coca cola in china case study

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Understanding Brand Building in China: Lessons from the Rise of Coca-Cola

By The Silk Initiative 

Coca-Cola’s factories were nationalized in 1949 under order of Chairman Mao Zedong, who deemed the drink a ‘bourgeois concoction’. After Deng Xiaoping opened the Chinese economy in the late 1970s, the company was eager to return. Its rival, PepsiCo, had just won the bid for the Soviet Union, putting pressure on Coke not to lose the world’s other communist giant.

It all started when Peter Lee, now known as the first President of Coca-Cola China, received a call from former Coca-Cola Chairman J. Paul Austin asking him to try to launch the brand in China. Lee got to work right away, telexing the China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation (currently known as COFCO). After a six-month wait, he was finally sent a message saying he was “welcome to come to Beijing for negotiations.”

Once in China, Lee managed to convince his Chinese counterparts to sign an agreement under the premise that since the country was finally open to tourists from all over the world, “we have a product we believe most tourists will love.” They signed the agreement on Dec. 13, 1978, though the deal was not publicized until after U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced the mutual recognition of the United States and China and the re-establishment of diplomatic ties between the two nations two days later on Dec. 15, 1978.

As the first foreign FMCG-company to enter the Chinese market, Coca-Cola faced various challenges. The company was limited to selling only to tourists with their first shipment in 1979, while under strict supervision of Chinese officials. Coca-Cola, however, wanted to reach Chinese consumers and was punished with a 12-month ban after holding an illegal street promotion in Beijing in 1980. After the restriction was eased, Coca-Cola built its first production facility on Chinese soil, which was wholly owned by COFCO. In 1988, the company had another breakthrough when it launched its first Shanghai cooperative joint venture. From then onwards, it could be said that Coca-Cola truly had entered China.

After Coca-Cola’s entry to China, its subsidiary brands soon followed in its footsteps. The most successful brand was Minute Maid, which entered China in 2004 with the flavors orange and grapefruit. This decision was very deliberate: Although the Chinese didn’t know Minute Maid very well, it had a strong reputation in the global beverage industry. And by positioning Minute Maid as a “global brand”, it was easier to generate buying confidence among Chinese consumers.

The Coca-Cola Company started a revolution in China, as well, by focusing not on the brand name Minute Maid in commercials, but on the flavor of the product itself: “Fruit Pulp Orange.” This decision to name the product benefit before the brand name turned out to be a great success: Minute Maid became the first billion-dollar brand to emerge in the Chinese market for Coca-Cola. The success of “Fruit Pulp Orange” also came at a cost—it sparked a huge number of copycats and counterfeits. The lesson learned was that the IP-holder Coca-Cola needed to keep an eye out for counterfeit products in order to protect its trademark.

Coca-Cola is a model for “first-in-market advantage.” It was the first foreign brand to move into China, and is therefore ingrained in the collective Chinese memory and consumer market. This paved the way for other well-known brands: Coke’s main competitor, PepsiCo, entered China in 1981. PepsiCo’s current CEO, Indra Nooyi, remembers her first time in China for PepsiCo where she saw local Chinese eating Lay’s potato chips with chopsticks. Nooyi believes that corporations that want to be successful in China need to behave in a way that also benefits the country. PepsiCo signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture in 2011 to “promote sustainable agriculture projects and accelerate the development of the Chinese countryside”. In order to fulfill its promise, PepsiCo has opened eight sustainable demonstration farms in order to educate Chinese farmers how to grow sustainably. Also, they invested in partnerships with more than 10,000 rural Chinese households in the last 15 years.

In 1995, Red-Bull followed Coke’s lead by forming an alliance with the Thai-Chinese Reignwood group to enter China. Today, Red-Bull has five manufacturing hubs in China: Beijing, Hubei, Jiangsu, Guangzhou and Hainan, with over 10,000 employees. Its share of the vitamin drink market is also increasing by 20 percent every year. Just like Minute Maid, Red Bull was able to leverage its global brand to make a successful launch in China. This has also come with the same problem of counterfeit products, but Red Bull maintains it is taking the problem seriously by monitoring the Chinese market attentively and checking cans regularly to protect its trademark from any infringements.

The five key lessons for building a beverage brand in China are:

•  Get a ‘first-mover-advantage’ in your beverage category
• Leverage your global brand equities
• Form strategic partnerships that bring scale
• Behave in a way that benefits ‘China’
• Get local with production facilities on Chinese soil

Coca-Cola’s entry to China can serve as a model for all FMCG companies that want to enter China. Besides this, it reveals a country with a dynamic market that requires patience, expertise, and adaptability, but in exchange offers the opportunity to grow beyond a company’s imagination.

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Harvard Professor Susan Greenhalgh says Coca-Cola used a nonprofit to shape obesity science and policy solutions in China.

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Last year, anthropologist Susan Greenhalgh , the John King and Wilma Cannon Fairbank Research Professor of Chinese Society, revealed how the Coca-Cola Co. worked through an industry-funded global scientific nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., to influence obesity science and policy solutions in China. In a follow-up study, published Monday in the Journal of Health Policy, Politics and Law, Greenhalgh went deeper into how the nonprofit, the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), was so successful at this. She traces the history of ILSI (the chief scientific nonprofit of the processed food and sugary drinks industry), exploring how it operates, and how Coca-Cola used it to influence the scientific agenda and shape obesity science and policy at global levels and in China. The Gazette interviewed Greenhalgh about the new study and what it says about industry influence on health science and policy.

