In the 1880s, people drank John Pemberton's tonic to cure headaches. It wasn't a very popular drink, and he sold only about a dozen bottles a day. That's why Pemberton was willing to sell the rights to his medicinal drink. The buyer, Asa Griggs Candler, paid just $2,300 for the rights to Coca-Cola. Today Coca-Cola is worth over $2,470,000,000. It controls 50% of the world market in soft drinks.
How did Coca-Cola become so popular? One answer is that Asa Candler was a very clever businessman. He was one of the first people to use mass-marketing techniques. One of the most important things he did was to make his product unique. When he bought the rights to Coca-Cola, it was sold in ordinary bottles. It looked like every other drink on the market. To make Coca-Cola look different, designed an eye-catching logo for his product. When other companies tried to imitate Coca-Cola's name, Candler took them to court.
In addition to the unique bottle and logo, Candler spent a lot of time and money promoting his product. He used advertising to create a powerful image of Coca-Cola in the minds of his customers. He gave away free samples of Coke. He advertised Coca-Cola in the newspaper, on outdoor poster, and by painting the logo on walls and barns. He put the name of his drink on pencils, serving trays, Japanese fans, matches and many other things and then gave them away. By 1902, Coca-Cola was the best known product in the United States.
Candler was also able to develop memorable themes for his advertisements. For the first time, famous sports figures portrayed Coca-Cola as a refreshing drink for ordinary people. There were many advertising campaigns. They included catchy slogans such as "The Pause That Refreshes."
Today, mass marketing is used all over the world, but the manufacturers of Coke were the first. It remains the most popular soft drink ever.
Some trivia points.
- Coca-Cola is sold in more than 195 countries around the world.
- People ask for a Coke in 80 different languages.
- Over 700,000,000 people drink a Coke every day.
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