Case Coca Cola
MGT 3319 - Critical Thinking Case for Peer Review (2014)
Saying No To An Investor
Dear Management Team:
Word Count: 299
Since the development of Honest Tea, we had a mission of to create a beverage company that is dedicated to providing wholesome, healthy teas and juices that use all natural, organic, unprocessed ingredients. We relay this message to our customers with a “No High Fructose Corn Syrup” label on our products. By doing so, we have connected with those customer’s who are looking for a healthier beverage alternative.
As we know, Coca-Cola bought a 40 percent stake in our company for $43 million. This was a major boost to our company by providing us with Coca Cola’s nationwide distribution network. However, executives of Coca Cola are “disturbed” by our “No High Fructose Corn Syrup” label due to them seeing it as criticism and are asking us to change or eliminate the label from our products. We are in a position of being told how to market our product, or stand our ground with what we have built this company on. By allowing Coca Cola to persuade us to change our label, we are losing our integrity to our customers. If we stand our ground and keep our label, we are portraying pride and commitment to our product’s true identity.
Before making an ultimate decision, we should have statistical studies demonstrating whether or not our products label have persuaded our customers in buying our product.
The primary advantage of keeping our label the same is that we will still be portraying our label as a healthier beverage alternative to customers.
The primary disadvantage, if we keep our label the same, is that we would damage Honest Tea’s relationship with Coke. As well as conflicting the probable total sale of the company to Coca Cola in the future.
We need to stick with providing our customers with a healthy beverage alternative.
Saying No To An Investor
Dear Management Team:
Word Count: 299
Since the development of Honest Tea, we had a mission of to create a beverage company that is dedicated to providing wholesome, healthy teas and juices that use all natural, organic, unprocessed ingredients. We relay this message to our customers with a “No High Fructose Corn Syrup” label on our products. By doing so, we have connected with those customer’s who are looking for a healthier beverage alternative.
As we know, Coca-Cola bought a 40 percent stake in our company for $43 million. This was a major boost to our company by providing us with Coca Cola’s nationwide distribution network. However, executives of Coca Cola are “disturbed” by our “No High Fructose Corn Syrup” label due to them seeing it as criticism and are asking us to change or eliminate the label from our products. We are in a position of being told how to market our product, or stand our ground with what we have built this company on. By allowing Coca Cola to persuade us to change our label, we are losing our integrity to our customers. If we stand our ground and keep our label, we are portraying pride and commitment to our product’s true identity.
Before making an ultimate decision, we should have statistical studies demonstrating whether or not our products label have persuaded our customers in buying our product.
The primary advantage of keeping our label the same is that we will still be portraying our label as a healthier beverage alternative to customers.
The primary disadvantage, if we keep our label the same, is that we would damage Honest Tea’s relationship with Coke. As well as conflicting the probable total sale of the company to Coca Cola in the future.
We need to stick with providing our customers with a healthy beverage alternative.