Interdrinks Case Study: Sales Force and Marketing Strategy
This paper examines Interdrinks (IDC), a small Swiss soft drink bottling company, through a strategic business case analysis. It identifies critical weaknesses in the company's existing marketing and sales operations — including a lack of reliable competitor data, an unmotivated and disorganized sales force, and the absence of a coherent marketing strategy. The paper reviews industry trends driven by globalization and technological change, and offers specific recommendations on improving sales force performance, restructuring compensation, pursuing a viable brand management strategy, and leveraging licensed products such as Pepsi. The analysis draws on marketing theory and industry examples, including the consolidation patterns of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, to contextualize Interdrinks' challenges and potential paths forward.
- Introduction: Industry context and competitive pressures facing small bottlers
- Case Review: 1998 management meeting and sales force dispute
- Success Factors and Industry Expectations: What modern bottling companies must do to compete
- Interdrinks' Current Marketing Strategy: Gaps and failures in Interdrinks' existing strategy
- Improving Sales Force Performance: Concrete recommendations to restructure sales operations
- Brand Management and Licensed Business Recommendations: Brand strategy and leveraging licensed products like Pepsi
- Conclusions and Recommendations: Summary of findings and strategic imperatives
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds its analysis in real industry context, using the Coca-Cola and PepsiCo consolidation trend as a benchmark against which Interdrinks' weaknesses are measured.
- It moves logically from diagnosis to prescription — first identifying what Interdrinks lacks (reliable data, motivated sales force, coherent strategy), then offering concrete, actionable recommendations such as replacing the sales manager, implementing sales force automation software, and restructuring compensation.
- Quotations from academic and trade sources (Kotler et al., Unger) are integrated to support arguments rather than substituting for them, giving the paper a credible theoretical foundation.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied case analysis: it takes a real business scenario and systematically evaluates it against established marketing and management principles. Rather than summarizing theory abstractly, it maps concepts such as market segmentation, customer profiling, and sales force compensation directly onto the specific operational problems at Interdrinks, producing targeted recommendations grounded in evidence.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with an industry overview establishing competitive pressures, then narrates the case events (the 1998 management meeting) before assessing what a successful strategy would require. The central sections diagnose Interdrinks' failures across marketing, sales, and data management. The final sections shift to prescription, covering sales force restructuring, brand strategy, and licensed product management, before closing with a brief conclusion that restates the core argument.
Introduction
This report attempts to answer some key questions being asked by top management at a small Swiss bottling company called Interdrinks. It focuses on some of the company's key decision areas, which include marketing segmentation, organizational positioning, product and service policies, sales force and sales initiatives, product pricing, distribution opportunities, organizational communications, and much more. In our highly competitive and globalized society, corporate self-evaluation and eventual restructuring are the norm if a company wishes to survive.
Advanced technology and new innovation continue to change the way business is done and have relatively leveled out the playing fields across most industries — the soft drink bottling business is no exception. "Places are now beginning to feel the full impact of the revolution in technology and communication. Fax machines, handheld computers, and teleconferencing allow companies to move to places with lower costs or more attractive working conditions." (Kotler, Haider, & Rein, 1993) Consider how the number one company in the industry, Coca-Cola, has reinvented itself from its days as a mule-and-wagon delivery company into a highly consolidated bottling franchiser that is consistently altering its core business strategies in order to merge and maximize profits while reducing operating costs. "The number of Coca-Cola bottlers in the United States will drop to fewer than 50 within five years — down from 96 today, some industry analysts predict. Only 19 years ago, the country had 353 Coca-Cola bottlers. A similar trend is occurring around the world, where Coca-Cola is sold in nearly 200 nations." (Unger, 1999)
The bottling industry is at a crossroads where smaller companies like Interdrinks need to understand that they will continue to face increased pressure to reinvent themselves in order to survive in the twenty-first century and beyond. The new competitive environment will require significant capital investment, modernized equipment, and a clear understanding of the changing retail climate in the soft drink industry.
Case Review
In February 1998, the Managing Director of Interdrinks met with his national sales manager to discuss the company's sales force performance and other crucial industry trends. The central purpose of the meeting was to determine whether a productivity problem existed within the company's sales force. The Managing Director believed that his field force was not meeting expectations, arguing that the sales force was costing the company too much money relative to the sales it was producing. The national sales manager disagreed, maintaining that the team was performing at or near the upper limits of its potential and that they were among the best-performing sales teams in the local industry.
Neither executive had reliable statistics or data to support his position. Each manager justified his stance with speculation and supposition. The Managing Director was returning to the company after an extended leave during which he had attended an intensive executive education program, making him technically an outsider looking in, even though it was his family's business. The national sales manager took the position that his team was producing adequate sales and that existing policies and procedures should not be altered. The Managing Director was not convinced, as recent changes throughout the industry appeared to be presenting new challenges for the small bottler. He felt that Interdrinks should re-examine its current marketing and business strategies. Concerns such as product line and distribution policies, sales force motivation and capabilities, competition, and other external industry trends led him to reconsider the company's current productivity and its likely future.
References
Keegan, W. J. Global Marketing Management (7th ed.). Prentice Hall.
Kotler, P., Haider, D., & Rein, I. (1993). There's no place like our place!: The marketing of cities, regions, and nations. The Futurist, Vol. 27.
Unger, H. (March 23, 1999). Consolidation sweeping Coca-Cola bottlers. The Atlanta Constitution.
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