This is The Coca Cola Company SWOT analysis in 2013.

For more information on how to do a

SWOT analysis please refer to our article.

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Company Background
Name

The Coca Cola Company

Logo

Industries served

Beverages

Geographic areas served Worldwide

Headquarters

U.S.

Current CEO

Muhtar Kent

Revenue

$ 48.01 billion (2012)

Profit

$ 9.01 billion (2012)

Employees

146,200 (2012)

Main Competitors

PepsiCo Inc., Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc., Unilever, Groupe Danone, Kraft
Foods Inc., Nestl S.A. and many others.

The Coca Coola Company is the largest beverage business in the world serving more than 200
countries and offering more than 500 brands.
You can find more information about the business in its official website or Wikipedias article.

SWOT
Coca Cola SWOT analysis 2013
Strengths

Weaknesses

The best global brand in the world in terms of

value ($77,839 billion)
Worlds largest market share in beverage
Strong marketing and advertising
Most extensive beverage distribution channel
Customer loyalty
Bargaining power over suppliers

Significant focus on carbonated drinks

Undiversified product portfolio
High debt level due to acquisitions
Negative publicity
Brand failures or many brands with insignificant
amount of revenues

Corporate social responsibility

NEW Coca Cola SWOT Analysis 2015!

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Opportunities

Threats

Bottled water consumption growth

Increasing demand for healthy food and beverage
Growing beverages consumption in emerging
markets (especially BRIC)

Changes in consumer preferences

Water scarcity
Strong dollar
Legal requirements to disclose negative information
on product labels
Decreasing gross profit and net profit margins
Competition from PepsiCo

Growth through acquisitions

Saturated carbonated drinks market

Strengths
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

The best global brand in the world in terms of value. According to Interbrand, The Coca
Cola Company is the most valued ($77,839 billion) brand in the world.
Worlds largest market share in beverage. Coca Cola holds the largest beverage market
share in the world (about 40%).
Strong marketing and advertising. Coca Cola advertising expenses accounted for more
than $3 billion in 2012 and increased firms sales and brand recognition.
Most extensive beverage distribution channel. Coca Cola serves more than 200 countries
and more than 1.7 billion servings a day.
Customer loyalty. The firm enjoys having one of the most loyal consumer groups.
Bargaining power over suppliers. The Coca Cola Company is the largest beverage
producer in the world and exerts significant power over its suppliers to receive the lowest price
available from them.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Coca Cola is increasingly focusing on CSR
programs, such as recycling/packaging, energy conservation/climate change, active healthy living,
water stewardship and many others, which boosts companys social image and result in
competitive advantage over competitors.

Weaknesses
1.

2.

3.
4.
5.

Significant focus on carbonated drinks. The business is still focusing on selling Coke,
Fanta, Sprite and other carbonated drinks. This strategy works in short term as consumption of
carbonated drinks will grow in emerging economies but it will prove weak as the world is fighting
obesity and is moving towards consuming healthier food and drinks.
Undiversified product portfolio. Unlike most companys competitors, Coca Cola is still
focusing only on selling beverage, which puts the firm at disadvantage. The overall consumption of
soft drinks is stagnating and Coca Cola Company will find it hard to penetrate to other markets
(selling food or snacks) when it will have to sustain current level of growth.
High debt level due to acquisitions. Nearly $8 billion of debt acquired from CCEs
acquisition significantly increased Coca Cola's debt level, interest rates and borrowing costs.
Negative publicity. The firm is often criticized for high water consumption in water scarce
regions and using harmful ingredients to produce its drinks.
Brand failures or many brands with insignificant amount of revenues. Coca Cola
currently sells more than 500 brands but only few of the brands result in more than $1 billion sales.
Plus, the firms success of introducing new drinks is weak. Many of its introduction result in
failures, for example, C2 drink.

NEW Coca Cola SWOT Analysis 2015!

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Opportunities
1.

Bottled water consumption growth. Consumption of bottled water is expected to grow

both in US and the rest of the world.
2.
Increasing demand for healthy food and beverages. Due to many programs to fight
obesity, demand for healthy food and beverages has increased drastically. The Coca Cola Company
has an opportunity to further expand its product range with drinks that have low amount of sugar
and calories.

3.

Growing beverages consumption in emerging markets. Consumption of soft drinks is

still significantly growing in emerging markets, especially BRIC countries, where Coca Cola could
increase and maintain its beverages market share.
4.
Growth through acquisitions. Coca Cola will find it hard to keep current growth levels
and will find it hard to penetrate new markets with its existing product portfolio. All this can be
done more easily through acquiring other companies.

Threats
1.
2.
3.
4.

5.
6.
7.

Changes in consumer tastes. Consumers around the world become more health conscious
and reduce their consumption of carbonated drinks, drinks that have large amounts of sugar,
calories and fat. This is the most serious threat as Coca Cola is mainly serving carbonated drinks.
Water scarcity. Water is becoming scarcer around the world and increases both in cost and
criticism for Coca Cola over the large amounts of water used in production.
Strong dollar. More than 60% of The Coca Cola Company income is from outside US.
Due to strong dollar performance against other currencies firms overall income may fall.
Legal requirements to disclose negative information on product labels. Some Coca
Colas carbonated drinks have adverse health consequences. For this reason, many governments
consider to pass legislation that requires disclosing such information on product labels. Products
containing such information may be perceived negatively and lose its customers.
Decreasing gross profit and net profit margins. Coca Colas gross profit and net profit
margin was decreasing over the past few years and may continue to decrease due to higher water
and other raw material costs.
Competition from PepsiCo. PepsiCo is fiercely competing with Coca Cola over market
share in BRIC countries, especially India.
Saturated carbonated drinks market. The business significantly relies on the carbonated
drinks sales, which is a threat for the Coca Cola as the market of carbonated drinks is not growing
or even declining in the world.

Sources
1.

The Coca Cola Company (2013). Coca Cola Journey. Available at: http://www.cocacolacompany.com/
2.
Bazil, M. (2013). The Motley Fool. Coca-Cola Has a Prosperous 2013 Ahead of It.
Available at: http://beta.fool.com/muhammadbazil/2013/01/04/coca-cola-has-prosperous-2013ahead-it/20272/?ticker=KO&source=eogyholnk0000001
3.
Wikipedia (2013). The Coca-Cola Company. Available at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coca-Cola_Company