Environmental Factors - This paper identifies the environmental factors that affect global & domestic marketing decisions. - MKT / 421

Introduction

Marketing Coca-Cola in China has been a long and trying road. The Coca-Cola Company first opened bottling plants in Shanghai and Tianjin in 1927. A third plant opened in Qingdao in 1930. After a 30-year absence from the country, The Coca-Cola Company re-entered China in 1979, following the re-establishment of relations between China and the United States. Coca-Cola was the first American consumer product to return to China. (Coca-cola.com)

Environmental Factors

Some of the environmental factors faced in the first few years sales being one of them. Sales were actually higher in smaller more exclusive markets than that of the larger cities and retailers. Coco-cola embarked on an aggressive marketing campaign. Some factors were distribution to the retailers; some of the smaller locations required hours of travel on over rutted dirt roads, this presented a logistical challenge. In addition tracking of sales was hard in these regions. The company hired over thousands of sales representatives to make regular visits and monitor the amount of product being sold and in what locations.

An 1890s advertisement showing model Hilda Clark i...

English: Detail on Elmira Coca-Cola Bottling Plant...

Coca-Cola

This information was then entered into data banks that compiled all of the information and the company could track the information.

Other factors that the company had to consider were that the Chinese did not consume as much soda as here in the US; the company introduces new products that would be more appealing to the locals. Coca-Cola then created and offered new products that would be specific for China for example Tian Yu Di (Heaven and Earth), a noncarbonated fruit juice tailored to Chinese tastes, was introduced in 1996. It was the first local fruit juice to be produced in China by an international soft-drink company. The Tian Yu Di teas were introduced in 1998. Distribution of Tian Yu Di water was expanded in 1999(coca-cola.com).

Social Responsibility...