The Competitive Strategies Of Coca Cola Economics Essay

The Competitive Strategies Of Coca Cola Economics Essay This paper is discussing about the economic market structure, especially for imperfect competition market which are monopolistic competition market and oligopoly market. There will be explanations about definition, characteristics, and examples of monopolistic competition market and oligopoly market. There is Dunkin Donuts Inc. for the monopolistic competition market and Coca Cola Co. for the oligopoly market. This paper also will discuss about competitive strategies of Coca Cola. Introduction In economy study, people know that there are view types of market in the existence. These market types are differentiated according to number / distribution of firm(s) in the market. According to Sloman Norris (2002), there are four types of market structures in the practice, which are perfect competition, monopoly and monopolistic competition, oligopoly markets. Perfect competition market is a market with the most sellers and buyers in transaction. In this type of market, the products that provided are mostly homogenous. To get in into this market, there are no barriers. Both of the buyers and sellers is price taker (OSullivan et al, 2008), so in this market price is not the factor that could affect the sales, instead of it service is much more attractive. Monopoly market is a market with a single firm that provide product that has no close-substitutes. This condition clearly shows that this type of firm has power that will allow them as the price maker, since there are no close-substitutes that can be chosen by consumer to replace the use of the service or goods provided by the firm. In this monopoly market there is entry barriers such as patent, government policy, etc. Perfect competition and monopoly market are the extreme condition in market. The other two market structures which are monopolistic competition and oligopoly market is more common type of market that we can see in the real life situation if they are compared to perfect competition and monopoly market. This paper will discuss more on imperfect competition market that are the including the monopolistic competition market and the oligopoly market, which are more relevance to the practice with the relevance and appropriate examples. Contents Theory Monopolistic Competition Market Monopolistic competition was developed by an American economist named Edward Chamberlin in 1930s (Sloman Norris 2002). Monopolistic is a type of monopoly market; there are quite number of firms running in the industry, but they produce a differential product which distinguish them from other. In monopolistic market, a firm is independence; means that firm in this market are hardly affected with their competitors act or decision, or vice versa (Sloman Norris 2002). Firms in the monopolistic market are offering their products through different things from their competitors; appearance, levels, technology, quality, price, etc. These differentiations of product are also known as Product differentiation (Parkin,2000). There are no entry barriers to get in into this monopolistic competition market. Barrier such as patent or government regulation is not applicable in this market (OSullivan et al, 2008). According to Parkin (2000), firms have the free entry and exit in monopolistic market. Normally if the condition of this market is highly profitable there will be a positive signal that invite numbers of firm to come in and the distribution of profit will be divided to the firms in market, but when they performance of market is low, there will be number of firm as well leaving this market. The below tables show monopolistic market in profit and loss time (Case Fair, 2008): However, in the long run there will be no super abnormal profit for firms in monopolistic market, since because of the signaling, firms are freely enter and exit from the market. Here is the long term condition graph (Case Fair, 2008): Oligopoly Market Oligopoly is a term that derived from the term of the Greeks which are oligos meaning little or few and polein meaning to sell. Oligopoly refers to a market where there are only few firm running the business in the field. (Tucker, 2005). Not the same with monopolistic, to enter into oligopoly market is not easy to be done, since oligopoly market has the entry barrier as monopoly market (Sloman Norris 2002). According to OSullivan et al (2008), government has intervention in this market, making sure there is no bunch of firms operating in the oligopoly industry by issuing controller such as patent and business licenses. Besides that, firms in oligopoly market are majority competing also by advertising campaign. The expenditure budget for advertising in this market is very high. Not similar with monopolistic competition market, oligopoly market is interdependent. The decision that made by firm that operating in oligopoly will affect the other firms that operating in the same market. In this market there will be no firm that does not consider the action taken by their rival. Most of the companies in oligopoly firm compete through non-price competition. By practicing non-price competition, each oligopolist create barrier for competitors to combat an important product improvement. Here are some examples of non-price competition (Riley, 2006): Free deliveries and installation Extended warranties for consumers and credit facilities Longer opening hours (e.g. supermarkets and petrol stations) Branding