Susan Greenhalgh

GAZETTE:   What’s the story you’re trying to tell here, and how does it expand on the 2019 report?

GREENHALGH:   This is fundamentally a story about Coke and ILSI protecting the soda industry from threats posed by the obesity epidemic — threats of soda taxes and government restrictions on marketing to kids. Since 2015, when The New York Times exposed Coke’s efforts to promote activity as the main solution for obesity, we’ve known that Coke was involved in distorting the science of obesity. My work reveals the scale of the impact and the inner workings of the organizations involved. The 2019 papers I published in  The BMJ  and the  Journal of Public Health Policy documented Coke and ILSI’s success in getting the “exercise-first” approach embedded in China’s science and policy on obesity. This article digs into the operations of ILSI to explain that success during the two decades between 1995, when ILSI took up the obesity issue, and 2015, when Coke abandoned the exercise-first approach.

“ … we’ve known that Coke was involved in distorting the science of obesity. My work reveals the scale of the impact and the inner workings of the organizations involved.”

GAZETTE:   You break the report into two parts. The first is an institutional story of how ILSI works both at global and local levels to advance corporate interests. It takes a behind-the-scenes look at the organization. Then, the report highlights the gap between the public narrative about ILSI as a charitable organization that adheres to IRS rules on nonprofits, and contrasts it with set of private channels within the organization used to influence ILSI science and health policy in branches around the world. What were some of the biggest revelations you came across here?

GREENHALGH:   ILSI was created more than 40 years ago by then-Coca-Cola vice president Alex Malaspina and it now has 15 branches worldwide, including one in China — but nobody had looked closely at how it operates. The biggest discovery was the incredible complexity and sophistication of the organization. Tracking it over six years, I discovered that there were four specific features of its structure and organization that enabled it to serve industry interests while appearing to serve the public. You just mentioned two of those features: ILSI has a dual character — visible and invisible, public and private — and a host of informal, hidden mechanisms by which companies can influence the science. But there are two more as well. One is a hierarchical global structure that concentrated power in D.C. and made the branches subject to the authority of ILSI-Global. Last but not least are exclusionary rules of participation. Participation in ILSI events — especially by speakers — was by invitation only, creating a quasi-closed world of ILSI science in which critics of corporate intervention in science were not invited. They were excluded by definition.

GAZETTE:   What do you hit on in the second part of the report?

GREENHALGH:   The second part is a detailed story of science-making and policymaking over 20 years, both at the global level of ILSI headquarters in the U.S. and at the local Chinese level. This story shows how Coke and other corporations used the ILSI apparatus to promote an industry-friendly approach to obesity calling for some dietary changes, but prioritizing exercise and remaining silent about soda taxes. In this section, I trace the process step by step to show how Coca-Cola managed to leave its mark on every phase of the process of making obesity policy. You can find Coke’s fingerprints on everything from framing the obesity problem and solution as matters primarily of physical activity, to naming the key, industry-friendly actors in the policy process, to creating activity-focused policies and programs. You can see Coke’s involvement too in the construction of the scientific rationales to support the physical-activity solution, primarily “energy-balance science,” which says you can eat as many calories as you wish, as long as you burn them off. Finally, you can detect Coke’s role in incorporating these activity-centered approaches into Chinese policy and programs. That’s pretty remarkable.

More like this

Researcher finds Coke’s fingerprints on health policy in China

GAZETTE:   What triggered this study, along with the previous two, and how did you go about completing this body of work?

GREENHALGH:   When I started this project back in 2013, there was already growing concern about corporate intervention in science and policy on human health. There were important studies of the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries, some by colleagues here at Harvard, but there was virtually no research on the food industry. At that time, the media were devoting massive attention to the growing epidemic of obesity, not just in the U.S but all around the world. It seemed highly likely the food industry was trying to skew the science of obesity to protect profits, and so I set out to study what the industry was doing in China, my area of expertise.

There, I spent 10 weeks doing in-depth field research that involved, among other things, two dozen interviews with obesity experts, including those who had been instrumental in making China’s obesity policy. The interviews raised more questions than they answered, though. The biggest puzzle was ILSI, whose leaders in China claimed to create disinterested science despite being industry-funded. To understand developments in China, I needed to expand the project to include the entire ILSI-Global network, the Coca-Cola Co., and other global programs active in China, like the Exercise Is Medicine program. Over time, my research became a two-part project, with one part centering on China and the other on developments at the global level, which became interesting in their own right.

“No one I was studying wanted me to be studying them. And so they put many obstacles in my way.”

GAZETTE:   Did you encounter any challenges collecting the data and information?

GREENHALGH:   Absolutely. Everything was surrounded in secrecy. Many of the claims made by people involved with ILSI-funded science didn’t add up; the closer you looked, the more problematic some of them became. Over time, I came to see that the main actors — both ILSI leaders at global and local levels and the core scientists — were engaged in deliberately concealing what was going on. So, much of the research involved constantly trying to peel back layer after layer of obfuscation.

The second major challenge was there was no roadmap to what I should study — which actors, which organizations, which activities. As a result, I had to adopt an open-ended, exploratory process of investigation and follow every lead to see where it would take me. It was an energizing process, because the more I looked, the more interesting — and often concerning — material I found.

