...Coca-Cola New Vending Technology and Marketing Paper Dennecia M. Carter BUS 508: The Business Enterprise Strayer University Paying more for a Coke dependent on the weather temperature is probably something that most people would not agree with. Coca-Cola tested a technology that would make such a thing possible. Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer M. Douglas Ivester stated, “Coca-Cola is a product whose utility varies from moment to moment. In a final summer championship, when people meet in a stadium to have fun, the utility of a cold Coca-Cola is very high. So it is fair that it should be more expensive. The machine will simply make this process automatic.” (McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2008) Now that is how you make your product benefit you at the expense of things that consumers can not control. The idea that the changing of prices based on the ambient temperature was thought of as just the law of supply and demand in action. Would it be easy for consumers that normally purchase a Coke for $1.25 now see prices of $1.50 thanks to a twenty degree increase in temperature? It had been reported in October 1999 that Coca-Cola was testing vending machines that could raise prices in hot weather. After this report it led to major national and international controversy for the company. The ability for the machine to make price changes based on temperature would be processed simply through a temperature sensor and computer chip. Besides price changes based...
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