of products and heavy spending on advertising and marketing Extensive after-sales service Expanding into new markets or diversification of the product range In oligopoly market, the graph of demand will shows a kinked curve. The kinked demand curve model happen because of two assumptions that made in oligopoly market, which are: If a firm rising the selling price, the other firms remain (not follow to increase the price) If a firm cutting the selling price, the other firms will follow to cut down their selling price as well Kinked demand curve in monopolistic market (Anonymous, n.d) Oligopoly market has a tendency to thinks what is their competitor reaction to their new policies. To examine this oligopolist behavior can be done with the Game Theory. Game Theory is a study to analyze the strategic behavior depends on the reaction of the competitor into the new policies (Sloman Norris 2002). As outlined by Samuelson and Nordhaus (2005), some general findings of game theorist in the area of imperfect competition are: As the number of non-cooperative oligopolists becomes large, industry price and quantity tend toward the perfectly competitive outcome. If firms decide to collude rather than compete, the market price and quantity will be close to those generated by monopoly. But experiments suggest that as the number of firms increases, collusive agreements become more difficult to police and the frequency of cheating and non-cooperative behavior increases. In many situations, there is no stable equilibrium for oligopoly. Strategic interplay may lead to unstable outcomes as firms threaten, bluff, start price wars, capitulate to stronger firms, punish weal opponents, signals their intentions, or simply exit from the market. In this Game Theory, there is also a term called Prisoners Dilemma that illustrate the difficulties in maintaining a cooperation (Mankiw, 2004). According to Parkin (2000), there are 3 things that need to be paid attention in Game Theory, which are rules, strategies and payoffs. The game theory will be illustrated as following: A and B are caught stealing a car, both of them were interrogated by the polices and they will sentence for 2 years in prison. The police suspect that A and B is involved in recent robbery, but they have no evidence to prove it. Rules: A and B were put in different cabin, each told they are suspected involve in robbery. If both of them confess they did it, they will sentence into 3 years prison, however if one of them confess and the other one does not, the first one will only sentence for 1 year prison and the other one 10 years. Strategies: the possible action that can be taken by A and B are , Confess or denied they involved in the robbery. Payoffs: because there are two players and two strategies, there are four possible outcomes, which are: Both confess, both denied, A confesses B denies, and B confesses A denies. 10 Years 1 Year 2 Years 2 Years 3 Years 3 Years 1 Year 10 Years Prisoners Dilemma Payoffs Matrix (Parkin 2000) Company in Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly Market Monopolistic competition market can be entered easily, even though there are many competitors in the industry competing in it. Food and beverage industry is also included in monopolistic competition market. In example Starbucks, McD, KFC, and Dunkin donuts are well known in the franchise business in food and beverage industry. Dunkin donuts is a beverage industry firm that provides donuts and the regular coffee. Founded in 1950, today Dunkin Donuts is the No. 1 retailer of hot and iced regular coffee-by-the-cup in America (Miranda, n.d.). In beverage industry like Dunkin donuts we can see there is quite numbers of firms are operating in the same industry such as Krispy Kreme, Starbucks, etc. Each of these companies has their own characteristic that differentiate them with their competitors; such as Krispy Kreme is more concentrating in the production of donuts, while Starbucks are providing more various blended coffee. However, Dunkins donut also has its own characteristic which is providing the regular coffee with the delicious donuts or cakes. According to Miranda (n.d.), Dunkin Donuts in Florida are doing very well and doing better than the other franchises in other states. Dunkin Donuts sells 52 different donuts and more than a dozen coffee beverages as well as bagels, breakfast sandwiches, and other baked beverages. Dunkin donuts is having a powerful market position. It has become the No.1 in regular hot coffee sales, No.1 in bagels, No.1 in donuts and No.3 in breakfast sandwiches, and Dunkin donut is developed with a strong and profitable franchise business model (Goumas, 2006). There is no entry barrier for those firms that wanted to come into beverage market, such as J.Co in Malaysia; its a new comer in the beverage industry. For Oligopoly market there is Coca Cola Co. which is leading in the carbonated beverage industry for years. There are only a few producers in carbonated beverage, this makes carbonated beverage industry included in oligopoly market. Coca Cola Co. are included in oligopoly market, even though in the real life there is quite a lot carbonated drinks available (which can be categorized into monopolistic competition), such as FN in Malaysia. But in the practice, these carbonated beverages industries were dominated by Coca Cola Co. and Pepsi Co. for decades, this beverage industry become oligopoly. Thus, for the smaller firm such as FN in beverage industry has their sales in a little share