GAZETTE:   What are some of the study’s limitations?

GREENHALGH:   No one I was studying wanted me to be studying them. And so they put many obstacles in my way. Because of the extreme sensitivity of the issues I was probing — especially after The Times’ expose — I was unable to interview the core scientists in the U.S.

Fortunately, this problem didn’t affect the China research. Partly because it was done before the 2015 expose came out, but also because the political culture in China is very different. In China, corporate funding of scientific research is just routine. It’s business as usual, so people were willing to talk about it.

GAZETTE:   Why is it important that these issues be brought to the light?

GREENHALGH:   It’s important for two major reasons. First, despite some important critical work on corporate intervention in science, rich and powerful companies like Coca-Cola are continuing their efforts to create industry-friendly science, and that science threatens both the integrity of health science and the soundness of health policy. We’ve long known that food companies are meddling in the science, but we still know little about how they’re doing it and with what effects. If we are to intervene in these harmful dynamics, we need to know much more about how sophisticated, secretive quasi-corporate organizations like ILSI work.

The second reason we need to keep these issues in the public eye — even in the midst of a viral pandemic — is that the impact of these companies may be much greater than is currently appreciated. Industry impact is likely to be greatest not in the U.S. or Western Europe, where the critical research is concentrated, but in countries in the Global South that are part of the ILSI network. If China is any indication, the political culture, especially in poor countries, may be welcoming to big companies offering financial and technological support. Substantial evidence suggests that ILSI operates in similar ways across the globe. We need to put much more energy into in-depth research on the effects ILSI is having on scientific understandings and official policies on chronic diseases around the world.

In China the impact of that exercise-first approach promoted by Coke and ILSI continues to this day. Despite the findings of the 2019 articles, China has not questioned how it’s tackling its epidemics of obesity and related chronic diseases. I see this new work as both a call to action to the research community, and a concrete guide to the kinds of analytic strategies and research methods that are needed to call the food industry to account.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

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Coca-Cola in China: Will Their Brands Survive in This Challenging Market?

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• Patricia Schnitger 2  

Part of the book series: Management for Professionals ((MANAGPROF))

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China’s soft drink market has been changing rapidly. The world’s leading beverage company in carbonated soft drinks (CSD), Coca-Cola, will have to adjust their market strategies for the Chinese market, as this growth potential market will need a different approach compared to the Western countries. This case study will give a view of the Chinese soft drink market and the challenges Coca-Cola needs to face and overcome in order to continue to stay ahead in the Asian market. As Chinese consumers shift towards a healthier life style including non carbonated soft drinks such as ready-to-drink teas, juices and milky flavored beverages, the question is how the Coca-Cola Company’s number one brand can succeed and remain successful in the largest country of the world with a population of 1.3 billion?

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Schnitger, P. (2016). Coca-Cola in China: Will Their Brands Survive in This Challenging Market?. In: Prange, C. (eds) Market Entry in China. Management for Professionals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29139-0_15

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An internalization approach to joint ventures: the case of Coca-Cola in China

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Coca-Cola’s Failed Bid for China Huiyuan Juice: The Return of Protectionism?

April 1, 2009 • 13 min read.

Huiyuan Juice and Coca-Cola’s potential dream deal, which would have been China’s largest-ever foreign buyout, was terminated by regulators on March 18. After six months’ consideration, officials said the merger would harm competition and consumer choice. Experts suggest the case is not so cut-and-dried: Some believe that the government gave in to protectionist instincts, while others note that the decision is an example of growing professionalism on the part of Chinese M&A regulators, setting a useful precedent in interpreting China’s new anti-monopoly law.

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How Coca-Cola Came to China, 40 Years Ago 7 min read

The sugar trap of market normalization – ramsey fahs.

On December 13, 1978, two days before the announcement of Sino-American normalization, Coca-Cola became the first foreign corporation allowed back in to the People’s Republic of China, and just celebrated its 40 th anniversary of relations with China. Representatives of President Jimmy Carter, another of Georgia’s more famous exports, had to politely request that Coke delay announcing the deal to avoid the embarrassment of the US being beaten to the diplomatic punch by a purveyor of carbonated sugar-water.

Coca-Cola was an unlikely candidate for this particular milestone. In the decades prior to the agreement, the company had eagerly tied its business practices to the American government’s aim of defeating global communism and promoting democracy. In China, meanwhile, anti-American propaganda smeared Coca-Cola as one of the worst incarnations of American imperialism. Yet the little-known story of how Coke went from imperialist shill to the first foreign brand welcomed back to the PRC illustrates forces that still define the economic relationship between China and American business.

Throughout the Mao years, as noted by Chuck Kraus in a new article in Diplomatic History , anti-US propagandists repeatedly targeted Coca-Cola. In 1950, Minister of Culture Mao Dun warned in the People’s Daily that Coca-Cola and its efforts to spread “American civilization” was just as dangerous as the nation’s formidable military, which China was at that time fighting in a proxy war against in Korea. Chinese periodicals used the term “ Coca-Colanization ” to describe the way the drink undermined sovereignty and local culture. Others emphasized that Coca-Cola accompanied American troops wherever they went. (On this last point, the propagandists may have been on to something: by the end of WWII, Coca-Cola owned 64 international bottling plants that had provided refreshment to American combat troops, the vast majority of them paid for by the US government.)

After the war, Coca-Cola came to see itself as a crucial force in America’s global campaign against communism”

On a more symbolic level, Coca-Cola became one of the best illustrations of the communist argument against capitalism. Coke isn’t much more than sugar, carbonation and water; it has no productive utility. Coke’s widespread success was largely due to aggressive marketing, which beat out rivals such as Pepsi-Cola. That so much manpower and so many material resources went into convincing people to drink something that was unhealthy and unproductive reflected some of the best communist points about waste in capitalist societies. It’s hard to argue that millions of dollars invested in convincing consumers to purchase one soda over another is a socially prudent use of capital.

If the Chinese Communist Party didn’t like Coca-Cola to begin with, the feeling was mutual. After the war, Coca-Cola came to see itself as a crucial force in America’s global campaign against communism. At a convention for international bottlers, a placard read, “When we think of Communists, we think of the Iron Curtain, BUT when THEY think of democracy, they think of Coca-Cola.” Given Coke’s baggage and Chinese perceptions of the drink from the 50s to the 70s, Coke should have been among the last brands welcomed back to China. How were they the first?

In part, Coke succeeded because they turned their talent for government relations toward China. Piqued by losing out to Pepsi in the quest to sell sugary soda to the USSR in 1972, Coca-Cola Chairman J. Paul Austin became fanatic about beating Pepsi to the PRC. Kraus describes how the tall, red-headed Georgian became a frequent visitor at the PRC Liaison’s office in Washington, always arriving with boxes of Coke (and in one case a refrigerator, after he realized the office’s Spartan set-up meant they were drinking the stuff at a tepid room temperature, not refreshingly chilled). In Hong Kong, Peter Lee, a chemical engineer appointed by Austin to find a way into the Chinese market, sent endless unrequited Telexes and attended the China Import and Export Fair in an attempt to cultivate contacts in the PRC’s Foreign Trade Office. The company also provided financial support for several cultural exchanges between the two countries. Finally, in December of 1978, Lee was invited to Beijing to negotiate with COFCO, the state-owned enterprise responsible for foodstuffs and beverages. Their agreement established a joint-venture bottling plant in Beijing and rights for Coca-Cola to sell its product to tourists at friendship shops and hotels. Later, Coke would be allowed to sell surplus soda in the Beijing market only. So successful were Austin’s lobbying efforts that when Deng Xiaoping visited the United States in early 1979, a trip to the Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta was on his itinerary.

The agreement provided Chinese officials with two tangible benefits: foreign technology and foreign exchange. Tong Zhiguang, a Chinese official who worked first at the Chinese Liaison Office in Washington and then at COFCO, was the biggest champion of the deal, according to Kraus. While working in the US before normalization, Tong accepted Austin’s invitation to tour the Atlanta headquarters. Though no fan of Coke’s taste, Tong was impressed by the company’s quality control and management practices. He saw that having a bottling plant in Beijing would introduce superior food production technology to China, and that limiting sales of the drink to foreign tourists could generate much-needed foreign exchange, bringing more dollars into China. When he left the Liaison office for COFCO in 1978, Tong became an advocate for Coke’s entry.

Onlookers thought Coke’s success meant that China was taking the first step toward full market liberalization, maybe even political liberalization”

Coca-Cola was happy to trade its technology for market access in China, because that’s what they have done in every international market (except North Korea , to date). The company works, essentially, as a franchise. Foreign partners operate almost every part of the business in their respective countries, usually only importing from Atlanta a special concentrate containing Coke’s “secret formula.” Coke had long since made decisions about which parts of their intellectual property and technical know-how they were happy to give up.

American onlookers thought Coke’s success meant that China was taking the first step toward full market liberalization, maybe even political liberalization. This idea – that the more Chinese citizens drank Coke, ate McDonald’s and watched basketball, the more they would embrace American values and the more liberal the Chinese Communist Party would become – has had a surprisingly long shelf life. For the Chinese officials greenlighting the deal, though, it was no more than a pragmatic trade made in pursuit of the tangible benefits of technology and foreign exchange. This approach to foreign businesses has remained fundamentally consistent. Required joint venture arrangements for foreign businesses and their accompanying tech transfer requirements remain one of the biggest sticking points in the ongoing trade conflict between the US and China.

Today, Coke can be found practically anywhere in China and, as a recent report uncovered, continues to enjoy a cozy relationship with the Chinese government. Coke advertisements are plastered across the country, and the company served as a lead sponsor of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. For all its marketing and lobbying, though, Coca-Cola executives might have felt a little let down as they celebrated 40 years in the PRC at the end of last year. Though China is the third-largest market for Coca-Cola (behind only the United States and Mexico), per capita consumption there, as of 2012 , lags far below the world average and for countries with a similar per capita GDP. Like the American government, Coca-Cola found that diplomatic normalization and Reform and Opening have not created the China they dreamed it might. ∎

Correction: An earlier version of this article failed to properly credit the research of Chuck Kraus in his article ‘ More than Just a Soft Drink: Coca-Cola and China’s Early Reform and Opening ‘ and his previous blog on the same topic, as well as the books ‘The Cola Wars’ by J.C. Louis and Harvey Yazijian and ‘For God, Country, and Coca-Cola’ by Mark Pendergrast. Apologies from the editors.

