The ENTIRE History of Coca-Cola in 11 Minutes — Transcript

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1. 0:00Every day, around 2 billion servings of
2. 0:03one drink are poured somewhere on Earth.
3. 0:05It started as a failed medicine,
4. 0:07invented by a wounded soldier who was
5. 0:09addicted to morphine. In its first year,
6. 0:12it lost money. Today, it is one of the
7. 0:14most recognized brands on the planet.
8. 0:16This is the entire history of Coca-Cola.
9. 0:19Our story begins in Atlanta, Georgia
10. 0:22with a man named John Pemberton.
11. 0:24Pemberton was a pharmacist and a
12. 0:26Confederate Colonel in the American
13. 0:27Civil War. In 1865, he was wounded in
14. 0:31battle and like many soldiers of his
15. 0:32time, he was treated with morphine. The
16. 0:35pain went away, but the addiction
17. 0:37stayed. So, Pemberton did what any
18. 0:39pharmacist would do. He went looking for
19. 0:42a cure of his own. In those days,
20. 0:44America was full of so-called patent
21. 0:47medicines, tonics that promised to fix
22. 0:49everything from headaches to nerves.
23. 0:52Pemberton was inspired by a hugely
24. 0:54popular French drink called Vin Mariani,
25. 0:57a wine mixed with coca leaves.
26. 0:59In 1885, he launched his own version
27. 1:02called French Wine Coca. It sold okay,
28. 1:05but then history intervened. In 1886,
29. 1:08Atlanta passed a law banning alcohol.
30. 1:11Pemberton's wine tonic was suddenly
31. 1:13illegal, so he went back to his lab and
32. 1:16reworked the recipe without the wine. He
33. 1:18mixed coca leaf extract, cola nut,
34. 1:21sugar, and a secret blend of flavors
35. 1:23into a syrup. When he mixed the syrup
36. 1:26with carbonated water, something
37. 1:28clicked. It tasted amazing. Pemberton
38. 1:31had the product. What he didn't have was
39. 1:33a name. That came from his bookkeeper,
40. 1:36Frank Robinson. He liked the rhythm of
41. 1:39two C's and suggested the name
42. 1:41Coca-Cola. And Robinson did something
43. 1:44even more important. In his own flowing
44. 1:46handwriting, he wrote the name out and
45. 1:49that script became the logo. That same
46. 1:51logo is still in use today, more than
47. 1:54130 years later. Almost nothing in
48. 1:57business lasts that long. On May 8th,
49. 1:591886, the drink was first sold at
50. 2:02Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta. The price
51. 2:05was 5 cents a glass, and the sales
52. 2:07terrible. On average, the pharmacy sold
53. 2:10about nine glasses a day. Pemberton
54. 2:12spent more on advertising than he earned
55. 2:14in that first year. By now, he was sick
56. 2:17and running out of money. He started
57. 2:19selling off pieces of the business to
58. 2:21different people. In 1888, just two
59. 2:24years after his invention, John
60. 2:26Pemberton died, never knowing what he
61. 2:29had created. The man who understood it
62. 2:31was a businessman named Asa Candler.
63. 2:34Candler was another Atlanta pharmacist,
64. 2:37and he saw something Pemberton didn't.
65. 2:39The drink wasn't the opportunity. The
66. 2:41brand was. He quietly bought up the
67. 2:44ownership shares one by one. By 1891, he
68. 2:48controlled the whole company, and the
69. 2:50total cost was only about $2,000.
70. 2:53In 1892, he formally founded the
71. 2:55Coca-Cola company. Then, he started
72. 2:58marketing like nobody had before.
73. 3:00Candler handed out coupons for a free
74. 3:02glass of Coke. He put the logo on
75. 3:05calendars, clocks, notepads, and serving
76. 3:07trays. He covered the country in painted
77. 3:10wall signs. The idea was simple.
78. 3:13Wherever you looked, you'd see
79. 3:14Coca-Cola, and you'd start to want it.
80. 3:16It worked. Within a few years, Coke was
81. 3:19sold in every state in America. Around
82. 3:221903, the company removed the cocaine
83. 3:25from the recipe, switching to spent coca
84. 3:27leaves with the active ingredient taken
85. 3:29out. The drink was now a pure soft drink
86. 3:32and a mass market one. Now, here's the
87. 3:35part of the story where one of the
88. 3:36greatest business mistakes in history
89. 3:39happens.
