Coca Cola… Enjoy!
“America se leke Amritsar tak… Coca Cola ki hai ek hi quality... ek hi standard…Toh Piyo sir uthake! Thanda matlab Coca Cola” The ad featuring Aamir Khan flashes on the TV, showing how Coca Cola is associated with every human emotion that makes him feel proud. Well, this has really been the theme around which most of the Coca Cola ads revolve. A telling story goes that in the World War II, the Japanese soldiers mistakenly blew away a drum filled with Coca Cola. The American soldiers got so infuriated with this wrongdoing that they literally slaughtered every Japanese soldier. In fact, General Eisenhower, himself was a Coca Cola fan and used to openly support the idea of Coke being served to soldiers. According to him, Coke would make the soldiers miss their homeland, their country, their dear ones and they would fight more fiercely!
If there is one liquid that is second only to water in consumption, it’s Coca Cola!
In May 1886, a pharmacist named John Pemberton was preparing a motley mixture of many chemicals in his backyard in Atlanta. Basically, he was trying to invent a medicine on “Hangover”. He added Cocaine to the mixture. Cocaine was supposedly having healing properties! Until 1905, the soft drink contained extracts of cocaine as well as the caffeine-rich kola nut.
To get rid of the bitter taste, he added a bit of Lemon Juice, Vanilla etc. It was then that Coca Cola came into existence. Of course, Pemberton was not the first to produce a soft drink (In fact, he himself was marketing it as a tonic and not as a soft drink.) Many other people had tried their hand at making soft drinks like Ginger Beer, Spruce beer etc. But then, no one could achieve the widespread popularity Coca Cola was to achieve in future.
It was Pemberton’s bookkeeper – Frank Robinson who christened the drink as “Coca Cola”. He was also good at calligraphy and designed the Coca Cola’s famous logo that still continues even after a century!
The soft drink was first sold to the public at the soda fountain in Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta on May 8, 1886. About nine servings of the soft drink were sold each day. Sales for that first year added up to a total of about $50. The funny thing was that it cost John Pemberton over $70 in expanses, so the first year of sales were a loss!
But, as fate would have it, Pemberton died in 1888, without realizing the potential of what he had left behind. So, in 1988, Asa Candler bought the Coca Cola formula. He got rid of the Cocaine and improved its taste. He called the drink “Delicious and Energizing” It was Candler who made Coca Cola a national success.
Till the turn of the century, Coca Cola was available only at Soda Fountains. The legend goes that two avid Baseball fans, Benjamin Thomas and Joseph Whitehead had to fill in their bottles at the Soda Fountain outlet to carry them for the game. This gave them the idea to sell Coca Cola in bottles. Thomas and Whitehead then bought the exclusive rights to sell bottled Coca Cola. Soon, after Candler died, his family sold the business which was later on bought by Ernest Woodruff – a financier and a successful entrepreneur of many companies like Atlanta Steel.
It was in late 20’s that for the first time, Bottled Coca cola sales eclipsed that of Soda Fountain Coca Cola. But, the company as a whole wasn’t doing good. The share price continued to drop from $40 to $19! In 1923, Ernest Woodruff frantically called in his son – Robert Winship Woodruff to take over the controls of Coca Cola.
Robert W. Woodruff was not a good student back in his school days. He used to pay poor students to get his homework done. Justifying it, he would say,” Give your job to someone who does it better than you could” I guess, he understood Delegation better!
Born in 1889, Robert Woodruff started his career at White Motor Company as a Truck Salesman and soon rose to General Sales Manager. It was then that Ernest Woodruff asked him to run Coca Cola. Woodruff introduced revolutionary merchandise concepts such as the six-bottle carton, which made it easier for consumers to take Coke home, and the metal, open-top cooler, which made it possible for Coca Cola to be served ice cold in retail outlets.
In the meantime, a lot of Soft Drinks companies sharing the same name as Cola had mushroomed. There were Rola Cola, Celery Cola, Coke – a – Cola and so many of them. So in 1926 and 27, Coca Cola sued them all and won exclusive rights to use the name Cola. The number of cases filed by Coca Cola against these companies was 7000!
Robert Woodruff
While Candler had introduced Americans to Coke, Woodruff would spend his 60 years as a company leader introducing it to the world. Advertising was the key and Woodruff saw opportunities everywhere. In 1926, he established a foreign department, which in 1930 became the Coca Cola Export Corporation. Plants were opened in France, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Belgium, Italy and South Africa. Woodruff captured these foreign markets with innovative campaigns, sending Coca-Cola with the U.S.
In World War II, he sold Coca Cola to the soldiers at a minimal rate of 5 Cents. This further popularized Coke in US and rest of the world. Even, Hitler used to call US as “The nation of Coca Cola”! Woodruff set up war time bottling plants in most of the countries US soldiers fought. They were promptly converted into civilian plants once the war was over. WW II clearly established Coca Cola as a true American patriot company – a symbol of American Culture.
Woodruff also introduced innovation in packaging in the post war era. In 1956, canned Coke was introduced. Brands like Sprite, Fanta, TAB, Freska, and Diet Coke were added to the Coke product line.
Robert W. Woodruff was later on succeeded by Robert Goizueta.
