My last blog, we talk about about Coca-Cola's presence on Social Media. This week, we want to analyze their communication platforms.
SWOT Analysis
Many companies have been practicing using SWOT analysis for their business decisions. According to Helms and Nixon (2010), SWOT is a "key tool for addressing complex strategic situations by reducing the quantity of information to improve decision‐making." For any companies to conduct proper strategies to tackle any issues, they need to understand SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Thus, Coca-Cola must understand its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to social media content to utilize the technology effectively.
Strengths
Coca-Cola's most robust strength lies within its brand's name. This part of SWOT deals with the internal advantage of the company. Since Coca-Cola is the largest beverage company globally, it is easy for the company to refer consumers to its social media platform. Thus, the company has first ranked social media engagement among non-alcoholic beverage companies in 2017 (The Food Institution Report, 2017). Coca-Cola has a strong presence in offline media, which leads to a strong influence on people advocating the brand's name. Moreover, the company's social media advertisements consist of equal representation of diversities, races, and nationalities. The company has been operating in more than 200 countries (Coca-Cola History, 2020). It also has the highest number of followers (107 million likes) on Facebook, the largest social media. Each post represents people from different ages and groups, and consumers are attracted to their creativity of bringing people together. Creativity is another social media strength for Coca-Cola because it attracts people's attention and leads to a positive attitude (Reinartz & Saffert, 2014). The company can adopt different marketing strategies without getting negative feedback from the customers. Hence, Coca-Cola's strengths rely on its brand's name, equal representation of diversities, and creative advertisements.
Weaknesses
Companies can make better business decisions once they understand their internal weaknesses. One can immediately recognize that Coca-Cola does not produce video ads on Instagram. This social media platform is the most popular among young adults. 75% of the United States population between 18 to 24 years old is actively using Instagram (Tran, 2020). By not having videos posted on Instagram might hurt any business decisions in the future. According to Kallas (2018), more than 80% of companies that adopt video productions in their marketing strategies make a better investment return. Moreover, many people have noticed that Coca-Cola does not have a schedule of consistency in postings on their favored social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The company values offline media more than online media. Stein (2013) says that a senior marketing executive of Coca-Cola does not believe that social media would increase sales. Ignoring social media is a massive mistake for the company because it allows the competitors to use this platform to their advantage. Coca-Cola embraces some social media marketing, but it is not as consistent as PepsiCo. Therefore, the company needs to revise its weaknesses in social media marketing.
Opportunities
Social media offers many opportunities for Coca-Cola to advance its mission and vision. Opportunities deal with external advantages for the company. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the fastest growing social media in the world. People can emphatically say that Facebook has the most significant users of all social media. There are 2.5 billion Facebook active users, 1 billion Instagram users, and 330 million Twitter users (Clement, 2019). All of these numbers show the importance of social media's role in spreading businesses' brand awareness. If companies can effectively utilize these platforms, they will add value and sales because of their audience varieties. Coca-Cola can reach out to the target audience through these platforms. Coca-Cola's Facebook page currently has about 107 million followers. Among 2.5 billion Facebook users, there are 2.393 billion more people that the company has not reached out to yet. It is much more efficient and less time consuming to tap on the resources that have already establish a target audience. People are adapting to social media, and there is no denying this fact. It is happening within the United States and the rest of the globe. Social media is the most excellent opportunity for Coca-Cola.
Threats
Threats, the last part of SWOT analysis, deal with external disadvantages that affect the company. Coca-Cola comes in late in the social media marketing competition. The main threat that the company is currently facing is PepsiCo. This competitor is especially active on social media, such as Instagram. Since Coca-Cola does not utilize videos on the platform, PepsiCo has decided to use this obliviousness to beat Coca-Cola in the social media game. PepsiCo uploads stories and videos, and the company is also interacting with its audience as well. The competitor has shown high consistency and appreciates its audience. Meanwhile, Coca-Cola has only uploads pictures with few words. Coca-Cola's uploads have an average of 6 days, and PepsiCo uploads are 2 days. It is clear that PepsiCo has better grasps on social media, and it might eventually overthrow Coca-Cola one day if the company does not take any action. Thus, Coca-Cola needs to invest in training and to manage social media if it does not want to fall behind technologies and competitors.
Now that you have understand a bit more about Coca Cola's social media, on my next blog we will talk about its plan for success.
References
Clement, J. (2019). Instagram: active users 2018. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/253577/number-of-monthly-active-instagram-users/
Coca-Cola History │ World of Coca. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.worldofcoca-cola.com/about-us/coca-cola-history/
Helms, M. and Nixon, J. (2010), "Exploring SWOT analysis – where are we now? A review of academic research from the last decade", Journal of Strategy and Management, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 215-251. https://doi-org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.1108/17554251011064837
Kallas, P. (2018). 8 Powerful Reasons You Need to Use Video Marketing [TRENDS]. Retrieved from https://www.dreamgrow.com/8-reasons-why-your-business-should-use-video-marketing/
Reinartz, W., & Saffert, P. (2013). Creativity in Advertising: When It Works and When It Doesn’t. Harvard Business Review, 91(6), 1–8. Retrieved from https://liberty.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/openurl?institution=01LIBU_INST&vid=01LIBU_INST:Services&?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Creativity in advertising: When It works and when it doesn't&rft.jtitle=Harvard Business Review&rft.au=Reinartz, Werner&rft.au=Saffert, Peter&rft.date=2013-06-01&rft.issn=0017-8012&rft.volume=91&rft.issue=6&rft.spage=1&rft.epage=8&rft.externalDBID=n/a&rft.externalDocID=368960899
Stein, S. (2013). Coca-Cola: Why Social is More Than Just Buzz. Retrieved from https://www.dacgroup.com/blog/the-coca-cola-controversy-that-isnt-why-social-media-is-more-than-just-buzz/
The Food Institution. Coca-Cola takes first in social media ranking. The Food Institute Report, vol. 90, no. 41, 16 Oct. 2017, p. 4. Gale General OneFile, https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/apps/doc/A525552107/ITOF?u=vic_liberty&sid=ITOF&xid=fe3528c6.
Tran, T. (2020). Instagram Demographics That Matter to Social Media Marketers in 2020. Retrieved from https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-demographics/
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