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Published by Ramsey Fahs

Ramsey Fahs is a freelance writer based in Beijing. He is currently on a Schwarzman Scholarship at Tsinghua University. View all posts by Ramsey Fahs

Table of Contents

Coca-cola target audience , geographical segmentation , coca-cola marketing channels, coca-cola marketing strategy , coca-cola marketing strategy 2024: a case study.

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Coca-cola has colossal brand recognition as it targets every customer in the market. Its perfect marketing segmentation is a major reason behind its success. 

• Firstly, the company targets young people between 10 and 35. They use celebrities in their advertisements to attract them and arrange campaigns in universities, schools, and colleges. 
• They also target middle-aged and older adults who are diet conscious or diabetic by offering diet coke. 

Income and Family Size

It introduces packaging and sizes priced at various levels to increase affordability and target students, middle class, and low-income families and individuals.  

Coca-Cola sells its products globally and targets different cultures, customs, and climates. For instance, in America, it is liked by older people too. So, the company targets different segments. It also varies the change accordingly, like the Asian version is sweeter than other countries. 

Coca-Cola targets individuals as per their gender. For example, Coca-Cola light is preferred by females, while coke zero and thumbs up are men's favorite due to their strong taste.

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Coca-Cola initially employed an undifferentiated targeting strategy. In recent times, it has started localizing its products for better acceptability. It incorporates two basic marketing channels : Personal and Non-personal.

Personal channels include direct communication with the audience. Non-personal marketing channels include both online and offline media, such as

• Promotion Campaigns 
• PR activities 

Social Media

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A uniquely formulated Coca Cola marketing strategy is behind the company's international reach and widespread popularity. The strategy can be broken down into the following:

Product strategy 

Coca-cola has approximately 500 products. Its soft drinks are offered globally, and its product strategy includes a marketing mix. Its beverages like Coca-Cola, Minute Maid, Diet Coke, Light, Coca-Cola Life, Coca-Cola Zero, Sprite Fanta, and more are sold in various sizes and packaging. They contribute a significant share and generate enormous profits. 

Coca-Cola Products

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Pricing Strategy

Coca-Cola's price remained fixed for approximately 73 years at five cents. The company had to make its pricing strategy flexible with the increased competition with competitors like Pepsi. It doesn't drop its price significantly, nor does it increase the price unreasonably, as this would lead to consumers doubting the product quality and switching to the alternative.  

Place Strategy 

Coca-cola has a vast distribution network. It has six operating regions: North America, Latin America, Africa, Europe, the Pacific, and Eurasia. The company's bottling partners manufacture, package, and ship to the agents. The agents then transport the products by road to the stockist, then to distributors, to retailers, and finally to the customer. Coca-Cola also has an extensive reverse supply chain network to collect leftover glass bottles for reuse. Thus, saving costs and resources.

Coca-Cola’s Global Marketing

Promotion Strategy  

Coca-Cola employs different promotional and marketing strategies to survive the intense competition in the market. It spends up to $4 million annually to promote its brand , utilizing both traditional and international mediums for advertisements.   

Classic Bottle, Font, and Logo

Coca-Cola organized a global contest to design the bottle. The contest winner used the cocoa pod's design, and the company used the same for promoting its shape and logo. Its logo, written in Spencerian script, differentiates it from its competitors. The way Coca-cola uses its logo in its marketing strategy ensures its imprint on consumers' minds. 

Coca-Cola’s Gripping Advertisements

Localized Positioning

The recent 'Share a coke' campaign, launched in 2018 in almost fifty countries, has been quite a success. The images of celebrities of that region and messages according to the local language and culture of the area target the local market. 

Coca-Cola Advertisement Featuring Celebrities

Sponsorships 

The company is a well-recognized brand for its sponsorships, including American Idol, the NASCAR, Olympic Games, and many more. Since the 1928 Olympic Games, Coca-Cola has partnered on each event, helping athletes, officials and fans worldwide. 

Coca-Cola as Official Olympics Partner

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With technological advancement, social media and online communication channels have become the most significant part of the Coca-Cola marketing strategy. It actively uses online digital marketing platforms like Facebook , Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat to post images, videos, and more.  The Coca Cola marketing strategy primarily includes SEO , email marketing , content marketing , and video marketing .   

Coca-Cola’s Instagram Posts 

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Coca-Cola: ‘We need to become talent architects, not just recruiters’

At UNLEASH America 2024, The Coca-Cola Company’s Senior Director and Lead for the Global People & Culture Capability Development, Smita Srivastava, shared her exclusive insights into the HR industry, skills, the future of work, and taking calculated risks.

Key takeaways for HR leaders

The Coca Cola Company, which generated $46 billion in revenue last year, is home to some of the best known brands on the planet.

At UNLEASH America 2024, we spoke to Smita Srivastava, the company’s Senior Director and Lead for the Global People & Culture Capability Development.

In the exclusive interview, Srivastava shared how The Coca Cola Company has cultivated a culture that promotes continuous learning, as well as how it’s preparing for the future of work.

At UNLEASH America: The International Festival of HR 2024 , the UNLEASH Editorial team spoke to a plethora of world-renowned speakers to gain their exclusive insights to the latest advances in the HR industry. 

One of the speakers we interviewed was The Coca-Cola Company’s Smita Srivastava.

