Company Case Study

Samantha Tang

John PembertonWHERE DID COCA

COLA START?John Pemberton, a pharmacist in Atlanta Georgia, invented Coca Cola on May 8, 1886. It started out with ambition. He wanted to create the “ultimate” medicine and drink all in one. He had already created many patented medicine, but he believed that inventing a medicine drink would bring him fortune. Pemberton was wildly excited about the qualities of the coca plant. This had been chewed by the natives of Peru and Bolivia for over 2,000 years and was supposed to act as a stimulant, aid to digestion, and a life-extender. As we all know, it does just the opposite, but he didn’t know that. Hearing about this new “stimulant “ and “life extender”, he decided to base this ULTIMATE MEDICINE around it. There were indications that cocaine, found in the coca leaf, was highly addictive, but this fact was mostly ignored. There was a syrup mixed with carbonated water, and this amazing drink was produced. Coca Cola first started out with selling for 5 ￠ a bottle.

WHERE DID “COCA COLA” COME FROM?Dr. Pemberton’s partner and book keeper from the pharmacy

suggested the name, and created the Coca Cola logo with

his unique script.

Pemberton died in 1888, and right before he died, he sold the Coca Cola company to Asa Candler. He knew that leaving it in his hands would help to promote the product. Candler’s main focus was to advertise the product. Very soon, Coca Cola was known product in almost every state. If it wasn’t for Candler, Coca Cola may not be as popular

as it is today.

The first Coca Cola ad was in The

Atlanta Journal. Asa Candler was the

person who made this possible.

Coca Cola was a company that was rapidly growing. They

patented the name “Coca Cola”, but other companies made the same taste as Coca Cola, but changed the name. As in, Tab

Cola, RC Cola, Happy Cola, Koca Kola, and MANY more. There

were hundreds of other companies trying to steal their business. Coca Cola tried to solve this problem by making a patented bottle with the words Coca Cola printed into a

glass bottle. It, of course, did not work, so they just had to deal with

it. Eventually, the “fake” Cokes started to lose business.

BUISNESS RISKSThe risks at first were that there

was cocaine (coca plant) in the drink, and later on it was taken

out. It did not cause a huge controversy. Mainly, there were no

huge business risks for Pemberton. He fantasized that

Coca Cola would become a huge product (which it did), but not the way it turned out. He thought it

would be a medicine and a drink. To me, I don’t think that

Pemberton really knew what he was getting himself into. He didn’t

now that 125 years later, that Coca Cola would be a world-

famous product.

CHALLENGES

COCA-COLA’S IMPACT ON GAWhen Coca Cola became this world-

famous product, it brought a lot of business to Altanta, where it was created. It created many jobs for people to work in the factory. It created tourism, because more

people wanted to visit the city of Atlanta to witness the “amazing”

drink to be created. The making of Coca Cola made Atlanta become a

more popular city from this.

TRANSPORTATIONInterstate

Highway System: Coca Cola used the Interstate Highway

System to transport products

across America. They used Coca Cola trucks and

made deliveries to places everywhere.

Hartsfield Jackson Int.

Airport:Coca Cola used

Hartsfield Jackson

International Airport to

transport goods to other

countries in the world.

Deepwater Ports: Coca Cola used

Deepwater Ports to ship cargo filled with Coca Cola

products to other countries. This was not as fast as flying the products, but

was still productive.

CONNECTIONTrying to create a business like Coca Cola in today’s economy would not succeed at all. First of all, we are in a recession, and no one would be able to afford the money involved to advertise. It would be A LOT harder, because people may not even want to invest in a stock that is new and infamous. Most people will want to be safe and stick with investing their money in something they are sure of making money.

In my opinion, products that have to deal with technology will be successful in this economy. Products like Mp3 players, computers, and handheld technology (cell phones). In this world, today, many kids are good with using technology. Soon, everything will have to do with technology, and paper books and textbooks will be history. Everything will become electronic, making things easier.