MARKETING & SOCIETY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

MARKETING & SOCIETY - Essay Example This essay will detail the Achilles Heel of Coca-Cola’s operations in India, namely its competition with native inhabitants over limited water resources, and critically evaluate the company’s strategy for handling of these criticisms. The competition for water between Coca-Cola manufacturing plants and local inhabitants was nowhere more blatant than in Plachimada – a rural part of the state of Kerala in South India. A subsidiary of Coca-Cola – Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages – set up a manufacturing plant here in the year 2000. Plachimada and its surrounding areas were prone to periodic droughts. Yet, the governing authorities approved the project, apparently reasoning that the plant will stimulate the local economy and increase the speed of development in Plachimada. Coca-Cola promptly dug six bore wells for drawing water and before long the water table in the entire region dried up. This meant that the local inhabitants have to walk (or cycle) nearly seven kilometres to reach drinkable water. For example, according to the first hand report of Mark Thomas, â€Å"People I spoke to said they used to earn about 1 [pounds sterling] a day as harvesters, and they used to get about 20 days work a month. Now they are lucky if they get five days work a month, because the local crops have failed. They felt they had no option but to fight the company, and set up a 24-hour vigil opposite the plant. At the end of the month, they will have been there for 647 days.† (Thomas, 2004) Hence, the grievances expressed by local villagers and social activists are not confined to the issue of drinking water. The operation of the manufacturing plant gives rise to a myriad of challenges to the environment, agricultural productivity and people’s livelihoods. The Plachimada episode was only the first of many run-ins between Coca-Cola and rural communities in India. Following the tumult in