Coca-Cola Explores Shared Bottler Data in Next-Gen RGM
The Coca-Cola Co., while having a storied, established history, is not immune to the currently volatile macroeconomic environment.
To navigate the inflationary landscape, the company has been exploring data-sharing opportunities paired with its revenue growth management optimizations to shift from a legacy, static pricing playbook to a predictive, data-enabled engine.
President and CFO John Murphy recently shared during the dbAccess Global Consumer Conference that by marrying Coca-Cola's internal first-party data with downstream partner transactional data, the company can deploy its AI layer to optimize price-pack architecture (PPA) in real time and insulate the portfolio from external market pressures.
Also: Coca-Cola leadership details moving from data silos to a connected network
Murphy explained that the company has been discussing how it can take those first-party insights and combine them with proprietary customer data from bottlers "given the amount of engagement they have with millions of customers every day."
Then it's a matter of bringing that together with partner resources from companies like Publicis or WPP to create "a new intelligence system." This AI layer, he said, would allow the company to operate with greater precision and discipline and ultimately drive a greater revenue-per-transaction model.
At the same time, Coca-Cola has coined the term "all weather" internally to reflect a mindset of maintaining control even in this relationship model, ensuring that ecosystem partners don't completely dominate how the company thinks about growing, operating and moving forward.
And it is thinking carefully about past decision-making to ensure future moves don't impede progress and hurt consumers.
In the two to three years following the COVID-19 pandemic, Coca-Cola raised prices to provide some relief from inflationary pressures. However, Murphy emphasized that just because the organization did this for a couple of years, it does not mean it's the right move now.
"I think the narrative on the consumer being resilient is a nuanced narrative because they're not all the same," he said. "We have segments of our consumer base around the world that are under pressure. And we have a choice to stay relevant with them or not."
Revenue growth management will remain fluid to account for continued changes in the landscape. Murphy said RGM isn't about which inning you are in, but is instead a game of layers.
"You've got layers that keep compounding to continue to allow us to create value."
