Coca-Cola’s fourth quarter profit fell by 18%. That’s a result attributed to ‘falling demand amid a sharp global economic slowdown,” according to this news report on the IndustryWeek site. While the news item isn’t granular enough to know where Coke did well and not so well in terms of comparative absolute dollars, there’s no question they are having the troubles at home and scoring big in emerging markets. Two sentences in the news report, separating by other copy points, summarizes what they are doing:

The company had slashed costs and raised prices to counter falling consumer demand for soft drinks in North America, its largest market reeling from recession…During the last quarter, Coca Cola increased turnover by 29% in China and 28% in India, its key emerging markets.

No one is too worried about Coke, by the way. They had a $995 million fourth quarter profit and netted over $5 billion for the year. But you don’t achieve that by ignoring market trends, and I think their emerging market strategy is a significant example of how they pay attention and are capitalizing on the opportunity.

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