coca cola case study
1. What are the key problems that Gupta should focus on in the short term and in the long term?
In the short term, Sanjiv Gupta, CEO Coke India, has to focus on improving the tarnished image of Coke owing to CSE’s recent findings. He needs to win back customer confidence in Coke’s products and should work on controlling the declining sales of the company
In the long term, Gupta needs to ensure the basic safety standards are always being met by the company so the event does not occur again. He also needs to further penetrate into the market and should work ways and strategies of increasing customer base.
Firstly, Gupta must understand that Coca Cola has faced several crises in the past. On February 2003, CSE (Center for Science and Environment), an activist group in India has already brought the issue about Coca-Cola’s Kinsley Bottled water which was declared containing pesticides residues, six months before they brought up the same issue about Coca Cola. Since Coca Cola India remained silent about the first issue, the buzz was created and spread, made it even harder to maintain the situation. While in 1997, Coca Cola also had a problem in India. They had to leave India, instead of revealed their formula to government, when Janata Party led India and oblige Coca Cola, and other foreign companies, to dilute their equity stake until 40%, as written under Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA). Any other crisis was happened too on other countries such as in Belgium and Atlanta.
Moreover, the sales drop is an important to be focused on. With the decrease of the sales, it showed that consumers believed the allegation more than their loyalty to Coca Cola.
Step 1: Get control of the situation.
Gupta needed to define the real problem, use reliable information, and a measurable communication objective for handling it.
Step 2: Gather as much information as possible:
Gupta quickly reacted to the situation without taking a fair and objective look at the facts in the
In the short term, Sanjiv Gupta, CEO Coke India, has to focus on improving the tarnished image of Coke owing to CSE’s recent findings. He needs to win back customer confidence in Coke’s products and should work on controlling the declining sales of the company
In the long term, Gupta needs to ensure the basic safety standards are always being met by the company so the event does not occur again. He also needs to further penetrate into the market and should work ways and strategies of increasing customer base.
Firstly, Gupta must understand that Coca Cola has faced several crises in the past. On February 2003, CSE (Center for Science and Environment), an activist group in India has already brought the issue about Coca-Cola’s Kinsley Bottled water which was declared containing pesticides residues, six months before they brought up the same issue about Coca Cola. Since Coca Cola India remained silent about the first issue, the buzz was created and spread, made it even harder to maintain the situation. While in 1997, Coca Cola also had a problem in India. They had to leave India, instead of revealed their formula to government, when Janata Party led India and oblige Coca Cola, and other foreign companies, to dilute their equity stake until 40%, as written under Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA). Any other crisis was happened too on other countries such as in Belgium and Atlanta.
Moreover, the sales drop is an important to be focused on. With the decrease of the sales, it showed that consumers believed the allegation more than their loyalty to Coca Cola.
Step 1: Get control of the situation.
Gupta needed to define the real problem, use reliable information, and a measurable communication objective for handling it.
Step 2: Gather as much information as possible:
Gupta quickly reacted to the situation without taking a fair and objective look at the facts in the
References: 3. Business Standard (2003-10-29). "Coke sales fall 11% on pesticide controversy". Business-standard.com. Retrieved 2012-11-03. 10. Jump up^ Civil Appeal Nos. 4033 & 4034 of 2009 11