Today, the company has more than 50,000 employees and the turnover is $ 21.962 Billion in 2004. It’s the biggest soft drink maker in the world. Even after almost 100 years, the formula for Coca Cola is still a secret, securely guarded in an Atlanta Bank. Very few from the company know about it!
Regards,
Abhishek
P.S.:
The “Cold war” was soon going to hit Coca Cola… and the enemy was not Russia!
If there is one liquid that is second only to water in consumption, it’s Coca Cola!
In May 1886, a pharmacist named John Pemberton was preparing a motley mixture of many chemicals in his backyard in Atlanta. Basically, he was trying to invent a medicine on “Hangover”. He added Cocaine to the mixture. Cocaine was supposedly having healing properties! Until 1905, the soft drink contained extracts of cocaine as well as the caffeine-rich kola nut.
To get rid of the bitter taste, he added a bit of Lemon Juice, Vanilla etc. It was then that Coca Cola came into existence. Of course, Pemberton was not the first to produce a soft drink (In fact, he himself was marketing it as a tonic and not as a soft drink.) Many other people had tried their hand at making soft drinks like Ginger Beer, Spruce beer etc. But then, no one could achieve the widespread popularity Coca Cola was to achieve in future.
It was Pemberton’s bookkeeper – Frank Robinson who christened the drink as “Coca Cola”. He was also good at calligraphy and designed the Coca Cola’s famous logo that still continues even after a century!
The soft drink was first sold to the public at the soda fountain in Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta on May 8, 1886. About nine servings of the soft drink were sold each day. Sales for that first year added up to a total of about $50. The funny thing was that it cost John Pemberton over $70 in expanses, so the first year of sales were a loss!
But, as fate would have it, Pemberton died in 1888, without realizing the potential of what he had left behind. So, in 1988, Asa Candler bought the Coca Cola formula. He got rid of the Cocaine and improved its taste. He called the drink “Delicious and Energizing” It was Candler who made Coca Cola a national success.
Till the turn of the century, Coca Cola was available only at Soda Fountains. The legend goes that two avid Baseball fans, Benjamin Thomas and Joseph Whitehead had to fill in their bottles at the Soda Fountain outlet to carry them for the game. This gave them the idea to sell Coca Cola in bottles. Thomas and Whitehead then bought the exclusive rights to sell bottled Coca Cola. Soon, after Candler died, his family sold the business which was later on bought by Ernest Woodruff – a financier and a successful entrepreneur of many companies like Atlanta Steel.
It was in late 20’s that for the first time, Bottled Coca cola sales eclipsed that of Soda Fountain Coca Cola. But, the company as a whole wasn’t doing good. The share price continued to drop from $40 to $19! In 1923, Ernest Woodruff frantically called in his son – Robert Winship Woodruff to take over the controls of Coca Cola.
Robert W. Woodruff was not a good student back in his school days. He used to pay poor students to get his homework done. Justifying it, he would say,” Give your job to someone who does it better than you could” I guess, he understood Delegation better!
Born in 1889, Robert Woodruff started his career at White Motor Company as a Truck Salesman and soon rose to General Sales Manager. It was then that Ernest Woodruff asked him to run Coca Cola. Woodruff introduced revolutionary merchandise concepts such as the six-bottle carton, which made it easier for consumers to take Coke home, and the metal, open-top cooler, which made it possible for Coca Cola to be served ice cold in retail outlets.
In the meantime, a lot of Soft Drinks companies sharing the same name as Cola had mushroomed. There were Rola Cola, Celery Cola, Coke – a – Cola and so many of them. So in 1926 and 27, Coca Cola sued them all and won exclusive rights to use the name Cola. The number of cases filed by Coca Cola against these companies was 7000!
Robert Woodruff
While Candler had introduced Americans to Coke, Woodruff would spend his 60 years as a company leader introducing it to the world. Advertising was the key and Woodruff saw opportunities everywhere. In 1926, he established a foreign department, which in 1930 became the Coca Cola Export Corporation. Plants were opened in France, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Belgium, Italy and South Africa. Woodruff captured these foreign markets with innovative campaigns, sending Coca-Cola with the U.S.
In World War II, he sold Coca Cola to the soldiers at a minimal rate of 5 Cents. This further popularized Coke in US and rest of the world. Even, Hitler used to call US as “The nation of Coca Cola”! Woodruff set up war time bottling plants in most of the countries US soldiers fought. They were promptly converted into civilian plants once the war was over. WW II clearly established Coca Cola as a true American patriot company – a symbol of American Culture.
Woodruff also introduced innovation in packaging in the post war era. In 1956, canned Coke was introduced. Brands like Sprite, Fanta, TAB, Freska, and Diet Coke were added to the Coke product line.
Robert W. Woodruff was later on succeeded by Robert Goizueta.
Today, the company has more than 50,000 employees and the turnover is $ 21.962 Billion in 2004. It’s the biggest soft drink maker in the world. Even after almost 100 years, the formula for Coca Cola is still a secret, securely guarded in an Atlanta Bank. Very few from the company know about it!
Regards,
Abhishek
P.S.:
The “Cold war” was soon going to hit Coca Cola… and the enemy was not Russia!
posted by Gyan for the Day! | 7:07 pm
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