and cannot be compared to the sales of Coca Cola and Pepsi. The main rival of Coca Cola is Pepsi Co., which has been decades competing in the Coke industry. In the carbonated soft drink industry today, Coco-Cola dominated 43.7% of the market, followed by PepsiCo. occupied 31.6% and Cadbury-Schweppes 15.8% (In January 1999, the smallest oligopolist Cadbury Schweppes PLC, sold part of its international business to Coca-Cola Co.) ( oligopolywatch.com, 2005). The branding and advertisement effort for Coca Cola and Pepsi are also competitive and they have their own characteristic. For Pepsi, they always hire well-known artist such as Britney Spears, Beyonce and Pink to advertise their Pepsi Coke. In the other side, Coca Cola always use a creative advertisement. They never stop their advertisement, even though they know that both of them is the leader in the industry, because they never want to lose to one another. From the number of firms in the market, the tendency that firms can go in into market and the branding advertisement effort, makes the carbonated beverage industry become an oligopoly market rather than monopolistic competition market. Competitive Strategies of Coca Cola Co. Advertisement and Sponsorship Consider the long-running Coke-Pepsi feud, both Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo. are trying to made a useful foil for advertising, and company created product distinctions during the competition. During the Beijing Olympic in 2008, again Coca Cola has been the official partner for this event in past 80 years. For Coca Cola there is never too early to do promotion, it proven by the launching of limited edition Coca Cola Olympic edition with various languages (Baar, 2008). In December 2008, Coca Cola running a new mobile marketing campaign in Germany and also they did advertise in television that showing the Coca-Cola truck driving through a snowy landscape. (Khan, 2008). Expand in Market and Product Range Recently, Coca Cola put more effort in expanding their production in China. Coca Cola Co. has built 2 production plant in the less developed central and west China (The Coca Cola Company Press, 2009). Since Pepsi sales compare to Coca Cola sales in China is larger, Coca Cola does not stop expanding their target which is China market. Coca Cola Co. has variety products which have been introduced as the needs of the customer. As stated in The Coca Cola Company Press (2009), Coca Cola has more than 3,000 beverages, from diet and regular sparkling beverages to still beverages such as 100 percent fruit juices and fruit drinks, waters, sports and energy drinks, teas and coffees, and milk-and soy-based beverages, our variety spans the globe. Keep Innovative and Efficient over the Long Run Oligopolistic competition is proved to be beneficial, because it provides continuous improvement, and ensures that managements would keep their organizations innovative and efficient over the long run. Argued by Zachary (1999), market leaders need challengers to keep them on their toes. According to Weier (2009), Coca Cola Company plant to lunch out Freestyle drink dispenser, in the US nationwide. This dispenser have the concept of fulfill customer choice to new heights, the most interesting aspect is the technology its built on. Cutting Price By doing innovation such as lunch out Freestyle drink dispenser, it will help Coca Cola Company to do price cutting. Freestyle will become Cokes front-line robotic army for business intelligence, sending massive amounts of consumption data back to the beverage companys Atlanta headquarters. The dispensers collect data on what customers are drinking and how much, and transmit that information each night over a private network to data warehouse system in Atlanta. Unique byproduct of this BI enabled dispenser is that Coke can try out new flavors and get back almost real time feedback on the viability of its success.   It will no longer have to ensemble Customer focus group and try it out in a lab.   The real world becomes the lab and the marketing department at Coke can watch consumers vote yea or nay on the viability of new product instantaneously.   This not only improves the speed of feedback but also makes the entire test marketing process cheaper.   Conclusion There is perfect competition market and imperfect competition market. Perfect competition markets are including perfect competition and monopoly market. However, imperfect competition markets are monopolistic competition market and oligopoly. From the overall analysis, it shows that the oligopoly is the most difficult competitive structure to evaluate than other market structures, because the intensity of competition is high whereby oligopolists battle for market share. Each and every move by a player attracts retaliation. And many market structures tend towards being an oligopoly as time progresses. In oligopoly market effort such as branding, advertising, business expansion is very core. Since the price battle cannot be done in oligopoly market, a firm must be able to make moves in non-price battle. To gain the competitive advantages in the long run, Coca Cola need to take care about their advertisement and sponsorship program, developing the research and development, keep expanding their market; specially the location where Pepsi Co. gain more sales compare to Coca Cola. Coca Cola Company is one of the successful firms in oligopoly market, their effort to be existence in the market has leaded them to the top of beverage market until now.

