1985 to the Present
Early years
Columbus, Georgia druggist John Stith Pemberton invented a cocawine called Pemberton's French Wine Cola in 1885, although it was originally meant to be a headache medicine. He was inspired by the formidable success of French Angelo Mariani's cocawine, Vin Mariani.
The same year, when Atlanta and Fulton County passed Prohibition legislation, Pemberton began to develop a non-alcoholic version of the French Wine Coca. His bookkeeper (and later lead marketeer), Frank Robinson, coined the name Coca-Cola, because it included the stimulant cocaine and was flavored using kola nuts, a source of caffeine. Pemberton called for five ounces (140 grams) of coca leaf per gallon of syrup. The first sales were made at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 7, 1886, and for the first eight months only an average of nine drinks were sold each day. Pemberton ran the first advertisement for the beverage on May 29 that year in the Atlanta Journal.
Coca-Cola was initially sold as a patent medicine for five cents a glass. Pemberton claimed Coca-Cola cured myriad diseases, including morphine addiction, dyspepsia, neurasthenia, headache, and impotence.
In 1887, Pemberton sold a stake in his company to Asa Griggs Candler, who incorporated it as the Coca Cola Corporation in 1888.[3] In the same year, Pemberton sold the rights a second time to three more businessmen: J.C. Mayfield, A.O. Murphey, and E.H. Bloodworth. Meanwhile, Pemberton's son Charley Pemberton began selling his own version of the product. Three versions of Coca-Cola — sold by three separate businesses — were on the market.[4]
Under Candler and Woodruff
In an attempt to clarify the situation, John Pemberton declared that the name Coca-Cola belonged to Charley, but the other two manufacturers could continue to use the formula. In the summer of 1888, Candler sold his beverage under the names Yum Yum and Koke. After both failed to catch on, Candler set out to establish a legal claim to Coca-Cola in late 1888, in order to force his two competitors out of the business. Candler apparently purchased exclusive rights to the formula from John Pemberton, Margaret Dozier, and Woolfolk Walker. However, in 1914, Dozier came forward to claim her signature on the bill of sale had been forged, and subsequent analysis has indicated John Pemberton's signature was most likely a forgery as well.[5]
Coca Cola came in numerous sizes over 30 years of business, including:
- 275ml (mainly released in the Middle East)
- 300ml (USA, Australia, Britain, France)
- 330ml (the most common size used for the entire 30 years in USA, Canada, Australia, France, Britain, New Zealand, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore)
- 355ml (Latin America and the Caribbean)
- 375ml (most commonly seen today, available in all of the above countries)
In 1892, Candler incorporated a second company, The Coca-Cola Company — the current corporation. In 1910, Candler had the earliest records of the company burned, further obscuring its legal origins. Regardless, Candler began aggressively marketing the product — the efficiency of this concerted advertising campaign would not be realized until much later. Candler pioneered several promotional techniques, such as the distribution of vouchers for free glasses of Coca-Cola, and advertising through media varying from soda fountain urns to wall murals (a possible ancestor of the billboard).[6]
Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time on March 12, 1894. The first bottling of Coca-Cola occurred in Vicksburg, Mississippi, at the Biedenharn Candy Company in 1891. Its proprietor was Joseph A. Biedenharn. The original bottles were six-ounce (170-gram) Hutchinson bottles manufactured by Biedenharn and sealed with a rubber gasket. Reportedly leaky, they were soon replaced with "crown top" bottles with straight sides, and sealed with a metal cap; variants of this design remain in use today. The distinctive "hobble-skirt" bottle design now associated with Coca-Cola was introduced in 1915.[7]
Initially, Candler was tentative about bottling the drink, but the two entrepreneurs who proposed the idea were so persuasive that Candler signed a contract giving them control of the procedure. However, the loosely termed contract proved to be problematic for the company for decades to come. Legal matters were not helped by the decision of the bottlers to subcontract to other companies — in effect, becoming parent bottlers. This meant that Coca-Cola was originally sold in a wide variety of bottles, until the introduction of the iconic, standardized "hobble-skirt" bottle in 1916.[8]
After the advent of bottling, the company began taking advertising even more seriously than it had before, hiring William D'Arcy, whose creations set the tone for Coca-Cola advertising that his successors would follow. D'Arcy associated Coca-Cola with typical everyday scenes of people going about their daily business; his personal view was that "Coca-Cola advertising should create scenes that drew people in and made them part of the pleasant interludes of everyday life." Instead of targeting particular population segments, D'Arcy attempted to appeal to as broad a class of people as possible, with advertising copy such as "All classes, ages and sexes drink Coca-Cola."[6]
After Candler, the next executive to have a major impact on Coke's future was Robert Woodruff, who focused on expanding the scope of the business to the rest of the U.S. A noted workaholic, Woodruff would continue to have a major influence on the business long after his retirement, until his death in the 1980s. Woodruff inherited leadership of the company from his father, Ernest Woodruff, who had successfully led a campaign to take over the company from Candler in 1919. Woodruff became President of the Coca-Cola Company four years later. Emphasizing quality in the production of Coca-Cola, he initiated a "Quality Drink" campaign aimed at properly training those who served Coca-Cola at soda fountain outlets. Woodruff was also influential in establishing quality standards for the bottled version of Coca-Cola, which he thought had great potential. Looking beyond the United States, he set up a foreign department of the company in 1926, and began opening manufacturing plants in various European and Central American countries. It was Woodruff who assumed responsibility for designing Coca-Cola's foreign advertising campaigns, affixing the company logo to racing dog sleds in Canada and Spanish bullfighting arenas. He also introduced some new forms of distributing Coca-Cola, such as the six-pack carton, which made bulk purchases of Coca-Cola substantially easier.[9]
