CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
The coca-cola company is one of the biggest beverage companies in the world, Established in May 1886, coca-cola was invented by Doctor John Pemberton a pharmacist form Atlanta, Georgia. John Pemberton concocted the coca-cola formula in a three legged brass kettle in his backyard. The name was a suggestion given by John Pemberton’s bookkeeper Frank Robinson. Being a bookkeeper, Frank Robinson also had excellent penmanship; it was him who first scripted “coca-cola” into the following letters which has become the famous logo of today.
The soft drink was first sold to the public at the soda fountain in Jacob’s pharmacy in Atlanta on May 8, 1886. Sales for that first year added up to a total of about $50. The funny thing was that it cost John Pemberton over $70 in expenses, so the first year of sale was a loss.
Until 1905, the soft drink, marketed as a tonic, contained extracts of cocaine as well as the caffeine – rich kola nut.
In 1887, another Atlanta pharmacist and businessman, Asa Candler bought the formula for coca-cola from inventor John Pemberton for $2,300. By the year 1890’s coca-cola was one of America’s most popular fountain drinks, largely due to Candler’s aggressive marketing of the product. With sales over 4000% between 1890 and 1900.
Advertising was an important factor in John Pemberton and Asa Candler’s success and by the turn of the century, the drink was sold across the United States and Canada. Around the same time, the company began selling syrup to independent bottling companies licensed to sell the drink. Even today, the US soft drink industry is organized on this principle.
