Success Story of Coca-Cola Company : Complete Case Study

We all know what Coca-Cola is and how well we understand the word. Whenever we have a soft drink outside, it is almost always from this Beverage Company. It became so well-known in the late twentieth century that it dominated the global market for decades until the invention of tech behemoths and internet-based product companies. But do you know how it all began and how it was never supposed to be that way? You’ve seen this company’s growth, but you’ve never looked back at its past. So, if you want to learn more about this Softdrink Giant, sit down and read this fascinating blog with patience.

HISTORY OF COCA-COLA

Coca-cola is named after two of the original ingredients that were used to make it in the late 1800s: coca leaves and kola nuts (a source of caffeine). John Stith Pemberton of Columbus, Georgia, developed the product as a patent medicine and marketed it as a Medicinal Beverage. Coca-cola was first sold on May 8, 1886, at Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, for five cents per bottle. In the United States at the time, carbonated water was thought to be beneficial to one’s health, and Pemberton stated that his new drink could cure a variety of ailments, including opium addiction, indigestion, nerve problems, headaches, and impotence. Frank M. Robinson, a bookkeeper at Pemberton, is credited with naming the items and designing the logo. Robinson was left to produce, market, and sell Coca-Cola on his own after John left.

Coco-Cola Success Story - Distributors

Asa Griggs Candler, an American businessman, bought the Coca-cola formula and brand from Pemberton’s heirs in 1889 with the intention of advertising and selling it as a beverage to regular customers. Candler officially founded the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta in 1892. Coca-Cola distribution spread to soda fountains outside of Atlanta under Mr. Candler’s leadership.

Coca-cola was distributed in every state of the nation by 1895. Coca-first Cola’s advertising said, “Coca-Cola. It’s delicious! It’s refreshing! It’s thrilling! energizing!” Coca-Cola had about 60% of the market share in 1948. Ernest Woodruff’s Trust Company of Georgia bought the company in 1919. Owing to the introduction of new rivals, such as Pepsi, The Coca-Cola Company’s market share fell to 21.8 percent by 1984.

The ten business decisions that transformed Coca-Cola from a tiny Atlanta pharmacy’s startup beverage to one of the world’s most recognized brands over the last 130 years.

Coca-Cola started discussing a transition from becoming primarily a sparkling soda business to being a “complete beverage company” in the late 1990s. Several early product launches, especially in the United States, quickly captured the growing consumer demand for non-carbonated beverages. Dasani was first introduced in the United States in 1999, followed by the introduction of Simply juices in 2001, Gold Peak teas in 2006, and the acquisition of vitamin-water and SmartWater in 2007. Today, each of these brands is one of the company’s 21 that generates more than $1 billion in annual retail sales.

Strategies Used By Coca-Cola Company

• It started with a unique, market-tested formula. Following his service as a Confederate colonel in the Civil War, John Pemberton set out to create a version of the famous coca wines (basic cola with alcohol and cocaine). Atlanta enacted prohibition legislation in 1886, requiring beer makers to create non-alcoholic versions of their products.
  In 1903, cocaine was extracted from Coke. Other slight changes have been made over the last century or so, but the formula has essentially remained unchanged, except the 1985 “New Coke” tragedy. According to Butler, this decision helped the business scale because it didn’t waste time trying to adapt the taste to regional markets around the world.
• Its logo uses a timeless font. Frank Mason Robinson, Pemberton’s bookkeeper, determined that Coca-logo Cola’s should be written in the Spencerian script, which accountants used, to set it apart from its rivals. In 1923, the company standardized the logo and agreed that, like the recipe, although the packaging could change with the times, the core logo would remain the same.
  It has resulted in a logo that has been imprinted in the minds of people all over the world for more than a century.
• It was distributed in a proprietary bottle Coca-Cola commissioned the bottle design as a protective marketing strategy but soon started to promote the form as much as the logo and product. Even after the glass was substituted as the preferred method, the company continued to promote the Coke bottle as a symbol of drinking Coke in countries such as the United States.
• It kept its consumer price fixed for 70 years. Today, it’s typical for tech startups to start by providing a free service and then charge a higher price to customers and/or advertisers once they’ve become addicted. Coca-Cola used a similar technique to scale around the US and then across the world before using networking effects as a common procedure.
  A bottle of Coke cost just five cents from 1886 to 1959.
• It guided word-of-mouth advertising and developed a voice. After Candler took over early in the company’s history, it became clear that Coke was as much a drink as it was a consumable brand, a concept that people could associate with.
  From 1887 to 1920, Candler launched a mass couponing campaign that culminated in 10% of all items being given away to raise brand awareness. He also sold Coca-Cola merchandise to stores, such as posters and festoons for decorations, as well as calendars and clocks for customers. Coke was a pioneer in affixing a name to products unrelated to the commodity, according to Butler.

Finally, all national, then global, ads included variants of “Drink Coca-Cola/Delicious and relaxing” and were designed in a consistent style.

Outside of the US, the company has continued to acquire or invest in brands that respond to the plethora of beverage options now available to consumers around the world. AdeS, a Latin American brand; Chi Limited, a successful West African producer of dairy and juice beverages; and China Culliangwang, a manufacturer of plant-based protein drinks produced from high-quality agricultural sources, are just a few of the recent global acquisitions or investments.