As the company’s Senior Director and Lead for the Global People & Culture Capability Development, Srivastava leads the end-to-end capability development strategy and delivery for The Coca-Cola Company’s Global People & Culture Community – which of course, includes HR.

Reflecting on the event, Srivastava says: “UNLEASH America is known for its focus on disruptive innovation and emerging technologies in HR and I enjoyed gaining insights from industry leaders and HR visionaries on the latest trends and strategies shaping the future of work.”

“It was also a great way to connect with a global network of HR professionals to build valuable relationships, while discovering innovative tools, technologies, and resources to implement positive change.”

In an exclusive interview, UNLEASH explores more about Srivastava’s experience at UNLEASH America, as well as how The Coca-Cola Company encourages skills development, taking calculated risks, and many more poignant topics. 

Coca-Cola’s essential skills for the future of work

Unsurprisingly, skills was a topics that was top of mind for many HR leaders at UNLEASH America. But specifically, leaders were concerned about which skills will become increasingly essential for HR in the coming years. 

Commenting on this, Srivastava highlights three fundamental areas that should be focused on: data-driven decision making and people analytics, change management , and strategic business acumen. 

Touching on the first point, Srivastava begins: “The future of HR is filled with data .

HR professionals need to be comfortable with interpreting data, using analytics tools, and leveraging people data to inform strategic decisions in areas like recruitment, retention, and performance management.”

Explaining this further, she highlighted the need to go beyond basic reporting, sharing the importance of asking the right questions and using data to identify trends and predict future needs.

Filtering into her second point, is the acknowledgement that the pace of change in the workplace is only accelerating. 

HR professionals, therefore, need to be adept at navigating change, to help employees adapt and foster a culture of continuous learning. For example, practicing strong communication skills to explain changes, build buy-in, addressing concerns, and being prepared for the unexpected. 

Her final point was to reiterate the need for a solid business acumen.

HR is no longer a siloed function,” she says. “Effective HR professionals understand the organization’s strategic goals and how HR initiatives contribute to achieving them. 

“This requires knowledge of the business landscape, financial literacy, and the ability to translate HR strategies into measurable business outcomes.”

With this in mind, it’s no wonder that the company has made strong commitments to prioritizing upskilling and skills development.

In fact, one way The Coca-Cola Company has exercised this is by recognizing the importance of investing strategically.

For example, the drinks giant has a clear focus on what matters the most, such as skills and capabilities critical to success, like Human Centered Design, which ensures a people-centric approach to all our work.

Srivastava adds: “We also embrace an experimental mindset. We test the waters through pilot programs before committing to large-scale initiatives. This allows us to gather feedback and refine learning programs at scale for maximum impact across the enterprise.”

What’s more, The Coca-Cola Company leverages the 70-20-10 model – or the 3 E’s approach. This framework emphasizes hands-on learning (70%), exposure to diverse learning styles (20%), and formal education (10%). 

According to Srivastava, this ensures HR professionals gain “well-rounded skill sets” through practical application, social learning, and targeted training.

Taking calculated risks to future proof Coca-Cola

As one of the most recognizable companies on the planet, it’s no surprise that The Coca-Cola Company generated a revenue of $46 billion for the year ending March 31 2024. 

It’s therefore no surprise that the business has created a culture that encourages calculated risk-taking, while learning from failures to drive innovation in skill development.

For Srivastava, it’s about encouraging companies and HR teams to turn ‘what ifs’ into ‘wows’.

Companies can create cultures of innovation by encouraging calculated risk taking, celebrating learning from failures, and providing micro-learning opportunities to bridge skill gaps,” she explains. 

“By embedding experimentation as a cultural practice, we can model desired behavior, normalize experimentation mindset and behaviors, and increase adoption.

“Focusing more on experimentation as a skill empowers us to break down silos, develop critical thinking, and build an agile, data-driven approach to capability development and broader innovation.”

She continues to highlight her belief that the future of HR hinges on two key challenges: bridging the skills gap and building an agile workforce. 

“We need to become talented architects, not just recruiters, by equipping our people with the skills needed to thrive in a constantly evolving landscape,” she notes. “At the same time, we must cultivate a culture that embraces change, fosters continuous learning, and allows for calculated risks. 

“By prioritizing these areas, HR can truly become the innovation engine within our organizations. It’s about striking that balance to stay ahead of the curve.”

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50 Things You Had No Idea You Could Do with Coca-Cola

Posted: April 29, 2024 | Last updated: May 8, 2024

Dentists hate it, polar bears love it

We're not saying it'll do anything for the plaque on your incisors, but it'll definitely do a number on your porcelain-tile grout, or a bloodstain. A more versatile soft drink than you might initially expect, we've gathered 50 criteria in which Coca-Cola excels—51 if you count being delicious.

Clean a toilet bowl

The picture has circulated around the Internet for some time and it turns out Coca-Cola can clean rust spots on your toilet. The slight acidity of Coca-Cola can remove stains of all kinds.

Make a barbecue sauce

A little Coca-Cola can add just the right flavor to a barbecue sauce. It’s a popular ingredient to use for a barbecue sauce and make grilling a little more refreshing. Find a recipe at Instructables .

Fertilize plants

Some plants love the delicious taste of that caramel-colored soft drink Coca-Cola,  like azaleas and bergenias. They like the light acidity of the drink in the soil. Here's why the Coca-Cola logo is red .

