The Coca-Cola Company has long been one of America's most successful organizations with business partnership in over 200 countries. However, Coca-Cola has had its problems with marketing. Looking back, it seems that the Coca-Cola Company might have gotten to be too "big for their britches" when it came to marketing in India.
I can imagine the things that were being said in the Coca-Cola board room: things such as, "Don't they know who we are?" and "We're Coca-Cola - the largest bottled beverage company in America!" What they were not realizing is that they were the smallest beverage company in India, the market that they were so desperately trying to gain dominance in. This is in part to the fact that they were blind to the local culture.
After reading the article from Business Week, "Finally, Coke Gets It Right", it was clear to me that the Coca-Cola Company only had two of the four "P's" in the marketing mix.
An 1890s advertisement showing model Hilda Clark i...
English: Detail on Elmira Coca-Cola Bottling Plant...
English: Offices of The Coca-Cola Company in Sugar...Coca-Cola had the Product; they had Coca-Cola and the local cola that they had acquired "Thumbs Up." The Coca-Cola Company also had the Place, which obviously was India. They did have the other two "P's"; they just were not the right ones. The Promotional push was pretty much one of here is our "nationally recognized" product, now drink it. This was ineffective in that most of the demographics of India had never heard of Coca-Cola Company. The Pricing was proposed and put in place with the same margins as other countries. However, the majority of India is middle and lower classes with the majority of them being in the latter.
A gentleman by the name of Sanjeev Gupta stepped forward and saved the day. He realized, with his background in marketing, that Promotion was the key to...