We had the awesome opportunity to visit Coca-cola Brazil in Rio to learn more about what their operations in the country. Now i don't think i need to give an introduction to the company as my buddy Eric said to me, "It's Coke, they need no introduction!" Their products are consumed everywhere! Coca-Cola Brazil is the largest seller of not only carbonated beverages in Brazil but also of juices and tea when all products in each category are combined. Hell I remember seeing this bada** professor with a can of Coke Zero in his hands half the time.
Although Coca-Cola sells more beverages then its consumers, I thought it was really cool to learn about the great pains they take to make sure their customers are satisfied and cared for. An example of this would be the great pains they take in offering their Guarana beverages. Guarana is a fruit common to the Amazon area and Brazil. Coke and other beverage companies in Brazil have taken this fruit to create drinks for the Brazilian people. Guarana soda is a symbol of Brazil and loved all over the country. Statista.com reports that Brazil ranks 14th in soda consumption around the world, while the country itself is significantly larger than the contiguous United States (excludes Alaska and Hawaii). (https://www.statista.com/statistics/271156/per-capita-consumption-of-soft-drinks-of-the-coca-cola-company-by-country/) Okay, so Brazil is big but drinks less soda, whats the point? Coca-Cola Brazil offers a different version of Guarana to each region of Brazil based upon consumer testing to discover consumer preferences in each area. That would be equivalent to Coke having a different formula for its cola for each region of the US: West Coast, East Coast, Midwest, Southwest, etc. Even though they have less consumption than the US they go through so much more research to give each consumer what they want and not push one product on everyone. Smit, Shane and I found this to be an incredible part of their business strategy.
Another area Shane found interesting was that Coca-Cola Brazil does not attempt to market with big events but like to use local events that mean more to the Brazilian people to get their products out to consumers. They utilize specific moments in a person regular habit to help them understand when consumers would like to drink their products.
Coca-Cola Brazil has taken a hit to their sales as Brazilians move away from sugary sodas, but instead of finding ways to push these drinks back on consumers, they are looking towards new offerings. They understand their market and want to make the consumer happy so instead of pushing sugary sodas they are working on giving people juices and tea options as Brazilians begin to opt for healthier beverages. This is an area where Eric thought Coca-cola excelled as they understood how they were perceived by consumers and worked on ways to adapt to their market.
During this talk we also learned of how Coca-Cola Brazil is compared to other big companies like Facebook, Apple and Google, instead of their beverage producing rivals. Coca-Cola Brazil is thus placed in a position where they need to use their celebrity to do more for the people then produce beverages. They worked alongside their rivals to improve recycling of their cans to benefit the Brazilian community. They were the first to pull their own beverages out of schools to combat health issues in children. Coca-Cola Brazil really does attempt to put their customers first and bring happiness to the people they serve.
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