History of Coca-Cola

The world's most recognized trademark in the World! It is recognized by 94% of the world's population.

The world has changed in many ways since pharmacist, John Styth Pemberton first introduced the refreshing taste of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, Georgia. However, the pure and simple magic of one thing remains the same - Coca-Cola. The name and the product mean so many things to hundreds of millions of consumers around the globe. Coca-Cola products are served more than 705 million times every day, quenching the thirsts of consumers in more than 195 countries in every climate. That's a long way to come after such a modest beginning...

May 1886	-	Pemberton concocted a caramel-colored syrup in a three-legged brass kettle in his backyard. He first "distributed" the new product by carrying Coca-Cola in a jug down the street to Jacobs Pharmacy. For five cents, consumers could enjoy a glass of Coca-Cola at the soda fountain. Whether by design or accident, carbonated water was teamed with the new syrup, producing a drink that was proclaimed "Delicious and Refreshing." Dr. Pemberton's partner and bookkeeper, Frank M. Robinson, suggested the name and penned, in the unique flowing script that is famous worldwide today, "".
1886	-	Sales of Coca-Cola averaged nine drinks per day. That first year, Dr. Pemberton sold 25 gallons of syrup, shipped in bright red wooden kegs. Red has been a distinctive color associated with the No. 1 soft drink brand ever since.
1891	-	Atlanta entrepreneur Asa G. Candler had acquired complete ownership of the Coca-Cola business. Pemberton was forced to sell because he was in a state of poor health and was in debt. He had paid $76.96 for advertising, but he only made $50.00 in profits. Candler acquired the whole company for $2,300. Within four years, Candler's merchandising flair helped expand consumption of Coca-Cola to every state and territory.
1893	-	In January "Coca-Cola" was registered in the U.S. Patent office.
1894	-	The first syrup plant outside of Atlanta was opened in Dallas.
1899	-	Chandler's great achievement -- large scale bottling of Coca-Cola
1906	-	The first two countries outside the United States to bottle Coca-Cola were Cuba and Panama
1915	-	The Root Glass company created the Coca-Cola contour glass bottle.
1917	-	3 Million Coke's sold per day. "" is the worlds most recognized trademark.
1919	-	The Coca-Cola Company was sold to a group of investors for $25 million.
1923	-	The Coca-Cola Company was sold after the Prohibition Era to Ernest Woodruff for 25 million dollars. He gave Coca-Cola to his son, Robert Woodruff, who would be president for six decades.
Woodruff's leadership took the business to unrivaled heights of commercial success, making Coca-Cola an institution the world over. Woodruff was an influential man in Atlanta because of his contributions to area colleges, universities, businesses and organizations. When he made a contribution, he would never leave his name, this is how he became to be known as "Mr. Anonymous." During the Woodruff era, Mr. Woodruff made a promise to the armed forces of the United States to supply Coca-Cola to every serviceperson. He said that costs and location did not matter, he supplied 5 billion bottles to the service. Robert Woodruff did have one dubious distinction, he raised the syrup prices for distributors. But he improved efficiency at every step of the manufacturing process. Woodruff also increased productivity by improving the sales department, emphasizing quality control, and beginning large-scale advertising and promotional campaigns. Woodruff made Coke available in every state of the Union through the soda fountain. For all of these achievements he earned the name, "The Boss"
1923	-	Woodruff introduced the six bottle carton
1925	-	6 Million Coke's sold per day.
1927	-	The first Coca-Cola radio advertisement.
1928	-	Sales of bottled Coca-Cola surpassed fountain sales for the first time.
1929	- -	Coca-Cola was made available through vending machine The Coca-Cola bell glass was made available
1931	-	The Coke Santa was introduced as a Christmas promotion
1934		Johnny Weissmuller, and Olympic champion swimmer, and Maureen O'Sullivan, a motion-picture star, appeared on a metal serving tray for Coca-Cola.
1940	-	Coke is bottled in over 40 countries.
1943		On June 29, an urgent cablegram arrived from General Dwight Eisenhower's Allied Headquarters in North Africa, requesting 10 Coca-Cola bottling plants to serve American servicemen overseas. Eventually, 64 plants were set up during WWII.
1950	-	Advertising on on the television began. Currently Coca-Cola is advertised on over five hundred TV channels around the world.
1952	-	"The Big Beverage", the first novel about Coca-Cola, was written by William T. Campbell.
