Course:HIST104/99C-Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola Logo

The Birth of Coca-Cola

The Syrup Drink

The precursor to Coca-Cola was a product developed in France, called Vin Mariani. It contained the following: “aromatic and desirable properties of two ounces of fresh coca leaves in each pint, and the wine used is ...especially selected because of its peculiar distinctive qualities.”

John S. Pemberton created the 'original formula' for what would become known as Coca-Cola in the 1880's, and sold his product as French Wine of Coca. He confessed that he had “prepared [it] in imitation of...Vin Mariani”, though he maintained that his blend was superior.

In 1886, prohibition became law in Atlanta, Georgia, the city in which Pemberton's operations were based. As a result, he was obliged to change the name of his product. He replaced the wine base with sugar syrup, added kola nut to the mix , and "coined the name "Coca-Cola""

In an early interview, Pemberton was asked to relay the medical benefits of his original patent medicine blend, in particular the main ingredient, 'coca'. He claimed that "medical establishment urgently recommended[s] the medicinal use of Coca-Cola for treatment of anemia, impurity and impoverishment of the blood, consumption, weakness of the lungs, asthma, nervous debility, loss of appetite, malaria poisons, biliousness, stomach disorders, languor, dyspepsia, jaundice, neuralgia, gout, etc...”. Clearly, you need this product!

It'll Fix Your Headache

Pemberton also claims that coca can treat drug addictions to other substances such as tobacco, opium, or hasheesh. French Wine of Coca, when compared with any other "known tonics" has no unpleasant side effects. It is a safe product that will not “beget a thirst for liquor.” Ironically, (given Coca-Cola's then future popularity) he assures readers that his creation is not a “fancy drink with a medicine's name”.

One fateful day a patient came in with a headache, and the attendant at the soda fountain mistakenly mixed the syrup with carbonated water, rather than plain. The rest, as they say, is history, as the "brain tonic" was thereafter marketed as a "'refreshing [and] exhilarating'...soft drink"

In 1903, cocaine was outlawed in the United States, and Pemberton had to change his brew again. Coca-Cola, as we know it, was born.

The Coca-Cola Brand

The 'New Coke' Campaign

Coca-Cola versus Pepsi

Coca-Cola may be a preeminent soft drink internationally today, but it was not without contest. There has always been a rivalry between Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, but this feud heightened in 1975 with the birth of “The Pepsi Challenge” which gained PepsiCo’s popularity substantially. As a result Coca-Cola believed it was necessary to make drastic changes and on April 23, 1985 they unveiled the “New Coke” campaign in which a formula change was made for the first time in 99 years. The public reaction to the “New Coke” campaign was very negative and there was large public outcry, some people even comparing the change of coke to ”trampling the American flag”. People began collecting as much of the original drink as they could, paying as much as thirty dollars per case from black marketers. Due to this public plea, on July 11, 1985, Coca-Cola re-released their original recipe as “Coca-Cola Classic”. Although the immediate outcome of the “New Coke” campaign was horrific, the re-branding of the original recipe as “Coca-Cola Classic” was a huge success and there is some speculation that the introduction of “New Coke” was a marketing ploy. This campaign paved the way for Coca-Cola to be the brand it is today.

Communications and Advertising Approaches

For Coca-Cola, brand improvement cannot come through innovating the product, because as Mildenhall puts it “Coke is Coke” and essentially the product does not change. In order to establish continuous improvement, Coca-Cola instead uses an innovation driven marketing strategy. To aid this strategy Coca-Cola uses what they call “the 70/20/10 investment principle” when dealing with communication and media spending. This principle is based on the fact that 70% of their communications spend is on low risk content. This low risk content should take less than 50% of total hours spent on coverage yet, should be effective enough for the company to break even and “pay the bills”. 20% of spending will be spent on innovation that works well, targets specific groups, but is still on a relatively broad scale. The final 10% is spent on entirely new, high-risk ideas that they prepare for both failure and success. This principle allows the company to spend ample time on new ideas while still producing quality low risk communication in case of failure of unique material.

Coca-Colonization

Coca-colonization a term used to describe the predominance of American goods, cultural values and diets in foreign communities around the globe. In contrast to the theory of globalization, coca-colonization participated in intertwining international markets into one global economy, predominated by the West/America. As a result local communities has lost a sense of identity, suffered immense dietary problems, disassembled family values and have been unable to sustain an acceptable gross domestic product and local economy. Local businesses can simply not compete with the cost of manufacturing, advertisement and sale in multinational corporations favour.

