Poor Sales of Coca-Cola in India, Essay Example

A Cultural Misunderstanding or Unethical Practices

Coca-Cola has been unsuccessful with sales in India.  Despite its financial and marketing success in many other countries, Coca-Cola has experienced poor results with Indian consumers.  Citizens in India claim that Coca-Cola is damaging to the economy and the environment.

Coca-Cola has publicly expressed that its presence in India hascreated jobs and strengthened communities.  However, many activist groups in India have protested Coca-Cola.  According to Srivastava (2008), Coca-Cola is guilty of creating water shortages, pollution, and distributing toxic waste and pesticides.  While these problems have been be caused by many different factors, such as high poverty and overcrowding, evidence suggests that Coca-Cola’s unethical manufacturing and production practices contributed to India’s problems.  Communities surrounding Coca-Cola’s bottling plants experienced dry wells, malfunctioning water pumps, and a depletion of the water table.  The plants have also haphazardly discharged waste water into fields around its plants containing cadmium, lead, and high levels of pesticides. The Indian government banned Coca-Cola and PepsiCo products; these companies were subjected to intense investigation.  Even though Coca-Cola products did not meet European Union safety standards, they weredeemed safe to drink.  However, people in India still protested and many confrontations occurred near plants, resulting in many choosing to not to support the company.

Coca-Cola most likely assumed that consumers in India were the same as consumers in the United States; however the cultures were very different.As a developing country, India was already suffering from pollution and water shortages.  Coca-Cola and other manufacturing plants were common in the United States, but were only recently implemented in India inthe latter part of the twentieth century.  The publicized struggles between the foreign company and the citizens of India were damaging to Coca-Cola’s public image.  When the Indian government proved that Coca-Cola was contributing to already poor environmental conditions, instead of trying to make amends, they continued their activities.  If Coca-Cola had better understood the culture of India, they would have publicly apologized and discontinued their toxic practices.  The people of India may have reacted differently and shown the company more patience.

Work Cited

Gentleman, Amelia. “India Widens Ban on Coke and Pepsi.” New York Times. 07 Aug 2006: n. page. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/business/worldbusiness/07cnd-soda.html?_r=0>.

Hills, Jonathan. “Coca-Cola in India – A Case Study.” CSR Asia – Weekly. n.d. n. page. Web. 19 Feb. 2014. <http://csr-asia.com/csr-asia-weekly-news-detail.php?id=4146>.

Srivastava, Amit. “Coca-Cola’s Own Report Implicates Company for Abuses in India.” India  Resource Center. 13 Mar 2008: n. page. Web. 19 Feb. 2014. <http://www.indiaresource.org/campaigns/coke/2008/cokeimplicatedteri.html>.