The process, well known on the international arena, as globalization affects all the spheres of people’s and counties’ life. The economic and business fields are greatly affected by this phenomenon as well. Therefore, it would be relevant to explain the process of globalization in the economic field and its influence on the international business strategies of the leading companies with the help of the Coca – Cola Company’s example.
For better understanding of the case, it is necessary to explain what Coca – Cola Company actually is and how it operates. In accordance with the credible researcher Mark Pendergrast, “Coca – Cola has sold more than one billion servings every day. More than 10,450 beverages are consumed every second. The company achieved earnings of $4,347,000,000 in 2000. It is present on all seven continents and is recognized by 94% of the world population” (Pendergrast, 2000, p.76).
The usage of globalization in this Company’s business strategy led to the spread of Coke allover the world. This Company established the international paradigm which “popped the status quo like a cap from a soda bottle” (Allen, 2004, p.112). As a result, nowadays the Coca – Cola Company secured the leading positions for itself as the biggest and most wide spread soft drink company in the entire world.
The presence of the globalization phenomenon in the Company’s strategy can be proven by its effective presence in more then two hundred countries around the world. It is possible to say that such business strategy has been successful because Coca – Cola Company is indeed universally recognized as the most recognized brand worldwide.
The vivid example of the above represented business strategy can be seen in the Company’s strategy in China (one of the biggest countries in the world). It cooperated with the Chinese government with the view to “… soften the impact of the restrictive policies regarding Foreign Direct Investment in China, and how it designed its marketing and promotion strategies to suit the Chinese market…” (Standage, 2005, p. 34). By this means Coca – Cola Company successfully imposed its entirely globalized re – entry strategyinto the Chinese, and also the long – term localization strategy fundamentally related to the phenomenon of globalization.
The scenario of business strategies in other countries is quite similar to the Chinese one and is profoundly linked with the globalization processes. The key elements of those successful strategies are laying on the basic global economical and international market’s laws concerning “… the re – entry strategy of a multinational beverage company … and the scheme according multinational company adapts its distribution, marketing and promotion to the new market that it enters …” (Cheatham, 2006, p. 142).
Other crucial elements of the successful business strategies of the Coca – Cola Company containing the globalization phenomenon are generally based on the skill of the multinational company, like Coca – Cola, to work with government of different countries in which policies are restrictive of FDI and on the long – term globalized localization strategy (Oliver, 2008).
Concluding, it is possible to assert that the phenomenon and the process of globalization strongly affect, and even serves as a crucial element of the giant companies’ business and marketing strategies, and any changes in the world economic situation should be analyzed and regarded with the respect to this phenomenon and its causes on the international market.
Works Cited
Allen, Frederick. Secret Formula: How Brilliant Marketing and Relentless Salesmanship Made Coca-Cola the Best-Known Product in the World. New York: Harper Business, 2004.
Cheatham, Mike. Your Friendly Neighbor: The Story of Georgia’s Coca-Cola Bottling Families. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2006.
Oliver, Thomas. The Real Coke, the Real Story. New York: Random House, 2008.
Pendergrast, Mark. For God, Country, and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It, 2d ed. New York: Basic Books, 2000.
Standage,Tom. A History of the World in Six Glasses. New York: Walker and Company, 2005.