Word: coked
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After the safety scandal broke, Coke and Pepsi relied on small bottles and cut-rate prices to woo customers. The small packages boosted sales but hurt profitability for the companies and their bottlers. In 2005, Singh increased prices 40% to 60% and later introduced new packaging, like 1.25-liter bottles, which boosted in-home consumption. After a drop in sales in 2006, the Indian market began to grow again in 2007. "I can't complain," says S.B.P. Rammohan, owner of Sri Sarvaraya Sugars Ltd., a southern-India Coke bottler. "It's no longer volume at all costs...
...China, though, Coke has remained focused on sales volume, selling soda in small bottles for as little as 15¢. It just introduced a 355-ml bottle--a little more than half the size of its more traditional plastic bottle--for 35¢ in places like the southern coastal provinces, which have been hard hit by the slowdown in exports. Coke's China president, Doug Jackson, says he'll take what he can get in a tough economy. "If you have a little less kuai in your pocket," he says, using the colloquial word for Chinese currency, "folks look for where...
Another key--and another classic from the Coke playbook--has been keeping things cold. In India and China, tradition and a shortage of refrigeration mean that Coca-Cola is often drunk warm. In parts of China where cold drinks are traditionally considered unhealthy, it is even boiled and served with lemon or ginger. So coaxing consumers to drink cold Cokes--the company says 3°C is ideal--was part of the estimated $400 million that was spent on sponsoring last year's Beijing Olympics and related advertising. As sales rebounded in India, bottlers added new technology, including superinsulated retail refrigerators...
...growth-focused model that Deng established in China 30 years ago has given Coke a reasonably stable platform to manage its expansion. "We know exactly where we are going," Jackson explains. "The government says, 'We'll urbanize 20 million people this year, and we'll do it sustainably through to 2020. We'll nearly urbanize the population of the United States over the next 10 years.' I can be very assured that I can place my bets for the company." Of course, Jackson wasn't betting that Beijing would block Coke's proposed $2.4 billion acquisition of Chinese juicemaker Huiyuan...
Though the rejection was widely seen as both a defeat for Coke and a sign of growing protectionism in China, losing Huiyuan might not be all bad. "The regulator's decision spared Coke from overpaying for Huiyuan," says Swartzberg, the Stifel Nicolaus analyst. Now, says Jackson, Coke will build on its own. "Our 2020 goals are the same. We'll build rather than buy and move forward...