Coca-Colonization in Yucatan

In 2005, the University of South Carolina conducted a study on the results of coca-colonization by examining the Yalcoba and Coba communities in Yucatan Mexico. Prior to the Coca-cola, Yucatan families were able to survive on slash and burn milpa agriculture systems in which local production allowed locals to collect staple foods such as corn, beans, squash, fruits, peppers, chicken, etc. all grown within the comfort of their backwards. The emergence of tourism provoked the end of the milpa agricultural systems; locals became attracted to the glamour and ease of the tourist industry. Contact between foreigners and locals introduced them to new values and products such as ‘Coke’ that contradicted and led to the erosion of family and community traditions.

By 1999 Coca-Cola sales in Mexico, became the company’s biggest market, averaging at around 431 servings, a 23% increase over the past 5 years. By 2000, Coca-Cola’s slogan ‘an arms length from desire’ came true in Yalcoba, where Coke was available to purchase in over 40 tiendas (shops). In 1996, USC conducted a survey to analyze the consumption rate for children in Yalcoba. 75 schools aged children they concluded that on average a student consumed 12. oz of soda, and 3.2 packaged snack food or candy; many these products of which had direct relations to the Coca-Cola company. As a result, there is a large concern for over obesity, diabetes and overconsumption for youth and adults in Mexican society.

Ingredients in Coca-Cola

The Coca Leaf-Cocaine

The Origin of Coca

Coca Leaf

Discovered in 1860 by Albert Niemann, a graduate student at Gottingen University in Germany, the coca plant has been dated back through prehistory; widely employed by various peoples in South America. Archaeologists have uncovered mummified evidence of the chewing of coca leaves in Chilean mummies from as far back as 2000 B.C.E. , and have considerable evidence in other parts of South America as well showing widespread coca use this time period in the form of dental records, hair analyses, and artifact evidence from ancient remains. Coca has been used throughout history by many people native to South America and has functioned as a medicine, a supplement, and even a spiritual device.

In fifteenth century South America, during Incan rule, coca use and cultivation was quite widespread – in fact, coca plantations were a very popular land use throughout the empire. Coca was used as both a commodity and a staple, and was highly valued in trade; Christopher Columbus reported receiving gifts of dried coca leaves during his exploration. Coca was viewed by the Incans as a sacred, spiritual item; therefore, only those with high social status, such as priests and members of the ruling class, were permitted with access to it.

The History of Coca

In 1532, the Spanish conquered the Incans and the coca fields were taken over by Spanish colonists, who profited enormously from them. Interestingly, the Spanish rarely used coca themselves; it was seemingly unappealing to a great many Spaniards. Regardless, coca became much more widely available following Spanish conquest. Working class men could now access the plant with much greater ease than under Incan rule. But interest in the potentially useful properties of coca managed to spread to Europe during this time period, and by the 1700’s European physicians were actively investigating its potential medicinal uses. By the late eighteenth century, coca was being recommended throughout Europe as a miracle substance with aphrodisiac properties and numerous other benefits including pain relief, fatigue relief, antinausea, local anaesthesia, and mood elevation.

Coca production continued to boom throughout South America in the nineteenth century, where plantations were now massive, costly producitons that employed thousands. Massive quantities of coca leaves were shipped to Europe where they first entered into popular use as a wine product. In 1820, they were used in Italy in the manufacture of a coca-leaf liqueur, and several years later Angelo Mariani, a Corsican entrepreneur, concocted Vin Mariani in 1863. This was a mixture of coca extract and Bordeaux wine.

German chemist, Friedrich Gaedcke, first separated the cocaine alkaloid from the coca leaf in 1855. Cocaine emerged into worldwide popularity, considered by almost everyone to be a “miracle” drug. Sigmund Freud, world renowned as the “father” of psychoanalysis, was a huge supporter of the medicinal use of cocaine; in fact, Freud conducted several experiments – including on himself – on the effects of cocaine on the human body. Freud then authored Uber Coca, a detailed account of the properties and effects of coca and cocaine on humans and animals.

