The new marketing strategy and the elimination of 6,000 jobs in the United
States and abroad attempts to move the power from Atlanta, Georgia, to a more
local focus in its many international operations.63 The new strategy is a reflection
of the desire to better understand Coca-Cola’s international publics and a recognition
that the centralized bureaucracy in Atlanta is not flexible enough to handle
the global marketplace. It is a step in the right direction; however, because of
cultural variation and its impact on public response to crisis, the citizens of Belgium,
Spain, and France still need time to trust Coca-Cola again.
What can international organizations learn from the Coca-Cola tainting
scare in Europe? First, cultural variability is a fact of life and understanding it may
help organizations better predict how international publics will respond to organizational
messages. Organizations that seek entry into the global marketplace
should learn about the cultural and societal factors that guide the behaviors of their
host publics. Cultural variability, recent events, and societal tolerance of risk are
also important topics to learn. Second, international organizations need people
from the host nations to act as “cultural interpreters.” This model of public
relations, coined by Anastasia Lyra in her thesis on public relations in Greece,
shows that every organization needs trusted and informed experts to explain the
cultural and societal norms of their home country.64 Finally, and perhaps most
important, organizations need to avoid ethnocentrism in their communication
strategies with international publics. The belief that what works in Atlanta will work in Brussels can no longer guide successful organization–public relationships.
As Coca-Cola learned, the world is not “one market, one strategy.” Instead, the
world is a complexity of cultures and variations that affect how publics respond to
organizational messages and organizational crises.