Disc Assessment Essay

DISC Assessment Paper Organizational behavior studies have become more significant in today’s present years than hey were before in past years, this is due to companies realizing that in order to acclimatize to the constantly changing business cultures that have stemmed from a competitive and rapidly moving market, they must put more emphasis on the correlation between human behavior and the organization. Understanding this concept has led many several companies to put investment into behavior assessments and seminars and use them as a training tool to educate their employees and learn the reasons for each person’s behavior and attitudes and how to handle and approach these various types of behaviors and attitudes. In this paper we will be discussing the study of various behaviors via taking the DISC platinum Rule Behavioral Style Assessment to identify both me and my learning team member’s predominant behavior styles. We will then analyze our behavior styles, our strengths and weaknesses identified within our styles and whether or not we agree or disagree with the assessment. The DISC Assessment categorized both of our behavioral types as being the interactive style and our sub styles were lc. The Interactive Style also called I Style is friendly, enthusiastic, a â€Å"party animal† that love to be where all the action is. They thrive on the acknowledgment, admiration and compliments that follow being in the spot light. They are more relationship-oriented than they are task-oriented. An Interactive style’s strengths are charm, persuasiveness, warmth and enthusiasm. They are gifted in skills and communication between individuals as well as groups. They are optimists with a large amount of charisma. They are also dreamers and idea-people who excel in getting others excited about their vision. All of these qualities assist them in influencing people and building alliances. The interactive style’s weaknesses are pinpointed as poor follow-through, carelessness, exaggeration and disorganization. They have a habit of getting to involved in too many activities and lose interest quickly. Furthermore, they can at times be seen as being impetuous, manipulative, and excitable when displaying behavior that is inappropriate to a situation. When analyzing the results of the DISC Assessment and the summary of my behavior. We were able to comprehend why we function and act the way that we do while interacting with our co workers, family and people. We both started to think about our adolescent years until now and realized that everyone wanted to be our friends and we were also chosen to be the leader most of the time. I would sometimes avoid being the leader and Gina would always be the leader but we were also both content with just being apart of the activities and tasks needing to be accomplished but our ability to drive others and complete task with enthusiasm would always show because of this we were thereby always moved to the front of the crowd. We also noticed that this same thing applies when were in the workplace; we were both again selected to be a leader after just a short time of displaying our abilities to charm and motivate. Gina noticed that she is always the person to excite employees and get them to produce at a faster pace when completing departmental tasks and goals. Gina saw that her managers are always pleased with her people skills and that they often use her as an example to her peers when adjusting or presenting new changes to the department. I identified that I was good at innovation at work and creating new ideas. Gina and I both welcome and look forward to change because it keeps and sparks our interest. We both despise boredom. DISC offered us so much information about our interactive style’s typical business characteristics such as wanting to be included by others in significant events such as research and brainstorming, resisting control and desiring freedom. In our personal lives we both also realized how our behavior style applied because we both don’t like when someone doesn’t give us their undivided attention and when were not given an opportunity to express ourselves or opinions.

