MIS Assignment #4 - Coca-Cola Is Everything: SCM, CRM, SRP, Social Media, You Name It

Question 1 

Why is standardization so important in supply chain management?

•       Standardization is the process of building and implementing technical standards and it is very important in supply chain management because it will make the process of supply chain management to be more efficiently streamlined  therefore it can save money by reducing expenses associated with supply chain activities.

Coke is developing its own set of software services for bottlers to use. Do you think Coke charges the bottlers for these software services? Why or why not?

•       From our point of view, the purpose coke develop their own software is to ensure the supply chain processes are standardized and streamlined for better and ease of control, integration, enhancement and performance management. 

Question 2 

How is My Coke Rewards an example of a switching cost?

•       We assume that “My Coke Rewards” is a marketing program that has 2 purposes. One is to attract new customer to switch to  Coke and second is to retain customers loyalty by creating stickiness to Coke and therefore make customer reluctant to switch to other substitutes products or switch to other competitors product. 

How can a switching cost not have a monetary penalty associated with it?

•       We assume that “My Coke Rewards”  is about playing with level of emotional or psychology where anything that make people reluctant  to switch can be a switching cost.

Question 3

What sort of business intelligence could Coke gather from its My Coke Rewards Web site?

Preference/Behavior

•       Site/link browsed

•       Item searched

•       Points collected

How could it use this information for customer relationship management activities?

•       Rewards

•       Sweepstakes

•       Instant Win

•       Spend Points on Promotions

Question 4

Visit Coca-Cola’s Facebook page. Can you buy Coke products there?

•       No. I don’t see any link that can redirect to an e-commerce site

What social media tools are present that allow you to communicate with Coca-Cola?

•       From Social Networking sites – Facebook , Twitter, Instagram, Google +, Pinterest, Linkedin

•       From Social Locationing sites – Foursquare

Question 5

Now, visit Pepsi’s Facebook page. Compare and contrast it to Coca-Cola’s Facebook page. Which has more eye appeal?

•       The looks and feels seem to be the same.

Which seems to have more activity?

•       Coca-Cola

Why do you think this is true?