Malachi151
Graduate Poster
- Joined
- May 24, 2003
- Messages
- 1,404
This was from watching the History Channel..
Coke-a-Cola was created after teh Civil War in Atlanta Ga by a "pharamcist". At the time there was no federal regualtion so you could just buy a certificate that said you were one and that was it.
President Grant was suffering from headaches and he was perscribed cocaine by his doctor, which he said fixed his problem. This became publicised so cocaine became very popular.
The inventor of Coke put together a drink to capitalize on the popularity of cocaine that was made from French wine, cocaine, and Koca (caffine).
The drink was a big success (I bet it was), but then Georgia went dry, making alcohol illegal.
Then he had to make the drink without alcohol, he did this by adding a lot of sugar and acid to break down the alcohol, which made it syrupy, and he added extra coccaine to give it more punch since the alcohol was now gone.
This is where the term "soft-drink" came from, the fact that it was an intoxicatign drink that did not have alcohol, which was considers "hard".
So, this went on, but the business wasn't doing well, so he sold it to some other guy.
This other guy started to market it really hard and he reduced the amount of cocaine. There began to be a national outcry though became people were becomming addicted to Coke-a-Cola, so he eventually took the cocaine out altogether and increased the caffine.
Then this guy sold it to another guy.
At this point the new guy, who was a well known harsh businessman that had no friends, he continued the aggressive marketing campaign and there were many cola type drinks on the market. He worked to put each one out of business by taking them to court or buying them out or sabotaging them or bribing people not to carry their products, whatever it took.
Eventually he created a monopoly and was quick to take anyone to court to defend his copyrights and such.
Then during Prohibition the sales of Coke went way up because alcohol was illegal and so non-alcoholic drinks became more popular.
Then Pepsi came into the picture but they didn't do very well, but during the depression Pepsi did better by selling 12 oz drinks for a nickle opposed to Cokes which were 6 oz for a nickle, and they did this by using old bottles that they collected from the trash and relabeling them, so it was cheaper becuase they had basically free bottels. I assume they cleaned them
Then, during WWII sugar was rationed so the price of making soft drinks went way up. The guys at Pepsi decided to simply buy the sugar at its higher prices, but the boys at Coke had a different idea.
They went to DC and convinced the governemtn that Coke was an essential war time material and got an exclusive contract to supply all the soft drinks for the military, which also allowed them full access to sugar at low fixed rated, like 20 or 30 times cheaper than what Pepsi was buying it at. Of course that was a dirty trick, but they made sure to make the best of it and they made propaganda films for the GIs during the war to promote Coke.
After WWII Coke was well favored over Pepsi because the veterans felt that it was their patriotic duty to drink Coke, and because they had vastly superior sales during the war and fat cat contracts with the military. Coke was actually one of the most profitable companies during WWII.
After the war the company took on the attitude that it was immoral to drink other types of drinks, and they fetl that Pepsi was evil. Pepsi, recognizing that they had lost the war generation began marketing to younger people. Pepsi's marketing scheme was to develop a campaign that didn't focus on teh product (because what can you say about a soft drink anyway?) but rather the person. They developed the idea of campaign that associate a product with a lifestyle, promoting that Pepsi was for young, vibrant, modern people. The featured hippies and rockers and such in thier ads and people doing outdoor activities.
Coke then followed up with the "I to teach the world to sing" ad, which the CEO hated becuase he didn't like pacifist young hippies and such, but he agreed to it becuase the marketing department said it would increase sales.
Sure enough the ad was a hit and pascifist young hippies began buying Coke.
And the rest is modern history.
I've already read some interesting internal documents from Coke, which outline their strategies for dominating marketplaces, anti-competition practices, and their goal of making Coke the most widely consumed beverage on the planet. Since WWII they have had major insider connections to the White House and coursee international world leaders strongly to get favorable treatment in theri control of world markets.
Recently Coke had been in trouble in Europe for illegal anti-competition practices, namely paying stores not to carry competing products and offeritng huge discounts if they will exclusively carry Coke.
Coke and Pepsi both now pay school districts for exclusive rights to advertise at schools, from elementary on up, and for schools to exclusively carry their products.
