Introduction to Coca-Cola

Coca—Cola, the product that has given the world its best-known taste was born in Atlanta,
Georgia, on May 8, 1886. Coca-Cola Company is the world’s leading manufacturer, marketer
and distributor of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, used to produce nearly 400
beverage brands. It sells beverage concentrates and syrups to bottling and canning operators,
distributors, fountain retailers and fountain wholesalers. The Company’s beverage products
comprise of bottled and canned soft drinks as well as concentrates, syrups and not-ready-to-
drink powder products. In addition to this, it also produces and markets sports drinks, tea and
coffee. The Coca-Cola Company began building its global network in the 1920s. It is now
operating in more than 200 counties and producing nearly 400 brands with consumers drinking
more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings per day.

Coca-Cola’s origin was in the form of Pemberton’s French Wine Coca nerve tonic, a result of
Colonel John Pemberton’s addiction to morphine. In 1886, when Atlanta and Fulton County
passed prohibition legislation, Pemberton responded by developing Coca-Cola, a non-alcoholic
version of his Wine Coca and marketed as “Coca-Cola: The Tempered Drink”. Due to the
tempered movement and America’s belief on carbonated water, Coca-Cola hit big success and
wide support. It was marketed and sold as a patent medicine and claimed to cure many
diseases, including morphine addiction, indigestion, nerve disorders etc.

The actual production and distribution of Coca-Cola follows a franchising model. The Coca-
Cola Company only produces a syrup concentrate, which it sells to bottlers throughout the
world, who hold Coca-Cola franchises for one or more geographical areas. The bottlers produce
the final drink by mixing the syrup with filtered water and sweeteners, putting the mixture into
cans and bottles, and carbonating it, which the bottlers then sell and distribute to retail stores,
vending machines, restaurants, and food service distributors.

When launched, Coca-Cola had two key ingredients, namely cocaine and caffeine. The cocaine
was derived from the coca leaf and the caffeine from kola nut and therefore, called Coca-Cola.
The use of cocaine was initially 5 ounces per galloon of syrup but soon the company started
using “spent” leaves, which contains trace levels of cocaine in it. The use of kola nuts is rather
common in cola soft drinks and even though the government tried taking actions against it, the
case ended in favor of Coca-Cola and subsequently the U.S. Pure Food and Drug Act was
amended, adding caffeine to the list of "habit-forming" and "deleterious" substances which must
be listed on a product's label. The current drink involves carbonated water, sugar (which can be
sucrose or high-fructose corn), caffeine, Phosphoric acid v. caramel and natural flavorings
(which include coca leaf extract).
Industries Explored

The Coca-Cola Company, one of the most valuable and recognized brands across the globe, is
the world’s largest beverage company. It offers nearly 4,000 drinking options through its 500
different brands, 21 of which generate more than $1 billion in annual retail sales. Coca-Cola
owns and markets four of the world’s top five sparkling non-alcoholic beverages: Coca-Cola,
Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite.

Coca-Cola hit the market with success from its tempered drink “Coca-Cola: The Tempered
Drink” but soon came in with the concept of Diet Coke when its rival Pepsi enjoyed the long-
term success of its sugar-free Diet Pepsi (launched in 1963). They soon introduced Coca-Cola
Zero, a sugar-free drink more closely based on original Coca-Cola to boast up the sales. It
capitalized on the markets of the people who required low sugar regimes, such as diabetics and
people concerned with calorie intakes by replacing sugar with sweeteners like aspartame which
“is formulated for each country based on consumer preferences.” They also made a lower-
calorie version of Coca-Cola called Coca-Cola Life, made by using stevia and sugar as
sweeteners. The sugar contained in this drink was far less (45%) than the traditional Coca-Cola
and hence was preferred by many.

Other soft drinks produced by the Coca-Cola Company are Fanta and Sprite. Fanta is a brand of
fruit-flavored carbonated drinks marketed globally with over 100 flavors. It was the result of a
trade embargo during the World War II which made import of Coca-Cola syrup difficult. In
1943 alone, 3 million cases of Fanta were sold and was later heavily marketed in Europe, Asia,
Africa and South America. Sprite is a rather colorless, caffeine-free, lemon and lime-flavored
soft drink which was created as a competitor to 7 Up. It developed a large following among
teenagers and due to its adverts featuring many NBA players and hip-hop artists such as
LeBron James, Vince Staples and Lil Yachty its connection with the urban population is always
on a high.

During the 1990s, the company responded to the growing consumer interest in healthy
beverages by introducing several new non-carbonated beverage brands such as Minute Maid
Juices to go, Powerade sports beverage, flavored tea Nestea etc. Minute Maid was the first
company to market orange juice concentrate and has over $2 billion in sales. It sells various
varieties such as Minute Maid Light (with 85% fewer calories than other fruit drinks), Minute
Made Frozen, Minute Maid Smoothie Makers Peach, Minute Maid Cranberry Apple Raspberry,
etc. As a solution to the many health and environmental risks with food containing GMOs,
‘Simply’ is a Non-GMO product which provides with variety of Juices, Smoothies, Juice drinks
and light beverages. Another brand called ‘innocent’ also lives under the roof of the Coca-Cola
Company and provides its consumers with healthy ranges of smoothies and juices.

The Coca-Cola Company has not only explored juices, smoothies, teas and coffee but also
provides with a wide of choices of water and hydrators. This involves DASANI, Smartwater,
vitaminwater, ZICO, Topo Chico, Aquarium and Ciel with Smartwater being the best-selling
premium water brand in the U.S. The company also offers protein drinks such as Odwalla and
electrolyte-enhanced sports drink like Powerade which accounts 90 percent of the U.S. sports-
drink market along with Gatorade. It also has an annual revenue of $1 billion. The Coca-Cola
Company has explored end number of industries and have generated huge amount of revenue
by not soft drinks but any other products. The power that the company holds not just on the
market but also the general public all over the world is something not easily challenged.

One of the major industry that the Company has not ventured in yet could be the