In 1929, the onset of the Great Depression led to fears that sales might be depressed for the year. However, an advertising campaign spearheaded with the slogan "The pause that refreshes" led per capita consumption of Coca-Cola to actually double. That same year, sales of bottled Coca-Cola overtook those of Coca-Cola sold at soda fountains for the first time. Throughout the Great Depression, Coca-Cola advertising continued to be upbeat, despite the bleak economic outlook; a 1935 advertisement depicted a man nonchalantly smiling on his way to work, presenting an idealized view of American life at the time.[6][9] The proliferation of Coca-Cola, and a newcomer to the soft drink market, Pepsi, during this period led to a decline in the sales of Moxie, which had outsold Coca-Cola as recently as 1920, and continued to rival Coca-Cola's dominance of the American market. The decision of its manufacturer to cut back on advertising expenditure led to Moxie's eventual marginalization in the United States.[10]
The Great Depression, however, also saw a setback for Coca-Cola with the arrival of new competitor Pepsi; by offering twelve-ounce bottles for the same price (five cents) as Coca-Cola's six-ounce bottles, as well as a musical jingle in its advertising campaign, PepsiCo succeeded in becoming a challenger to Coca-Cola's dominance of the American market, with its profits doubling from 1936 to 1938.[6]
World War II to the 1970s
When the United States entered World War II, sugar rationing in the United States meant Coca-Cola was unable to produce drinks at full capacity. However, a deal was struck between the U.S. government and Coca-Cola whereby the company was exempted from sugar rationing, while Coca-Cola supplied free drinks to the United States Army. The U.S. Army permitted Coca-Cola employees to enter the front lines as "Technical Officers" where they operated Coke's system of providing refreshments for soldiers, who welcomed the beverage as a reminder of home. After the war, the soldiers brought home their newfound taste for Coca-Cola, further popularizing the drink. A survey of soldiers after the war indicated that veterans preferred Coca-Cola to Pepsi by an 8 to 1 ratio.[6]
Coca-Cola was criticized for its decision to continue trading in Nazi Germany. Eventually, the difficulty of shipping Coca-Cola concentrate to Germany and its occupied states, due to the Allied blockades, led to the creation of a new drink (Fanta) by the Coca-Cola Company. Fanta is still sold worldwide to this day.
Another wartime innovation was the trademarking of "Coke" by the Coca-Cola Company, validating it as a way of referring to Coca-Cola. Although widely prevalent in vernacular usage, the company had initially fought against this practice with the reasoning that "nicknames encourage substitution." Advertising campaigns encouraged people to "ask for 'Coca-Cola' by its full name," but people persisted in asking simply for "Coke." In 1941, the company resignedly began advertising Coca-Cola jointly as Coca-Cola and Coke. In 1945, the "Coke" name was trademarked.
After World War II, Coke began expanding worldwide. Initially having been restricted only to North America and Western Europe, Coke was soon being distributed in numerous other countries, especially those, such as the Philippines, which had been occupied by the Americans during World War II. The process was aided by the company assuming control of a number of Coca-Cola manufacturing plants which had been established during the war by the army, with help from the company, in order to spur distribution of the drink to soldiers.[6]
Coca-Cola and local competitors
Pepsi is often second to Coke in terms of sales, but outsells Coca-Cola in some localities. Around the world, some local brands do compete with Coke.
Big Cola is a fast growing mark in South and Central America.
In Peru, Inca Kola outsells Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Corporation purchased the producer in 1999.[12]
In Sweden, Julmust outsells Coca-Cola during the Christmas season.[13]
In Scotland, the locally-produced Irn-Bru was more popular until 2005 when Coca-Cola and Diet Coke began to outpace its sales.[14]
In India, Coca-Cola ranks third behind the leader, Pepsi-Cola, and local drink Thums Up. The Coca-Cola Company purchased Thumbs Up in 1993.[15]
In the Middle East, Mecca Cola is seen as a competitor to Coca-Cola.
In Turkey, Cola Turka is a major competitor to Coca-Cola.
In Iran and also many countries of Middle East, Zam Zam Cola and Parsi Cola are major competitors to Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola and Islam
Due to its symbolic association with the United States, Coca-Cola has been a target of anti-Americanism in the Middle East. One such instance in 2000 saw a claim that the Coca-Cola label contained hidden anti-Islamic phrases in Arabic. The Coca-Cola Company claimed sales dropped 10 to 15% in Egypt after the rumor began spreading in 2000. The controversy became so widespread that the Grand Mufti of Egypt—who has proudly admitted in related interviews that he himself indulges in at least one Coke daily—publicly addressed it, declaring that the logo "does not injure Islam or Muslims."[16]
Mecca Cola was launched in France in 2002 and has since proliferated in Europe and the Middle East. Some purchasers may see buying Mecca Cola as a way to combat "America's imperialism … by providing a substitute for American goods and increasing the blockade of countries boycotting American goods."[17]