Coke-a-Cola was created after teh Civil War in Atlanta Ga by a "pharamcist". At the time there was no federal regualtion so you could just buy a certificate that said you were one and that was it.
President Grant was suffering from headaches and he was perscribed cocaine by his doctor, which he said fixed his problem. This became publicised so cocaine became very popular.
The inventor of Coke put together a drink to capitalize on the popularity of cocaine that was made from French wine, cocaine, and Koca (caffine).
The drink was a big success (I bet it was), but then Georgia went dry, making alcohol illegal.
Then he had to make the drink without alcohol, he did this by adding a lot of sugar and acid to break down the alcohol, which made it syrupy, and he added extra coccaine to give it more punch since the alcohol was now gone.
This is where the term "soft-drink" came from, the fact that it was an intoxicatign drink that did not have alcohol, which was considers "hard".
So, this went on, but the business wasn't doing well, so he sold it to some other guy.
This other guy started to market it really hard and he reduced the amount of cocaine. There began to be a national outcry though became people were becomming addicted to Coke-a-Cola, so he eventually took the cocaine out altogether and increased the caffine.
Then this guy sold it to another guy.
At this point the new guy, who was a well known harsh businessman that had no friends, he continued the aggressive marketing campaign and there were many cola type drinks on the market. He worked to put each one out of business by taking them to court or buying them out or sabotaging them or bribing people not to carry their products, whatever it took.
Eventually he created a monopoly and was quick to take anyone to court to defend his copyrights and such.
Then during Prohibition the sales of Coke went way up because alcohol was illegal and so non-alcoholic drinks became more popular.
Then Pepsi came into the picture but they didn't do very well, but during the depression Pepsi did better by selling 12 oz drinks for a nickle opposed to Cokes which were 6 oz for a nickle, and they did this by using old bottles that they collected from the trash and relabeling them, so it was cheaper becuase they had basically free bottels. I assume they cleaned them
Then, during WWII sugar was rationed so the price of making soft drinks went way up. The guys at Pepsi decided to simply buy the sugar at its higher prices, but the boys at Coke had a different idea.
They went to DC and convinced the governemtn that Coke was an essential war time material and got an exclusive contract to supply all the soft drinks for the military, which also allowed them full access to sugar at low fixed rated, like 20 or 30 times cheaper than what Pepsi was buying it at. Of course that was a dirty trick, but they made sure to make the best of it and they made propaganda films for the GIs during the war to promote Coke.
After WWII Coke was well favored over Pepsi because the veterans felt that it was their patriotic duty to drink Coke, and because they had vastly superior sales during the war and fat cat contracts with the military. Coke was actually one of the most profitable companies during WWII.
After the war the company took on the attitude that it was immoral to drink other types of drinks, and they fetl that Pepsi was evil. Pepsi, recognizing that they had lost the war generation began marketing to younger people. Pepsi's marketing scheme was to develop a campaign that didn't focus on teh product (because what can you say about a soft drink anyway?) but rather the person. They developed the idea of campaign that associate a product with a lifestyle, promoting that Pepsi was for young, vibrant, modern people. The featured hippies and rockers and such in thier ads and people doing outdoor activities.
Coke then followed up with the "I to teach the world to sing" ad, which the CEO hated becuase he didn't like pacifist young hippies and such, but he agreed to it becuase the marketing department said it would increase sales.
Sure enough the ad was a hit and pascifist young hippies began buying Coke.
And the rest is modern history.
I've already read some interesting internal documents from Coke, which outline their strategies for dominating marketplaces, anti-competition practices, and their goal of making Coke the most widely consumed beverage on the planet. Since WWII they have had major insider connections to the White House and coursee international world leaders strongly to get favorable treatment in theri control of world markets.
Recently Coke had been in trouble in Europe for illegal anti-competition practices, namely paying stores not to carry competing products and offeritng huge discounts if they will exclusively carry Coke.
Coke and Pepsi both now pay school districts for exclusive rights to advertise at schools, from elementary on up, and for schools to exclusively carry their products.