Describe the spatial patterns and dimensions of one ecosystem at risk, and analyse the negative impacts of human activity on this ecosystem Essay

Describe the spatial patterns and dimensions of one (1) ecosystem at risk, and analyse the negative impacts of human activity on this ecosystem. One ecosystem at risk that has been studied is the coral reef; The Great Barrier Reef is located off the East coast of Northern Queensland. It stretches approximately 2300km from Papua New Guinea to Fraser Island. Overall the Great Barrier Reef system covers an area of over 348,000km2 making a vast, very complex ecosystem. There is a long history of human activity and use on and of the Great Barrier Reef. Negative impacts on the Great Barrier Reef include climate change, oil spills, tourism, overfishing, land clearing, sewage and waste disposal, coral harvesting and dredging and sand mining. Climate change has impacted Northern Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef as it increases in sea temperature, increases in average sea level, has a change in rainfall patterns. It changes the ocean currents and circulation, which has an increase in El Nino events which cause extreme weather and can damage the reef and cause a large amount of run off from the land, causing turbidity, lowering of salinity on the reef and increased amount of sediment. Extreme weather conditions can also increase the CO2 levels which can also change the chemical structure of the Great Barrier Reef causing coral bleaching. On-going climate change will have and has already caused many consequences for the Great Barrier Reef. This change will and has directly impacted many species of fish, invertebrate, mammals and birds along with many aquatic and terrestrial plants. There are also substantial impacts on the functioning of the reef. The biggest concern about climate change and the Great Barrier Reef is the rise in sea temperature which will affect the movement of water around the reef and the nutrient cycle on the reef which also means the chemical structure which will be altered because of the increased amount of CO2 dissolved into the water. With this and the rising sea levels, may be enough to destroy the reef, collapsing of the reef ecosystem. Recreational fishing is also a common past-time on the reef. When boats anchor on the reef, the heavy metal anchors damage the reefs coral formations and dredge up the sea grass bed. These boats are also a source of pollution through oil and oil spills, rubbish and sewage. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority estimates that around 6000 large commercial ships transit through the Great Barrier Reef each year. These ships can carry anything from grain, minerals, bulk cargo (such as cars) and oil. Luckily there has not been a major oil spill on the reef. Ships also have the potential to bring with them feral aquatic species by releasing ballast water which is used to balance the ship containing these aquatic animals. Commercial fishing or overfishing has been an important economic activity for Queensland’s coastal communities. Unsustainable fishing practices in the past have left many areas of the Great Barrier Reef with decreased fish stocks. While many areas of the Great Barrier Reef are now off limits to commercial fishers, various areas of the reef can still be fished. Local fishermen are now no longer a major threat to the reef as they understand the need to protect the area’s fish stocks. However, the reef still remains threatened by illegal fishing, which is often carried out by foreign fishing trawlers, and by unsustainable recreational fishing. Tourism is one of the most important industries in Northern Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef being ranked twelfth on the ‘Wonders of the World’ list brings a lot of tourism to Australia and especially far North Queensland. The economic value of the Great Barrier Reef exceeds more than $4 billion a year. In 2005, over 1.8 million tourists visited the reef. Research conducted by the James Cook University in Cairns has shown that tourism has five main impacts on the reef ecosystem; these are coastal tourism development, island-based tourism, marine based tourism, water-based activities and wildlife interactions. Coastal tourism development is explained as tourists mainly visit and stay at mainland Hotels, Motels and Resorts, where this places a strain on coastal environments, including estuarine river systems. Island-based tourism is the growth of tourism on islands throughout the Great Barrier Reef, which creates problems associated with sewage and rubbish discharges. Marine based tourism is where tourist boat companies make thousands of journeys out to the Great Barrier Reef each year, which brings rubbish and a potential for oil spills. These boats also require mooring points or anchor points on the reef which can destroy the coral. Water-based activities for explain diving and snorkelling are the most popular water-based activities on the reef. Most divers are very careful and usually cause no damage to the corals. However, studies have shown that a small proportion of divers swim too close to the corals, breaking them. The more fragile corals are susceptible to