Coca Cola

Type: Cola
Founded: 1886
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General Information

Coca-Cola is a cola (a type of carbonated soft drink) sold in stores, restaurants and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), which is often referred to as simply Coca-Cola or Coke. Coke is the world's most recognizable brand, according to BusinessWeek.

Originally intended as a patent medicine when it was invented in the late 19th century by John Pemberton, Coca-Cola was bought out by businessman Asa Griggs Candler, whose marketing tactics led Coke to its dominance of the world soft drink market throughout the 20th century. Although faced with criticisms of its health effects and various allegations of wrongdoing by the company, Coca-Cola has remained a popular soft drink to the present day.

The company actually produces concentrate for Coca-Cola, which is then sold to various Coca-Cola bottlers throughout the world. The bottlers, who hold territorially exclusive contracts with the company, produce finished product in cans and bottles from the concentrate in combination with filtered water and sweeteners. The bottlers then sell, distribute and merchandise Coca-Cola in cans and bottles to retail stores and vending machines. Such bottlers include Coca-Cola Enterprises, which is the single largest Coca-Cola bottler in North America, Australia, Asia and Europe. The Coca-Cola Company also sells concentrate for fountain sales to major restaurants and food service distributors.

The Coca-Cola Company has, on occasion, introduced other cola drinks under the Coke brand name. The most common of these is Diet Coke, which has become a major diet cola but others exist, including Diet Coke Caffeine-Free , Cherry Coke, Coca-Cola Zero, Vanilla Coke and special editions with lemon and with lime, and even with coffee. The Coca-Cola Company owns and markets other soft drinks that do not carry the large Coca-Cola brand marking, such as Sprite, Fanta, Pibb, and others, but the Coca-Cola Company's trademark name can usually be found somewhere on the bottle.

Franchise Model

The actual production and distribution of Coca-Cola follows a franchising model. The Coca-Cola Company only produces a syrup concentrate, which it sells to various bottlers throughout the world who hold Coca-Cola franchises for one or more geographical areas. The bottlers produce the final drink by mixing the syrup with filtered water and sugar (or artificial sweeteners)and then carbonate it before filling it into cans and bottles, which the bottlers then sell and distribute to retail stores, vending machines, restaurants and food service distributors.

The Coca-Cola Company owns minority shares in some of its largest franchisees, like Coca-Cola Enterprises, Coca-Cola Amatil, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (CCHBC) and Coca-Cola FEMSA, but fully independent bottlers produce almost half of the volume sold in the world. Since independent bottlers add sugar and sweeteners, the sweetness of the drink differs in various parts of the world, to cater for local tastes.

Sponsorship

Coca-Cola was the first-ever sponsor of the Olympic games, at the 1928 games in Amsterdam and has been an Olympics sponsor ever since.[43] This corporate sponsorship included the 1996 Summer Olympics hosted in Atlanta, which allowed Coca-Cola to spotlight its hometown. Since 1978 Coca-Cola has sponsored each FIFA World Cup and other competitions organised by FIFA. In fact, one of the FIFA tournament trophy: FIFA World Youth Championship from Tunisia in 1977 to Malaysia in 1997 was called 'FIFA - Coca Cola Cup'. In addition, Coca-Cola sponsors the annual Coca-Cola 600 for the NASCAR Nextel Cup auto racing series at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina. Coca-Cola has a long history of sports marketing relationships, which over the years have included Major League Baseball, the National Football League, National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League, as well as with many teams within those leagues. Coca-Cola is the official soft drink of the Georgia Bulldogs.

In England, Coca-Cola is the main sponsor of The Football League, a name given to the three professional divisions below the Premier League in football (soccer). It is also responsible for the renaming of these divisions- until the advent of Coca-Cola sponsorship, they were referred to as Divisions One, Two and Three. Since 2004, the divisions have been known as The Championship (equiv. of Division 1), League One (equiv. of Div. 2) and League 2 (equiv. of Division 3). This renaming has caused unrest amongst some fans who see it as farcical that the third tier of English Football is now called 'League One.' In 2005 Coca-cola launched a competition for the 722 clubs of the football league - it was called 'Win a Player'. This allowed fans to place 1 vote per day for their beloved club, with 1 entry being chose at random earning £250,000 for the club. This was repeated in 2006. The 'Win A Player' competition was very controversial, as at the end of the 2 competitions, Leeds United AFC had the most votes by more than double, yet they did not win any money to spend on a new player for the club. In 2007 the competition changed to 'Buy a Player'. This competition allowed fans to buy a bottle of Coca-Cola Zero or Coca-Cola and submit the code on the wrapper on the Coca-Cola wesite {www.coca-colafootball.co.uk}. This code could then earn anything from 50p to £100,000 for a club of their choice. This competition was favoured over the old 'Win A Player' competition as it allowed all clubs to win some money, instead of all the money going to one winning club.