1960	-	The twelve ounce Coke can was introduced.
1961	-	Sprite was introduced.
1971	-	The song "I'd like to Buy the World a Coke" was released.
1977	-	The Coca-Cola contour bottle was patented
1978	-	The two liter bottle was introduced, and during that same year the company also introduced plastic bottles
1979	-	Fifteen hundred employees moved to the new corporate headquarters in Atlanta located on North Avenue. The new corporate headquarters came to be known as "The Tower."
1982	-	Diet Coke was introduced in July.
1985	-	The Coca-Cola Company made what has been known as one of the biggest marketing blunder. They stumbled onto a new formula in efforts to produce diet Coke. They put forth 4 million dollars of research to come up with the new formula.
The decision to change their formula and pull the old Coke off the market came about because taste tests showed a distinct preference for the new formula. The new formula was a sweeter variation with less tang, it was also slightly smoother. Robert Woodruff's death was a large contributor to the change because he stated that he would never change Coca-Cola's formula. Another factor that influenced the change was that Coke's market share fell 2.5 percent in four years. Each percentage point lost or gain meant 200 million dollars. This was the first flavor change since the existence of the Coca-Cola company. The change was announced April 23, 1985 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at the Lincoln Center. Some two hundred TV and newspaper reporters attended this very glitzy announcement. It included a question and answer session, and a history of Coca-Cola. The debut was accompanied by an advertising campaign that revived the Coca-Cola theme song of the early 1970s, "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" The change to the world's best selling soft drink was heard by 81 percent of the United States population within twenty-four hours of the announcement. Within a week of the change, one thousand calls a day were flooding the company's eight hundred number. Most of the callers were shocked and/or outraged, many said that they were considering switching to Pepsi. Within six weeks, the eight hundred number was being jammed by six thousand calls a day. The company also fielded over forty thousand letters, which were all answered and each person got a coupon for the new Coke. Many American consumers of Coca-Cola asked if they would have the final say. When Pepsi heard that the Coca-Cola company was changing its secret formula they said that it was a decision that Pepsi tastes better. Roger Enrico, the president and CEO of Pepsi-Cola wrote a letter to every major newspaper in the U.S. to declare the victory. Coca-Cola management had to decide: Do nothing or "buy the world a new Coke". They decided to develop the new formula.
1985	-	July 10, eighty-seven days after the new Coke was introduced, the old Coke was brought back in addition to the new one. This was greatly due to dropping market share and consumer protest. The market share fell from a high of 15 percent to a low of 1.4 percent. This was said to be a classic marketing retreat. Coca-Cola executives admitted that they had goofed by taking the old Coke off the market. The Coca-Cola company's eight hundred number received eighteen thousand calls of gratitude. One caller said they felt like a lost friend had returned home. The comeback of old Coke drove stock prices to the highest level in twelve years. This was said to be the only way to regain the lead on the cola wars.
1988	-	Coca-Cola was the first independent operator in the Soviet Union.
1993	-	Coca-Cola exceeds 10 Billion cases sold worldwide.
1993	-	Advertising slogan -"Always Coca-Cola".
1995	-	Coke was consumed aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery -- marking the third trip into space for Coca-Cola and the first for Diet Coke.
1996	-	The Summer Olympics will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, the home of Coca-Cola. For more than 65 years, Coca-Cola has been a sponsor of the Olympics.

One great earmark that the Coca-Cola Company has is helping the people of Atlanta. They accomplish this through scholarships, hotlines, donations and contributions. Another large accomplishment that the Coca-Cola has, is being the first company to make and use recycled plastic bottles. One way to see all of the achievements of the Coca-Cola company is to visit the World of Coke in Atlanta. It houses a collection of memorabilia, samples of the products, exhibits, and many other exciting items. All of what has been said is the basis of what Coca-Cola was built on. Without societies help, Coca-Cola could not have become over a 50 billion dollar business. Keep on consuming the world's favorite soft drink, Coca-Cola.