this. Wildlife interactions is the interactions with aquatic animals that live on the reef, most tourism operators are very careful to ensure tourists are well informed and to be strict with these rules and make sure that the tourists do not get too close to the wild animals that live on the reef, However, once again research shows that there are still a small portion of operators and tourists that are careless and disrupt wildlife which can impact on breeding cycles and natural interactions. Other impacts of tourism on the Great Barrier Reef include trampling of coral. This is a common occurrence where people walk on the reefs and the coral that become exposed at low tide. Souveniring of coral, shells and other elements of the reef ecosystem was also a major problem. In the past tourists and some commercial traders took large amounts of materials such as corals, mostly from the inner reef, which has now been constituted as being illegal unless the collector is correctly licensed. There are 26 major river systems that flow into the waters of the Great Barrier Reef from mainland Queensland. Approximately 25% of the land area of Queensland drains onto the reef. This runoff represents a major impact on the reef. Coastal development on land adjacent to the reef is expanding rapidly. Tourist developments such as those found between Cairns and Port Douglas, result in large amounts of land that is being cleared. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has information and research that the clearing of wetlands is another major issue impacting on the sustainability of the reef. Intertidal wetlands provide important habitats and nurseries for many of thousands of species that liv eon or near the reef. These wetlands also hold a large amount of water reducing the amount of fresh water the Great Barrier Reef receives each year which keeps salinity levels stable. Aquaculture is becoming a more popular form of commercial farming. Prawns, a number of fish species and pearl and edible oysters are commercially farmed throughout the Great Barrier Reef and in ponds near or next to the reef. These farms can sometimes release chemicals and diseases that impact and cause damage to the other species of aquatic life on the reef which can also cause pollution. Conventional agriculture on the coastal plain adjacent to the reef has been of great concern for reef ecologists and marine biologists. The use of chemical fertilisers in the farming areas of the reef can increase nutrients that promote algae growth. The algae can and already has been smothering the reef which causes a decrease in light penetration for the corals to perform photosynthesis to grow. A type of agriculture that can dramatically harm the reef includes land clearing which results in the erosion of topsoil and an increase in turbidity levels in the water. There are a large number of negative impacts on the ecosystem at risk studied, but the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, along with other smaller groups including the Aboriginal Culture have been enforcing a number of ways to protect and create awareness to tourists, fishers and all people on or visiting the reef or surroundings to keep the ecosystem as stable as they can.

Geometric Isomers Definition and Examples

Isomers are chemical species that have the same chemical formulas, yet are different from each other. For example, learn about geometric isomerization: Geometric Isomer Definition Geometric isomers are chemical species with the same type and quantity of atoms as another species, yet having a different geometric structure. Atoms or groups exhibit different spatial arrangements on either side of a chemical bond or ring structure. Geometric isomerism is also called configurational isomerism or cis-trans isomerism. Note cis-trans isomerism is a different description of geometry than E-Z isomerism. The terms cis and trans are from the Latin words cis, meaning on this side. and trans, meaning on the other side. When substituents are both oriented in the same direction as each other (on the same side), the diastereomer is called cis. When the substituents are on opposing sides, the orientation is trans. Cis and trans geometric isomers exhibit different properties, including boiling points, reactivities, melting points, densities, and solubilities. Trends in these differences are attributed to the effect of the overall dipole moment. The dipoles of trans substituents cancel each other out, which the dipoles of cis substituents are additive. In alkenes, trans isomers have higher melting points, lower solubility, and greater symmetry than cis isomers. Identifying Geometric Isomers Skeletal structures maybe be written with crossed lines for bonds to indicate geometric isomers. The IUPAC does not recommend the crossed line notation anymore, preferring wavy lines connecting a double bond to a heteroatom. When known, the ratio of cis- to trans- structures should be indicated. Cis- and trans- are given as prefixes to chemical structures. Examples of Geometric Isomers Two geometric isomers exist for Pt(NH3)2Cl2, one in which the species are arranged around the Pt in the order Cl, Cl, NH3, NH3, and another in which the species are ordered NH3, Cl, NH3, Cl.