Environmental Factors Paper

Environmental Factors Paper

For this final individual paper, I will use The Coca-Cola Company as my organization to identify the environmental factors that affect this company's global and domestic marketing decisions. Addressed within this paper will be the high-level of domestic and global environmental factors that may have an impact on Coca-Cola's marketing decisions and the impact of technology on the company's marketing decisions as well. I will conclude this paper by analyzing the importance of social responsibility and ethics as related to Coca-Cola's marketing strategies.

When one visits the home page of The Coca-Cola Company, he or she is greeted by the time of day and the slogan "global refreshment" (Coca-Cola, 2007). This is a globally marketed company that has found success all over the world and by having the ability to find the right balance between worldwide standardization and domestic adaptation has made Coke the number one brand in the industry (Armstrong, 2005). Popularity does not mean instant success in the international market though. Companies must completely understand the international marketing environment before deciding to operate on a global basis (Armstrong, 2005). Companies today face a bigger challenge with this understanding, as new opportunities and problems have arisen over the past two decades, due to the massive changes in the international marketing environment (Armstrong, 2005).

Many domestic and global environmental factors are involved that have an impact, positive or negative, on a company's marketing decisions. These high-level factors include understanding the international trade system and having knowledge of the economic, cultural and political-legal environments of the areas in which the company desires future growth (Armstrong, 2005). Coca-Cola expanded globally, within only seven short years of the company's birth (Armstrong, 2005). Imagine where this company would be today had they not "done their homework" in the 200 countries that recognize "Coca-Cola" as a household name. The "real thing" is not the only product that consumers worldwide are familiar with. Coca-Cola produces nearly 300 beverages, many of which are produced and marketed for a particular segment, such as the pear-flavored drink that is produced for consumers in Turkey or the berry-flavored Fanta that is found only in Germany (Armstrong, 2005). The above mentioned environmental factors play a key role for the success of these products that are distributed throughout the world.

One has to wonder if technology had not advanced as rapidly as it has, would companies have been able to expand into the global market as easily as they can today? The answer is most likely not, unless the company name is Coca-Cola, who hit the global market early on with the beverage phenomenon of the original Coke. The world has become a much smaller place due to progressions in communication, transportation and additional technologies, which are seen as our generation moves into the new millennium (Armstrong, 2005). Technology also exists in more areas than superimposed commercials and print media. Coca-Cola, along with McDonald's and Unilever, promoted the development of environmentally friendly commercial refrigeration technology and these companies were awarded the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Protection Award for their efforts (Coca-Cola, 2007).

Not only has the Coca-Cola Company taken control of a successful global marketing strategy in other areas, they have committed to social responsibility by addressing existing and emerging social and environmental issues, in addition to finding potential solutions (Coca-Cola, 2007). The reasons behind this are because they believe