KO just completed a two day analyst presentation in Atlanta to give some insight into its vision for how it will double its consumption globally over the next decade. It is apparent that months were spent by their consultants and strategists to deliver a vision driven laid out in a strategy map format to show the assembled wise people of Wall Street that KO is ready for the challenges of the next decade.
I have uploaded all the presentations to my slideshare account, for those beverage geeks who are interested... but I have not had the time to sit through the webcasts... those are available at the Coke website in their investor relations section.
Overall it is an impressive treatise on the KO objective of global domination, and more precisely on their determination to make brand Coke even more omnipresent ( if that is even possible), through various marketing, sales and supply chain tactics. I particularly liked the insight into Japan and China -probably because I am so US focused.
A couple of things do feel forced into the agenda (sustainability comments, and platitudes on how Coke will get people to exercise more). But the biggest concern I would have for the red machine is that it remains so singularly focused on its core, refreshment-driven CSD products. I saw nothing that made me believe that anything can be done to elevate the business above commodity status.
Also it overshadows some of the good work being done in the Venturing and Emerging Brands area, where real innovation (outside the Atlanta homeland) is being recognized and invested in (Honest Tea, Illy etc). The corporate innovation presentation sounds like the standard approach: KO wants Big Ideas that warrant Big Bets. As ever the "Big Bets" approach flies in the face of how beverage innovation actually creates success. Small incubation has won, big bet innovation has lost.
It is an interesting read for anyone in beverages, but the overall message is really "more of the same". They are lucky that "more of the same" has a large iconic base that will not be eroded easily. However, ignoring the functional future of beverages (eg. Vitamin Water and energy drinks) will be something they will do at their peril.
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1 comment:
i think their 1 dimensional approach and absolute disconnect with younger generation is appalling. Near Zero web presence, no facebook / twitter / gmail / you tube footprint, abysmal presence in the energy drinks / vitamin water market / no strong brand name young ambassadors. Maybe they should become incubators for smaller offshoots under their umbrella to innovate.
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