90. 3:40At first, Coke was only sold at soda
91. 3:42fountains. You had to sit in the
92. 3:44drugstore and drink it there. But in
93. 3:461894, a man named Joseph Biedenharn in
94. 3:50Mississippi started putting it into
95. 3:52bottles, so people could take it home.
96. 3:54Asa Candler didn't think bottling was
97. 3:56worth his time. So, in 1899, two lawyers
98. 4:00from Tennessee, Benjamin Thomas and
99. 4:02Joseph Whitehead, asked for the rights
100. 4:05to bottle Coke across most of the
101. 4:07country. Candler sold them those rights
102. 4:09for $1. Just $1. But, this mistake
103. 4:13accidentally created a genius system.
104. 4:15Coca-Cola would never have to build
105. 4:17every factory itself. Instead, it would
106. 4:20make the secret syrup and sell it to
107. 4:23independent local bottlers, who would
108. 4:25add the water, bottle it, and sell it in
109. 4:28their own territory. This is still how
110. 4:30Coca-Cola works today. The company makes
111. 4:32the concentrate. Local partners do the
112. 4:35rest. It's a model that lets Coke grow
113. 4:38almost anywhere in the world without
114. 4:40carrying the full cost. But, success
115. 4:43brought imitators.
116. 4:44Dozens of copycat drinks appeared with
117. 4:47names like Coca-Nola and Toka- Cola,
118. 4:50hoping customers would mix them up.
119. 4:53Coca-Cola needed something no one could
120. 4:55copy.
121. 4:56So, in 1915, it held a contest for a new
122. 4:59bottle. The challenge, make a design so
123. 5:02distinctive that you could recognize it
124. 5:04by touch in the dark or even if it was
125. 5:06lying broken on the ground. A glass
126. 5:08company in Terre Haute, Indiana, won.
127. 5:11The design, with its curves and ridges,
128. 5:14became known as the contour bottle. It
129. 5:16was one of the first times a company
130. 5:18turned its packaging into a brand
131. 5:19identity. In 1919, Candler, who was by
132. 5:23then old and tired, sold the company to
133. 5:26a group of investors led by Ernest
134. 5:28Woodruff for $25 million.
135. 5:31The company went public that year.
136. 5:33And a few years later, Ernest's son,
137. 5:35Robert Woodruff, became president.
138. 5:38Robert Woodruff had one huge goal, to
139. 5:40make Coca-Cola available everywhere, to
140. 5:43everybody. His rule was that it should
141. 5:45always be within an arm's reach of
142. 5:47desire. He introduced the six-pack
143. 5:50carton so families could carry Coke
144. 5:52home. He pushed coolers and vending
145. 5:54machines into shops and workplaces. And
146. 5:57in 1931,
147. 5:59the company hired the artist Haddon
148. 6:00Sundblom to draw a warm, jolly,
149. 6:04red-suited Santa Claus for its Christmas
150. 6:06ads. Santa existed before, but this
151. 6:09image became the one that defined him
152. 6:11for millions of people. Then came World
153. 6:14War II. Woodruff made a promise. Every
154. 6:17American in uniform would be able to buy
155. 6:19a bottle of Coke for 5 cents, wherever
156. 6:22they were in the world, no matter what
157. 6:24it cost the company. To keep that
158. 6:26promise, Coke built dozens of bottling
159. 6:28plants right behind the front lines.
160. 6:31Soldiers drank it, locals saw it, and
161. 6:34when the war was over, Coca-Cola had a
162. 6:36global distribution network that
163. 6:38competitors would need decades to match.
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167. 6:46full history.
168. 6:48But by the 1950s and '60s, a rival was
169. 6:51catching up. Pepsi had nearly gone
170. 6:53bankrupt in the 1930s, but it fought
171. 6:56back by selling a bigger bottle for the
172. 6:58same price, and later by targeting young
173. 7:00people with the slogan "The Pepsi
174. 7:02Generation."
175. 7:03Coke fought back by expanding its family
176. 7:06of drinks. It bought Minute Maid in
177. 7:081960.