Clean milk stains from clothes

It seems unusual that a dark cola could remove a milk stain but the claim exists. After letting the milk stain soak in Coca-Cola for around five minutes, just throw it in the wash. When you’re all done with that milk jug, repurpose that milk jug as a scoop or as a tool to collect stripped paint from furniture.

Clean eyeglasses

Just pour some Coca-Cola over your lenses, wipe dry and repeat with water to get rid of any sticky residue . Find out more great ways to extend the life of your eyeglasses .

Tenderize meat

Coca-Cola can do wonders in the kitchen, especially with meat. Its acidity can tenderize meat and work as one heck of a marinade.

Loosen rusty bolts

The little amount of phosphoric acid a can of Coca-Cola contains can produce big results with rust. Let some Coca-Cola soak on a rusted bolt for a while and then try to remove it. Then find out whether Coke or Pepsi tastes better .

Neutralize skunk odor

According to some, Coca-Cola has the power to remove the oils from a skunk spray. It seems a bit dubious but you’d better exhaust all options if you’re having trouble getting rid of the smell of a skunk.

Soothe a jellyfish sting

The exact healing capabilities of Coca-Cola on jellyfish stings remains a topic of debate but according to an Australian study from 1993, Coca-Cola reduced the pain and the reaction to a sting between 25 to 75 percent. Vinegar is a potential (if controversial) option, but who’s running around with vinegar in their bag at the beach?

Hair curler

Lady Gaga popularized the look of using Diet Coca-Cola cans as hair curlers in her “Telephone” video. The practicality remains debatable. Maybe if Ms. Gaga had read these 12 genius ways to tame frizzy hair first.

Window cleaner

The Coca-Cola formula even extends into cleaning windows. The citric acid works like other cleaning products with citrus fruit to remove smudges and streaks from windows. Did you Mexican Coke tastes better than American Coke? Here's why .

Bug control

Coca-Cola is great at bug control it turns out but for different reasons than you might think. The sweet syrup of Coca-Cola and other soft drinks attract ants, which feed on the larva of pests that plague crops. A 2004 article by BBC News said In 2004, farmers in India even turned to using soft drinks as pesticides because they were cheaper than pesticides.

Gum remover

Since Coca-Cola contains phosphoric acid, it neutralizes the stickiness of the gum. After soaking the affected hair in Coca-Cola for a few minutes, the gum should slide off. While you're at it, also learn how to get gum out of clothes .

Color fader

The citric acid of Coca-Cola is believed to have the ability to lighten hair. The veracity of such claims is disputed but it hasn’t stopped people from trying.

Dish washer

Much like removing rust, Coca-Cola can clean up cast-iron skillets in a jiffy.

On those cold mornings when frost builds up on the windshield of your car, try jumpstarting the defrosting with a can of Coca-Cola. The acid will help remove the frost and get you on your morning commute. If you prefer Pepsi, find out the exact difference between Coke and its cola rival .

Compost invigorator

A sluggish compost pile can be energized with a shot of Coca-Cola. The citric acid will spur decomposition of organic material and attract the micro-organisms that help compost piles.

Coin polisher

Coca-Cola can shine up any coin because of its slight acidity. Here's what happens to your body an hour after you drink a can of cola .

When Suki Waterhouse , a British supermodel who starred in Insurgent , revealed she washes her hair in Coca-Cola to US Weekly , it sent some scrambling for soda to get their hair to look fuller and tousled.

Paint remover

The chemical makeup of Coca-Cola makes it a viable option to remove paint as well from metal objects. Or if that fails, try soaking the piece of metal in hot water. Or, try the all-encompassing guide on how to remove every type of stain .

Oil remover

The phosphoric acid in Coca-Cola proves tough on oil stains around the garage. Pour some room-temperature Coca-Cola over a stain, let it soak overnight and soak it up the next day by blotting the area.

Bloodstain cleaner

Through the years people have claimed Coca-Cola can be used to clean up blood stains. Mythbusters tested cola on bloodstains and concluded it helped remove the stain.

Sepia photo finishing

Coca-Cola can give you a vintage look to a number of items, including black and white photos with its caramel color. Dip a photo into Coca-Cola for a sepia color. Or, you can just try an apt Instagram filter ?

Coca-Cola cake

Coca-Cola isn’t a just a delicious drink, it can transform into a delicious treat you can eat. Countless recipes incorporate Coca-Cola but one in particular sounds extra tasty: Coca-Cola cake. This Coca-Cola cake grabbed our attention.

Coca-Cola combined with other unusual ingredients can help a lawn, according to Wise Bread . A can of cola, a can of beer and a ½ cup of liquid dishwashing soap, along with a ½ cup of household ammonia and a ½ cup of mouthwash will keep a lawn green. The soap helps the mix penetrate the roots and the ammonia promotes growth to keep a lawn green.

Prevent an asthma attack

A Cochrane study found that caffeine can help open airways and relieve asthma symptoms. Caffeine is similar to theophylline, a drug that is used to treat asthma symptoms. Caffeine can improve lung functions up to four hours.

Psst! Here's why canned and bottled soda taste different .

Help an upset stomach

There isn’t any scientific evidence to back up that Coca-Cola and other colas can help an upset stomach but people continue to swear by it as a remedy. Where Coca-Cola can help is with stomach blockage, according to researchers from the University of Athens . Colas have chemical ingredients similar to gastric acid, which helps digest fibers.

