Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Coca-Cola

In 1886, John Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist and Civil War veteran with a passion for making home-made headache cures, brewed the first batch of Coca-Cola. Pemberton first sold his drink at a nearby soda parlor for five cents a glass, selling an average of nine glasses per day. When Coca-Cola started to become popular in Atlanta, a businessman named Asa Candler bought the beverage from Pemberton and started Coca-Cola on its road to success. Candler began an active and innovative marketing campaign that spurred the wide distribution of Coke. Soon Coca-Cola was being bottled, and with the aid of transportation networks, began to creep across the United States and to foreign countries. During World War II, Coca-Cola strengthened its image with the American public and doubled its presence in international markets. The company continued to grow through the use of new media and distribution technologies, achieving the international status that it has today ("Timeline").
Why did Coca-Cola succeed? Part of the answer can be found by examining Coca-Cola in the context of technological systems, a collection of related technologies and institutions. Coca-Cola set out on its path to success by exploiting preexisting technological systems and by creating its own systems to develop and spread Coke.
Patent Medicines on Tap

The early history of Coca-Cola provides a look into how the company interacted with the technological systems of its day. In 1886, Coca-Cola began as a competitor in the patent medicine market. After the Civil War, America rapidly shifted from an agrarian society to a more urban and industrialized society. This period was known as “the Gilded Age”, and one of its features was the patent medicine industry. Patent medicines were home-brewed medicines, popular due to a hit-or-miss medical profession, the desire of large numbers of Civil War Veterans for self-doses of medicine, and neurosis from rapidly changing lifestyles. Patent medicines featured flamboyant names and advertising, such as “Dr. Pierce’s Pleasant Purgative Pellets”, “Botanic Blood Balm”, and “Copeland’s Cholera Cure.” Outrageous promises were made regarding the effects of these medicines. Coke was no different from other patent medicines. One 1885 advertisement for Coca-Cola read as follows:
Another early venue for Coca-Cola was the soda parlor. During the Gilded Age, soda parlors were ornate beverage bars where customers could buy their favorite soft drinks of the day. They offered as many as 300 different types of beverage syrups, which would be mixed with carbonated water by the “Soda Jerks” behind the counter. One of the selling points of Coca-Cola was that it was more easily prepared than other carbonated beverages, allowing the parlors to serve more customers. Competition in the fountain beverage market was fierce. Coca-Cola grew to prominence by gaining a strong base in the system of soda parlors (Pendergrast 16).
Coca-Motion
Transportation was a large part of the Coca-Cola technological system. As transportation technology improved, Coca-Cola extended its domain further into the world. At first, mule-drawn wagons distributed bottled Coke. Coca-Cola designed its bottling region to be about fifty miles across, because that was the distance that a mule and wagon could cross in a day. Railroad stops were already major transportation hubs. Coca-Cola hired railway employees as commissioned salesmen to sell cases of bottled Coke at railway stations and depots. One especially interesting part of the Coca-Cola transportation system was the Josephine, a New Orleans bottler’s motor boat that delivered Coke to the Bayous. With the invention of the truck, Coca-Cola was able to spread out into more outlets, such as fruit stands, bowling alleys, and cigar stores. Coca-Cola continued its rise to greatness through its pioneering use of transportation systems (Cheatham 100).
Message in a Bottle
The bottling industry played an enormous part in the history of Coca-Cola. In 1894, a Vicksburg, Mississippi candy manufacturer named Joe Biedenharn first bottled Coke for sale in rural areas, but it was not until 1899 that the Coca-Cola Company first signed a bottling contract. Asa Candler, head of Coca-Cola at that time, did not believe that bottling would be successful and sold the bottling rights to two enterprising lawyers, Benjamin Thomas and Joseph Whitehead, for a grand sum of one dollar. Thomas and Whitehead set up bottling plants and made agreements with existing bottlers to bottle Coke. Their investment soon proved sound.

No comments: