Coca-Cola: A Beverage Industry Giant
With a name that is supposedly the second most understood word in the world, behind
only the word, “OK” (Tonner 2016), Coca-Cola is a company that transcends age, nationality,
religion, and so much more. Coca-Cola was invented in 1886 by John Pemberton, an American
soldier and pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia (King, 1987). Pemberton was a solider in the Civil
War as well as a doctor for pharmaceuticals, and he was known to have many inventions
(Friedman, 1992). Coca-Cola was first developed and referred to as Coca Wine and distributed
as an alcoholic beverage; however, when legislation was passed for the prohibition, Pemberton
changed the recipe of the drink to make it a non-alcoholic beverage. Pemberton created his own
flavored syrup and mixed it with carbonated water and began to sell Coca-Cola as a medicine for
headaches (Grinspoon & Bakalar, 1981).
Coca-Cola was sold in pharmacies as medicine because at the time, it was believed that
carbonated water was good for health (Chang, 1997). Pemberton decided to sell his formula to
three manufacturers, and the manufacturers worked together to produce and distribute the
beverage at soda fountains, which became a popular meeting spot for young people (Chang,
1997). Two years after inventing Coca-Cola, Pemberton died, and the company was bought by
Asa G. Candler, one of the businessmen involved in the shared operation of Coca-Cola
(Cantwell, n.d.). Candler bought also bought all the remaining shares and in 1889, he became the
sole owner of the Coca-Cola Company. It was during Candler’s ownership that Coca-Cola began
to gain commercial success (Chang, 1997). Candler’s unique marketing techniques helped
expand the brand. Candler was the first to introduce the idea of a door to door salesman
(Cantwell, n.d.). According to Cantwell (n.d.), Candler began to use coupons that offered
consumers a free Coca-Cola with hopes that it would convince them to go and buy a second
bottle. Candler also began to put the Coca-Cola logo on different items that could be seen
throughout stores and pharmacies, like calendars and posters, so that people could recognize the
Coca-Cola logo easily (Friedman, 1992). Coca-Cola was marketed and sold as a patent medicine
and claimed to get rid of headaches and fatigue. It was also advertised to cure diseased like
morphine addiction, which was a huge addiction during the Civil War (Cantwell, n.d.). However,
in the wake of the Spanish-American War in 1898, Congress passed a tax on all medicines. To
avoid paying the tax, Candler went to court to drop the claim that Coca-Cola was medicine.
Candler won the case and Coca-Cola continued to be sold as a beverage (Cantwell, n.d.).
In 1889, Candler decided to sell the bottling right s of Coca-Cola to two businessmen,
Benjamin F. Thomas and Joseph B. Whitehead. The idea to put Coca-Cola into bottles was first
introduced by Joseph A. Biedenharn in Vicksburg, Mississippi (Friedman, 1992). The two
businessmen approached Candler with the idea of bottling up Coca-Cola, so that people can
enjoy the drink outside of the soda fountain (Cantwell, n.d.). Candler sold the bottling right for
one dollar because he did not believe that anyone would be able to successfully bottle the
beverage. However, he was unaware that the invention of bottle caps would soon come, which
would preserve the flavor of the soda (Cantwell, n.d.). This led to the opening of the first Coca-
Cola bottling company in Chattanooga, Tennessee. By the early 1900, bottled Coca-Cola was
available in salons and grocery stores (Chang, 1997). About 10 years later, over 370 Coca-Cola
bottling companies emerged in the U.S.
Marketing has played a huge role in the success of Coca-Cola, and continues to do so till
this day. One of the earliest brand promotions for Coca-Cola was to associate the drink with the
American way of life. The concept was the no matter what the struggles were, American could
always rely on the “delicious taste of Coca–Cola” (Cantwell, n.d.). A most recent Coca-Cola
campaign is the Share a Coke campaign. The Share a Coke campaign is a multi-national
marketing campaign that de-brands the Coke logo and replaces it with the phrase “Share a Coke
with” followed by a person’s name (Staff, 2017). Share a Coke is all about creating moments of
happiness, which is the root of Coca-Cola’s history.
Producing 3 percent of all the beverages consumed on Earth, Coca-Cola is a large
company with more than 200,000 shareholders (Tonner, 2016). Coca-Cola’s stock market history
is as impressive and remarkable as the beverage titan itself. Since joining the stock market in
1919, Coca-Cola went from being worth $25 million to a market capitalization of roughly $180
billion today (Tonner, 2016). Also, Coca-Cola’s stock has a legacy of 53 years of consecutive
dividend increases. An estimated 1.9 billion servings of Coca-Cola products are consumed in
over 200 countries (Tonner, 2016). Coca-Cola, sometimes also referred to as, Coke, owns 20
