Culture generally consists of values and beliefs of how a certain group of people behave and interpret experiences and it expounds down to the individual level. Thus, culture ultimately refers to a community or group with which they share common experiences that effectively shape their understanding of the world (Parvis, 2007).
In accordance to Coca-Cola (2013), the noble company prides itself with diversity, which it states that it forms a fundamental part of its culture on what the company is all about, how they operate as well as how they perceive the future. The company has an inclusive culture that is defined through its seven core values that include diversity, passion, integrity, leadership, collaboration, accountability and quality. The company also leverages on a worldwide team, which is rich in ideas, talent and diverse people.
Coca-Cola has a unique framework that is referred to as the PDF (Global Diversity Strategic Framework that prides itself in respecting individuals, valuing their differences and representing its consumers as well as markets in the different areas they do business in, this eventually leads to their principle of diversity (Global Diversity, 2013).
It is worth noting that Coca-Cola is the largest distributor, marketer and a world leader of carbonated drinks with a business history that spans to over 125 years. Thus, the company has endured numerous challenges when they were expanding their operations to other parts of the world due to cultural differences with the new customers. There some areas that were especially conservative and they were always suspicious on any new product since they perceived anything international as being a violation of their territory (Coca-Cola, 2013).
Thus, the company had to come up with various strategies in order to ensure that such incidences were minimal through employing locals whom the company utilized for marketing purposes. However, this did not fully work since the product itself was still foreign to the customers. Nevertheless, this hurdle was eliminated through the utilization of marketing promotions, the worldwide reputation that the company truly endeavours to maintain as well as ensuring that a large number of the employees in a certain region are locals (Gaspar, 2006).
It is also worth noting that despite the above-mentioned strategies, there were still cultural differences between the workers and the customers of coca cola due to the long training period that the locals had to undergo since the companies business had to continue (Kurtz & Boone, 2011). There were various regions such as in China where there was a language barrier and the Coca-Cola workers had to learn the language for effective communication. However, with proper laid down procedures as well as previous experiences while penetrating areas that were considered hostile made the company to succeed. The implementation of the PDF framework has really assisted the company to eliminate significantly the challenges between the workers and its customers. There are situations that the company has had to offer marketing promotions and free samples of its products in order for the customers to be familiar and be able to taste so that they could make their choice. This has assisted the company in a humongous way since the resistance that was initially there with the customers has been eliminated. Coca-Cola is still ensuring that it conducts various researches in order to keep up with the current trends between the workers and the customers’ cultural differences in order to reduce these challenges drastically (Rugimbana & Nwankwo, 2003).
Works Cited
Coca-Cola. (2013). Our Company. Retrieved on 28th September 2013 from < http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/diversity/workplace-culture >
Gaspar, J. E. (2006). Introduction to business. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co.
Global Diversity. (2013). Global Strategic Framework. Retrieved on 28th September 2013 from < http://assets.cocacolacompany.com/61/bb/cbc4797f40e09f7d34b8142d5e99/global-diversity-strategic-framework.pdf >
Kurtz, D. L., & Boone, L. E. (2011). Contemporary business. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.
Parvis, L. (2007). Understanding cultural diversity in today's complex world. Morrisville, NC: Lulu Press.
Rugimbana, R., & Nwankwo, S. (2003). Cross-cultural marketing. London: Thomson Learning.
