Coca-Cola History
by The history of Coca-Cola and the rivalry between Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola, all in one article.
In 1886, Doctor John Pemberton created the now known drink, Coca-Cola. However, it was much different back then.
Coca-Cola gets its name from the Kola plant. The Kola plant, of course, produced the Kola Nut. The Kola Nut came from West Africa, and was commonly chewed for hunger pangs, head-aches, and migraines. The Kola nut, contained the common drug, caffeine, and had a very bitter taste to it. Among other things, the Kola Nut was used to treat Bronchial diseases by expanding the air passages, which was the result of the caffeine in the Kola Nut.
Coca-Cola was originally Coca-Wine (Or Koca-Wine), and contains amounts of Cocaine and Caffeine, and was very addicting because of the amount of Cocaine, and also contained Wine and Alcohol. In 1885, the drink was released.
In 1886, however, disaster struck. Georgia passed the Prohibition Law, which outlawed the Coca-wine. Quickly, John Pemberton changed the formula and introduced his “Non-Alcoholic French Coca-wine.”
Pembertons first sales were with Soda Fountains. They became a quick success. Coca-Cola, as now called became a quick hit.
Through the years, Charley Pemberton gained control of the business, and controlled the rights to the formula for Coca-Cola.
Very insecure about their trademark name, the company sued nearly every drink, beverage, and food/drink article containing the name Coca, Koka, Koca, Coka, Cola, Kola, and similar names.
When their rival Pepsi opened up, Coca-Cola seemed to have nothing to fear, Pepsi-Cola was known was the “imitator”. For years, Pepsi had minimal success, and went bankrupt several times. Finally, Pepsi-Cola’s owner, Caleb Bradham, shut the company down.
However, due to a small number of things, Pepsi opened back up. They introduced a 12oz bottle, compared to the rival Coca-Cola’s 6.5oz bottle for the same price of 5¢. This was an instant hit, since money was short in the depression, and 5¢ was a large sum of money to many people.
Coca-Cola fought back and introduced their 12oz Bottle for 5¢ too. Soon the “imitator” was being imitated.
Reluctant in sales reasons, Coca-Cola changed their formula in 1985, and introduced “New Coke”. Thinking it would be a hit to a new sweeter taste and was similar, but not the same to Pepsi-Cola’s drink, Pepsi. That would would end up as Coca-Cola’s biggest marketing mistake they would ever make.
“New Coke” was an instant failure from the start. Since Coca-Cola had a large number of loyal followers, they were disturbed that Coca-Cola would go this far and almost copy Pepsi-Cola to have a more sweeter taste, and taste worse.
In Earlier years, Pepsi-Cola had done new “Taste-Tests” to volunteers. They handed a glass of Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola to each person, and 8/10 people like Pepsi more than they like Coca-Cola. This was an instant success in the marketing position of Pepsi.
Where Coca-Cola was disturbed, their trademark drink Coca-Cola was going under 24%, where as after World War II, it was higher than 55%. Coca-Cola attempted to improve their syrup formula by adding sweetener to the High Fructose Corn Syrup, it beat Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola in sweetness.
As surveys where being done, most said they like the new taste and would drink it again, and would also take some getting used to. However, Coca-Cola’s sales would drop lower, as consumers demanded back “Classic Coke” and insulting the new flavor with names like “Coksi”.
Pepsi-Cola considered at first the “New Coke” a serious threat. When consumers started coming to Pepsi, they still thought consumers would change their minds and erase all of Pepsi-Cola’s previous gains.
After months, Pepsi-Cola even decalared a company wide holiday declaring Pepsi had “won” the long Cola Wars.
After months, Coca-Cola introduced “Coca-Cola” classic back to the world, and the “New Coke” was named Coca-Cola II and was discontinued in 1992.
Coca-Cola over the years introduced Coca-Cola Vanilla, Coca-Cola Black Cherry, etc. Pepsi also made a marketing mistake by introducing Pepsi-Cola Crystal, but consumers considered it a copy to Coca-Cola’s Sprite.
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