Coca Cola facts

Coca Cola facts and history: 

Today we're finding out more about one of the most iconic brands in the world Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company was established in Atlanta Georgia 130 years ago in 1886. It was originally patented as a medicinal tonic but it was later marketed as a soft drink in order to reach more people. It's now the biggest selling soft drink in the world dominating the beverage market in nearly every country and all with its top secret formula kept firmly under wraps. We had to dig deeper into arguably the world's most famous brand to uncover it. Here are things you didn't know about Coca-Cola. 

 

John Pemberton

Coca-Cola was originally developed as an alternative to morphine. The creator of Coca-Cola John Pemberton was a former colonel in the American Civil War and had been left injured and addicted to morphine. He created Coca-Cola as an alternative medicine and so registered French wine coca nerve tonic in 1885 beginning to sell the product at pharmacies.  Pemberton claimed that the tonic would cure headaches impotence and indigestion as well as morphine addiction.

Coca-Cola had a complicated relationship with the Nazi Party. Coca-Cola didn't suspend its German operations when the Nazi Party were at large and many of their top executives were members of Hitler's party. Santo was created particularly for the German market during the Second World War because the German Coca-Cola plans couldn't get their hands on the right ingredients during wartime. 

Three people have tried to sell Coca-Cola's secret formula to Pepsi. Three people in the United States wrote to Pepsi Co claiming that they have very detailed and confidential information about Coca Cola's secret formula. Rather than try to get the information from them Pepsi Co reported it to both Coca-Cola themselves and the FBI. The FBI started to pursue the case posing as Pepsi and offering the three scammers manila envelopes of for their secrets number 11. Coca-Cola had to have a special deal with the drug enforcement agency or DEA. The manufacturing of Coca-Cola does require dried cocoa leaves to be imported from Peru which they extract the cocaine from and sell it to a pharmaceutical manufacturer. They are the only company in the USA who are legally allowed to purify cocaine for medicinal use. So they have a very special arrangement with the DEA. Many have heard that Coca-Cola used to contain a percentage of cocaine in its recipe but the company still has a need for the cocoa leaves it's derived from.

30% stake in Coca-Cola was bought for five hundred dollars in 1888. It was clear within two years of Coca-Cola coming onto the market that it was a potentially very lucrative product. So Pemberton entered into a partnership with three different businesses. One deal was between Pemberton’s son Charlie and the company called Walker Chandler & Co. The company paid five hundred dollars for their 30% stake which equates to twelve thousand five hundred dollars in today's money. The stake however didn't mean that Walker Chandler and Co were allowed to retail their commercial versions of the drink under the name Coca-Cola. They could only use the names “Yom-Yom” or “Coke”.

Every American in world war II (soldier) received discounted bottles of Coca-Cola. The president of Coca-Cola  in 1941 when America joined the Second World War said that every man in uniform gets a bottle of Coca-Cola for five cents wherever he is and whatever it costs the company. This was his way to try and support the war effort but it wasn't as altruistic as it appears. By making sure Coca-Cola would be given to troops overseas Coca-Cola had already cemented its place in the foreign market so they could continue to do business in new territories. 

 

Mexicans drink more Coca-Cola than any other nation in the world. The average Mexican drinks 745 bottles of coke a year whereas the average American drinks 405. These two nations are the most significant consumers by quite a long way with the next nation Canada consuming just 259 bottles per person. Coca-Cola is the least popular drink in India and China where people drink on average 12 and 38 bottles a year respectively.   

The only two countries where Coca-Cola isn't sold are Cuba and North Korea. Cuba has been under a trade embargo from the US since 1962 and despite negotiations becoming more fluid under President Obama, the embargo remains. As a result Coca-Cola can't be brought into Cuba officially.  So some claim that they still see it sold on the black market. North Korea is slightly different than that and it lives in its own anti-American bubble so the ultimate All American beverage is unlikely to go down very well in their supermarket shelves.

There's only one country in the world where Coca-Cola can be rivalled by any other soft drink. In Scotland another drink can compete with Coca-Cola “Iron Bru”, an orange flavoured drink that's often described as Scotland's second national drink the first being whiskey. It is immensely popular throughout the UK but particularly in Scotland it's been manufactured since 1901 and sells in equal numbers to Coca-Cola in Scotland.

It would take nine years for someone to try every drink under the Coca-Cola names. Coca-Cola has developed many different versions of their famous drink: Vanilla, Diet, Zero etc. They also own various other drink brands that retail throughout the world including Fanta, Minute Maid juices and sprite. If you drank one a day it would take you an incredible nine years to try everything on Coca Cola's portfolio of over 3500 beverages.

 

We have Coca-Cola to thank for our bearded red-suited image of Santa. Coca-Cola began to advertise at Christmas in the 1920s,a time that was previously very slow for sales. They used various images of Santa but the favourite was Hadden some Blom's image of a fat jolly Santa that we all recognize today. Though it seems natural now this was the first time that Santa was represented in this particularly friendly way.

 

Coca-Cola is worth more than Budweiser subway, Pepsi and KFC combined. Some brands that we see as huge and globally dominant are dwarfed when compared to Coca-Cola. Ninety-six percent of the world recognized the Coca-Cola logo. The brand has more monetary value than Costa Rica as an entire nation and the brand as a whole is worth seventy four billion dollars. In some regions of the world the drink has become a substitute for water.

Once Coca-Cola developed a vending machine that would raise prices on hot days. Coca-Cola sure does love a marketing opportunity and they're certainly not afraid to be a bit sneaky about pushing their product. In 1999 it was reported by the New York Times that the Coca-Cola Company had spent more than a year developing vending machines that would automatically raise the prices of their drinks on warmer days when the desire for a cold drink is much higher. Pepsi responded with a serious burn claiming that they would never dare to introduce anything similar because machines that raise prices in hot weather exploit consumers who live in warm climates.

Lawsuits have been brought against Coca-Cola for corrupting water supplies. Coca-Cola has been accused of degrading water supplies in three regions of India, Colombia, Turkey and Guatemala. A few various action groups have accused Coca-Cola of dehydrating the areas that “they move their manufacturing to making it impossible for local people to farm or find safe drinking water”. In response to this Coca-Cola have established a water efficiency program claiming that they will reduce the water they need to make their product by 27 percent.

Coca Cola has been offered the purchase of Pepsi three times but never taken it up. The offers were made between 1922 and 1933 and no one really knows why Coca Cola didn't buy their competitor out. Maybe they'd like to have a horse to race against.

The Pepsi challenge, which claims to beat Coca-Cola, is technically very flawed. Pepsi created the sip test campaign in 1975 running it for many years in an attempt to prove that Pepsi tastes better than Coca-Cola. However a 2005 book by Malcolm Gladwell delved further into the campaign and discovered that tasters will always prefer the sweeter drink on a first sip regardless of whether they would actually prefer it over the course of an entire can.

Coca-Cola is such a ubiquitous part of our daily lives that it almost blends into any background. We're surrounded by vending machines, branded cups and bright red cans everywhere we go but Coca-Cola clearly haven't always played by the rules to achieve this level of success. Arguably, one of the most controversial companies in the world Coca-Cola, is no doubt going to continue to dominate the soft drink market. They really don't give a damn what anyone else says about them, what do you think of Coca Cola's aggressive marketing tactics. Do you think that all is fair in commerce or do you think they should play fair?Leave your opinion below.