Our flagship market is focused on building strong brands, translating brand value into customer value, and strengthening system capabilities to sustain and repeat success. We delivered solid results in a challenging environment, including 2% organic volume growth, as we continued our integration efforts following the largest acquisition in our company’s history, creating synergy savings to reinvest in our brands and capabilities. Strong consumer and customer programs included ABC Soda, which generated more than 2.1 billion consumer impressions, and continued successful marketing partnerships between ABC Soda and XYZ Drinks. Effective execution of our occasion-based, brand, package, price, and channel strategies delivered volume and value share gains across beverage categories. ABC Soda achieved its sixth consecutive year of double-digit volume growth; XYZ Drinks all grew triple digits.
The Europe Group overcame an uncertain economic environment to deliver 5% operating income growth and 4% unit case volume growth. The 130th anniversary of ABC Soda was activated with passion and creativity, driving brand love on a massive scale. Other marketing highlights included ABC Soda & Meals, driving sales with imaginative partnerships and cross promotions. We scored with summer music campaigns and built momentum for the London 2012 Olympic Games. A key strategic success was strengthening ties with bottling partners and driving growth with key customers. We spent more time in the marketplace, using the insights to act with greater flexibility and get closer to consumers with an adapted brand, package, and price architecture.
In 2011, we continued to execute the strategies of the Bottling Investments Group. Our core focus on top-line growth and aggressive cost management, combined with marketplace execution, operational excellence, and productivity, generated strong performance. We grew unit case volume 3% on a comparable basis after adjusting for the impact of the sale of our Norway and Sweden bottling operations. However, on a reported basis, unit case volume was even with the prior year. We continued to focus on prudent capital planning to ensure we have the capacity to meet sales growth. Our focus on improving environmental metrics has resulted in significant positive changes, especially in energy and water usage. In addition, we opened more than 450,000 new outlets, placed an incremental 150,000 new coolers, and continued building market segmentation capabilities to ensure consumers continue to have access to our brands for all occasions, in the right packages, at the right price. We remained focused on the implementation of QRS Colas, our end-to-end bottler operating system that enables the development of standard tools, data, and systems geared toward enhancing sales force effectiveness.
1. What business strategies led to the generation of double-digit volume growth? a. brand value lead to repeat success while using “old school doorto-door” advertising
b. longer time spent asking the opinions of longtime consumers
c. strengthening ties with bottling partners and driving growth with key customers
d. targeting larger areas and other countries
e. aggressive media marketing
2. Based on the information provided, what is the tone of this passage? a. factual ambivalence
b. enthusiastic pride
c. objective reporting
d. inconclusiveness
e. critical
3. Which of these situations most resembles the situation described in this passage? a. a mutant strain of super ants that recolonizes so efficiently that they become the strongest ants in their habitat, nearly exterminating other species
b. a blockbuster film that becomes a miniseries on TV
c. a car dealership that changes its business plan to exclude imported cars
d. a lamp company formerly specializing in all lighting limiting itself to chandeliers
e. None of these are true.
4. Which best describes the basic structure of this passage? a. comparing different strategies
b. accumulating data to support a conclusion
c. different theories leading to the same conclusion
d. disproving an existing hypothesis
e. compiling facts to sway an opinion