How can Coca Cola further increase their customer base in reference to Case Study - 2

How can Coca Cola further increase their customer base in reference to marketing strategies - Case Study Example The company has a subsidiary employee basis of 30,000 people globally. 70% of its sales volume and 80% of the company profits are from outside (Adcock 23). First, we need to commend how the company has handled its branding. Looking briefly at branding since it is the focal of customer base sentiments, it is an effort to tie together, produce and have authority and control of the relevant associations so that the business performs better. Coca-cola has enormously benefited since they have successfully managed to create a brand which presents the company as being highly distinctive, very exciting and absolutely reliable with superb adverts. Even though its impossible to have full influence over a brand due to outside influences, wise use of design, advertising, marketing, service proposition and corporate culture among others can all really help in generating associations in people’s minds that benefit the company as an organization. The audiences, competitors, delivery and service aspects of branding may differ in different industry sectors but the main principle of being transparent about what you stand for always applies (Dev & Don 12). To get started on how to increase customer base in reference to marketing strategies, market research should be undertaken. This is to know what Coca-cola offers –both tangible and intangible elements. Finding out the main upcoming competitors by looking in places such as retail outlet shelves especially major supermarkets is also important. There is also need to know your customers; this is by doing a profile of your typical customers. Another great move which coca-cola is fully incorporating is increasing market share and reinforcing the existing customer base. In challenging economic conditions, Coca-cola has managed to prove that tough times can indeed be good times for

Cultural difficulties can be difficult to manage, even if they Essay

Cultural difficulties can be difficult to manage, even if they anticipated - Essay Example The so-called resource-based approach to strategic management, for instance, is based on this line of thinking (Barney, 100-110, 1999; Dereskey, 230-244, 1997). Even though it cannot be allocated and generated in a way entirely analogous to the financial resources of a corporation, it is still an integral part of strategic management (Itami, 108-114, 1987). A strategic resource is defined as a resource that can be shifted from one business strategy application to another (Lorange, 132-154, 2000) - not only financial funds or technological expertise, but also human resources. Without the growth of human resources as a strategic resource within a corporation, it will be difficult to secure the long-term strategic future of the corporation, even though financial resources might be adequate (Evans, 102-128, 1996). Managers of international workforce are currently witnessing an increase of cooperative cultural problems as vehicles for implementing strategy, particularly in multinational contexts where joint cultural problems, licensing agreements, project cooperation, and other methods of cooperation are becoming commonplace (Contractor and Lorange, 144-187, 2003). The reasons for the growth of cooperative cultural problems are manifold: they may make scarce strategic resources last longer by utilizing complementary resources from several partners; they may allow faster market penetration; they may be a political necessity, and so on (Lorange, 164-176, 1986). It is interesting to notice that, while strategic alliances in the past often might have been seen as the "next best" options, with full ownership being preferred, today the positive emphasis on creativity and opportunity seeking through bringing together complementary creative teams seems to have put these types of cooperative how manage rs can overcome problems arising from cultural differences of employee strategies in an even more favourable light (Chakravarthy and Lorange, 316-322, 1999; Lorange and Roos, 141-153, 1992). The human resource function is particularly critical to successful implementation of such cooperative cultural problems or how managers can overcome problems arising from cultural differences of employee strategies. Several strategic human resource issues surrounding these cooperative cultural problems, however, are not well understood; therefore, the present article raises and discusses a number of them. It can be argued that the choice of a cooperative international business should satisfy several requirements of each participating partner. The cooperative international business must create a value-added chain by bringing together synergistic factors for a combined output greater than the sum of the outputs of each participating partner. The combined output must result in a competitive product or service, in comparison with alternative sources of supply. A partner in a joint international business may wish to keep a certain degree of discretionary control over its unique resources. Some strategic resources, such as unique technological skills or relevant marketing expertise may not as readily be made available to