Get rid of hiccups

Everyone has a cure for the hiccups and for every person there seems to be a special cure. Coca-Cola, when gargled, can cure the hiccups. Here are some other weird tips that can help stop the hiccups .

Clean tile grout

Coca-Cola’s magical cleaning powers extend into tile grout as well. Let the grout soak with Coca-Cola for a few minutes and then wipe it up.

Body lotion

A spoonful of Coca-Cola with regular lotion can give skin a silky look.

Remove stains from vitreous china

Like using Coca-Cola to clean a toilet bowl, the soft drink can be used on other vitreous china surfaces around the home like a sink.

Remove marker stains

Coca-Cola will help remove permanent marker stains and pen marks. Soak the stain and scrub to remove it. Try out a stain marker if you have marks on your furniture. One of these household ink stain-removal solutions could come in handy too.

Apply for a deep tan

People have used Coca-Cola and other soft drinks as a homemade tanning solution but it’s a seriously dangerous idea because it provides no protection from the sun. According to a 2017 Global News article , the trend started in 2006 when Peter Andre, an Australian entertainer, said he soaked himself in Coca-Cola before sunbathing. Ingredients like citric acid and lime juice can make skin more sensitive to sunlight. Check out these other, healthier ways to self-tan .

Add to Sloppy Joe mix

A cup of Coca-Cola can spice up a sloppy Joe recipe. This recipe from The Cake Chica sounds delicious.

Glaze a ham

Ham tastes sweeter with a couple of cups of Coca-Cola. This recipe from Lake Geneva Country Meats in Wisconsin calls for two cups of Coca-Cola.

Make a battery

It isn’t so much the ingredients of what goes into a can of Coca-Cola as it is what holds the cola that can transform a can of Coca-Cola into a battery . Grab a penny, perhaps that shiny one you just washed in Coca-Cola, some crocodile clips, wire wool, and some tools to make a battery.

Polish old jewelry

Let the acid of Coca-Cola go to work on mother’s jewelry to give it a nice luster. Many claim Coca-Cola as a good source for cleaning jewelry as well. Here are some more clever household items that can clean jewelry .

Chrome cleaner

Mythbusters tried using Coca-Cola as a chrome cleaner and found when used with aluminum foil it did a better job than the leading chrome cleaner. Try it out for yourself, and once you’re done with the exterior of your car, see how to make a car’s interior spotless.

Coca-Cola fudge

Sweet 2 Eat Baking has an awesome Coca-Cola fudge recipe . It takes a total of ten minutes to make from start to finish.

Cherry Coke cupcakes

Still sweet on Coca-Cola even though it can remove rust? Try making cherry coke cupcakes with another recipe from Sweet 2 Eat Baking . Before you guzzle that can of Coke, learn the soda secrets Coca-Cola won't tell you .

Sore throat healer

Some people swear by a folksy remedy of Coca-Cola as a sore throat healer . Others combine it with lemon and ginger for a sore throat. Still many say drinking soda while sick isn’t a good idea because it can dehydrate at a time when more fluids are best.

Relieve constipation

Caffeine has a laxative effect but the effect varies from person-to-person based on their caffeine tolerance. In theory, Coca-Cola could work as a home remedy to constipation, though there are not reams of data on it. If that doesn't work, here are some more surprising natural home remedies for constipation .

Remove glue

Folk stories of using Coca-Cola to remove glue are out there. Whether it’s floor glue or super glue , the soda can break down the adhesive properties of glue and save you some money along the way.

Prevent clogs

Coca-Cola can serve as a quick fix for clogged drains because the acidity will clean grime but it may not be worth it because the soda will leave behind a syrupy residue. In case you've gotten to this article too late: how to clear a clogged sink drain .

Relieve a headache

Coca-Cola was invented as a headache cure when it first hit the market. The caffeine in Coca-Cola can help relieve a headache by reducing inflammation and making aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen work faster. Find out 95 household uses for vinegar you didn't know .

Another creative use for the actual Coca-Cola can is turning it into a solar water heater. The process is a little complicated but it’s a heck of a way to go green on a few levels. Here are some more great green house cleaning products that house cleaners trust .

Clean mold and mildew from clothes

Putting Coca-Cola in your washing machine doesn’t seem like a great idea but a can of Coca-Cola with the usual laundry detergent can remove mold and mildew from clothing. It’s also pretty good with stains and grease. Here are  9 cleaning solutions to get mildew out of any surface .

Make beans not so magical

Soaking beans in water or Coca-Cola can reduce the byproduct consuming beans creates . Coca-Cola isn’t a special soft drink to deflating beans but it’s another option. Plus: Eat Beans, Lose Weight.

Plastic bag dispenser

To make it easy to stow and reuse plastic bags, make a dispenser from a discarded 2-liter soda bottle. Cut off the top and bottom with a razor knife. Trim any jagged edges so you don't tear the bags when you pull them out, then screw the dispenser to a cabinet door or closet wall (or attach with hook-and-loop tape). Then, find out why Coke at McDonald's tastes so good .

Instant tool holder

Store chisels, files, large drill bits, screwdrivers, and other long tools so they're both visible and close at hand. Simply cut off the top from a clear 2-liter plastic soft drink bottle, leaving a flap for hanging. Use smaller bottles, which are extremely common household items for smaller tools. Next, find out 43 extraordinary uses for household staples you already own .

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