts but also influenced certain cultural phenomena
through its branding. An example of this is the popular conception of Santa Claus in his red and white attire which was
popularized by Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola has also made sound investments
In areas outside its immediate expertise, Coca-Cola has often made sound investment decisions. This can be seen as far
back as 1982, when the company invested in Columbia Pictures and began to insert its products into films. It also
includes the firm's investments in various local branded beverages such as Innocent Smoothies in the UK.
An area where Coca-Cola has been especially successful is through the use of "anchor bottlers", with the company
having employed this strategy to penetrate markets like China, Eastern Europe and Russia. A major example of this is
Coca-Cola FEMSA, which operates in 9 countries covering the metropolitan area of Mexico City, southeast Mexico,
Central America and South America. Coca-Cola FEMSA accounts for 10% of Coca-Cola’s worldwide distribution.
Coca-Cola has used technology to gain an advantage
From the use of innovative packaging techniques to social networking, Coca-Cola has used technology to further its
reach and ultimately its market share.
Targeted advertising has been a major strength of the brand, meaning that it has greater control over who sees ads and
when they are seen. Examples of this are advertising with local eateries, beaches and other products online to associate
the brand with a particular restaurant, product or even tourist destination.

APPENDIX
Further reading
MarketLine (2011) Industry Profile: Global Soft Drinks, May 2011, 0199-0802-2010
MarketLine (2011) Company Profile: Coca-Cola West Company, Limited, December 2011
Coca-Cola Annual Report
www.coca-cola.com

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MarketLine Case Study

Publication Date: December 2011

COCA-COLA ML00001-026/Published 12/2011

© MARKETLINE THIS PROFILE IS A LICENSED PRODUCT AND IS NOT TO BE PHOTOCOPIED Page | 1

COCA-COLA ML00001-026/Published 12/2011

© MARKETLINE THIS PROFILE IS A LICENSED PRODUCT AND IS NOT TO BE PHOTOCOPIED Page | 2

Coca-Cola: the world’s most recognizable brand ..............................................................................................................6

Coca-Cola Around the World ................................................................................................................................................ 7

Varying positions in different markets................................................................................................................................ 7

Coca-Cola targets India ................................................................................................................................................. 7

Responding to Socio-Cultural Trends ................................................................................................................................... 9

Change of strategy from sparkling to still beverages.........................................................................................................9

Coca-Cola incorporates Minute Maid into its mainstream portfolio..............................................................................10

Strategic acquisitions in the still beverages market .....................................................................................................10

Coca-Cola employs universal branding tactic ..............................................................................................................10

Coke Zero: The healthy option..................................................................................................................................... 11

Coca-Cola has introduced freestyle dispensers to enhance consumer experience ....................................................11

Coca-Cola harnesses technology to produce greener bottles and packaging.............................................................12

Setting the Trends in Advertising ........................................................................................................................................ 13

Coca-Cola has popular advertising campaigns ...........................................................................................................13

Coca-Cola aims at customer loyalty ............................................................................................................................ 13

Coca-Cola is using technology to further its reach ......................................................................................................13

Originality has been a major part of Coca-Cola’s success ..........................................................................................15

Coca-Cola has also made sound investments.............................................................................................................15

COCA-COLA ML00001-026/Published 12/2011

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Further reading ................................................................................................................................................................ 16

Ask the analyst ................................................................................................................................................................ 17

About MarketLine ............................................................................................................................................................ 17

COCA-COLA ML00001-026/Published 12/2011

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Figure 1: 2010 Global Soft Drinks Market Share ..................................................................................................................6

Figure 5: Universal Branding Across Juice Range..............................................................................................................10

Figure 6: Coca-Cola has Emphasized its Green Campaign ...............................................................................................12

Figure 7: Various Coca-Cola Advertising Campaigns .........................................................................................................14

COCA-COLA ML00001-026/Published 12/2011

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Coca-Cola: the world’s most recognizable brand

Figure 1: 2010 Global Soft Drinks Market Share

SOURCE: MARKETLINE MARKETLINE

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Varying positions in different markets

SOURCE: COCA-COLA ANNUAL REPORT 2010 MARKETLINE

Coca-Cola targets India

COCA-COLA ML00001-026/Published 12/2011

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SOURCE: COCA-COLA ANNUAL REPORT 2010 MARKETLINE

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Change of strategy from sparkling to still beverages

SOURCE: COCA-COLA ANNUAL REPORT 2010 MARKETLINE

COCA-COLA ML00001-026/Published 12/2011

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Strategic acquisitions in the still beverages market

Coca-Cola employs universal branding tactic

Figure 5: Universal Branding Across Juice Range

SOURCE: GOOGLE IMAGES MARKETLINE

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Coke Zero: The healthy option

Coca-Cola has introduced freestyle dispensers to enhance consumer experience

COCA-COLA ML00001-026/Published 12/2011