Visoka poslovna kola strukovnih studija

Novi Sad

Seminarski rad

DESCRIBE A COMPANY OF YOUR CHOICE

Mentor:

Student:

Maja Lemaji

Nataa Tolimir, 2015/003039

Novi Sad, 2015

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is carbonated soft drink, made by The Coca-Cola Company. This company
started in Atlanta, Georgia in 19th century, but Coca-Cola became their registered trademark since
March 27, 1944. Its often referred simply as a Coke. It was invented in late 19th century by
pharmacist John Pemberton and it was intended to be a patent medicine. The American
businessman Asa Griggs Candler had marketing tactics that led Coca-Cola to its dominance in
the world of the soft drink market in the 20th century.
There are so many tales saying that Coke is bad for health, perhaps that its dissolving
teeth, it has contraceptive powers But the most common story heard is that it contains cocaine,
which is true in some ways. This pharmacist Pemberton tried to make a headache remedy
mixture and he mixed his special syrup with carbonated water; the customers that tasted the
result, actually liked it. Then he realized that maybe he has the makings of possibly most popular
soda beverage.
Coca-Cola name comes from main elements which are used to add flavor, and those are
the cola fruits and extract of coca leaves (also the source of cocaine). In that time, cocaine was in
general ingredient in patent medicine, but the Coca-Cola contained a minimum amount of
cocaine, that cant be harmful to its customers.
One can say that Coca-Cola became global in the aftermath of World War II. When the
United States entered the conflict, Coca-Cola President at the time, Robert Woodruff, declared
that every man in uniform gets a bottle of Coca-Cola for five cents, wherever he is and
whatever it costs the company. This meant that the company started following US soldiers
around the world and setting up bottling plants, since shipping Coca-Cola from US to wherever
its army was at the time probably became expensive and complicated. Many of these people had
tasted Coca-Cola for the first time, and thanks to this, Coca-Colas planting factories nearly
doubled in numbers.
While Coca-Cola is mostly a success story, in 1985 they introduced a drink called The
New Coca-Cola, which was supposed to replace the old one. The company did internal testing
and the results showed that the new one had better taste than the old one. They did this because

they started to lose market share to Pepsi, but the American public did not like the New CocaCola, so after only three months, Coca-Cola had to return the old one to the market. The old one
was now called Coca-Cola Classic, and it started to sell really well. People started thinking
that the whole New Coca-Cola thing was a way to reignite the sales of the old one, but CocaCola always denied those claims. This is a cautionary tale on how you should not touch your
well-established brand for no reason.
This is a rare example, however, of Coca-Cola doing something wrong. The rest of its
story is largely successful, starting with the taste, bottle design and marketing of its products. In
1915, Coca-Cola decided to make what is known as "contour bottle" within the company (and
coke-bottle outside of it), and it started a competition to get a bottle which a person could
recognize even if they felt it in the dark, and so shaped that, even if broken, a person could tell at
a glance what it was. The result, which had several variations through time, is still worldfamous today.
Apart from bottle design, Coca-Cola also comes in many flavors cherry, vanilla, Diet
Coke, Coke Zero and recently Coca-Cola that is sweetened with stevia. In todays world of
health concern, calorie count and water preservation, Coca-Cola is trying its best to stay on top
and please its customers.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola
2. https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola
3. http://www.streetdirectory.com/food_editorials/beverages/beverages/a_brief_history_
about_coca_cola.html
4. http://www.coca-cola.co.uk