178. 7:10It launched Sprite in 1961 and Tab in
179. 7:131963,
180. 7:15its first diet cola. Coke was no longer
181. 7:18a single product. It was becoming a
182. 7:20drinks empire. And in 1971,
183. 7:23it released one of the most famous
184. 7:25advertisements ever made. A group of
185. 7:27young people from all over the world
186. 7:29standing on a hilltop singing about
187. 7:32wanting to teach the world to sing and
188. 7:34to buy the world a Coke. It was about
189. 7:36peace and togetherness, and it made
190. 7:39Coca-Cola feel like more than a soft
191. 7:41drink. Then, in 1975,
192. 7:44Pepsi struck back with the Pepsi
193. 7:46Challenge. Pepsi ran blind taste tests
194. 7:49in public, and many people preferred the
195. 7:51taste of Pepsi. Coke's leaders were
196. 7:53rattled. In 1982, they launched Diet
197. 7:56Coke, which became a huge success. But,
198. 7:59they still wanted to answer the taste
199. 8:01test question. And so came the most
200. 8:03famous blunder in marketing history. On
201. 8:06April 23rd, 1985, under CEO Roberto
202. 8:09Goizueta,
203. 8:10Coca-Cola announced it was changing its
204. 8:12formula for the first time in 99 years.
205. 8:16The new drink was sweeter, smoother, and
206. 8:18it beat both Pepsi and old Coke in taste
207. 8:21tests. It was called New Coke. The
208. 8:24company had tested it on almost 200,000
209. 8:26people.
210. 8:27What they forgot to test was what the
211. 8:29old Coke meant to people. The reaction
212. 8:32was fury. Thousands of angry calls and
213. 8:34letters flooded the company.
214. 8:36People hoarded the old bottles. Some
215. 8:39even said they felt like something
216. 8:40American had been taken away. Just 79
217. 8:43days later, on July 11th, 1985,
218. 8:46Coca-Cola brought the original back
219. 8:48under the name Coca-Cola Classic, and
220. 8:51the public cheered. Some people still
221. 8:53argue it was all a clever plan.
222. 8:55Executives have always said it wasn't.
223. 8:57Either way, the result was clear. Sales
224. 9:00of Coke rose, and the brand was more
225. 9:02loved than before. It had learned that
226. 9:04Coca-Cola wasn't just a taste, it was a
227. 9:06feeling. Goizueta, a Cuban-born chemical
228. 9:10engineer who had arrived in America with
229. 9:12almost nothing, turned out to be one of
230. 9:14the greatest CEOs ever.
231. 9:16He focused on one thing, shareholder
232. 9:18value. He pushed Coke to expand
233. 9:21worldwide, especially in places like
234. 9:23China and Eastern Europe after the fall
235. 9:26of the Soviet Union. Under his
236. 9:28leadership, the company's market value
237. 9:30grew more than 30 times over. In 1988,
238. 9:34the investor Warren Buffett began buying
239. 9:36Coke stock. His company still owns
240. 9:39hundreds of millions of shares to this
241. 9:41day. Today, Coca-Cola sells its drinks
242. 9:44in more than 200 countries. It owns
243. 9:46hundreds of brands, including Sprite,
244. 9:49Fanta, Minute Maid, Powerade, Dasani,
245. 9:52and the coffee chain Costa. And the
246. 9:54original recipe? It's still a secret.
247. 9:57Known as Merchandise 7X, the formula is
248. 10:00said to be locked in a vault in Atlanta,
249. 10:03now displayed at the World of Coca-Cola
250. 10:05Museum. But the story isn't all sweet.
251. 10:08As the world has become more
252. 10:09health-conscious, Coca-Cola has been
253. 10:12criticized for sugar's link to obesity,
254. 10:14for its enormous water use, and for the
255. 10:17plastic waste its bottles create. The
256. 10:19company has responded with zero sugar
257. 10:21drinks, smaller cans, and recycling
258. 10:24goals, but the pressure isn't going
259. 10:26away. So, think about what Coca-Cola
260. 10:28really is. It started as a failed
261. 10:31medicine, invented by a man who died
262. 10:33nearly broke. It survived because a
263. 10:36salesman understood branding. A mistake
264. 10:39created a global bottling system. A war
265. 10:42carried it around the world. And a
266. 10:44disaster proved just how much people
267. 10:46loved it. The company never sold just a
268. 10:49drink. It sold a moment, a cold bottle,
269. 10:52a shared smile, a little bit of
270. 10:54happiness for 5 cents. And that is the
271. 10:57entire history of Coca-Cola.