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When I first read the session long project assignment, I sat down and tried to think of what company to research on.
Being military, I thought seriously about researching more about the defense contractors that serve our mission.
Upon further thought, I realized defense contractors would be a poor choice since their marketing tactics would be
hard to research. I then got the recent Fortune magazine to research the Fortune 500. Walmart, ranked number one;
may have been a good choice since my husband claims we should own stock with how much I shop there.
However, I decided on number 92 on the Fortune 500, the Coca-Cola Company. "The Coca-Cola Company markets
four of the world's top-five soft drink brands, including Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite. " happento drink a lot of Diet
Coke. The company leads the soft drink industry with a 50 percent market share. For the purpose of this
assignment, I will discuss the Coca-Cola Company's competition and the how the Coca-Cola Company's marketing
impacts the company's financial objectives. But first, I will present the Coca-Cola's Company's mission.
The Coca-Cola Promise
The Coca-Cola Company's mission, also known as the Coca-Cola Promise is to "benefit and refresh everyone it
touches "and to "When we bring refreshment, value, joy and fun to our stakeholders, then we successfully nurture
and protect our brands, particularly Coca-Cola. " This blue chip company has remained a leading competitor in the
soft drink industry for 115 years because of its unwavering devotion to the Coca-Cola Promise. Except for that one
time, in 1985, when Coca-Cola imprudently decided to change the original formula of its leading brand Coke, the
company has never changed its primary focus to provide consumers the highest quality beverage available in the
marketplace. In case you don't recall, this ghastly miscalculation on The Coca-Cola Company's part resulted in a
blizzard of discontent among faithful Coke consumers resulting in the company reverting to the traditional formula
three months later. Even through the Cola Wars with Pepsi, The Coca-Cola Company has remained the leader in this
industry.
The Competition
The Coca-Cola Company has two main competitors in the soft drink industry, Pepsi and Cadbury Schweppes (Dr
Pepper). Pepsi currently boasts 21 percent of the market share while Cadbury Schweppes, the clear underdog, only
claims 7 percent of the market. Pepsi is clearly a market challenger to market leader Coca-Cola Company. Pepsi's
trendy advertising featuring American pop stars, from Michael Jackson to Britney Spears, is clearly geared towards
American young consumers. On the other hand The Coca-Cola Company's approach to the market has traditionally
been more wholesome relying "more heavily on images of happiness and togetherness, tradition, and nationalism. "
"However, Pepsi has made its share of blunders as well. Pepsi Blue, a blue, berry-flavored version, has gone the
way of Pepsi soft drink disasters, Crystal Pepsi and Pepsi Clear and been discontinued. Will Pepsi's launch of Pepsi
Edge, a new, mid-calorie, mid-carb soft drink, aimed at Atkindiet lovers, this summer meet a similar fate? Only
time will tell.
Marketing versus Financial Objectives
The Coca-Cola Company's financial objectives are to "increase revenue by volume growth, expanding our share of
worldwide nonalcoholic ready-to-drink beverage sales, maximizing our long-term cash flows and improving
economic profit. " As previously stated, the Coca-Cola Company's marketing approach was considered
"wholesome." Noting the wide success of Pepsi in reaching out to the young urban consumer, the Coca-Cola
Company appears to have switched gears in an attempt to appear more trendy to this demographic when it launched
its "Coca-Cola...Real" campaign in 2003. The "Coca-Cola...Real" campaign was recognized as a leader in
advertising campaigns by The Wall Street Journal and USAToday. The company has also aligned itself as one of
two primary sponsors of the pop culture favorite American Idol. It's obvious that Coca-Cola recognized to cement
its position as the number one global soft drink producer it would need to appeal to a different audience with hip
marketing campaigns.
Continuously innovative, and keeping up with America's search for new flavors to satisfy their thirst and taste buds,
the Coca-Cola Company successfully launched Cherry Coke in 1985, Diet Coke with Lemon in 2001, followed by
the equally successful launch of Vanilla Coke in 2002. Additionally, not to be outdone by Pepsi's announcement of
launching a new mid-calorie, mid-carbohydrate soft drink Pepsi Edge, the Coca-Cola Company announced it "is
considering U.S. launch of mid-calorie cola with initial promotional focus on/around July 4th ." If the Coca-Cola
Company's previous additions to the Coca-Cola family are any indication, this launch will surely be a fan favorite as
well.
In review, I chose to use the Coca-Cola Company for my session long project for this course. I started with
discussing the company's mission that is also known as the Coca-Cola Promise. The company has remained focused
on this Promise for 115 years. I then discussed the Coca-Cola Company's competitors but chose to focus on its main
competitor Pepsi since Cadbury Schweppe's Dr Pepper is clearly the underdog in this industry. Finally, I discussed
the company's marketing impact on its financial objectives and how the company has not only chosen to switch
gears from its traditional wholesome marketing approach to appear more trendy, but alsohow the company continues
to introduce new products to appeal with the consumer's search for new ways to appeal to their taste buds. A lot of
research went into this paper in both choosing a company to focus on as well writing this particular assignment. I
believe the challenge of learning marketing as a whole will be satisfied through later session long project
assignments.

References Used

La Monica, Paul R. 2002. Coke vs. Pepsi: the new cola wars. Forget about how Vanilla Coke and Pepsi Blue taste.
Which stock is better: Coca-Cola or PepsiCo? CNNMoney.Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 01 April 2004:
http://money.cnn.com/2002/05/10/pf/investing/q_cola/
Lomax, Alice. 2004. Pepsi's Cutting Edge? The Motley Fool. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 01 April
2004: http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2004/mft04030917.htm?source=eptyholnk303100&logvisit=y&npu=y
A New Taste for Coca-Cola: Coca-Cola Launches Vanilla Coke®. New Release.2003. Retrieved from the World
Wide Web on 2 April 2004: http://www2.coca-cola.com/presscenter/nr_20020508_vanilla_coke_launches.html
North American Operating Segment. Real Impact. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 2 April 2004:
http://www2.coca-cola.com/investors/annualandotherreports/2003/opseg_2.shtml