The Kola Nut-Caffeine

The Origin of the Kola Nut

Kola Nut

The second half of the Coca-Cola label derives its name from the kola nut. The kola nut is native to Africa and is recognized as an important stimulant. In African trade, there is evidence that the trade of kola nuts dates back to at least the 14th Century, with written records of African exports of the nut to England and the U.S. dating back to the mid-19th Century. The nut is known by many different African names such as, goro, gourou, ombene, nangoue, kokkorokou, and matrasa. The kola nut is known as a heart stimulant because it contains kolanin along with caffeine, as well as traces of the alkaloid theobromine—which exists in cacao as well—glucose, and strychnine. As a result of the nut having both caffeine and theobromine, the nut becomes a stimulant to the “nervous system and the skeletal muscles, making the kola nut psychoactive substance.”

Caffeine, Coca-Cola, and the 'Cola' nut

Described as the “indispensable tonic of the west African peoples from the immemorial,” the fruit of the kola tree grows in pods that contain roughly 3 to 15 nuts and sometimes more. The nut itself is about the size of a walnut or a chestnut and can vary in color from dark red to a creamy white and has been described as very sweet to eat. Kola is richer in caffeine than coffee and most teas, and even has 3 times as much starch as cacao. Americans drink soda more than anything else including liquor, coffee, and according to some accounts, even tap water; of all soda sold in the U.S., a towering 63% is cola. When the extract of the kola nut was first imported to the U.S., it was not a soft drink flavor but a medical ingredient. As a medical use, John Pemberton (the concoctor of Coca-Cola) began to mix extracts of the coca leaf—cocaine—and the kola nut—caffeine—to create a medically beneficial ‘brain tonic’ to ease headaches and hangovers. Lastly, Pemberton added some ingredients to improve the brain tonic’s taste and gave it the famous Coca-Cola name in which he adapted the ‘K’ from kola to a ‘C’ for marketing and a pleasant namesake purpose.

Coca-Cola's Rise to Dominance

Free Coupon for a Coca-Cola Drink

The legendary Coca-Cola soft drink did not emerge out of nowhere without significant marketing strategies, advertising, as well as competition with other major leading brand drinks. In 1888, Dr. Pemberton sold portions of his business to businessman Asa G. Candler. Mr. Candler was a firm believer in advertising, and expanded on Dr. Pemberton’s marketing efforts by distributing thousands of coupons for a free glass of Coca-Cola. In addition, new ideas evolved to further popularize the brand. The use of the unique glass bottle enabled Coca-Cola to be consumed efficiently and easily, and it could be bought from the local convenience store. The signature contour bottle became widely popular as it was distinct from the average drinks, and this design soon emerged into various other countries, including: Canada, Puerto Rica, Cuba, France, etc.

The Evolution of the Coca-Cola Bottles

Coca-Cola’s main rival is Pepsi. Remarkably enough, the two leaders in market share and product line started their climb towards market dominance within 12 years and 500 miles of each other.

Fierce competition between the two largest cola companies includes a wide range of advertising techniques. Pepsi has blind taste tests called the Pepsi Challenge where the consumers would prefer one product to the other. Nonetheless, Pepsi’s wide range of marketing strategies still does no harm to Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Co. captured 68 percent of all U.S. carbonated soft-drink growth last year, widening its lead over Pepsi to 13 points. In the worldwide arena, Coca-Cola's dominance is even greater; it leads with a 49.7 percent market share, to Pepsi-Cola Co.'s 20.3 percent.

Coca-Cola’s continued growth comes from expansion of its bottling plants overseas during WWII. They acquired Minute Maid in 1960 and introduced Sprite and Tab within the next three years, adding to their worldwide success. Throughout the 1980s, the Coca-Cola Company also acquired Columbia pictures and several other entertainment companies. In 1994, Coca-Cola launched their Fruitopia drinks into the beverage market, and it was named one of 1994s ten best products by Time magazine. In addition to its successful marketing and new innovations, the number of assets and companies that Coca-Cola has acquired contributes to their great success and dominance in the world of soft drinks.

Current Marketing

Coca-Cola's 2012 marketing scheme has taken it "back to basics" by paying homage to Mr. Candler and Dr. Pemberton's original marketing idea. As seen in the YouTube video below, Coca-Cola is still offering free coca-cola's through a vending machine powered by kisses.