The Coca-Cola Company is the world’s largest beverage company, which offers its consumers nearly 400 brands of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups . It was founded in 1886 by pharmacist Dr John Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia. But nowadays the Coca‑Cola Company is the world’s leading manufacturer, marketer and distributor through the higher beverage dispensing system in the world which operate in over 200 countries at a rate of nearly 1,600 billion servings a day. Together with Coca-Cola, recognized as the world’s most valuable brand, the product portfolio of the company includes 12 other brands with a value of several billion dollars, including Coca-Coca Light, Fanta, Sprite, Coca -Cola Zero, vitamin water, Powerade and Minute Maid.
In Spain, Coca-Cola works with 7 bottlers with 100%Spanish capital and 16 factories, who directly employ more than 5,000 people and serve over 450,000 customers. The Coca-Cola Company in Spain has 56 brands and more than 70 products. This wide range of productsincludes carbonated soft drinks and non-alcoholic, iced teas, juices, waters, sports drinks, energy drinks and new generation products. The Coca-Cola Company focuses on a series of initiatives to protect the environment, to conserve resources and enhance the economic development of the communities where it operates.
The Coca‑Cola Company’s Mission
- To refresh the world – in mind, body and spirit
- To inspire moments of optimism – through our brands and actions
- To create value and make a difference everywhere we engage
The Coca‑Cola Company’s Values
- Leadership
- Passion
- Integrity
- Accountability
- Collaboration
- Innovation
- Quality
Coca‑Cola has had a long-standing commitment to responsible marketing for many years, and in 2009 the company set out explicitly what these commitments mean in practice.
The Responsible Marketing Charter (1)* is a set of principles that guide Coca-cola’s team entire approach to marketing and establish firm rules for what they should and shouldn’t do. Some of them are:
- We (Coke Company) don’t market any drinks to children under 12 because we believe parents should choose the drinks that are right for their families. We help parents make informed choices through better consumer information
- We (Coke Company) will work with an independent consultancy to constantly monitor TV ad placement
- We (Coke Company) do not have direct commercial agreements with primary schools and are only in secondary schools by invitation
- We (Coke Company) will not associate ourselves with cinema films where the core audience is under
But also, as in the Coca-cola Company’s official web said: “We’ll also continue to have a dialogue with consumers and other stakeholders on responsible marketing, to ensure we keep delivering a wide variety of great quality drinks” (2)*. Meaning that the Company will be in touch with its customers to get comments, suggestions and complaints about Coca-Cola with the aim of improve its products consequently increase its consumption. Therefore we can find different ways to contact with the company. Firstly in Facebook, The coca-cola company has more than 51 millions of “Like-s”. It’s “fan page” is considered one of the most successful page of the social network, Facebook, ranks 10th in number of followers. But why this success? That’s because one of the aims that Coca-Cola Company persues and promises is the “Happiness” to its customers, and also, thanks for some solidarity mobilizations which make the followers stop being audience, but content generators. Therefore, since 2010 Coca-cola Company has spent 6.6% less than 2009 on TV ads
With the same strategy, the successful promotions in the second more used social network by Coca-Cola Company, Youtube has Coca-Cola amassed 146 million views. Of that, the U.S. company created only 26 million videos with your own content and were consumers who brought 120 million visits with home videos to collaborate.
But as I said before, Coca-cola also has other social medias where is present. Social medias like in Twitter, which there is a Coca-cola account created on June of 2010 for customers from Spain named @CocaCola_es, and until today has gathered more than 50.000 followers. Furthermore, in Tuenti the north American company has more than 400.000 followers, therefore we cannot say that Coca-cola does not have a strong presence in social medias. In its official web page, we also find all its news and developments, which later will be distributed through it social medias. Most of them developments are contests and promotions which makes consumers interact with each other and with the company and then increase the consumption of Coca-cola; because Coca-cola is always listening to its customers, it receive them message and it send the same message to all its followers, making the company the principal via of them interactions. Is important to highlight some promotions like “the Happiness Machine”, which was present in more than 20 countries, “Coca Cola Village” which the main via of communication between its participants was through social medias.
To sum up, is really important that large companies like Coca-Cola are present not only in TV ads or advertisements but also on the Internet have strong presence in many social medias that make us (the customers) the principal purpose of them different sales strategies. Because nowadays most of us we are present in any social media and the best way for these companies to find and reach us is through social networks. Therefore, companies like Coca-Cola, has invested more in social medias promotions than at any sites to market them products and become the principal sellers of the products.
References:
- (1)* The Coca-Cola Company. (2010). Responsible Marketing. Retrieved December 9, 2012, from http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/about-us/responsible-marketing.html
- (2)* The Coca-Cola Company. (2010). Responsible Marketing. Retrieved December 9, 2012, from http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/about-us/responsible-marketing.html
- Cocacola company. (2012). La compañia. Retrieved December 9, 2012, from http://conoce.cocacola.es/conocenos
- REDES SOCIALES. (2012). Así funcionan las redes sociales de la gaseosa más famosa del mundo. 2:50 p.m. | 24 de Septiembre. Retrieved December 9, 2012, from http://www.eltiempo.com/tecnologia/internet/ARTICULO-WEB-NEW_NOTA_INTERIOR-12249188.html
- Coca-Cola apuesta por las redes sociales. (2011).28/03/2011 10:11. Retrieved December 9, 2012, from http://www.europapress.es/portaltic/empresas/noticia-coca-cola-apuesta-redes-sociales-20110328101148.html
- Stratmann jo. (2011). Coca-Cola cut ad spend by 6.6% and invest more in social media. 21st March 2011, 05:04 pm. Retrieved December 9, 2012, from http://www.freshnetworks.com/blog/2011/03/coca-cola-cut-ad-spend-and-invest-more-in-socia-medi/
- Liberos, E. (2012). CocaCola y las redes sociales, primera parte. 13 de Marzo. Retrieved December 9, 2012, from http://blog.iedge.eu/direccion-marketing/marketing-interactivo/social-media-marketing/eduardo-liberos-coca-cola-las-redes-sociales-primera-parte/
- Alvaro Reyes. (2012). Coca-Cola revela parte de su secreto para tener éxito en las redes sociales. 12/09/2012 . Retrieved December 9, 2012, from http://www.clasesdeperiodismo.com/2012/09/12/coca-cola-revela-parte-de-su-secreto-para-tener-exito-en-las-redes-sociales/
- Alimarket Alimentación. (2012). Coca-Cola se hace fuerte en las redes sociales. 4 de Diciembre . Retrieved December 9, 2012, from http://www.alimarket.es/noticia/111568/Coca-Cola-se-hace-fuerte-en-las-redes-sociales
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