Until the 1960s, both small town and big city dwellers enjoyed carbonated beverages at the local soda fountain or ice cream saloon. Often housed in the drug store, the soda fountain counter served as a meeting place for people of all ages. Often combined with lunch counters, the soda fountain declined in popularity as commercial ice cream, bottled soft drinks, and fast food restaurants came to the fore.

• The term "soda water" was first coined in 1798.

• In 1810, the first U.S. patent was issued for the manufacture of imitation mineral waters.

• The first soda fountain patent was granted to Samuel Fahnestock in 1819.

• In 1858, G.D. Dows invented and operated the first marble soda fountain, which he patented in 1863.

• In 1883, James W. Tufts patented a soda fountain, which he called the Arctic. Tufts went on to become a huge soda fountain manufacturer.

• On January 25, 1870, Gustavus Dows patented a modern form of the soda fountain.

• In October of 1874, Robert M. Green created the first ice cream soda.

• In 1903, a revolution in soda fountain design took place with the front service fountain patented by Dr. Heisinger.

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More fun facts and trivia

• Coca-Cola can be used to bake a ham. Pour one can into the baking pan, rap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham has finished cooking, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coca-Cola to make a delicious brown gravy.

• Mexico and Iceland have the highest per capita consumption of Coca-Cola.

• Coca-Cola translated to Chinese means, "To make mouth happy".

• Every second over 7,000 Coca-Cola products are consumed.

• The tallest Coca-Cola bottling plants are in Hong Kong. The plant in Quarry Bay is 17 floors, and the plant in Shatin is 25 floors.

• The bottling plant at the highest elevation in the world is located in Bolivia, at 12,000 feet.

• The world's longest Coca-Cola truck is in Sweden. It is 79 feet long with a four-azle trailer.

• The best selling non-carbonated soft drink in Japan is a product of The Coca-Cola Company named "Georgia", a coffee flavored beverage.

• Coca-Cola first crossed the Atlantic on board the Graf Zeppelin, the German dirigible.

• The Varsity Restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia, has earned the distinction of serving the highest volume of Coca-Cola anywhere. It dispenses nearly 3 million servings of Coca-Cola annually.

• If the Coca-Cola company constructed a sign like the ones McDonald's uses to count their millions of customers, by 1983 it would have read "over 1 trillion served."

• If all the Coca-Cola ...

  • ever produced were in 6 1/2 oz. bottles and placed end to end they would wrap around the earth more than 11,863 times.

  • sold in 1994 were in 8-ounce bottles laid end-to-end, those bottles would reach to the moon and back 76 times.

  • vending machines in the U.S. were stacked one on top of each other, the pile would be over 450 miles high.

  • ever produced were to erupt from "Old Faithful" at its normal rate of 14,000 gallons per hour, the geyser would flow continually for 1,577 years.

  • products sold in 1994 were flowing over Niagara Falls at its normal rate of 1.5 billion gallons per second, the falls would flow for three hours.

The Coca-Cola Company began bottling operations in ...
...	1907	in Hawaii.
...	1912	in the Philippines.
...	1920	in France.
...	1927	in Belgium, Bermuda, Colombia, Honduras, Italy, Mexico, Haiti and Burma.
...	1928	in Antigua, China, Guatemala, Holland, Spain, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic.
...	1929	in Germany and Spanish Morocco.
...	1938	Australia, Austria, Gutana, Surinam, Jamaica, Curacao, Luxembourg, Norway, Scotland, South Africa, The Virgin Islands, and Trinidad.
...	1940	in Ecuador, and El Salvador.
...	1942	in Nicaragua, Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Iceland, and Uruguay.
...	1945	in Egypt, and Martinique
...	1946	in Barbados, Japan, and Okinawa
...	1947	in Morocco and Tangier
...	1948	in Liberia, Rhodesia, and Guadeloupe