Grantmakers in the News
January 1, 2003
Name: Coca-Cola Company
Address: 1 Coca-Cola Plz., N.W.
Atlanta, GA 30301
Phone: 404-676-2568 Fax: 404-676-8804
URL: www.thecocacolacompany.com
In reexamining its role in the Atlanta business community, the Coca-Cola
Co. has discovered that Atlantans don't view the company as having an identifiable
personality that allows it to connect with the community, the Atlanta Journal-
Constitution reports. And partly as a result of that finding, the world's largest
soft-drink company has decided to boosted its local involvement.
To get an understanding of how Coke is perceived externally, the company surveyed community
leaders and conducted focus groups with ordinary Atlantans; the next phase of the project,
a phone survey, will be completed early next year. So far, however, the findings show that
while many Atlantans view the company positively, they don't feel it is as visible in the
community as it should be. As a result, the company has started to put more money into its
local philanthropy and marketing efforts, donating $3 million to Morehouse College and land
for an aquarium in downtown Atlanta, underwriting a Santa Claus painting exhibit at the High
Museum of Art, and announcing plans to build a new World of Coca-Cola next to the aquarium.
The recent moves by Coca-Cola could help mitigate some of the negative impressions of the
company that have formed over the last few years as a result of several factors, including its
laying off 5,200 workers, the filing of a class-action racial discrimination suit by
African-American employees that was settled in 2000 at an estimated cost of $192.5 million,
and the weak performance of Coca-Cola stock, which has lost nearly half its value since
hitting an all-time high of $87.94 in the summer of 1998.
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