Quality management analysis of Turkish beverage market leaders and the related links between organizational structuring, food & beverage quality and branding

In this study, quality management activities in beverage sector have been focused in order to see that the success in quality management is highly related with the type and system of the organizational structure of a company. The hypothesis was that there is a close interrelation between organizational structuring, food&beverage quality approaches and branding activities to reach successful manufacturing and marketing operations and to create a strong customer-brand relationship. To be able to make these interrelations as rational as possible that are significant for the quality management approaches of the companies to be understood, a literature review based on food quality, organizational structuring and branding has been performed. According to the researches, the perception of final user with respect to the extrinsic quality cues, which are closely dependent on branding activities, and the integration of the consumers in both quality systems and organizational structures have been examined. Furthermore, the importance of supplier selection and sustainability performances have been defined as a part of quality control and assurance operations. Considering the organizational structuring review, it has been understood that the structure of companies should be so organized that quality assurance and control activities can be carried out at the desired level, which is defined by “Corporate Quality System”. In order to provide authority and effectiveness to the organizational quality system, every position within the organizational breakdown structure should be adjusted to obtain the most possible hierarchical information flow. Quality planning policy and the organizational standards and regulations of a company should emphasize the importance of the quality assurance (Q/A) and quality control (Q/C) performances at all levels of company operations, which would lead to the most desired results in terms of manufacturing and marketing. Adding the workforce and middle managers to the decision-making process by using decentralization approach, the limits which can be determined by the company, give each department and individual more responsibility and pushes them into taking care of quality assurance and control issues more effectively. As a result of organizing a company that way, quality-related actions such as inspection, auditing, monitoring, reporting, adjustments, analysis etc. would be quicker and closer to the expected level. The attempt to understand the general beverage quality concept, the direction of this study has been led to the food quality review, which is much more general and directly related with the beverage quality. As a consequence of this part of the review, it has been stressed by the scholar papers and researches that have been used in this report that the food quality has a direct relationship to the perceived quality characteristics of the products. Since the perception is highly influential on the quality level of a product, this analysis links the notion to the customers. According to the customers’ assessments of how satisfactory a product is, which is dependent on the subjective expectations and product experiences, companies make adjustments on their manufacturing, quality-related, marketing and branding departments, if needed. In general, the quality cues are the main determinants of the product quality in the eyes of customers. In the last part of the literature review, branding has been the main focus to see the quality perspective of consumers in a more detailed way. It has been underlined that branding has a particular significance within the perception process of customers. The brand has an important role for the success of the companies, when products are newly marketed or unfamiliar to consumers. One of the different brands marketing the exactly same product in terms of content and ingredients may be preferred much more than the others just because of the credibility of the brand, so it is quite obvious that brand is an effective quality indicator, and the quality management systems of organizations should attach great importance at branding activities. Moreover, consumers usually feel themselves closer to the brands having images they think similar to themselves. People perceive the products and brands of high quality, if they think the styles of these brands or products fit to their own. All in all, quality is totally parallel with the power of the brand from customer point of view. In the following part of the report, a short study on Turkish beverage sector, which has been chosen for data availability and market attractiveness, has been performed. After describing the recent changes, economical and social situations, two Turkish beverage market leaders in soft drinks and beer sectors, Coca-Cola Turkey (CCI) and Efes Beer Group Turkey respectively, have been analyzed. The analysis has focused on the companies’ organizational structures, quality control and assurance performances, supplier selection and sustainability perspectives, and how these concepts are related to their general quality management systems. The studies on market leaders have shown that both of the companies possess both centralized and decentralized approaches in terms of their organizational structures. While keeping the most important decision-making processes under the control of the top management, both companies assign authority to use initiatives to different departments within their organizational charts. When it comes to quality control, another common characteristic both companies have is that each step in the manufacturing process is monitored carefully by trained department personnel and particular machinery. Since both companies relate the product quality and the customer satisfaction directly to the sustainability, the quality assurance and control operations are carried out from supplier selection process to the marketing of the final good. Both companies utilize long-term partnerships for sustainability, and especially Coca-Cola Turkey, as the general Coca-Cola Company does all over the world, tries to be a part of consumers’ lives through the partnerships they have, which would lead to a perception of trust and quality. Although Efes Beer Group doesn’t have a single department carrying out all quality activities, Coca-Cola Turkey has its department of Supply Chain Operations that is totally in charge of all quality assurance and quality control performances. Efes Beer Group, instead, have its personnel responsible of quality in each of its departments, who are active at different levels of the quality management process and reports to the directors of their own departments. Even though the quality organizations of both companies show different trends, the success of both companies stems from the focus on the whole production process. In order to emphasize the value of quality assurance, both companies adapt the general quality standards, especially defined by ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and try to keep the content of their operations updated with respect to these standards. In the final part of this report, the results of the research in accordance with the hypothesis defined for the study and the final opinions and suggestions related to the quality management approaches in the beverage sector have been emphasized. All in all, a last overview on the content of the study has been given in the conclusion part, and the important notions related to quality management activities have been summarized.